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Mercat Cross, Edinburgh

February 12, 2023

The Mercat Cross of Edinburgh is a market cross, the structure that marks the market square of the market town of Edinburgh. It stands in Parliament Square next to St Giles' Cathedral, facing the High Street in the Old Town of Edinburgh.[1][2]

The Mercat Cross viewed from within Parliament Square looking across the Royal Mile with the pediment of Edinburgh City Chambers in the background.

Description and history

 
The location of the Cross between 1617 and 1756.

The current mercat cross is of Victorian origin, but was built close to the site occupied by the original. The Cross is first mentioned in a charter of 1365 which indicates that it stood about 45 feet (14 m) from the east end of St. Giles'.[3] In 1617, it was moved[a] to a position a few yards (metres) down the High Street now marked by "an octagonal arrangement of cobble stones"[4] (actually setts). This is the position shown on Gordon of Rothiemay's map of 1647 (see external link below).[3]

In 1756, the Cross was demolished and parts of the pillar re-erected in the grounds of Drum House, Gilmerton. A monument now stands there and on it a plaque that reads: "Erected in memory of the old Mercat Cross of Edinburgh which stood at The Drum from 1756 to 1866. This Monument was erected November 1882".[5] Five of the eight circular medallions featuring sculpted heads from the understructure of the original cross were eventually secured by Sir Walter Scott who incorporated them into the garden wall of his house at Abbotsford in the Scottish Borders.[3]

In 1866, the pieces of the cross from Drum House were reassembled on a new stepped pedestal on the east side of the north door of St Giles (that pedestal now supports the Canongate Cross).[6] Because the pillar had been broken during demolition in 1756, its height was reduced after reassembly from 19.7 to 13.9 feet (6 to 4.25 m) and its girth made thinner.[6] In 1885, it was placed on a new octagonal drum substructure at its current location, 24 feet (7.3 m) south of the original pre-1617 position.[3] This was designed by Sydney Mitchell[6] and paid for by William Gladstone, M.P. for Midlothian from 1880 to 1895,[7] whose father and grandfather hailed from Edinburgh. The sculpted heads on the original cross were replaced by the royal arms of Britain, Scotland, England and Ireland, the burgh arms of Edinburgh, Leith and the Canongate, and the arms of the University.

 
Part of the original cross-shaft in the city's Huntly House Museum

The original shaft was replaced when the Cross underwent extensive renovations in 1970. A study of the stonework, commissioned by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) and carried out in 1971, concluded that: embedded in the current structure are two pieces of an old shaft stone, that the capital belongs to the first part of the 15th century and that the unicorn is an 1869 reproduction of its predecessor on the 1617 cross based upon a description in contemporary accounts.[4]

The tympanum above the wooden studded door on the east side of the Cross bears the following Latin inscription composed by William Gladstone, in incised Gothic letters:[4][7]

DEO . GRATIAS / VETVSTVM . MONVMENTVM . CRVCEM . BVRCI / EDINENSIS . PVBLICIS . MVNERIBVS . AB . ANTIQVO . DICAM / CARMINE . TAM . EXIMIO . QVAM. VIRILI . A . SVMMO . HOMINE . GVATRO / SCOTT . ET . VINDICATAM . ET . DEFLETAM . PRAESVLIBVS / MVNICIPII . PERMISSV . REDINTEGRANDAM . CVRAVIT . GVL . E . GLADSTONE / STIRPE . ORIVNDVS . PER . VTRAMOVE . LINEAM . PENITVS . SCOTICA / A . S . MDCCCLXXXV . DIE . NOVEMBRIS . XXIV

Thanks to God. This ancient monument, the Cross of Edinburgh, which of old was set apart for public ceremonies, having been utterly destroyed by a misguided hand A.D. MDCCLVI, and having been avenged as well as lamented, in song alike noble and manful, by that great man Walter Scott, has now, by favour of the Magistrates of the City, been restored by William Ewart Gladstone, who claims through both his parents a purely Scottish descent. [24th] November 1885.[8]

Proclamations, burnings and punishments

 
Royal Unicorn on the Cross

As elsewhere in Scotland, important civic announcements were made at the mercat cross. In Edinburgh, royal and parliamentary proclamations that affected all of Scotland were publicly read. The practice of announcing successions to the monarchy and the calling of parliamentary general elections is continued to this day by heralds of the Lord Lyon King of Arms.

