history, tradition, and in song. Professor Aytoun
finely reproduces the feeling of anguish in his wellknown
ballad of ? Edinburgh after Flodden ? :-
a? Woe, and woe, and lamentation, what a piteous cry was
Widows maidens, mothem, children, shrieking, sobbing in
Through the streets the death-word rushes, spreading terror,
? Jesu Christ 1 our king has fallen-h, great God, King
Oh, the blackest day for Scotlahd that she ever knew
Oh, our king, the good, the noble, shall we never see him
Woe to us, and woe to Scotland ! Oh, our sons, our sons
Surely some have ?scaped the Southron, surely some will
Till the oak that fell last winter shall uprear its withered
Wives and mothers of Dunedin ye maylook in vain for them !?
All the remaining male inhabitants capable of bearing
arms were ordered to be in readiness ; a standing
watch (the origin of the famous old Town Guard)
was constituted, and five hundred pounds Scots
The
narrow limits of the wall of James 11. had proved
too confined for the increasing city, and now that
there was dread of a retaliatory invasion by a
victorious enemy, the inhabitants of the Cowgate-
then a new and aristocratic suburb-became
naturally alarmed to find they were beyond the
circumvallation of 1450. They felt themselves shut
out in the unprotected country ! ?? But they-the
citizens-did certainly retain their native character
for prudence, as scarcely a house arose beyond
the second wall for 250 years ; and if Edinburgh
increased in any respect, it was only by piling new
flats on the ancient royalty, and adding to the
height rather than to the extent of the city.?
Several traces of the ?Flodden Wall,? as it was
named, still exist.
This defence, which was built with incredible
speed, had many gates and towers, crenelated and
furnished with embrasures and loopholes, and
was of vast strength and height, with a fewepleine
of earth in some parts, especially to the south,
Descending from the Castle in a south-westerly
direction, it crossed the Portsburgh at the foot of
the Grassmarket, where there was a barrier called
the West Port ; and ascending the steep Vennelwhere
much of it still remains-to Lauriston, it
turned due eastward to the corner of Teviot Row,
from whence it ran acutely northward to the Bristo
Port. Thence it ran nearly eastward by the south
of the present university and Drummond Street
there !
despair !
sweeping on-
James is gone !
before 1
more ?
and men I ?
come again ! ?
stem,
. were even levied for the purchase of artillery.
to the Pleasance, crossing the Cowgate foot, where
stood the Cowgate Port. From there to the Nether
Bow Port the enclosure was completed by the
west side of St. Mary?s Wynd, and perhaps part
of the old wall of 1450. Descending Leith Wynd,
which was also closed by a port, the wall ended
at the foot of the North Loch, then, as yet, the
artificial defence of the city on that side, the waters
of it being regulated by a dam and sluice. These
walls were added to and strengthened from time to
time as suspicions occurred of the English: at Leith
Wynd by Act of Parliament in 1540; another addition
in ~ 5 6 0 to the foot of Halkerston?s Wynd, near
the present North Bridge; and in 1591 all were
repaired with bulwarks and flankers ; the last
addition being, in 1618, at the Greyfriars Port
They *had all become ruinous in 1745. The
whole length of the old wall was about one mile,
that of the new was one mile three furlongs.
Henry VIII. was too full of his French war to
follow up the advantage won at Flodden; and
poor Scotland had now to experience again the
evils that attend a long minority, for James V.
was but two years old when he succeeded to the
throne.
By the will of James IV. Queen Margaret was
appointed Regent during their son?s minority ; but
she lost her power by an impolitic marriage with
the Earl of Angus, whereupon John Duke of Albany
succeeded her as Regent, This brave and
wise prince was the sun of that Alexander whose
daring escape we have detailed, and he had high
interest in France, where he espoused Anne de la
Tour of VendGme; but prior to his arrival there
had ensued one of those dreadful street skirmishes
which were so peculiar to Edinburgh in those
On the queen?s m?uriage with his feudal rival,
the Earl of Arran, attended by every Hamilton he
could muster, marched into the city, and laid
claim to the Regency, as nearest of blood to the
king. Angus was not slow in following him
thither, with 500 spearmen and several knights.
The moment that Arran heard of his approach,
he assembled the nobility of the west country, at
the Archbishop of Glasgow?s quaint old turreted
house, which stood at the eastern corner of the
Blackfriars Wynd, but has quite recently been
pulled down. He ordered the gates to be secured,
but too late; the Douglases were already in the
city, where a dreadful commotion was imminent.
