he next attempt, planned by Willie, fared better. A May Day feast was arranged, in which he would was arranged, in which he would enjoy the privileges of a Lord of Misrule, and would have the right to order everyone to do silly or unlikely things. He exercised his right, and ordered Mary from the hall. He still had to get his hands on Sir William's keys. Sir William always kept them by him. Even now they were by his plate on the table. Willie had, however, plied the head of the family with alcohol, just enough so that when he casually dropped his napkin over the keys, and picked it up with the keys concealed inside it, Sir William failed to notice. Willie joined the Queen, and they walked out of the castle, locking the gate behind them. Willie had earlier taken the precaution of tying up al the boats, bar one, to hinder pursuit. In this boat they now made good their escape.

ary had been a prisoner for eleven months. For the next eleven days she was again a queen in fact as well as name. With astonishing speed she rallied a force of 5000-6000 men - no small feat considering that they can have had no warning of her escape. Her force continued to grow, and it seemed it would be just a matter of time before she could put an army in the field that would rout Moray's. However, she did not wait long enough for forces from the Highlands to join her. It's possible that Lord Hamilton was overanxious to give battle, to preserve his prominence among the Queen's supporters, before too many powerful rivals had joined her cause. He was already annoyed to have been passed over as commander in favor of the Earl of Argyll. For whatever reason, Mary fought too soon.

oray's army, under the capable command of Kirkcaldy numbered only 4000. Even so, Kirkcaldy managed to select both the time and place of battle, and inflicted a defeat on Mary at Langside on 13 May 1568.

Her army was routed, but by the standards of the time not very many had been killed. Arguably, Mary's best course would have been to regroup her forces, gather reinforcements, and try again. Instead she lost her head, and decided to flee the country. Worse folly was yet to come. Instead of going to France where she would at least have had her powerful Guise relatives to assist her, she went to England. On 16 May she slipped across the Solway in a small boat and landed in Cumberland, in Elizabeth's kingdom.