Legend has it that in 1513 while the artillery was being prepared in Edinburgh before the Battle of Flodden, which resulted in a Scottish defeat, a demon called Plotcock read out the names of those who would be killed at the Mercat Cross. According to Pitscottie, a former Provost of Edinburgh, Richard Lawson, who lived nearby, threw a coin at the Cross to appeal against this summons and survived the battle.[9]

The Protestant reformer John Knox relates that for one hour and four hours on two separate days in 1565 Sir James Tarbet was tied to the Cross and pelted with eggs for saying the Mass, which had been banned by the Scottish Parliament five years previously.[10]

After the surrender of the "Queen's Men" ended the "Lang Siege" of Edinburgh Castle William Kirkcaldy of Grange, his brother James and the two jewellers Mossman and Cokke, who had been minting coins in the Queen's name inside the castle, were hanged at the Cross on 3 August 1573.[11]

It is also recorded that, "Upon 2d day of December, 1584, a baxter's boy [baker's apprentice] called Robert Henderson, (no doubt, by the instigation of Satan) desperately put some powder and a candle in his father's heather-stack, standing in a close opposite to the trone of Edinburgh, and burnt the same with his fathers house, which lay next adjacent, to the imminent hazard of burning the whole town: For which, being apprehended most marvellously after his escaping out of the town, he was on the next day burnt quick [alive, not strangled first] at the cross of Edinburgh, as an example".[12]

 
The 'Maiden', used for beheadings in 16th and 17thC Edinburgh

In 1591, John Dickson, convicted of parricide, was "broken upoun the row [wheel]" at the Cross. This is one of only two recorded instances of this brutal form of punishment being used in Scotland, the other having also occurred at the Cross. Jean Livingstoun of Dunipace, the wife of John Kincaid, Laird of Warriston had, with the connivance of her nurse, hired Robert Weir, one of her father's servants and her reputed lover, to murder her husband, which he did by strangling him in the night. Thanks to the intercession of her kinspeople, on 5 July 1600 Lady Warriston was granted the privilege of being beheaded by the Maiden at Girth-Cross rather than executed by one of the more usual methods for females, namely drowning or strangling before burning.[b] The nurse was burnt on the same day her mistress was beheaded. Four years later, in 1604, Weir was apprehended, tried and condemned to be "broken on ane cart wheel with ane coulter of ane pleughe in the hand of the hangman" next to the Mercat Cross.[13][14]

In 1600, after the failure of the Gowrie conspiracy the corpses of John, Earl of Gowrie and his brother Alexander Ruthven were hanged and quartered at the Mercat Cross,[15] their heads were put on spikes at Edinburgh's Old Tolbooth and their limbs upon spikes at various locations around Perth.[16]

Alastair MacGregor of Glen Strae, chief of the outlawed Clan Gregor was executed at the Cross along with eleven of his kinsmen in January 1604. A contemporary recorded that "Himself being Chieff, he wes hangit his awin hicht aboune [own height above] the rest of hes freindis".[17]

Six days after the execution of King Charles I, the Scottish Estates proclaimed his son Charles II at the Cross on 5 February 1649, thus directly challenging the English Parliament's acceptance of the Commonwealth.[18][c] The Cross was the place of execution of the Royalist leaders George Gordon, 2nd Marquis of Huntly on 22 March 1649 and James Graham, 1st Marquis of Montrose on 21 May 1650.[19] Five of Montrose's close supporters were also beheaded there shortly thereafter.[20]

Following occupation by the English Parliamentary Army, the proposal to incorporate Scotland into the Commonwealth was proclaimed at the Cross on 4 February 1652, followed three days later by the symbolic act of hauling down the King's Arms and ceremonially hanging them on the public gallows.[21] In May 1654, General George Monck, the English Military Governor of Scotland, was present for the reading of two proclamations delivered at the Cross, the first declaring Oliver Cromwell to be the Protector of England Ireland and Scotland, and the second confirming Scotland's union with the Commonwealth of England.[22] This union ended with the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

 
Doorway of the reconstructed Mercat Cross of 1885

Soon after the Restoration four men were condemned to death for high treason and executed at the Cross: Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquis of Argyll was beheaded by the Maiden on 27 May 1661; James Guthrie and Captain William Govan were hanged on 1 June 1661; and Archibald Johnston, Lord Warriston was hanged on 22 July 1663.[23] Guthrie's The Causes of the Lord's Wrath and Samuel Rutherford's Lex, Rex, regarded by the Monarchy as dangerously seditious tracts, had been burned at the Cross by the common hangman in 1660.[24]

