YAMES V. TO ABDICA TION OF QUEEN MAR Y. 49
he had great store of all kind of silver wark, yet nottheless, for the greater maa,,anificence,
he set forth ane cupboard furnished with all sorts of glasses of the finest chrystal that
could be made ; and to make the said patriarch understand that there was great abundance
thereof in Scotland, he caused one of his servants, as it had been by aloth and
negligence, pull down the cupboard cloth, so that all the whole christellings suddenly
were cast down to the earth and broken ; wherewith the patriarch was very sorry, but the
Earl suddeuly caused bring another cupboard, better furnished with fine chrystal nor that
was; which the patriarch praised, as well for the magnscence of the Earl, as for the
fineness of the clirystal, affirming that he never did see better in Venice, where he himself
was born.”
The legate exercised considerable influence over the Queen Dowager, and on his departure,
transferred his legatine power to Cardinal Beaton.
Meanwhile, the people were filled with the utmost joy at the prospect of a peace, the
uncertainty which had prevailed for SO many years having nearly destroyed trade. The
merchants bestirred themselves immediately with the liveliest zeal, every seaport of the
kingdom exhibited the most active symptoms of preparation for renewing the commercial
intercourse, so long interrupted with England, and Edinburgh alone fitted out twelve
large vessels, and despatched them laden with the moat valuable merchandise. But the
Cardinal soon regained his liberty; and, aided by the co-operation of the Queen Dowager
and the contributions of the clergy, who at a convocation‘ held at St Andrews, in May
of the Eame year, not only voted him money, but even the silver vessels of their churches,
he speedily overturned all the amichle arrangements with the English Monarch, and the
numerous fleets of merchantmen, that had so recently sailed for the English seaports,
were there seized, their merchandise confiscated, and the crews declared prisoners of war.
The fist use the Cardinal made of this fund, was to turn his arms against his rivals at
home. The Earl of Lennox having appropriated the larger portion of thirty thousand
crowns sent by the King of France to aid the efforts of the Catholic party, the Cardinal
persuaded the facile Regent to raise an army to proceed against him to Glasgow, where
he then lay in the Bishop’s Castle there; but Lennox immediately summoning his own
friends and vassals *to his otandard, marched to Leith at the head of an army of ten
thousand men, from whence he sent a message to the Cardinal at Edinburgh, intimating
that he desired to save him such a journey, and would be ready to meet him any day he
chose, in the fields between Edinburgh and Leith.
Thus were the nobles of Scotland divided into rival factions, and bent only on each
others, overthrow, when, on the 1st of May 1544, an armament, consisting of two hundred
sail, commanded by Dudley Lord l’Isle, then High Admiral of England, which had
been prepared by Henry to send against the French coast, made its appearance in the
Firth of Forth j and so negligent had the Cardinal proved in providing against the enemy,
whom he excited to this attack, that the first notice he had of their intentions, was the
disembarkation of the English forces, under the command of the Earl of Hertford, at
Newhaven, and the seizure of the town of Leith.’ The Cardinal immediately deserted the
capital and fled in the greatest dismay to Stirling. The Earl of Hertford demanded the
unconditional surrender of the infant Queen, and being informed that the Scottish capital
Bishop Lealie’a History of Scotland, Ban. Club, p. 179. ’ Ibid, p. 180.
Q
MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
and nation would suffer every disaster before they would submit to his ignominious
terms, he marched immediately with his whole forces upon Edinburgh. The citizens,
being taken by surprise, and altogether unprepared for resisting so formidable a force,
sent out a deputation, with Sir Adam Otterburn, the Provost, at its head, offering to
evacuate the town and deliver up the keys to the commander of the English army, on
condition that they should be permitted to carry off their effects, and that the city should
be saved from fire. But nothing would satisfy the English general but an unconditional
surrender of life and property. He made answer-That his commission extended to the
burning and laying waste the country, unless the governor would deliver the young Queen
to his master. The Provost replied-;; Then it were t5etter the city should stand on its
defence.’’
The English army entered by the Watergate
without opposition, and assaulted the Nether Bow Port, and beat it open on the second
day, with a terrible slaughter of the citizens. They immediately attempted to lay siege to
the Castle. ‘‘ Seeing no resistance, they hauled their cannons up the High Street, by force
of men, to the Butter-Trone, and above, and hazarded a shot against the fore entrie of the
Castle. But the wheel and axle-tree of one of the English cannons was broken, and some
of their men slaine by a shot of ordnance out of the Castle ; so they left that rash enterprise.”
’
Ba%led in their attempts on the fortress, they immediately proceeded to wreak their
vengeance on the city. They set it on fire in numerous quarters, and continued the work
of devastation and plunder till compelled to abandon it by the smoke and flames, as weli
as the continual firing from the Castle. They renewed the work of destruction on the following
day ; and for three successive days they returned with unabated fury to the smoking
ruins, till they had completely effected their purpose.
The Earl of Hertford then proceeded to lay waste the surrounding country with fire
and sword. Craigmillar Castle, which was surrendered on the promise of being preserved
scatheless,’ was immediately devoted to the flames. Roslyn Castle shared the same fate.
Part of the army then proceeded southward by land, burning and destroying every abbey,
town, and village, between the capital and Dunbar. The remainder of the army returned
to Leith, which they plundered and set fire to ip many places ; and then embarking their
whole force, they set sail for England.
. This disastrous event forms an important era in the history of Edinburgh ; if we except
a portion of the Castle, the churches, and the north-west wing of Holyrood Palace, no
building, anterior to this date, now exists in Edinburgh. One other building, Trinity
Hospital, the oldest part of which bore the date 1462, has been swept away by the operations
of the North British Railway, during the past year (1845), unquestionably, with the
exception of the Castle aud churches, at once the most ancient and perhaps interesting
building that Edinburgh possessed8
Such was the means adopted by Henry VIIL to secure the hand of the Scottish Queen
for his son, a method somewhat analogous to the system of wooing he practised with such
An immediate attack was thereupon made.
8 Cdderwood’s History, Wod. Soc. vol. i p, 177. ’ Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 32.
A remarkably interesting view of Edinburgh, previous to ita destruction at this period, is still preserved in the British
Museum ; a careful fac-simile of this is given in a volume of the Bannatyne Club’s Miscellany, some sccount of which win
be found in a later part of this work.
