according to Bellenden, was now standing boldly
at bay, and, with its branching antlers, put the life
of the pious monarch in imminent jeopardy, as he
and his horse were both borne to the ground.
With a short hunting-sword, while fruitlessly endeavouring
to defend himself against the infuriated
animal, there appeared-continues the legend-a
silver cloud, from the centre of which there came
forth a hand, which placed in that of David a
sparkling cross of miraculous construction, in so far
that the material of which it was composed could
never be discovered. Scared by this interposition,
the white stag fled down the hollow way between
the hills, but was afterwards slain by Sir Gregan
Crawford, whose crest, a stag?s head erased with
a cross-crosslet between the antlers, is still borne
by his descendants, the Crawfords of Kilbirnie,
in memory of that eventful day in the forest of
Drurnsheugh.
Thoughtful, and oppressed with great awe, the
king slowly wended his way through the forest to
the Castle ; but the wonder did not end there, for
when, after a long vigil, the king slept, there appeared
by his couch St. Andrew, the apostle of
Scotland, surrounded by rays of glory, instructing
him to found, upon the exact spot where he had
been miraculously saved, a fwegfh monastery for
the canons regular of St. Augustine ; and, in obedience
to this vision, he built the noble abbey
of Holyrood, ?in the little valley between two
mountains ?-i.e., the Craigs and the Calton.
Therein the marvellous cross was preserved till
it was lost at a long subsequent period; but, in
memory of St. David?s adventure on Rood-day, a
stag?s head with a cross between the antlers is still
boqe as the arms of the Canongate. Alfwin was
appointed first abbot, and left a glorious memory
for many virtues.*
Though nobly endowed, this famous edifice was
not built for several years, during which the
monks were received into the Castle, and occupied
buildings which had been previously the abode
of a community of nuns, who, by permission of
Pope Alexander III., were removed, the monks,
as Father Hay tells us, being deemed ?as fitter
to live among soldiers.? Abbot M7illiard appears,
in 1152, as second superior of the monks in the
Castrum Puellarum, where they resided till I I 76.
A vehement dispute respecting the payment of
tithes having occurred between Robert bishop of
St. Andrews and Gaufrid abbot of Dunfermline,
it was decided by the king, apud Casielum
PueZZamm, m presence of a great convention, con-
? ? Memorials of Ediiburgh Castle.?
sisting of the abbots of Holyrood and Stirling,
Gregory bishop of Dunkeld, the Earls of Fife and
March, Hugo de Morville the Lord High Constable,
William Lord of Carnwath, David de
Oliphant a knight of Lothian, Henry the son of
Swan, and many others, and the matter in debate
was adjudicated on satisfactorily.
David--?< sair sanct for the crown ? though King
James I. is said to have styled him-was one of
the best of the early kings of Scotland. ?I have
seen him,? remarks Aldred, ?quit his horse and
dismiss his hunting equipage when any, even the
humblest of his subjects, desired an audience ; he
sometimes employed his leisure hours in the culture
of his garden, and in the philosophical amusement
of budding and engrafting trees.?
In the priory of Hexham, which was then in
Scottish territory, he was found dead, in a posture
of devotion, on the 24th of May, 1153, and was
succeeded by his grandson Malcolm IV. who,
though he frequently resided in the Castle, considered
Scone his capital rather than Edinburgh.
In 1153 he appointed Galfrid de Melville, of
Melville in Lothian, to be sheriff of the fortress,
and became a great benefactor to the monks
within it.
In 1160, Fergus, Lord of Galloway, a turbulent
thane, husband of the Princess Elizabeth daughter
of Henry I. of England, having taken arms against
the Crown, was defeated in three desperate battles
by Gilbert de Umfraville ; after which he gave his
son Uchtred as a hostage, and assumed the cowl
as an Augustine friar in the Castle of Edinburgh,
where-after bestowing the priory of St. Marie de
Tray11 as a dependant on Holyrood-he died, full
of grief and mortification, in IIGI.
Malcolm died in 1165, and was succeeded by
William the Lion, who generally resided at Haddington;
but many of his public documents are dated
?Ajud Monasienicnt San& Crzmi de CasteZZo.?
In 1174 the Castle fell, for the first time,
into the hands of the English. William the Lion
having demanded the restitution of Northumberland,
Henry of England affected to comply, but
afterwards invaded Scotland, and was repulsed.
In turn William entered England at the head of
80,ooo men, who sorely I ravaged the northern
counties, but being captured by treachery near
Alnwick, and treated with wanton barbarity and
indecency, his vast force dispersed. A ransom of
AIoo,ooo-an enormous sum in those dayswas
demanded, and the Castle was given, with
some others, as a hostage for the king. Fortunately,
however, that which was lost by the chances of
war was quickly restored by more pleasant means,
for, a matrimonial alliance having been concluded
between Ermengarde de Beaumont (cousin of
Henry) and King VJilliam, the Castle was thriftily
given up as part of her dowry, after having had an
English garrison for nearly twelve years.