In June 1679, two Presbyterian ministers, John King and John Kidd, captured at Bothwell Brig, were executed for taking part in the battle.[25] On 30 July 1680, David Hackston a militant Scottish Covenanter, remembered mainly for his part in the murder of Archbishop James Sharp of St. Andrews, was hanged, drawn and quartered at the Cross (although this was the standard punishment for high treason in England it was very unusual in Scotland).[26] The Solemn League and Covenant was burned in 1682 during the period known as "The Killing Time".[27]

The Marquis of Argyll's son Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll was executed at the Cross on 30 June 1685 for attempting to instigate a rising in Scotland to coincide with the Monmouth Rebellion.[28]

On 10 December 1688, a mob, having broken into the private chapel of King James VII at Holyrood Abbey and torn down the woodwork, carried it to the Cross where it was burned along with an effigy of the Pope.[29]

In July 1725, amidst the Malt Tax Riots, Robert Dundas's The Petition of the several Brewars in and about Edinburgh under subscribing (Edinburgh: n.p., 1725) was brought to the Cross to be read aloud.[30]

On 18 September 1745, the "Young Pretender" Charles Edward Stuart had his father proclaimed King James VIII of Scotland and himself Regent at the Cross. According to Robert Chambers in his History of the Rebellion of 1745, "The ladies, who viewed the scene from their lofty lattices in the High Street, strained their voices in acclamation, and waved white handkerchiefs in honour of the day",[31] but another history claims that "few gentlemen were, however, to be seen in the streets or at the windows, and even among the common people, there were not a few who preserved a stubborn silence".[32] Following the Prince's defeat the following year at Culloden, the Jacobite colours captured in the battle were ceremoniously burned at the Cross.[33]

Since the 1707 Acts of Union, the dissolution of parliaments and the death of monarchs have been proclaimed from the Mercat Cross. In 2015 and 2017, Dr Joseph Morrow, the Lord Lyon, proclaimed the dissolution of the UK Parliament ahead of general elections. In September 2022, Dr Morrow read a proclamation stating that Charles III had become King following the death of his mother, Elizabeth II.[34][35]

The Mercat Cross medallions at Abbotsford

The middle photo shows the Edinburgh Burgh Arms. The heads have never been identified.

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See also

Notes

  1. ^ "it being considered necessary by the magistrates to widen the street upon the occasion of the visit of King James the Sixth to his native country, which took place during the month of May this same year" (Drummond 1861, p. 21 cites Calderwood).
  2. ^ "Girth-Crosse—so called from having once stood at the foot of the Cannongate, near the Girth or sanctuary of Holyrood-house" (Kinloch 1827, p. 52).
  3. ^ Charles was proclaimed King of Great Britain, France and Ireland. This was seen as a direct challenge to the English Commonwealth as the Scots could have proclaimed him King of the Scots and left the other claims in abeyance pending negotiations (Ferguson 1977, p. 135).
  1. ^ EWH staff 2012.
  2. ^ EWH staff 2012a.
  3. ^ a b c d RCAHMS 1951, p. 121.
  4. ^ a b c RCAHMS staff 2012.
  5. ^ BLB staff 2012.
  6. ^ a b c Gifford, McWilliam & Walker 1984, p. 183.
  7. ^ a b Good Stuff IT Services 2007.
  8. ^ Arnold 1885, p. [page needed].
  9. ^ Aeneas Mackay, Historie and Cronicles of Scotland, by Robert Lindesay of Pitscottie, vol. 1 (STS: Edinburgh, 1899), p. 260: MacDougall, Norman, James IV (Tuckwell: East Linton, 1997), p. 265.
  10. ^ Knox 1831, p. 323.
  11. ^ After his hanging Kirkcaldy's corpse was beheaded and quartered (Potter 2003, p. 146).
  12. ^ McKean 1991, p. 19 (The original source is David Moyses, Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland from 1577 till 1603, Bannatyne Club, 1830).
  13. ^ Maxwell 1916, pp. 302–303.
  14. ^ Kinloch 1827, p. 51.
  15. ^ Henderson 1897, p. 19.
  16. ^ Juhala 2004.
  17. ^ Bryce 1918, pp. 88–89.
  18. ^ Maxwell 1916, p. 170.
  19. ^ Tranter 2012, p. 188.
  20. ^ Nicoll 1836, pp. 14–16.
  21. ^ Lynch 2000, p. 283.
  22. ^ Schultz 2010.
  23. ^ Fry 2011, p. 66.
  24. ^ Wood 1940, pp. 217–218.
  25. ^ Daiches 1978, p. 79.
  26. ^ Thomson 1871, p. 39.
  27. ^ Geddie 1929, p. 38.
  28. ^ Maxwell 1916, p. 173.
  29. ^ Daiches 1978, p. 84.
  30. ^ "The manuscripts, Letter from Andrew Millar to Robert Wodrow, 10 August, 1725. Andrew Millar Project. University of Edinburgh". millar-project.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  31. ^ Chambers 1869, p. 105 cite Home's, Works, vol. iii, p. 72
  32. ^ Maclauchlan et al., p. 551 cites Home's, Rebellion, p. 102
  33. ^ Military Illustrated, 1991, pp. 39–45
  34. ^ Hannan, Martin (5 May 2017). "Crowd gathers to hear the dissolution of UK Parliament". The National. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  35. ^ Stephen, Phyllis (11 September 2022). "Edinburgh – The Proclamation is read from the Mercat Cross". The Edinburgh Reporter. Retrieved 12 September 2022.

