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2025-01-20T15:38:26Z

Scottish Reformation: date/ref

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{{Infobox UK place
| type = Hamlet
| official_name = Cupar Muir
| country = Scotland
| postcode_area = KY
| post_town = CUPAR
| civil_parish = [[Cupar]]
| unitary_scotland = [[Fife]]
| postcode_district = KY15
| population = 229
| static_image = Cupar Muir from the edge of Cupar - geograph.org.uk - 132201.jpg
| static_image_caption = Cupar Muir seen from [[Cupar]]
| static_image_alt = Cupar Muir seen from Cupar
| coordinates = {{Coord|56|18|26.64|N|3|2|8.19|W|display=inline,title}}
| os_grid_reference = NO36021326
| lieutenancy_scotland = [[Fife]]
| constituency_westminster = [[North East Fife (UK Parliament constituency)|North East Fife]]
| constituency_scottish_parliament = [[North East Fife (Scottish Parliament constituency)|North East Fife]]
| dial_code = 01334
}}{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2022}}

'''Cupar Muir''' or '''Cuparmuir''' is a hamlet or small village situated just outside the town of [[Cupar]], [[Fife]]. Lying around {{convert|25.5|mi|km|round=0.5}} north of [[Edinburgh]], it had a population of around 229 in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011 |title=Home {{!}} Scotland's Census |url=https://scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ |access-date=11 June 2022 |website=[[2011_United_Kingdom_census#2011_Census_for_Scotland|Scotland's Census]]}} Table KS101SC - Usual resident population 2011 using results from 2011OutputAreas S00111501 & S00111502.</ref>

The settlement was primarily developed around quarrying of stone, but is better known for a 1559 confrontation between the French troops of [[Mary of Guise]] and the [[Protestantism|Protestant]] forces of the [[Lords of the Congregation]].<ref>Jane E. A Dawson, 'Regent Moray and John Knox', Steven J. Reid, ''Rethinking the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland'' (Boydell, 2014), 166.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Cupar Muir: Overview of Cupar Muir |url=https://www.scottish-places.info/towns/townfirst76.html |access-date=11 June 2022 |website=[[Gazetteer for Scotland]]}}</ref>

==History==
On some early maps, Cupar Muir can be found labelled as Brighton after the Brighton Brick and Tile works which were once a prominent feature found to the south of the hamlet.<ref>{{Cite web |orig-date=1843–1882 |others=[[Ordnance Survey]] |title=Explore georeferenced maps - Map images - National Library of Scotland |url=https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=56.30778&lon=-3.03599&layers=5&b=1 |access-date=11 June 2022 |website=[[National Library of Scotland]]}}</ref> These were opened in 1837 by Archibald Mitchell, so named after [[John Bright]] with whom Mitchell shared his politics,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fife Place-name Data :: Cupar Muir |url=https://fife-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk/placename/?id=2663 |access-date=12 June 2022 |website=Fife Place-name Data}}</ref> and he was joined soon after by his business partner Henry Duncan. The works were at one point considered extensive, and employed around 30 people in the mid-1850s.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital-volumes/ordnance-survey-name-books/fife-and-kinross-shire-os-name-books-1853-1855/fife-and-kinross-shire-volume-56/25 |title=Fife and Kinross-shire Ordnance Survey Name Books 1853-1855 |publisher=[[Ordnance Survey]] |year=1853–1855 |volume=56 |page=25 |access-date=11 June 2022 }}</ref> By 1909, the works had been closed for "some time," and in 1936 the associated Fife Brick and Tile Company was dissolved.<ref>{{Cite news |date=6 February 1909 |title=Sudden death of a Buckhaven farmer |pages=2 |work=Fifeshire Advertiser |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001577/19090206/028/0002 |url-access=subscription |access-date=12 June 2022 |quote="Mr Henry Thomson, Percival, Buchhaven... Some years ago when the Brighton Brick and Tile Works at Cupar Muir were running, he was a director of the company…"}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=27 October 1936 |title=The Companies Act, 1929 |pages=905 |work=[[The Edinburgh Gazette]] |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Edinburgh/issue/15329/page/905 |access-date=12 June 2022}}</ref> On the site of the Brighton Brick and Tile works, occasionally referred to as the Trafford Bank Brickworks, now stands a small industrial estate.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Brighton Brick and Tile Works, Cupar, Fife |url=https://www.scottishbrickhistory.co.uk/brighton-brick-and-tile-works-cupar-fife/ |access-date=12 June 2022 |website=Scottish Brick History}}</ref>

