CHAPTER 11.
FROM THE ACCESSION OF THE STUARTS TO THE
DEATH OF YAMES III.
cession of Robert IL, the first of the
Stuarts, a new era begins in the history of Edinburgh.
From that time may be dated its standing
as the chief burgh of Scotland, though it did not
assume the full benefits arising from such a position
till the second James ascended the throne. It
may, indeed, be emphatically termed. the capital
of the Stuarts; it rose into importance with their
increasing glory ; it shared in all their triumphs ; it suffered in their disasters ; and with
the extinction of their line, it seemed to sink from its proud position among the capitals
of Europe, and to mourn the vanished glories in which it had taken so prominent a part.
The ancient Chapel of Eolyrood, neglected and forgotten by their tmccessors, was left to
tumble into ruins ; and grass grew on the unfrequented precincts of the Palace, where the
Jameses had held high court and festival; and the lovely but unfortunate Mary Stuart
had basked in the brief splendour of her first welcome to the halls of her fathers; and
endured the assaults of the rude barons and reformera, with whom she waged so unequal
a contest.
During the reigns of the earlier Stuarts, the relative positions of Scotland and England
continued to preserve more of the character of an armistice in time of war, than m y
approach to settled peace; and in the constant incursions which ensued, Edinburgh ex-
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