References

  • Arnold, Thomas (1885), History of the Cross of Edinburgh commonly called the Mercat Cross, Edinburgh: William Paterson
  • BLB staff (2012), Gilmerton, the Drum, Mercat Cross, Edinburgh, British Listed Buildings, retrieved 9 December 2012
  • Bryce, W Moir (1918), The Burgh Muir Of Edinburgh From The Records in The Book Of The Old Edinburgh Club, vol. X, Edinburgh, pp. 88–89
  • Chambers, Robert (1869), A History of the Rebellion of 1745, Edinburgh, p. 105
  • Daiches, D (1978), Edinburgh, London
  • Drummond, James (1861), Scottish Market Crosses, Edinburgh, p. 21
  • EWH staff (2012), A sense of place, Edinburgh World Heritage, retrieved 7 September 2013
  • EWH staff (2012a), , Edinburgh World Heritage, archived from the original on 2 October 2011, retrieved 9 December 2012
  • Fry, Michael (2011), Edinburgh, Pan Macmillan, p. 66, ISBN 9780330539975
  • Ferguson, William (1977), Scotland's Relations with England: A Survey to 1707 (reprint ed.), The Saltire Society, p. 135, ISBN 9780854110582
  • Geddie, J (1929), Romantic Edinburgh, London: Sands & Co., p. 38
  • Gifford; McWilliam; Walker (1984), The Buildings Of Scotland, Edinburgh: Penguin
  • Good Stuff IT Services (August 2007), High Street, Mercat Cross - City of Edinburgh - Scotland, British Listed Buildings, retrieved 26 December 2012
  • Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1897), "Ruthven, John" , in Lee, Sidney (ed.), Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 50, London: Smith, Elder & Co, pp. 15–20
  • Juhala, Amy L. (2004), "Ruthven, John, third earl of Gowrie (1577/8–1600)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.), Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24371 (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  • Kinloch, George Ritchie (1827), Ancient Scottish ballads: recovered from tradition and never before published ; with notes, historical and explanatory ; and an appendix containing the airs of several of the ballads, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, pp. 51, 52
  • Knox, John (1831), The History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland, Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton and Company, p. 323
  • Lynch, M (2000), Scotland, A New History, London: Pimlico, p. 283, ISBN 0-7126-9893-0
  • Maclauchlan, Thomas; Wilson, John; Melven, William; Keltie, John Scott, Sir (c. 1882), History of the Scottish Highlands: Highland clans and Highland regiments, with an account of the Gaelic language, literature, and music, vol. 2, New York: J. A. Penman, p. 551
  • Maxwell, H (1916), Edinburgh, London: Williams & Norgate, pp. 170, 173, 302–303
  • McKean, C (1991), Edinburgh, Portrait Of A City, London: Century Ltd., p. 19
  • Nicoll, J (1836), A Diary Of Public Transactions And Other Occurrences Chiefly in Scotland, From January 1650 To June 1667, Edinburgh, pp. 14–16
  • Potter, H (2003), Edinburgh Under Siege 1571-1573, Stroud: Tempus, p. 146, ISBN 0-7524-2332-0
  • RCAHMS, (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland) (1951), Inventory Of The Ancient And Historical Monuments Of The City Of Edinburgh, HMSO, p. 121
  • RCAHMS staff (2012), Mercat Cross (Canmore ID 52546, Site Number NT27SE 8 25771 73597), Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monument of Scotland, retrieved 9 December 2012
  • Schultz, Oleg, ed. (14 March 2010), Scotland and the Commonwealth: 1651-1660, Archontology, retrieved 26 December 2012
  • Thomson, John Henderson, ed. (1871), A cloud of witnesses, for the royal prerogatives of Jesus Christ: or, The last speeches and testimonies of those who have suffered for the truth in Scotland, since 1680, Edinburgh: Johnston Hunter and Company, p. 39
  • Tranter, Nigel G. (2012), The Story of Scotland (reprint ed.), Neil Wilson Publishing, p. 188, ISBN 9781906476694
  • Wood, Marguerite, ed. (1940), Extracts From The Records Of The Burgh Of Edinburgh, Oliver And Boyd, pp. 217–218

