ABSTRACT
In the cold grey dawn of a late autumn morning nearly thirty years after the disaster at Flodden another Scottish army was on the move, this time in the west. On 24th November 1542 a force some ten thousand strong began splashing over the chill waters of the Esk on to the low-lying plain of Solway Moss. In front of them was an English marcher force of, at best, one third of their numbers under the west march warden Sir Thomas Wharton. It would seem that the Scots were unstoppable, the warden's men were comprised almost entirely of border horse whilst the invaders were well found with horse, foot and guns. They were attacking on the orders of their sovereign James V though the king, stricken by an unspecified malady, had advanced no further than Lochmaben and the army had set off under the command of Lord Maxwell.
