Mary's last battle
On 13 May 1568, just eleven days after her dramatic escape from Lochleven Castle, Mary Queen of Scots lost the last battle of her reign. At Langside, on the southern outskirts of Glasgow, her hastily assembled army of around six thousand men was routed by the smaller but better-led forces of her half-brother James Stewart, Earl of Moray, the regent who governed Scotland in the name of her infant son.
The battle was decided by Moray's superior tactics. He occupied the high ground around the village of Langside and positioned his hagbutters — soldiers armed with early firearms — in the houses and gardens along the main street. When Mary's vanguard advanced uphill, they were caught in a crossfire. The Hamiltons, who formed the core of Mary's army, pushed forward bravely but could not break through. As the flanks gave way, the centre collapsed. The whole engagement lasted less than three-quarters of an hour.
Mary watched the disaster unfold from a hill to the south — probably Court Knowe, near what is now Queen's Park in Glasgow. When it became clear that the battle was lost, she turned her horse and rode. She did not stop. Over the next three days, she covered nearly sixty miles through Dumfriesshire, riding south with a handful of followers, sleeping in the open, her hair cut short to avoid recognition. On 16 May she reached the abbey of Dundrennan on the Solway coast.
From Dundrennan, Mary made the fateful decision to cross into England and seek the protection of her cousin Elizabeth I. She believed Elizabeth would help her regain her throne. It was the greatest miscalculation of a life filled with miscalculations. Langside was not merely a military defeat — it was the end of Mary as a reigning queen. She would never set foot in Scotland again, never see her son again, and never again draw breath as a free woman. Nineteen years of English imprisonment awaited, followed by the executioner's axe at Fotheringhay.