The Rough Wooing was the last war fought between England and Scotland before their crowns were joined in 1603. The union came at the cost of a series of brutal 16th-century clashes. The reason for all the bloodshed was the English attempt to force the betrothal, or wooing, of Mary Queen of Scots, then an infant, to the English heir Edward IV, then a child. After the Scots suffered a defeat at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547 near Musselburgh, their fate was sealed. In 1998, a memorial stone…
