George Wishart’s career as an itinerant preacher…
May 1544 CE
George Wishart’s career as an itinerant preacher of Reformation doctrine begins in 1544, from when he travels Scotland from east to west.
He goes from place to place, in danger of his life, denouncing the errors of the Papacy and the abuses in the church at Montrose, Dundee (where he escaped an attempt on his life), Ayr, in Kyle, at Perth, Edinburgh, Leith, Haddington and elsewhere.
His disciple John Knox accompanies him as his bodyguard, bearing a two-handed sword in order to defend him.
Cardinal Beaton having gained control of the government of Scotland and renewed the alliance with France, Henry reacts by sending an army to systematically devastate and slaughter throughout southern Scotland, as a means of inducing a change of heart.
Major hostilities begin on May 3, 1544, with an attack on Edinburgh led by Edward’s uncle the Earl of Hertford and Viscount Lisle.
The English army lands at Granton, then occupies Leith.
The troops enter Edinburgh's Canongate the next day, then set the city on fire.
The ships at Leith are loaded with looted goods and the army returns to England by land, burning towns and villages along the way.
Beaton, made a papal legate in 1544, proceeds to prosecute a number of those Protestants whom he sees as heretics.
George Wishart may have been the "Scottish man called Wishart" implicated in a 1544 English plot against Beaton.
Roman Catholic historians such as Alphons Bellesheim and Anglicans such as canon Dixon have accepted the identification; others are skeptical.
There are plenty of other contenders for the designation, including George Wishart, Baillie of Dundee, who will ally himself with Beaton's murderers; and Sir John Wishart (d. 1576), afterwards a Scottish judge.
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