External links

  • The Edinburgh Cross from Gordon of Rothiemay's map (1647)
  • The Edinburgh Cross as a place of public punishment, retrieved 26 December 2012
  • Proclamation at the Cross in 1906 at Edinphoto

Coordinates: 55°56′59″N 3°11′25″W / 55.94965°N 3.19020°W / 55.94965; -3.19020

February 12, 2023
mercat, cross, edinburgh, mercat, cross, edinburgh, market, cross, structure, that, marks, market, square, market, town, edinburgh, stands, parliament, square, next, giles, cathedral, facing, high, street, town, edinburgh, mercat, cross, viewed, from, within, . The Mercat Cross of Edinburgh is a market cross the structure that marks the market square of the market town of Edinburgh It stands in Parliament Square next to St Giles Cathedral facing the High Street in the Old Town of Edinburgh 1 2 The Mercat Cross viewed from within Parliament Square looking across the Royal Mile with the pediment of Edinburgh City Chambers in the background Contents 1 Description and history 2 Proclamations burnings and punishments 3 The Mercat Cross medallions at Abbotsford 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 External linksDescription and history Edit The location of the Cross between 1617 and 1756 The current mercat cross is of Victorian origin but was built close to the site occupied by the original The Cross is first mentioned in a charter of 1365 which indicates that it stood about 45 feet 14 m from the east end of St Giles 3 In 1617 it was moved a to a position a few yards metres down the High Street now marked by an octagonal arrangement of cobble stones 4 actually setts This is the position shown on Gordon of Rothiemay s map of 1647 see external link below 3 In 1756 the Cross was demolished and parts of the pillar re erected in the grounds of Drum House Gilmerton A monument now stands there and on it a plaque that reads Erected in memory of the old Mercat Cross of Edinburgh which stood at The Drum from 1756 to 1866 This Monument was erected November 1882 5 Five of the eight circular medallions featuring sculpted heads from the understructure of the original cross were eventually secured by Sir Walter Scott who incorporated them into the garden wall of his house at Abbotsford in the Scottish Borders 3 In 1866 the pieces of the cross from Drum House were reassembled on a new stepped pedestal on the east side of the north door of St Giles that pedestal now supports the Canongate Cross 6 Because the pillar had been broken during demolition in 1756 its height was reduced after reassembly from 19 7 to 13 9 feet 6 to 4 25 m and its girth made thinner 6 In 1885 it was placed on a new octagonal drum substructure at its current location 24 feet 7 3 m south of the original pre 1617 position 3 This was designed by Sydney Mitchell 6 and paid for by William Gladstone M P for Midlothian from 1880 to 1895 7 whose father and grandfather hailed from Edinburgh The sculpted heads on the original cross were replaced by the royal arms of Britain Scotland England and Ireland the burgh arms of Edinburgh Leith and the Canongate and the arms of the University Part of the original cross shaft in the city s Huntly House Museum The original shaft was replaced when the Cross underwent extensive renovations in 1970 A study of the stonework commissioned by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland RCAHMS and carried out in 1971 concluded that embedded in the current structure are two pieces of an old shaft stone that the capital belongs to the first part of the 15th century and that the unicorn is an 1869 reproduction of its predecessor on the 1617 cross based upon a description in contemporary accounts 4 The tympanum above the wooden studded door on the east side of the Cross bears the following Latin inscription composed by William Gladstone in incised Gothic letters 4 7 DEO GRATIAS VETVSTVM MONVMENTVM CRVCEM BVRCI EDINENSIS PVBLICIS MVNERIBVS AB ANTIQVO DICAM CARMINE TAM EXIMIO QVAM VIRILI A SVMMO HOMINE GVATRO SCOTT ET VINDICATAM ET DEFLETAM PRAESVLIBVS MVNICIPII PERMISSV REDINTEGRANDAM CVRAVIT GVL E GLADSTONE STIRPE ORIVNDVS PER VTRAMOVE LINEAM PENITVS SCOTICA A S MDCCCLXXXV DIE NOVEMBRIS XXIV Thanks to God This ancient monument the Cross of Edinburgh which of old was set apart for public ceremonies having been utterly destroyed by a misguided hand A D MDCCLVI and having been avenged as well as lamented in song alike noble and manful by that great man Walter Scott has now by favour of the Magistrates of the City been restored by William Ewart Gladstone who claims through both his parents a purely Scottish descent 24th November 1885 8 Proclamations burnings