Battle of Langside (1568) | Marian Wars | Battlefields of Britain

On May 13, 1568, Mary Queen of Scots was defeated at the Battle of Langside. A short excerpt from the text:

"With her army destroyed and any chance of dislodging the Regent now gone, Mary fled to England hoping to enlist support from Elizabeth I. However, the English Queen saw the Catholic Mary as a clear and present danger to her own existence. Although Mary was welcomed into Carlisle Castle, as the weeks went on her guest status was subtly modified to one of imprisonment and she was moved ever further south until her participation in the Babington Plot led to her execution at Fotheringhay Castle in February 1587.



More significantly the defeat of Mary at Langside effectively steered the future direction for religion in Scotland. The young James VI was brought up as a Protestant making him both acceptable to the wider Scottish nobility and also to the English regime who, in 1603, welcomed him as heir to Elizabeth I. From this point on Scotland remained fiercely Protestant - a factor which would have significant consequences for the British Isles as a whole during the Wars of Three Kingdoms."