Scots beat the odds in Fife’s forgotten battle

Why is the Battle of St Monans so important?

This great victory for the Scots took place on June 19, 1548. Scotland had already suffered four years of English invasions, calculated to achieve Henry VIII’s ambition to see his son Edward VI married to the young Mary Queen of Scots.

Even after Henry’s death in 1547 his army was active and an English force was taken by sea from East Lothian to attack the Fife coast.

Had they won this war it’s possible that the union with England might have happened a full 200 years sooner than it did.

Why did you decide to write this book?

Despite its huge historical significance, the Battle of St Monans doesn’t exist in any military credits of Scottish history.

I found it mighty peculiar that a fight involving Mary Queen of Scots’ half-brother James Stewart and England’s High Admiral was so forgotten, particularly as the Scots were outnumbered five to one but still left 900 English soldiers dead.

That is more than at Prestonpans and Falkirk, the Bonnie Prince’s two victories 200 years later which are remembered with monuments and through books.

Why is The Battle of St Monans forgotten?

The main culprit for us knowing little of the battle is Oliver Cromwell. He had all the known files of Scottish records taken to the Tower of London.

Ten years later in 1660 Charles ll ordered that the file from 1548-1551 be sent back to Edinburgh but the ship carrying them, The Elizabeth, sank off the coast of Newcastle and they were lost.

I was determined to find out more about the battle and after hundreds of hours searching through other dusty old records, came up with enough to give an in-depth view of the struggle that took place on the beaches of St Monans.

So how did the people of St Monans discover they were about to be attacked?

This is all credit to Sir John Wemyss. The widowed Queen of James V had asked him to protect Fife from an English landing at all costs.

He formed a hard-hitting detachment of armed men. The English camp was at Haddington. Once the fleet was seen to move, Wemyss’ force was off, shadowing the fleet to see where it would land.

A system of beacons was also placed around the Fife coastline, ready to be set alight to warn of impending invasion, if it came and it did.

How many Fife folk turned out to fight?

Sir John Wemyss brought his entire castle garrison of 120 to St Monans, gathering soldiers from Largo Castle and Ballinbreich Castle along the way. Meanwhile, riding hard from St Andrews was James Stewart, then the Prior of St Andrews, taking the total to more than a thousand men. But the English landed more than 5000 men on the beach at St Monans.

How were the English thwarted?

The tactic used to confront the enemy was smartly used; a heavy smoke screen hiding a row of cannons.

The English divisions walked into it.

What were the women of the village doing while the battle raged?

They weren’t going to stand idle while their men fought.

They grabbed pitchforks and knives and marched to help the men.

The English saw them as another force and retreated to their boats.

The defeat at St Monans was the first of many that would eventually see the English forces chased over the border.