and punishments Edit Royal Unicorn on the Cross As elsewhere in Scotland important civic announcements were made at the mercat cross In Edinburgh royal and parliamentary proclamations that affected all of Scotland were publicly read The practice of announcing successions to the monarchy and the calling of parliamentary general elections is continued to this day by heralds of the Lord Lyon King of Arms Legend has it that in 1513 while the artillery was being prepared in Edinburgh before the Battle of Flodden which resulted in a Scottish defeat a demon called Plotcock read out the names of those who would be killed at the Mercat Cross According to Pitscottie a former Provost of Edinburgh Richard Lawson who lived nearby threw a coin at the Cross to appeal against this summons and survived the battle 9 The Protestant reformer John Knox relates that for one hour and four hours on two separate days in 1565 Sir James Tarbet was tied to the Cross and pelted with eggs for saying the Mass which had been banned by the Scottish Parliament five years previously 10 After the surrender of the Queen s Men ended the Lang Siege of Edinburgh Castle William Kirkcaldy of Grange his brother James and the two jewellers Mossman and Cokke who had been minting coins in the Queen s name inside the castle were hanged at the Cross on 3 August 1573 11 It is also recorded that Upon 2d day of December 1584 a baxter s boy baker s apprentice called Robert Henderson no doubt by the instigation of Satan desperately put some powder and a candle in his father s heather stack standing in a close opposite to the trone of Edinburgh and burnt the same with his fathers house which lay next adjacent to the imminent hazard of burning the whole town For which being apprehended most marvellously after his escaping out of the town he was on the next day burnt quick alive not strangled first at the cross of Edinburgh as an example 12 The Maiden used for beheadings in 16th and 17thC Edinburgh In 1591 John Dickson convicted of parricide was broken upoun the row wheel at the Cross This is one of only two recorded instances of this brutal form of punishment being used in Scotland the other having also occurred at the Cross Jean Livingstoun of Dunipace the wife of John Kincaid Laird of Warriston had with the connivance of her nurse hired Robert Weir one of her father s servants and her reputed lover to murder her husband which he did by strangling him in the night Thanks to the intercession of her kinspeople on 5 July 1600 Lady Warriston was granted the privilege of being beheaded by the Maiden at Girth Cross rather than executed by one of the more usual methods for females namely drowning or strangling before burning b The nurse was burnt on the same day her mistress was beheaded Four years later in 1604 Weir was apprehended tried and condemned to be broken on ane cart wheel with ane coulter of ane pleughe in the hand of the hangman next to the Mercat Cross 13 14 In 1600 after the failure of the Gowrie conspiracy the corpses of John Earl of Gowrie and his brother Alexander Ruthven were hanged and quartered at the Mercat Cross 15 their heads were put on spikes at Edinburgh s Old Tolbooth and their limbs upon spikes at various locations around Perth 16 Alastair MacGregor of Glen Strae chief of the outlawed Clan Gregor was executed at the Cross along with eleven of his kinsmen in January 1604 A contemporary recorded that Himself being Chieff he wes hangit his awin hicht aboune own height above the rest of hes freindis 17 Six days after the execution of King Charles I the Scottish Estates proclaimed his son Charles II at the Cross on 5 February 1649 thus directly challenging the English Parliament s acceptance of the Commonwealth 18 c The Cross was the place of execution of the Royalist leaders George Gordon 2nd Marquis of Huntly on 22 March 1649 and James Graham 1st Marquis of Montrose on 21 May 1650 19 Five of Montrose s close supporters were also beheaded there shortly thereafter 20 Following occupation by the English Parliamentary Army the proposal to incorporate Scotland into the Commonwealth was proclaimed at the Cross on 4 February 1652 followed three days later by the symbolic act of hauling down the King s Arms and ceremonially hanging them on the public gallows 21 In May 1654 General George Monck the English Military Governor of Scotland was present for the reading of two proclamations delivered at the Cross the first declaring Oliver Cromwell to be the Protector of England Ireland and Scotland and the second confirming Scotland s union with the Commonwealth of England 22 This union ended with