History: 

The castle rock at Edinburgh has been occupied for roughly 3,000 years so the settlement came before the castle. Because of the town the castle had to be built in order to keep the Royal family safe and the city secure. Not to mention that the city of Edinburgh is also the capital of Scotland and needed to be defended. \

Edinburgh Castle’s position allows it to overlook Edinburgh in such a way that gives it a dominating command of the surrounding area. The castle was built in 1130 by David the first to serve the Scottish King’s. It was in the hands of the Scottish until the English invaded in 1296 and laid siege to Edinburgh castle which lasted three days then had to surrender to the English. In 1314 the Scots under Robert the Bruce retook, the castle.

Twenty years later, the English retook Edinburgh; ten years later the Scots retook it. As you can see this castle was very important for the control of the town of Edinburgh. Due to the war renovations to some buildings had to be made. Since so much was changed, little of any work from before the reign of James IV survives. The castle walls depending if they face the approach to the castle can be up to six meters thick, while the walls that are face out from the castle rock tend to be less then six meters. Since this is a natural boundary there was no need to make these walls thicker.

Robert the Bruce was a famous Scottish knight he also was one of the most important knights in all of Christendom. Edward I of England claimed the Scottish crown which angered some of the Scots. When the King of France called the King of England to appear before him the English king refused and separated himself from France and declared war on the French. The Welsh rebelled against the English in September 1294. While the Scots took this time to dispose their king and elect nobles and bishops to run the country and to set up an alliance with France. The English were not happy and wanted to but an end to the alliance. In May 1297 the Scottish revolt begin in the beginning Robert Bruce was a vassal of the King of England. However Bruce wanted to rule Scotland and the King of England was the person standing in his way so during the Scottish-English war Bruce switched from the English to the Scottish, which added a welcome body of soldiers the Scottish army. After 1314 Robert Bruce was the King of Scotland and held Edinburgh and did not want to prolong the war with England. England signed the Treaty but also the English government was able to get the pope in Avignon to excommunicate Robert Bruce.

Two hundred years later Scotland was in the grip of a Queen who was forced to flee to England while her fourteenth month old son became king this sparked a Scottish civil war. The fourteenth month old son of Queen Mary was crowned king of Scotland. However many of the Scottish people wanted Mary back on the throne and were willing to fight to see that happen. The South of Scotland supported the Queen when the North raised an army of 10,000 men who did not want Queen Mary restored to the throne. In 1578 after supporters for Queen Mary of the Scots were in the Edinburgh castle, the supporters of the King of Scotland laid siege to Edinburgh Castle until the Scots received support from the English to take Edinburgh.

After 1689, Edinburgh Castle no longer saw any military action mainly because no military action went that far south in Scotland again. Today Edinburgh castle is a huge tourist site, where one can learn the history of the castle and see the royal honors of Scotland and the Stone of Scone along with the Scottish War Memorial.

Bibliography:

Scott, Ronald.: Robert the Bruce. New York: Bedrick Books, 1982

MacNalty, Arthur: Mary Queen of Scots. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co, 1961

Lynch, Michael: Oxford companion to Scottish History. New York Oxford University Press 2007.

Fry, Plantagenet: Kings and Queens of England and Scotland. New York New York D.K Publishing Inc. 2006

Magnusson, Magnus: Scotland the story of a nation. New York, Grove press, 2000.

Kaufmann J.E. & Kaufmann H.W. The Medieval Fortress. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2004.

Links:

Historic Scotland http://www.edinburghcastle.gov.uk/index.htm (accessed October 10, 2009).

Author:  Mark Esposito

URL: http://staff.kings.edu/bapavlac/knightsandcastles/sample.html Copyright MMIX by Brian A. Pavlac Last Revision: 2009 November 12