Mary, Queen of Scots Is Defeated at the Battle of Langside
On this day · 13 May 1568
A 45-minute rout near Glasgow shattered Mary's last bid for the Scottish throne and pushed her into a fatal English exile.
On 13 May 1568, on the south side of modern Glasgow, the forces of Mary, Queen of Scots met the army of her half-brother James Stewart, Earl of Moray at the Battle of Langside. Moray had governed as Regent of Scotland in the name of Mary’s infant son since her forced abdication in July 1567. Days earlier Mary had escaped imprisonment at Lochleven Castle and raised troops to reclaim her crown.
Though Mary fielded the larger force, Moray’s smaller, better-organised army held the high ground and broke her ranks. The fighting lasted under an hour.
Defeated at Langside, Mary fled south and would never see Scotland again.
Rather than regroup, Mary rode for the Solway coast and crossed into England, hoping her cousin Elizabeth I would restore her. Instead she was held captive for nineteen years before her execution in 1587. Historians treat Langside as the spark of the Marian civil war that divided Scotland for years afterward.
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