the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 Doorway of the reconstructed Mercat Cross of 1885 Soon after the Restoration four men were condemned to death for high treason and executed at the Cross Archibald Campbell 1st Marquis of Argyll was beheaded by the Maiden on 27 May 1661 James Guthrie and Captain William Govan were hanged on 1 June 1661 and Archibald Johnston Lord Warriston was hanged on 22 July 1663 23 Guthrie s The Causes of the Lord s Wrath and Samuel Rutherford s Lex Rex regarded by the Monarchy as dangerously seditious tracts had been burned at the Cross by the common hangman in 1660 24 In June 1679 two Presbyterian ministers John King and John Kidd captured at Bothwell Brig were executed for taking part in the battle 25 On 30 July 1680 David Hackston a militant Scottish Covenanter remembered mainly for his part in the murder of Archbishop James Sharp of St Andrews was hanged drawn and quartered at the Cross although this was the standard punishment for high treason in England it was very unusual in Scotland 26 The Solemn League and Covenant was burned in 1682 during the period known as The Killing Time 27 The Marquis of Argyll s son Archibald Campbell 9th Earl of Argyll was executed at the Cross on 30 June 1685 for attempting to instigate a rising in Scotland to coincide with the Monmouth Rebellion 28 On 10 December 1688 a mob having broken into the private chapel of King James VII at Holyrood Abbey and torn down the woodwork carried it to the Cross where it was burned along with an effigy of the Pope 29 In July 1725 amidst the Malt Tax Riots Robert Dundas s The Petition of the several Brewars in and about Edinburgh under subscribing Edinburgh n p 1725 was brought to the Cross to be read aloud 30 On 18 September 1745 the Young Pretender Charles Edward Stuart had his father proclaimed King James VIII of Scotland and himself Regent at the Cross According to Robert Chambers in his History of the Rebellion of 1745 The ladies who viewed the scene from their lofty lattices in the High Street strained their voices in acclamation and waved white handkerchiefs in honour of the day 31 but another history claims that few gentlemen were however to be seen in the streets or at the windows and even among the common people there were not a few who preserved a stubborn silence 32 Following the Prince s defeat the following year at Culloden the Jacobite colours captured in the battle were ceremoniously burned at the Cross 33 Since the 1707 Acts of Union the dissolution of parliaments and the death of monarchs have been proclaimed from the Mercat Cross In 2015 and 2017 Dr Joseph Morrow the Lord Lyon proclaimed the dissolution of the UK Parliament ahead of general elections In September 2022 Dr Morrow read a proclamation stating that Charles III had become King following the death of his mother Elizabeth II 34 35 The Mercat Cross medallions at Abbotsford EditThe middle photo shows the Edinburgh Burgh Arms The heads have never been identified See also EditJohn Amyatt Peter Williamson s Penny Post Notes Edit it being considered necessary by the magistrates to widen the street upon the occasion of the visit of King James the Sixth to his native country which took place during the month of May this same year Drummond 1861 p 21 cites Calderwood Girth Crosse so called from having once stood at the foot of the Cannongate near the Girth or sanctuary of Holyrood house Kinloch 1827 p 52 Charles was proclaimed King of Great Britain France and Ireland This was seen as a direct challenge to the English Commonwealth as the Scots could have proclaimed him King of the Scots and left the other claims in abeyance pending negotiations Ferguson 1977 p 135 EWH staff 2012 EWH staff 2012a a b c d RCAHMS 1951 p 121 a b c RCAHMS staff 2012 BLB staff 2012 a b c Gifford McWilliam amp Walker 1984 p 183 a b Good Stuff IT Services 2007 Arnold 1885 p page needed Aeneas Mackay Historie and Cronicles of Scotland by Robert Lindesay of Pitscottie vol 1 STS Edinburgh 1899 p 260 MacDougall Norman James IV Tuckwell East Linton 1997 p 265 Knox 1831 p 323 After his hanging Kirkcaldy s corpse was beheaded and quartered Potter 2003 p 146 McKean 1991 p 19 The original source is David Moyses Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland from 1577 till 1603 Bannatyne Club 1830 Maxwell 1916 pp 302 303 Kinloch 1827 p 51 Henderson 1897 p 19 Juhala 2004 Bryce 1918 pp 88 89 Maxwell 1916 p 170 Tranter 2012 p 188 Nicoll 1836 pp 14 16 Lynch 2000 p 283 Schultz 2010 Fry 2011 p 66 Wood 1940 pp 217 218 Daiches 1978 p 79 Thomson 1871 p 39 Geddie 1929 p 38 Maxwell 1916 p 173 Daiches 1978 p 84 