The Rough Wooing (December 1543 – March 1551) was a conflict between Scotland and England. Following its break with Rome, England was feeling trapped and surrounded by Catholic powers, and wished to break the Auld Alliance in order to prevent Scotland being used as a springboard for future invasion by France. War was declared by Henry VIII of England in an attempt to force the Scots to agree to a marriage between his son Edward and the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, thereby creating a new alliance between Scotland and England. Edward VI continued the war until changing circumstances made it irrelevant in 1550. It was the last major conflict between Scotland and England before the Union of the Crowns in 1603, excepting perhaps the English intervention at the Siege of Leith in 1560, and was part of the Anglo-Scottish Wars of the 16th century.