Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
city, the dramatic steel geometry of the Forth Rail Bridge is best seen by walking across
the parallel road bridge, starting at
South Queensferry
.
1
Brief history
It was during the
Dark Ages
that the name Edinburgh - at least in its early forms of
Dunedin or Din Eidyn (“fort of Eidyn”) - first appeared. he strategic fort atop the
Castle Rock volcano served as Scotland's
southernmost border post
until 1018, when
King Malcolm I established the River Tweed as the permanent frontier. In the reign of
Malcolm Canmore in the late eleventh century the Castle became one of the main
seats of the court, and the town, which was given privileged status as a
royal burgh
,
began to grow.
Scotland's new capital
Robert the Bruce granted Edinburgh a
new charter
in 1329, giving it jurisdiction over
the nearby port of Leith, and during the following century the prosperity brought by
foreign trade enabled the newly fortified city to establish itself as the permanent
capital
of Scotland
.
Under King James IV, the city enjoyed a short but brilliant
Renaissance era
, which
saw not only the construction of a new palace alongside Holyrood Abbey, but also the
granting of a
royal charter
to the College of Surgeons, the earliest in the city's long line
of academic and professional bodies.
Turbulent Age of Reformation
Edinburgh's Renaissance period came to an abrupt end in 1513 with the calamitous
defeat by the English at the
Battle of Flodden
, which led to several decades of political
instability. In the 1540s King Henry VIII's attempt to force a royal union with
Scotland led to the sack of Edinburgh, prompting the Scots to turn to France: French
troops arrived to defend the city, while the young queen Mary was dispatched to Paris
as the promised bride of the Dauphin, later (briefly) François II of France. While the
French occupiers succeeded in removing the English threat, they themselves
antagonized the locals, who had become increasingly sympathetic to the ideals of the
Reformation
. When the radical preacher
John Knox
(see box p.68) returned from exile
in 1555, he quickly won over the city to his Calvinist message.
James VI's rule saw the foundation of the University of Edinburgh in 1582, but
following the
Union of the Crowns
in 1603 the city was totally upstaged by London. In
1633 Charles I visited Edinburgh for his coronation, but soon afterwards precipitated a
crisis by introducing episcopacy to the Church of Scotland, in the process making
Edinburgh a bishopric for the first time. Fifty years of religious turmoil followed,
culminating in the triumph of
Presbyterianism
.
Acts of Union
he
Union of the Parliaments
of 1707 dealt a further blow to Edinburgh's political
prestige, though by guaranteeing the preservation of the Church of Scotland and the
legal and educational systems the acts ensured that the city was never relegated to a
purely provincial role. Indeed, the second half of the eighteenth century saw Edinburgh
achieve the height of its intellectual influence, led by natives such as David Hume and
Adam Smith. Around the same time, the city began to expand beyond its medieval
boundaries, laying out the
New Town
, a masterpiece of the Neoclassical style.
Victorian Edinburgh
Industrialization
affected Edinburgh less than any other major city in the nation,
and it never lost its white-collar character. hrough the Victorian era Edinburgh
cemented its role as a conservative bastion of the establishment, controlling
Scotland's legal, ecclesiastical and education systems. Indeed, the city underwent an
