''Mary Willoughby'' was a ship of the English

Tudor navy The Tudor navy was the navy of the Kingdom of England under the ruling Tudor dynasty (1485–1603). The period involved important and critical changes that led to the establishment of a permanent navy and laid the foundations for the future Ro ...

. She appears in the

navy list A Navy Directory, formerly the Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval autho ...

s from 1532 during the reign of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

. She was named after Maria Willoughby, a lady-in-waiting and close friend of

Catherine of Aragon Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previously ...

. The ship was taken by the Scots in 1536 and was included in the

Royal Scots Navy The Royal Scots Navy (or Old Scots Navy) was the navy of the Kingdom of Scotland from its origins in the Middle Ages until its merger with the Kingdom of England's Royal Navy per the Acts of Union 1707. There are mentions in Medieval records of ...

, The English recaptured her in 1547. The ship was rebuilt in 1551, increasing in size from 140 bm to 160 bm.

Scottish service

The ''Mary Willoughby'' was captured by the Scottish galleys of Hector Maclean of Duart in 1533.

James V of Scotland James V (10 April 1512 – 14 December 1542) was List of Scottish monarchs, King of Scotland from 9 September 1513 until his death in 1542. He was crowned on 21 September 1513 at the age of seventeen months. James was the son of James IV of Sco ...

empoyed the ship in his voyages to the Isles. The skipper of the ''Mary Willoughby'' was Hans Anderson, who lived in Leith. On 19 July 1539 cannon from

Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age, although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. ...

were put on the ''Mary Willoughby'' for the maiden voyage of ''Unicorn''. On 24 August 1539

Mary of Guise Mary of Guise (french: Marie de Guise; 22 November 1515 – 11 June 1560), also called Mary of Lorraine, was a French noblewoman of the House of Guise, a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine and one of the most powerful families in France. She ...

and James V made a pilgrimage to the

Isle of May The Isle of May is located in the north of the outer Firth of Forth, approximately off the coast of mainland Scotland. It is about long and wide. The island is owned and managed by NatureScot as a national nature reserve. There are now no ...

in the

Forth Forth or FORTH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine * ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008 * ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw * Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotla ...

. They took three ships, the ''Unicorn'', the ''Little Unicorn'', and the ''Mary Willoughby''. Hans Andersoun mended the ship at Leith in 1539, and it had a major re-fit between November 1539 and June 1540, by Florence Cornetoun costing £2566-18s-8d Scots.

Cardinal Beaton David Beaton (also Beton or Bethune; 29 May 1546) was Archbishop of St Andrews and the last Scottish cardinal prior to the Reformation. Career Cardinal Beaton was the sixth and youngest son of eleven children of John Beaton (Bethune) of Bal ...

paid £6 for painting her in July 1541, and sailed to France. In December 1542, ''Mary Willoughby'', ''

Salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...

'' and ''

Lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

'' blockaded a London merchant ship called ''Antony of Bruges'' in a creek on the coast of Brittany. The ''Mary Willoughby'' fired on the ''Anthony'', and its crew abandoned ship. The French authority at "Poldavy Haven" accepted a Scottish warrant shown to them by the Captain, named Kerr.

War of the Rough Wooing

The ''Mary Willoughby'' captained by John Barton, the ''

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

'', ''Andrew'', and three French-built ships, and other smaller vessels, menaced the quay of

Bridlington Bridlington is a coastal town and a civil parish on the Holderness Coast of the North Sea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is about north of Hull and east of York. The Gypsey Race enters the North Sea at its harbour. The 2011 Cen ...

on 19 September 1544. They captured and burnt a hulk at Bridlington and sunk the ''Valentine'' of Scarborough. It was thought the Scottish ships might try to burn Lindisfarne, so orders were given to repair the old bulwark or blockhouse there. After a few months troubling towns on the English coast, the fleet returned to Leith in December to pick up the French ambassador and take him to France. An English spy Thomas Forster saw ''Mary Willoughby'' "coming in" at

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

in July 1545 with six other ships bringing wine, brass field guns and

arquebus An arquebus ( ) is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier. Although the term ''arquebus'', derived from the Dutch word ''Haakbus ...

es from France. They had passed by the Irish seas. In March 1547 ''Mary Willoughby'' and another Scottish ship, reportedly ''Great Spaniard'' of 200 tons, were blockading the New Haven by

Dieppe Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to N ...