While Arran held a conference, Angus was in
his town mansion, near the curious old street
called the West Bow, the last vestiges of which
have nearly disappeared. His friends conveyed
to him an intimation that he was to be made
prisoner, and advised him to lose no time in
assuming the defensive. On this he sent his uncle,
the ?fambus Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld,
to remonstrate with the archbishop, Arran, and
others present, ? to caution them against violence,
and to inform them that if they had anything to
allege against him he would be judged by the laws
of the realm, and not by men who were his avowed
enemies.? Meanwhile he put on his armour, and
drew up his spearmen in close array near the
Nether-Bow Port-the Temple Bar of Edinburgh
-a gate strongly fortified by double towers.
When the Bishop of Dunkeld entered the archbishop?s
house in the Blackfriars Wynd he found
all present armed, and resolved on the most desperate
measures. Even the archbishop wore a coat
of mail, covered by his ecclesiastical costume, and
in the dispute that ensued he concluded a vehement
speech by striking his breast, and asseverating-??
There is no remedy ! The Earl of Angus
must go to prison. Upon my conscience I cannot
help it 1 ?
As he struck his breast the armour rattled.
? How now, my lord ? ? said the Bishop of Dunkeld
; ? I think your conscience clatters! We
are priests, and to bear arms or armour is not
consistent with our profession.?
The archbishop explained ? that he had merely
provided for his own safety in these days of continued
turmoil, when no man could leave his house
but at the hazard of his life.?
Numbers of citizens and others had now joined
Angus, who was exceedingly popular, and the people
handed weapons from the windows to all his followers
who required them. He barricaded all the
entrances to the steep wynds and closes leading from
the High Street to the Cowgate, and took post
himself near the head of the Blackfriars Wynd.
Sir James Hamilton of Finnart came rushing upward
at the head of the Hamiltons to attack the
Douglases. Angus, who knew him, ordered the
latter to spare him if possible, but he was onc
of the first who perished in the fierce and bloody
fray that ensued, and involved the whole city in
universal uproar.
?A Hamilton ! a
Hamilton ! Through ! Through ! ? such were the
adverse cries.
The many windows of the lofty and gable-ended
houses of the High Street were crowded with the
excited faces of spectators ; the clash of swords and
crash of pikes, the shouts, yells, and execration:
of the combatants as they closed in fierce conflict
added to the general consternation, and killed and
?A Douglas ! a Douglas !?
vounded began to cumber the causeway in every
iirection.
The Hamiltons gave way, and, sword in hand,
he exasperated Angus drove them headlong down
be Blackfriars Wynd, killing them on every hand.
r?he Earl of Arran and a kinsman hewed a passage
)ut of the m t e , and fled down an alley on the north
iide of the High Street. At the foot they found
I collier?s horse, and, throwing the burden off the
tnimal, both mounted it, though in armour, swam
t across the loch to the other side, and escaped
tmong the fields, where now Princes Street stands.
Many Douglases perished in the skirmish, which
was long remembered as ?? Cleanse the Causeway.?
3f the Hamiltons eighty were slain on the spot,
including Sir Patrick son of the first Lord Hamilton,
and the Master of Montgomery, according to
Hawthornden. The archbishop fled to the adjacent
Blackfriars church for sanctcary, but the
Douglases dragged him from behind the altar,
rent his episcopal habit from his back, and would ?
have slain him had not the Bishop of Dunkeld
interfered; and he was permitted to fly afoot to
Linlithgow, sixteen miles distant.
Towards the termination of the fight 800 border
troopers, under the Prior of Coldingham (Angus?s
brother), came galloping hi, and finding the gates
and wickets closed, they beat them in with hammers;
but by that time the fray was over.
This was but a specimen of the misrule that
pervaded the whole realm till the arrival of the
Regent Albany, when the Parliament at Edinburgh
named four peers as guardians of the young king
and his infant brother, permitting the queen to name
other four. On this being adjusted, the Duke of
Albany and these peers in their robes of state,
attended by esquires and pages, proceeded to the
Castle, at the gate of which they were received by
a singular tableau of an imposing description.
The bamers were thrown open, and on the
summit of the flight of forty steps which then gave
access to them, stood the beautiful queen of that
heroic king who fell at Flodden, holding by the
hand the little James V., while a pace or two
behind her stood a noble lady, supporting in her
arms his infant brother. With real or affected
sweetness of manner she asked their errand.
? Madam,? replied the royal duke, ? we come
by the authority of Parliament to receive at your
hands our sovereign and his brother.??
Margaret Tudor stepped back a pace, and
ordered the portcullis to be lowered, and as the
grating descended slowly between her and the four
delegates, she said :-
? I hold this Castle by gift from my late husband,
