The year was 1568. The once adored and now disgraced Mary Queen of Scots had escaped from her prison cell, gathered an army, and marched towards Langside Hill to face the troops of her half-brother, Scotland’s Regent Moray.
Mary had riled the Scottish Protestant leaders after her scandalous marriage to Lord Darnley, followed by her disastrous union with one of the suspects of Darnley's murder, the Earl of Bothwell.
She had been imprisoned in Lochleven Castle after being forced to abdicate in favour of her son, the future James VI and I.
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But it would be in Glasgow that her devastating fate was sealed once and for all. The Battle of Langside was said to be over in less than an hour, with Moray’s reinforcements killing around 300 of Mary’s men.
The fallen queen watched from Cathcart Hill as her army was defeated, and then fled to England where she would be held captive by her cousin Elizabeth I until her execution in February 1587.
Marking Mary’s final defeat in Scotland, the Battle of Langside is now remembered with a 58-feet memorial at the junction of Langside Avenue and Battlefield Road, in the spot where Mary’s 6000-strong army was challenged.
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Erected 300 years after her death, the memorial was designed by Alexander Skirving, a friend of Alexander the Greek Thomson who beat eleven other architects for the contract.
Glasgow sculptor James Young created the design of the lion sitting atop the pillar with its paw strewn across a cannonball.
Four eagles pinpoint the corners of the monument, while elaborate carvings of thistles, roses and fleurs-de-lis symbolise Mary’s time in Scotland, England and France.
The base of the monument could be described as something of a time capsule, as planning documents are buried under it along with a copy of Walter Scott’s 1820 historical novel The Abbott which features the battle, and historical newspapers and coins of the day were buried under the structure.
At the base of the memorial, a plaque reads: ‘The battle of Langside was fought on this ground on 13 May 1568 between the forces of Mary Queen of Scots and the Regent Moray and marked the queen’s final defeat in Scotland.’
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