. William Patten wrote that ''Mary Willoughby'' was captured on the Forth at

Blackness Castle Blackness Castle is a 15th-century fortress, near the village of Blackness, Scotland, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth. It was built, probably on the site of an earlier fort, by Sir George Crichton in the 1440s. At this time, Blackne ...

by Edward Clinton and Richard Broke, captain of the ''Galley Subtle'', on 15 September 1547.

Later English service against Scotland

The armaments of ''Mary Willoughby'' were listed in an inventory of 1 January 1548. The cannon included; a serpentine; 3 port pieces; 4 slings; a quarter sling; 9 double bases and 4 single bases; and a

hagbut An arquebus ( ) is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier. Although the term ''arquebus'', derived from the Dutch word ''Haakbus ...

. Handarms included 12 bills, 7 moorish pikes, and three spears. There were 146 crew with 14 gunners. After re-construction in 1551, in August 1557 the ship was one of a fleet of 12 that unsuccessfully assaulted the town of

Kirkwall Kirkwall ( sco, Kirkwaa, gd, Bàgh na h-Eaglaise, nrn, Kirkavå) is the largest town in Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. The name Kirkwall comes from the Norse name (''Church Bay''), which later changed to ''Kirkv ...

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

, landing troops and six field guns on Orkney to attack the castle of Kirkwall, St. Magnus Cathedral and the Bishop's Palace. Seven other ships of the fleet were royal, which included ''New Bark'', ''Minion'', ''Henry'', ''Solomon'', ''Bull'', ''Tiger'', ''

Greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurgenc ...

'', and ''Gabriel''. In October 1558, the English raided

Campbeltown Loch Campbeltown Loch (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Chille Chiarain) is a small sea loch near the south of the Kintyre Peninsula facing eastwards towards the Firth of Clyde. The town of Campbeltown, from which it takes its name, is located at its head. ...

and

Kintyre Kintyre ( gd, Cinn Tìre, ) is a peninsula in western Scotland, in the southwest of Argyll and Bute. The peninsula stretches about , from the Mull of Kintyre in the south to East and West Loch Tarbert in the north. The region immediately north ...

because of the activities of the

Clan MacDonald Clan Donald, also known as Clan MacDonald ( gd, Clann Dòmhnaill; Mac Dòmhnaill ), is a Highland Scottish clan and one of the largest Scottish clans. The Lord Lyon King of Arms, the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry i ...

in Ireland. The

Earl of Sussex Earl of Sussex is a title that has been created several times in the Peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. The early Earls of Arundel (up to 1243) were often also called Earls of Sussex. The fifth creation came in the Peera ...

sailed from Dublin in the ''Mary Willoughby'' with a small fleet. They burnt farms and houses including Saddell, a castle of James MacDonald of Dunyvaig and Glynnes (died 1565), and then marched south to burn

Dunaverty Dunaverty Castle is located at Southend at the southern end of the Kintyre peninsula in western Scotland. The site was once a fort belonging to the Clan Donald (MacDonald). Little remains of the castle, although the site is protected as a sched ...

and Machrimore. He then burnt farms on Arran, Bute, and Cumbrae. Veteran ships of the Kirkwall raid came to the aid of the Scottish Protestants at the

Siege of Leith The siege of Leith ended a twelve-year encampment of French troops at Leith, the port near Edinburgh, Scotland. The French troops arrived by invitation in 1548 and left in 1560 after an English force arrived to attempt to assist in removing the ...

in January 1560, including ''Mary Willoughby'', all under the command of Willam Winter.''Calendar State Papers Scotland'', vol. 1 (London, 1898), p. 294
/ref> ''Mary Willoughby'' was sold in 1573.

References

External links

List of ships of Kings from Henry VII till Elizabeth I
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mary Willoughby Ships of the English navy Ships of the Royal Scots Navy 16th-century ships Captured ships