I'm Bruce Fummey. Mary, Queen of Scots faced many disasters in her life,
but this spot down here, might mark the worst of them. The roundabout behind me
joining Langside Avenue on this side and Battlefield Road on this side's
a focal point today, but 450 years ago this is where this street got its name,
and it's why this roundabout has a monument. It'll be easier if we head into the Queen's
Park behind you, named after her, to tell you about Mary, Queen of Scots' last days in Scotland.
Tranquillity and nature, right next to a busy street,
but how often is peace so close yet eternally unobtainable? It's greed, jealousy, kinship struggles,
and religious intolerance come crashing in on every side. If I had to put up with all of that,
I'd want to be a Queen and so did Mary Stuart, but Mary Stuart had a problem,
her brother was a bastard! Ever since Mary had come back from France after the death of King
Francis, her husband, and yes her first husband, and yes her second alcoholic, syphilitic husband
died in suspicious circumstances, which might have involved her violent, avaricious third husband, the
bigamist, who's going to die a ranting lunatic in a debtors' prison in Denmark, I know, but it doesn't
alter the fact that half brother, James, to whom she gave the title, Earl of Moray, is still a bastard!
The thing is, they might not be legitimate, but he's got the one thing that she lacks;
testicles! I mean, don't get me wrong, she's got cojones, oh she's got balls all right, but
he has got testicles. Whether you're Protestant, Catholic, whether you're royal or ignoble, prudish
or lascivious, sober or drunk, if there's one thing that could get you off the hook and out of trouble
in the 16th Century, it's testicles. Interesting semantics that the thing that gets a man out of trouble
are the very things that get a woman "in" trouble. It seems to me that Mary's trouble was men, and their
belief that it was their prerogative to dominate her. So the Battle of Langside, what was that about?
Okay, so 11 days ago, Mary had escaped from the island prison where she had been incarcerated by
her illegitimate half-brother James Stuart, Earl of Moray, and her jailer James Douglas Earl of Morton.
A huge amount has happened in those 11 days. After her escape, she headed for Niddrie, outside Edinburgh
and then west to Hamilton. You see she had strong support from the Hamiltons. They thought that they
had a greater claim to control of her son, James the Sixth, than her duplicitous half-brother.
Within a week, nine Earls, nine Bishops, eighteen Lairds, and many others had declared for Mary.
Hurrah for the Queen. Denunciations of her half-brother, the Earl of Moray, were issued and
I'll be honest, given that he'd rebelled against his sister before, his own sister, fled to England
in the pay of Elizabeth of England, being forgiven by Mary, then risen against her again and had her
imprisoned in a castle on an island, I might have been tempted to sign that denunciation myself!
Let me know whose side you're on in the comment section below, Mary or James, and if you're
interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history, then click the subscribe button
at the bottom right to subscribe, but let me tell you the story of the Battle.
By the 13th of May 1568, Mary had an army of 6000 men, but she had no intention of doing battle.
The plan was to make her base at Dumbarton Castle. She'd support from that direction in the form of
the Earl of Argyll, and his troops. From that castle on the Clyde estuary, she could get
men and supplies from France as she built up wider support in the country, and so she and
her army were going to skirt round the south of the then small town of Glasgow and cross the Clyde
to the west, to arrive at Dumbarton. Nowadays that route from Hamilton through Rutherglen,
Langside and Crookston Castle, before reaching the Clyde, would be entirely built up areas, then
it was largely countryside. On the other side, was Mary's half brother. I know! He was part of
the group who'd had Mary locked up, who'd forced her to abdicate, who'd crowned her son, the child
King for whom uncle James, Earl of Moray, was now the controlling Regent, a Regent bringing up
a Protestant boy King, whilst his Catholic mother languished on Loch Leven. Moray was in Glasgow
when Mary escaped from Loch Leven. They say that he thought about flight once again, but he held
his nerve and waited there to gather his own army, not as big as Mary's, but with some key advantages.
Hagbutters, we'll come to later, but more importantly, experienced military commanders. This
wasn't just a family squabble, it was a religious squabble as well. James's army was Protestant
Mary's was catholic, but remember, Mary didn't want this battle, she was heading for Dumbarton Castle,
but as Mary's troops headed west from Rutherglen to the south and broadly parallel with the river
Clyde, Moray and his army crossed the Clyde at Glasgow and headed south to intercept them
here.
Okay, so I'm now just in front of the flagpole in Queens Park.
This is elevated ground. If you can imagine that Moray's troops were spread from the other side
of that main road through Langside, the place at the side of this park where we started the video,
all the way up to this high point here. That way they controlled the road through Langside and
the high ground on their left flank. Mary's forces approached from the west, and positioned themselves
on the hill opposite just in front of where the National Football Stadium is today. Now remember
that Mary doesn't actually want this fight today. If she could have avoided it she would have,
but the Hamiltons have been treated savagely by Moray during the period of his power.
They would be again in the civil war that would follow Mary's flight to England,
in fact, the first ever murder with a firearm in Scotland would be, when a Hamilton would kill
James Stuart, Earl of Moray, in Linlithgow two years later, but that's for another day.
The point is, that this wasn't just brother against sister, Catholic against Protestant, it was also
about kinship group. Mary was trying to avoid a fight, the Hamiltons were spoiling.
There was no holding them back, and they charged up what's now Battlefield Road, where we were
earlier, as cavalry charged from this direction, from Mount Florida here, to Langside Hill, across
what was then fields, and is now the Victoria Hospital, towards what is now here in Queens Park.
Now I mentioned the Hagbutters, effectively riflemen, with very primitive firearms, which probably
weren't that accurate, but for me, this is a really intriguing moment in the technology of violence.
Hagbutters were sent along the far side of the main road, down there, to defend against
the Hamilton infantry charge. At the same time as Archers were brought forward here
to defend against the approaching cavalry charge from that direction, and it just feels
like an incredible moment in time; a point of transition, that turning point in history
between two technologies, that happened here in this park on that Spring day, and folk all around
walk through the park every day, and it never crosses their mind. The Hamilton foot soldiers
are caught, like rats in a trap, on that road below with the Hagbutters firing them. Three or four
hundred are killed. Now Mary still has superior numbers in men and reserve, but it's at this point
when she's let down by a man one more time. She's given command to the Earl of Argyll, but at the
very time that she needs his forces, which make up the bulk of his army, apparently he faints and
with him unconscious, as troops mill around, arguing with each other about what to do. They remind me of old
comic mate, Ian Cognito, who used to say that he was half Irish and half Italian, so when a fight
broke out he didn't know whether to get stuck in, or run like hell! They say that Mary had charged
their mount towards the melee to inspire them, but they were too busy arguing amongst themselves. Back
here, the Regent's force realises that there's little threat, and they attack the Hamiltons
from this side down the main street. The Hamiltons are routed, the Argylls head back north to Argyll,
and Mary flees south to 19 years of imprisonment, then execution on an English block.
She did outlive her half brother, who as Regent, may have controlled her son James the Sixth, but was
murdered by that Hamilton with a gun two years later. That was the Battle of Langside on the
13th of May 1568. If you want a fuller picture, then I've covered the events in Mary's life
before, and after, the Battle of Langside, in some videos that you'll find here. In the meantime,
give me a thumbs up. Tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.