![]() In the following years the French interest became dominant in Scotland with increasing numbers of French troops concentrated in Haddington, Broughty Castle, and Leith. Most of their troops had left by the end of 1549. The infant Queen Mary was removed to France the following month and the English cause was effectively lost. In response to the English invasion the Scottish Court looked to France for assistance, and on 16 June 1548 the first French troops arrived in Leith, soon to total 8,000 men commanded by André de Montalembert sieur d'Esse. William Patten wrote that the work was done as much for exercise as for defence, since the army only stayed for five days. On 14 September the English began digging a trench on the south-east side of Leith near the Firth of Forth. The military engineer Richard Lee scouted around the town on 12 September looking to see if it could be made defensible. The English arrived in Leith on 11 September 1547 and camped on Leith Links. Leith was of prime strategic importance because of its vital role as Edinburgh's port, handling its foreign trade and essential supplies. Three years later, following another English invasion and victory at Pinkie Cleugh in 1547, the English attempted to establish a "pale" within Scotland. In May 1544 an English army landed at Granton and captured Leith to land heavy artillery for an assault on Edinburgh Castle, but withdrew after burning the town and the Palace of Holyrood over three days. The English King Henry VIII, angered by the Scots reneging on the initial agreement, made war on Scotland in 1544–1549, a period which the writer Sir Walter Scott later christened the " Rough Wooing". Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland from 1554 to 1560 He then successfully negotiated a marriage between the young Mary and François, Dauphin of France. This policy was soon reversed, however, through the influence of Mary's mother Mary of Guise and Cardinal Beaton, and Regent Arran rejected the English marriage offer. James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, was appointed Regent and agreed to the demand of King Henry VIII of England that the infant Queen should marry his son Edward. In 1542, King James V of Scotland died, leaving only a week-old daughter who was proclaimed Mary, Queen of Scots. The Protestants saw the French as a Catholic influence and, when conflict broke out between the two factions, called on English Protestants for assistance in expelling the French from Scotland. However, during the 16th century, divisions appeared between a pro-French faction at Court and Protestant reformers. Scotland and France had long been allies under the " Auld Alliance", first established in the 13th century. James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, Regent of Scotland from 1542 to 1554 The Auld Alliance and Reformation of religion
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