The manuscripts Letter from Andrew Millar to Robert Wodrow 10 August 1725 Andrew Millar Project University of Edinburgh millar project ed ac uk Retrieved 3 June 2016 Chambers 1869 p 105 cite Home s Works vol iii p 72 Maclauchlan et al p 551harvnb error no target CITEREFMaclauchlanWilsonMelvenKeltie help cites Home s Rebellion p 102 Military Illustrated 1991 pp 39 45 Hannan Martin 5 May 2017 Crowd gathers to hear the dissolution of UK Parliament The National Retrieved 12 September 2022 Stephen Phyllis 11 September 2022 Edinburgh The Proclamation is read from the Mercat Cross The Edinburgh Reporter Retrieved 12 September 2022 References EditArnold Thomas 1885 History of the Cross of Edinburgh commonly called the Mercat Cross Edinburgh William Paterson BLB staff 2012 Gilmerton the Drum Mercat Cross Edinburgh British Listed Buildings retrieved 9 December 2012 Bryce W Moir 1918 The Burgh Muir Of Edinburgh From The Records in The Book Of The Old Edinburgh Club vol X Edinburgh pp 88 89 Chambers Robert 1869 A History of the Rebellion of 1745 Edinburgh p 105 Daiches D 1978 Edinburgh London Drummond James 1861 Scottish Market Crosses Edinburgh p 21 EWH staff 2012 A sense of place Edinburgh World Heritage retrieved 7 September 2013 EWH staff 2012a Parliament Square Edinburgh World Heritage archived from the original on 2 October 2011 retrieved 9 December 2012 Fry Michael 2011 Edinburgh Pan Macmillan p 66 ISBN 9780330539975 Ferguson William 1977 Scotland s Relations with England A Survey to 1707 reprint ed The Saltire Society p 135 ISBN 9780854110582 Geddie J 1929 Romantic Edinburgh London Sands amp Co p 38 Gifford McWilliam Walker 1984 The Buildings Of Scotland Edinburgh Penguin Good Stuff IT Services August 2007 High Street Mercat Cross City of Edinburgh Scotland British Listed Buildings retrieved 26 December 2012 Henderson Thomas Finlayson 1897 Ruthven John in Lee Sidney ed Dictionary of National Biography vol 50 London Smith Elder amp Co pp 15 20 Juhala Amy L 2004 Ruthven John third earl of Gowrie 1577 8 1600 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online ed Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 ref odnb 24371 Subscription or UK public library membership required Kinloch George Ritchie 1827 Ancient Scottish ballads recovered from tradition and never before published with notes historical and explanatory and an appendix containing the airs of several of the ballads Longman Rees Orme Brown amp Green pp 51 52 Knox John 1831 The History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland Glasgow Blackie Fullarton and Company p 323 Lynch M 2000 Scotland A New History London Pimlico p 283 ISBN 0 7126 9893 0 Maclauchlan Thomas Wilson John Melven William Keltie John Scott Sir c 1882 History of the Scottish Highlands Highland clans and Highland regiments with an account of the Gaelic language literature and music vol 2 New York J A Penman p 551 Maxwell H 1916 Edinburgh London Williams amp Norgate pp 170 173 302 303 McKean C 1991 Edinburgh Portrait Of A City London Century Ltd p 19 Nicoll J 1836 A Diary Of Public Transactions And Other Occurrences Chiefly in Scotland From January 1650 To June 1667 Edinburgh pp 14 16 Potter H 2003 Edinburgh Under Siege 1571 1573 Stroud Tempus p 146 ISBN 0 7524 2332 0 RCAHMS Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland 1951 Inventory Of The Ancient And Historical Monuments Of The City Of Edinburgh HMSO p 121 RCAHMS staff 2012 Mercat Cross Canmore ID 52546 Site Number NT27SE 8 25771 73597 Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monument of Scotland retrieved 9 December 2012 Schultz Oleg ed 14 March 2010 Scotland and the Commonwealth 1651 1660 Archontology retrieved 26 December 2012 Thomson John Henderson ed 1871 A cloud of witnesses for the royal prerogatives of Jesus Christ or The last speeches and testimonies of those who have suffered for the truth in Scotland since 1680 Edinburgh Johnston Hunter and Company p 39 Tranter Nigel G 2012 The Story of Scotland reprint ed Neil Wilson Publishing p 188 ISBN 9781906476694 Wood Marguerite ed 1940 Extracts From The Records Of The Burgh Of Edinburgh Oliver And Boyd pp 217 218External links EditThe Edinburgh Cross from Gordon of Rothiemay s map 1647 The Edinburgh Cross as a place of public punishment retrieved 26 December 2012 Proclamation at the Cross in 1906 at Edinphoto Coordinates 55 56 59 N 3 11 25 W 55 94965 N 3 19020 W 55 94965 3 19020 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Mercat Cross Edinburgh amp oldid 1128333835, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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