Edward VI of England

King Henry VIII died on January 28, 1547, succeeded by his son Edward VI. Edward was nine at the time.  He was the son of wife number three, Jane Seymour.

One of Edward's connections with Sir Walter Scott is that he continued the wars with Scotland that Scott referred to as "the rough wooing", which were fought over his betrothal to Mary Queen of Scots.

Battle of Pinkie Cleugh

"So please your noble fatherhood," answered Dame Glendinning with a deep curtsy, "I should know somewhat of archery to my cost, seeing my husband--God assoilzie him!--was slain in the field of Pinkie with an arrow-shot, while he was fighting under the Kirk's banner, as became a liege vassal of the Halidome. He was a valiant man, please your reverence, and an honest; and saving that he loved a bit of venison, and shifted for his living at a time as Border-men will sometimes do, I wot not of sin that he did. And yet, though I have paid for mass after mass to the matter of a forty shilling, besides a quarter of wheat and four firlocks of rye, I can have no assurance yet that he has been delivered from purgatory."


The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh referenced in Walter Scott's "The Monastery" (above), occurred on September 10, 1547.  Pinkie Cleugh was part of the War of the Rough Wooing, which phrase Scott himself coined.

The object of these battles, five year old Mary, Queen of Scots' hand in marriage to Henry VIII's son Edward VI, failed to materialize, as Mary escaped to France.  Pinkie Cleugh is remembered in part for being the first instance of the use of British naval artillery in a land battle.  Despite a larger force, the Scottish death toll was in the thousands, while numbering only hundreds for the English.

The Rough Wooing

One of the phrases coined by Walter Scott, the Wars of the Rough Wooing referred to the effort on the part of England's Henry VIII to force a marriage between his son Edward and Mary Stuart.  On May 7, 1542, the Earl of Hertford, who was Queen Jane Seymour's brother, invaded the Borderlands of Scotland, reaching Edinburgh in support of Henry's wishes.

Sir Walter Scott covers the Earl's (the Queene's brother) incursion the poem "Lord Ewrie", published in his Poetical Works:

Lord Ewrie was as brave a man
As ever stood in his degree;
The King has sent him a ftioad letter,
All for his courage and loyalty.!
...
 
With our Queene's brother * he hath been,
And rode rough shod through Scotland of late;
They have burn'd the Mers and Tiviotdale,
And knocked full loud at Edinburgh gate.
 
*The Earl of Hertford, afterward duke of Somerset, and brother of Queen Jane Seymour, made a furious incursion into Scotland, in 1545.

John Russell, Earl of Bedford

John Russell is a man who rose from a relatively prominent non-noble family to become an integral member of King Henry VII's privy chamber.  Russell later served in this role for Henry's son, Henry VIII.  Russell's accession developed from a special circumstance that allowed his talent for speaking foreign languages to reach the appreciation of Henry VII.

The circumstance that allowed Russell to shine occurred in 1506, when three vessels under the command of Austrian Archduke Philip appeared off the shore of Dorset, England.  Philip and his new bride, Juana, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, King and Queen of Castile and Aragon had been sailing to Spain when a storm overtook them.    They took shelter in Weymouth harbor.  Sir Thomas Trenchard was the Governor of the region, and when he met the travelers, he sent for John Russell to translate and accommodate the foreigners.  Russell had grown up abroad, and had great facility with language.

The grateful Archduke, when he later met with Henry VII, asked that Russell accompany him.  Henry took an immediate liking to Russell, and thus began Russell's rise in society.  Henry VII knighted him.  Edward VI made him Earl of Bedford.  He continued serving the crown under Queen Mary.  John Russell died on March 14, 1556.

Russell had a son, Francis, Second Earl of Beford, that appears in Walter Scott's collection "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border".  On June 7, 1575, a Scotch-English Border skirmish known as the Raid of Reidswire occurred.  Scott provides a history, and presents a poem of the affair.  The poem includes Francis Russell, who was present at the skirmish.

"Sir Francis Russell ta'en was there,
And hurt, as we hear men rehearse;
Proud Wallinton was wounded sair,
Albeit he be a Fennick fierce..."

Sir Thomas Gresham

Sir Thomas Gresham died on November 21, 1579. Gresham was a merchant and financier whose career included stints with King Edward VI, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth I. His father, Sir Richard Gresham had been knighted by King Henry VIII, for his efforts in securing foreign loans for Henry.

Sir Thomas also made his mark in financial dealings, being called in by Edward VI to restore the value of the Pound, which had fallen due to financial mismanagement. Though initially out of favor, when Mary succeeded Edward, he was soon reinstated. Elizabeth I gained the crown in 1558, continuing to rely on Gresham for financial matters. In 1559, Elizabeth asked Gresham to serve as ambassador at the court of the Duchess of Parma, and he was knighted soon before he departed on his mission.

In 1565, Gresham proposed a plan for an exchange, based on the Antwerp Bourse. This plan was adopted, and became the Royal Exchange.

Sir Walter Scott was familiar with Gresham, and among the inclusions in Scott's work is a reference in the Waverley Novels to Gresham college. The college itself was comprised largely of Gresham's own property in London. Lectures commenced in June 1597, one year after the death of Thomas' widow Anne.

Mary I of England

On this day in 1558, Queen Mary I of England died. Mary earned the sobriquet "Bloody Mary" for her persecution of non-Catholics. The only surviving child of Catherine of Aragon and King Henry Viii, Mary's reign was short; only 5 years.

Mary is covered in Scott's Kenilworth, with reference to the Dudley family, which attempted to raise Lady Jane Grey to the throne, following the death of King Edward VI, Henry's only son (by Jane Seymour).