Assured Scots

Assured Scots were Scottish people who pledged to support English plans for Mary, Queen of Scots to marry Edward VI of England during the war of the Rough Wooing between 1543 and 1550. They took "assurances" and some received English pension money. Their motivations varied, and included favouring amity with England and their support for Protestant faith while Scotland was a Catholic country.

Prequel
In October 1542, a Scottish army was defeated at battle of Solway Moss near Longtown and Sandysike in England. A number of Scottish noblemen and lairds were captured. These gave assurances to Henry VIII, and many were released on licence and sent a substitute family member as a pledge or hostage into captivity in England, after undertaking to support English policy. In March 1544, Henry VIII sent a herald to demand the return to English captivity of a number of these Scottish nobles who were not acting in accord with his wishes.

Assured Scots
James V of Scotland died in December 1542, and he was succeeded by his baby daughter Mary. Scotland was ruled by Regent Arran. Henry VIII asked his border wardens to start taking assurances from Scots to be "taken as our friends" who would further the marriage between Edward and Mary early in 1543. Soon after, the marriage plan was accepted by Arran's government under the Treaty of Greenwich. When this fell through, Henry VIII sent an army to burn Edinburgh in May 1544. The English border warden William Eure took assurances from Scottish borderers in June.

Some Scottish lairds made oaths to support England after the battle of Pinkie in 1547. James Maitland wrote of his grandfather, Richard Maitland of Lethington, "most part of the Gentlemen of Lothian, Merse, and Teviotdale did assure, but my grandfather would not assure". An English commander, Thomas Holcroft wrote of the "King's Pale" in Scotland, anticipating that Edward VI would receive feudal rents from the occupied area of Southern Scotland, extending from Dunglass to Berwick, and Lauder to Dryburgh. Landowners would be replaced by a Scottish "assured man" or an English landlord who would "answer the king's majesty for the rents of the same".

The names of around 950 assured Scots can be identified. Most lived in areas affected by the war, near the borders or Dundee, where Broughty Castle held an English garrison. Notable assured Scots who were active during the war include; Ninian Cockburn; his older brother John Cockburn of Ormiston; Alexander Crichton of Brunstane; Michael and Henry Durham; Elizabeth Lamb, Prioress of St Bathans; Hugh Douglas of Longniddry; the Armstrongs of Mangerton; George Turnbull of Bedrule; James Douglas of Cavers; and others.

Some assured Scots changed their minds and asked the Arran government for a pardon as the war progressed, and a remission of charges of treason was offered to assured Scots who came forward. English observers felt that the assured Scots were not value for money, especially as French troops were able to manouevre in East Lothian and maintain the siege of Haddington without much hindrance. After a defeat at Haddington, Thomas Fisher, an English officer, wrote:"How had it been possible for such a power as the French and Almains [Germans] were, not under 3,000 or above as is reported, to come in the night time through our Assured Men's towns from Musselburgh to Haddington? and never a one of them should hear either of them coming or passing, as they say they did not, or I as think, they would not, although in my judgement a good part of them knew full well of the intended enterprise; and if they did hear, or were privy thereunto, why had they not let it be known by some means to the captain of Haddington?"

As the war came to end, only a few assured Scots were punished, some were forced into exile, but several were allowed to pay fines (compositions) for their remissions.

Protestant reformers and assurance
One Scottish religious reformer Henry Balnaves, drafted a form of an assurance bond in December 1546, which began:"God, the author and finisher of peace, beholding the long discord between the realms, has in our days appointed opportunity for union of the two in one empire by the blessed sacrament of matrimony between young Prince Edward of England and our Sovereign Lady Mary Queen of Scotland; and by consent of the Parliament of this realm, at their suit made by certain ambassadors sent to the said invincible Prince Henry, etc., an honorable treaty of peace and contract of marriage was confirmed under the Great Seal of the realm, but afterwards broken by the Governor and evil council, specially the Cardinal sometime of Saint Andrews" While some of the assured Scots were closely associated with Protestant reform, a majority were motivated by profit and the need to survive in the presence of an enemy.