444 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
46 Henry VI. with his Queen, his heir, and the chiefs of his family, fled to Scotland after the fatal Battle of
Towton. In this note a doubt was formerly expressed, whether Henry VI. came to Edinburgh, though his
Queen certainly did ; Mr Pinkerton inclining to believe that he remained at Kirkcudbright. But my noble
friend Lord Napier has pointed out to me a grant by Henry of an annuity of forty marks to his Lordship’s
ancestor, John Napier, subscribed by the King bimself at Edinburgh, the 28th day of August, in the thirtyninth
year of his reign, which corresponds to the year of God, 1461. This grant, Douglas, with hies usual
neglect of accuracy, dates in 1368. But this emr being corrected from the copy in Macfarlane’s MSS. pp. 119,
120, removes all scepticism on the subject of Henry VI. being really at Edinburgh. John Napier was son and
heir of Sir Alexander Napier, and about this time was Provost of Edinburgh. The hospitable reception of the
distressed monarch and his family called forth on Scotland the encomium of Molinet, a contemporary poet.
The English people, he say$-
Ung nouveau roj crhrent,
Par despiteux vouloir,
Le vieil en debouthent,
Et aon legitime hoir,
Qui fugtyf alla prendre
D’ESCOEleS g~a rand.
De tous sieclea le mendre,
Et le plus tollerant.’”-RecoUectim des Awanturea.
No such doubt8 seem to have been entertained by earlier writers on the question ‘of Henry’s entertainment
at Edinburgh. The author of the Martial Achievements remarks,in his Life of James 111. (Abercombie’s
Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 384) :-‘A battle ensued between Caxton and Towton, King Edward gained
the day, and King Henry, hearing of the event (for he waa not allowed to be at the battle, his presence being
thought fatal to either of the parties that had it), hastened with his wife and only 80% first to Berwick, where
be left the Duke of Somerset, and then to Edinburgh, where he was received with uncommon civility, being
honourably lodged and royally entertained by the joint consent of the then Regents.”
The same writer, after detailing various negotiations, and the final agreement entered into, between Henry
and the administrators of Government in Scotland, James 111. being then a minor, adds :-<( Thpe transactions
being completed, the indefatigable Queen of England left the King, her husband, at his lodgings in the Grey-
Frierspf Edinburgh, where hi3 own inclinations to devotion and solitude made him choose to reside, and went
with her son into France.”--(Ibid, p. 386.)
XV. THE WHITEFRIARS’ MONASTERY.
Tsnfollowing curious fact, relating to the Monastery of the Carmelite Friars, founded at Qreenside, under the
Calton Hill, in the year 1526, is appended in the form of a note to the description of this monastic order, in the
third part of I‘ Lectures on the,Xeligioues ‘Antiquitsees of Edinburgh, by a Member of the Holy Guild of St
Joseph” @. 129), and is stated, we have reason to believe, on the authority of a well-known Scottish
antiquary :-
I( The humble brother of our Holy Quild who is now engaged in an endeavour to form a dloaadicon ~ C O &
canurn, informsme, onundoubted anthority, that the succession of the Priors of Greenside is still perpetuated in
bhe Carmelite Convent at Rome, and his informant has Been the friar who bore the title of I! PacZre Prwre
di Greemide.”
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