=== Scottish Reformation ===
[[John Knox]] and [[Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie]] described a confrontation during the [[Scottish Reformation]] at Cupar Muir on 13 June 1559. The Protestant [[Lords of the Congregation]] opposed the French troops of [[Mary of Guise]] commanded by [[Henri Cleutin]] and a Scottish force led by [[James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault]]. Following the Reformation riots at Perth, the French troops were marching towards St. Andrews from [[Falkland, Fife|Falkland]]. On 13 June a Protestant force of 3,000 assembled at Cupar Muir to prevent the French reaching Cupar.<ref>[[Rosalind Marshall|Rosalind K. Marshall]], ''Mary of Guise'' (London: Collins, 1977), p. 226.</ref><ref>Joseph Stevenson, ''Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth: 1558–1560'' (London: Longman, 1863), p. 321 no. 862.</ref>

The Protestants were led by the half-brother of [[Mary, Queen of Scots]], [[Regent Moray|Lord James]], [[Patrick Ruthven, 3rd Lord Ruthven|Lord Ruthven]], the [[Andrew Leslie, 5th Earl of Rothes|Earl of Rothes]], the Lothian lairds of [[John Cockburn of Ormiston|Ormiston]], [[James Sandilands, 1st Lord Torphichen|Calder]], Haltoun, [[Robert Logan of Restalrig|Restalrig]], and Colstoun, with men from Dundee, St. Andrews and Cupar. Knox wrote it seemed as if "men had rained from the clouds." Master [[James Halyburton (reformer)|James Halyburton]], [[List of Lord Provosts of Dundee|Provost of Dundee]], chose their position on the Muir to give the best advantage with their guns.

The French advanced within a mile, keeping the [[River Eden, Fife|River Eden]] between them and the Protestant force. Cleutin and the Duke rode to [[Hill of Tarvit]]. [[John Lindsay, 5th Lord Lindsay|John, Lord Lindsay]], (or [[Patrick Lindsay, 6th Lord Lindsay|Patrick, Master of Lindsay]]), and Patrick Hepburn of [[Wauchton]] came from the Duke or the Regent to treat with the Protestants. A truce of eight days was made and signed by Lord James and Cleutin<ref>Knox, John, ''[[The History of the Reformation in Scotland|Works: History of the Reformation]]'', vol.1 (1846), pp. 350-355 & footnotes (Cleutin's signature in Knox's manuscript was not clearly legible)</ref> at "Garlabank", now Garlie Bank, on the flank of the hill by the river.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fife Place-name Data :: Garlie Bank |url=https://fife-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk/placename/?id=991 |website=fife-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk}}</ref> Robert Lindsay supplies dialogue for the negotiation, giving Lord Lindsay a lengthy and persuasive speech to the French commanders Cleutin, De la Chapel, and [[Corbeyran de Cardaillac Sarlabous|Sarlabous]] that brokered the peace;<blockquote>"Ye are strangers, lose not the hearts of Scottish-men, neither procure the nobility of Scotland to turn enemies to the King of France, who are now his friends, ... Likewise it is an old Scottish proverb; I will suffer my friend to need, but I cannot see him bleed."<ref>[[Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie|Pitscottie]], ''History of Scotland'', Freebairn (1778), pp. 318-323</ref></blockquote> The negotiation of a truce at Cupar Muir is regarded as a major turning point in the crisis of the Scottish Reformation.<ref>[[Jane Dawson]], "The relation between James Stewart, Regent Moray and John Knox", Steven J. Reid, ''Rethinking the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland'' (Boydell, 2024), p. 166.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}

* [https://www.cuparcommunitycouncil.org.uk/ Cupar Community Council official website]
* [https://canmore.org.uk/search/image?SIMPLE_KEYWORD=Cupar%20Muir Cupar Muir] at [[Canmore (database)|Canmore]]

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Hamlets in Scotland]]
[[Category:Scottish Reformation]]
[[Category:Populated places in Fife]]

Cupar Muir - Revision history

imported>Unoquha: /* Scottish Reformation */ date/ref