Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

EDINBURGH
Albany, a putative brother of the King, commenced a
series of intrigues which caused much disaster to the
city and kingdom. Albany was imprisoned in the
Castle, but effected his escape to France, whence he
passed in 1482 into England, and bargained there with
Edward IV. for assistance in seizing the crown of Scot-
land, pledging himself to hold it as Edward's vassal.
In consequence of this, an English army under the
Duke of Gloucester marched on Edinburgh, meeting
there with little or no resistance. The King took refuge
in the Castle, and the English were only induced to
depart after the reconciliation of the King and Albany,
on payment of certain sums of money claimed by the
English, and the permanent cession of the town of
Berwick. The citizens contributed the money, and
proceeded to the Castle to escort the King and Albany
to Holyrood, where they received from James muni-
ficent expressions of gratitude. Albany not long after
again conspired against the King, who at once retired
to the Castle and roused the citizens, from whom he
received such support as entirely crushed Albany's trea-
son. Early in 14S8 James again became hard pressed
by a powerful combination of insurgent nobles, when
he deposited his treasure and other valuable effects in
the Castle, and retired to the North. The royal army
was defeated by the rebels at Sauchie on 18 June 1488,
and though the King escaped from the field, he was
afterwards discovered by one of the rebels and mur-
dered.
Edinburgh, in the latter part of 1488, amid the tur-
bulence of rebellious faction, was the meeting-place of
the first parliament of James IV., and for some time
the city and Castle were under the domination of the
Earl of Both well. James IV., as he grew in years,
made the city a frequent scene of tournaments and
other like entertainments, and in 1503 he was married
at Holyrood to the Princess Margaret of England,
daughter of Henry VII., from which union descended
that line of Stuart sovereigns which, in the following
century, united both kingdoms under one crown. In
1513, while a dreadful plague was desolating the city,
James IV. made preparations for an imprudent expedi-
tion into England. After inspecting his artillery in the
Castle and the outfit of his navy at Newhaven, he mus-
tered all his available forces on the Boroughmuir, from
whence he marched to encounter death on the field
of Flodden. The city lent him vigorous aid, sending
many of its burgesses in his train to the field ; and, on
receiving news of his total defeat and death, adopted
resolute measures for a stern resistance — fortifying the
town, and ordering all the inhabitants to assemble in
military array to oppose the expected approach of the
enemy. The privy council withdrew for some time to
Stirling, but, a peace with England having been effected,
James V. was there crowned. The Duke of Albany in
1515 was appointed regent by a parliament in Edin-
burgh, receiving from the citizens great demonstrations
in his favour ; and he took up his residence at Holyrood
in all the grandeur of royalty, causing the young King
and his mother to retire to the Castle. Albany after-
wards adopted measures which first drove the dowager-
queen to take flight with the young King to Stirling,
and next compelled her to surrender that fortress and
return to Edinburgh, when the regent converted the
Castle into a state prison for the King. The conten-
tions of parties at this time filled the city with excite-
ment, deprived it of the most ordinary protection of
common law, and made it the scene of frequent strifes
among the turbulent nobles. One of the most noted of
these tumults arose between the Earl of Arran and Car-
dinal Beaton on the one side, and the Earl of Angus
on the other. Angus having roused the jealousy of the
opposite party by the influence he had gained over the
young King through his marriage with the queen-
dowager, he and his friends were set upon near the
Netherbow on 20 April 1515, and upwards of 250 per-
sons were slain in the skirmish, which was long after-
wards known under the name of ' Cleanse the causeway.'
Not many years after a similar skirmish occurred,
542
EDINBURGH
through a dispute which had arisen between the Earl
of Rothes and Lord Lindsay. With characteristic
ferocity they attacked each other with their retainers
on the High Street, to the great danger of the inhabi-
tants, and such was the fury of the strife that peace
was not restored till both noblemen were made prisoners
by the city authorities. Pestilence also, and a menacing
armed force from the Borders, combined in 1519 and
1520 to add to the city's calamities. Parliaments were
held in 1522 and 1523, mainly to devise measures for
suppressing the prevailing lawlessness, but without much
effect. In May 1524 Albany departed for ever from
Holyrood to France, leaving state affairs in utter con-
fusion ; and the dowager-queen in the following July
proclaimed that James V. , then in his thirteenth year,
had assumed the reins of government. While parlia-
ment was sitting in the November following, the Earl
of Angus raised a disturbance, which drew disastrous
fire from the Castle upon a part of the city. Early in
1525 James V. removed from the Castle to Holyrood,
and met his parliament in the Tolbooth ; and Angus, in
the same year, acquired such ascendency as enabled
him to impoverish the city for the pampering of his
favourites. From this time till his forfeiture in 1528
he had the entire kingdom under his control, occasion-
ing incessant disturbances not only in Edinburgh, but
throughout the whole country.
The College of Justice, the germ of the present Court
of Session, being instituted in 1532, speedily contributed
to raise the dignity of the city, and draw to it many
wealthy residents. The principles of the Reformation
had also begun to be privately diffused, and in 1534
the fact was publicly notified in the execution at Greenside
of the martyrs Norman Gourlay and David Straiton. The
two successive consorts of James V. , Magdalene and Mary
of Guise, in 1537 and 1538 respectively, made public
entrances into Edinburgh amid great rejoicings, and
James, having died at Falkland in Dee. 1542, was
buried in Holyrood by the side of Magdalene, his first
queen. Shortly after the death of James, Henry VIII.
of England proposed an alliance between his son Edward
and the infant Queen Mary, daughter of James V., on
terms unequal and dishonourable to the Scots, in order
to obtain the dominion of their country ; but this pro-
posal, though at first favourably entertained as contain-
ing provisions agreeable to the reformed doctrines, was
resisted powerfully and successfully by Cardinal Beaton
and the Catholic party. To revenge this insult, King
Henry sent an army under the Earl of Hertford, which,
after landing at Leith, set fire to Edinburgh, Holyrood
Abbey, the castles of Roslin and Craigmillar, and made
an unsuccessful attempt upon Edinburgh Castle. John
Lesley, Bishop of Ross, who wrote a History of Scotland
in the Scottish language, of which a modernised edition
was printed by the Bannatyne Club in 1830, gives the
following account of this event : — ' On the next day,
being the sixth May' [the day after the English army
marched from Leith], ' the great army came forward with
the haill ordinances, and assailed the town, which they
found void of all resistance, saving the ports of the
town were closed, which they broke up with great
artillery, and entered thereat, carrying carted ordin-
ances before them till they came in sight of the Castle,
where they placed them, purposing to siege the Castle.
But the laird of Stanehouse, captain thereof, caused
shoot at them in so great abundance, and with so good
measure, that they slew a great number of Englishmen,
amongst whom there was some principal captains and
gentlemen ; and one of the greatest pieces of the English
ordinances was broken ; wherethrough they were con-
strained to raise the siege shortly and retire them. The
same day the English men set fire in divers places of the
town, but were not suffered to maintain it, through con-
tinual shooting of ordinance forth of the Castle, where-
with they were so sore troubled, that they were con-
strained to return to their camp at Leith. But the
next day they returned again, and did what they could
to consume all the town with fires. So likewise they
continued some days after, so that the most part of the