Legitimacy and persuasion in the Anglo-Scottish wars of the 1540s

The considerable efforts of the invading English to justify their activities and garner support during the Anglo-Scottish wars of the 1540s are well known. Recent welcome attention to Scottish texts produced during the conflict has begun to correct a previous historiographical imbalance towards English materials. Part of this has been an emphasis on the range of techniques deployed by these authors to rebut English claims to suzerainty over Scotland. This article builds on this recent interest to argue that both extant Scottish texts – the Complaynt of Scotland (published probably in Paris c.1550) and the Resonyng Between a Scots Merchant and an English (a manuscript survival from c.1549) went beyond rebutting an English case to suzerainty over Scotland to challenge the legitimacy either of past English rulers, the current house of Tudor, or individual members of that dynasty. This was achieved in an identical manner to the ways in which later supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots, would issue the same challenge – through an emphasis on changes to the English royal house as a result of conquest as well as interrogating Henry VIII’s matrimonial adventures. In the 1540s texts, these elements were also used as part of a broader case concerning English tyranny. Whilst neither text can be securely identified as part of a crown-directed propaganda campaign, both reflected messages evident in the regime’s pronouncements back to it. In this, and their recycling historical materials, both point to a wider hinterland of now lost Scottish commentary.