Alexander II., their son, convened his first
parliament in Edinburgh in 1215. Alexander III.,
son of the preceding, having been betrothed to
Margaret daughter of Henry 111. of England
nine years before their nuptials were celebrated
at York in 1242, the queen, according to Amot,
had Edinburgh Castle appointed as her residence;
but it would seem to have been more
of a stronghold than a palace, as she complained
to her father that it was a ?? sad and solitary place,
without verdure, and, by reason of its vicinity to
the sea, unwholesome;? and ?that she was not
permitted to make excursions through the kingdom,
nor to choose her female attendants.? She was in
her sixteenth year.
Walter Earl of Menteith was at this time
governor of the fortress, and all the offices of the
city and of the nation itself were in the hands of
his powerful family. Many Englishmen of rank accompanied
the young queen-consort, and between
these southern intruders and the jealous Scottish
nobles there soon arose disputes that were both
hot and bitter. As usual, the kingdom was rent
into two powerful factions-one secretly favouring
Henry, who artfully wished to have Scotland under
his own dominion; another headed by Walter
Comyn, John de Baliol, and others, who kept
possession of Edinburgh, and with it the persons
of the young monarch and his bride. These
patriotically resisted the ambitious attempts of the
King of England, whose emissaries, 0; being joined
by the Earls of Carrick, Dunbar, and Strathearn,
and Alan Dureward, High Justiciary, while theiI
rivals were preparing to hold a parliament at
Stirling, took the Castle of Edinburgh by surprise,
and liberated the royal pair, who were triumphantly
conducted to a magnificent bridal chamber, and
afterwards had an interview with Henry at Wark,
in Northumberland.
During the remainder of the long and prosperous
reign of Alexander 111. the fortress continued to
be the chief place of the royal residence, and foI
holding his courts for the transaction of judicial
affairs, and much of the public business is said tc
have been transacted in St. Maxgaret?s chamber.
In 1278 William of Kinghorn was governor;
and about this period the Castle was repaired and
strengthened. It was then the safe deposit of the
principal records and the regalia of the kingdom.
And now we approach the darkest and bloodiesl
.
portion of the Scottish annals ; when on the death
of the Maid of Norway (the little Queen Margaret)
came the contested succession to the crown between
Bruce, Baliol, and others ; and an opportunity was
given to Edward I. of England of advancing a
claim to the Scottish crown as absurd as it was
baseless, but which that ferocious prince prosecuted
to the last hour of his life with unexampled barbarity
and treachery.
On the 11th of June, 1291, the Castle?of Edinburgh
and all the strongholds in the Lowlands were
unwisely and unwarily put into the hands of the
crafty Plantagenet by the grasping and numerous
claimants, on the ridiculous pretence that the subject
in dispute should be placed in the power of
the umpire ; and the governors of the various fortresses,
on finding that the four nobles who had been
appointed .guardians of the realm till the dispute
was adjusted had basely abandoned Scotland to
her fate, they, too, quietly gave up their trusts to
Edward, who (according to Prynne?s ? History ?)
appointed Sir Radulf Basset de Drayton governor
of Edinburgh Castle, with a garrison of English
soldiers. According to Holinshed he personally
took this Castle after a fifteen days? siege with his
warlike engines.
On the vigil of St. Bartholomew a list was
drawn up of the contents of the Treasury in the
Castra de Edrir6ut-g; and among other religious
regalia we find mentioned the Black Rood of
Scotland, which St. Margaret venerated so much. .
By Edward?s order some of the records were left
in the Castle under the care of Basset, but all the
most valuable documents were removed to England,
where those that showed too clearly the
ancient independence of Scotland were carefully
destroyed, or tampered with, and others were left
to moulder in the Tower of London.
On the 8th of July, 1292, we find Edward again
at Edinburgh, where, as self-styled Lord Paramount,
he received within the chapel of St. Margaret the
enforced oath of fealty from Adam, Abbot of Holyrood;
John, Abbot of Newbattle ; Sir Brim le Jay,
Preceptor of the Scottish Templars; the Prior of
St. John of Jerusalem ; and Christina, Prioress of
Emanuel, in Stirlingshire.
Bnice having refused to accept a crown shorn
of its rank, Edward declared in favour of the
pitiful Baliol, after which orders were issued to
the captains of the Scottish castles to deliver
them up to John, King of Scotland. Shame at last
filled the heart of the latter; he took the field, and
lost the battle of Dunbar. Edward, reinforced by
fifteen thousand Welsh and a horde of Scottish
traitors, appeared before Edinburgh Castle; the
