Edinburgh by Michael Fry

Author:Michael Fry [Fry, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780330539975
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

Edinburgh’s culture might have carried on into such cosy provinciality except for a last great political upheaval: in the autumn of 1745 Prince Charles Edward Stewart and his Jacobite army occupied the city. After a hazardous voyage from France the prince had landed almost alone in the Highlands, but loyal clans flocked to his standard. He marched on Edinburgh and, as he approached, sent the town councillors a demand for surrender. He couched it with care. He commanded them to fling wide their gates to him, promising to preserve their rights and liberties. If, on the other hand, there was any opposition he would not be answerable for the consequences; the unspoken alternative to surrender was storm and sack.

Sir John Cope, the British government’s commander in Scotland, was with most of his troops in the north trying to contain the rebellion there. Prince Charles had just evaded him. Now, as Cope shipped his force back from Aberdeen, a single regiment remained in the capital. It was deployed at Coltbridge (today Roseburn), the hamlet where the main road from the west crossed the Water of Leith. Officers were discussing tactics when they heard savage yells in the open country beyond – from Jacobites, they assumed. People had come down from the city to look. They stared amazed as the soldiers abandoned their position and moved off to encamp for the night on Leith Links. The ‘Canter of Coltbrigg’ showed that the British army was not going to make a stand before Edinburgh.

The capital could then be taken by a ruse on 16 September. While the main body of Jacobites waited at the western approach, Prince Charles sent a Highland chief, Donald Cameron of Lochiel, with 800 men round to the east after dark. Occupying a position outside the Netherbow Port, they had only to await their chance. Somebody was fool enough to open the gate and let out a coach. The clansmen rushed in. With bloodcurdling cries they ran up the High Street to the guardhouse. Edinburgh fell.

The clansmen’s behaviour was afterwards restrained and disciplined. Prince Charles meant to impress on the people that he had arrived not as conqueror but as regent for their rightful sovereign: ‘I am come to save and not to destroy,’ he avowed. At noon on the first full day of occupation, Lochiel formally took possession of the city for him. He mustered his men on the High Street while the bells of St Giles tolled. From the Cross the Ross Herald, with others of the Lyon Court in their splendid uniforms, proclaimed King James VIII, then read out the prince’s commission of regency and a manifesto of his aims.

In the crowd Lady Murray of Broughton, wife of the prince’s secretary, sat on horseback, drawn sword in hand, wearing a white dress and handing out white cockades. A salute was fired and pipers struck up a pibroch. Gaelic was being heard on the tail of the Rock for the first time in 700 years. The clans

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