Edinburgh Castle (Great Britain, Scotland)

On May 1, 1650, Treaty of Breda was signed between Charles II and the Scotch government of the Covenanters on the condition of Charles II’s restoration as King of Scotland. In response Oliver Cromwell began invasion into Scotland and defeated the Covenanters at the battle of Dunbar.
The governor of the Castle of Edinburgh Colonel Walter Dundas surrendered after a three-month siege, even though there was enough ammunition in the Castle.

Cromwell’s protectorate did not last long, as early as ten years later, Charles II, at that time King of England and Scotland, stepped on the throne of England. Like his predecessor the new King left regular army in the Castle. Since that time and until 1923, in the Castle of Edinburgh there constantly was a military garrison, and the Castle began to play a more military role than a political one.

In 1661 Archibald Campbell, 1 Marquis of Argyll, who was the actual head of the government of the country during the most of the period of the Covenanters’ power in Scotland, was confined in the Castle. As early as 1646 he participated in negotiations with King Charles I on the conditions of his release and on January 1, 1651 he crowned Charles II in Scone as King of Scotland. Regardless of this the Marquis did not attempt to resist the regime of Cromwell: in 1653 he supported suppression of a royalist upsurge in Highland (in which his son also participated) by the English, and in 1659 as a deputy from Aberdeenshire entered the last parliament of Richard Cromwell. At the restoration of the Stewarts in 1660, Argyll arrived at King Charles II’s court hoping to find reconciliation, however he was immediately arrested and thrown in the Tower. In 1661 he appeared before the court in Edinburgh being accused of high treason and assistance in murdering King Charles I. Argyll managed to clear himself of these accusations, but his cooperation with Cromwell’s regime was proved which led to the confiscation of his possessions and capital punishment. On May 27, 1661, Archibald Campbell was beheaded. His head was set on the same spike of the Castle of Edinburgh as the head of an old enemy of Argyll’s – James Graham, first Marquis of Montrose, eleven years earlier.

Twenty years later Archibald Campbell, the Ninth Earl of Argyll was also placed into the Castle’s prison. After the execution of his father, King Charles II returned the title and the confiscated possessions to him. However, Archibald refused to give an oath in which he had to condemn the Covenant. He managed to escape from prison, having disguised himself as his sister’s footman. But in 1685, after a failed rebellion against James II Stewart, Earl of Argyll once again found himself in the Castle of Edinburgh.

As a result of a coup in England in 1668, supporters of the Parliament overthrew King James II Stewart with the help of the Dutch army under William III of Orange who became the King of England in a joint rule together with his wife Mary II. Religious persecution of the Protestants ceased but the Catholics were even deprived of voting rights.

At that time George Gordon became Governor of the Castle. The Scottish Parliament demanded that he immediately surrender the Castle, but Gordon being an ardent Catholic refused point-blank. On March 18, 1689, the Castle was besieged by the Parliament’s troops numbering up to seven thousand people, while the garrison of the Castle was only 160 people who were weakened by continual religious strife. For three months the Castle was blockaded and under endless attacks, but Gordon lost only seventy people and surrendered only after he had run out of victuals.
In 1707, after Acts of Union was signed two kingdoms of England and Scotland were united into one kingdom – Great Britain.

In 1715 during another Jacobite Rebellion the Castle of Edinburgh nearly surrendered to the supporters of James Stuart, one of the pretenders to the English throne. On March 8 only two days after the rebellion a hundred of Highlanders with the assistance of the garrison of the Castle tried to mount the walls but the staircase that was lowered to the Highlanders was too short and the next change of guards noticed the preparations. The Highlanders had to step back, while all the traitors in the Castle were either hanged or flogged.

In 1728, as Marshal George Wade testified, the fortifications of the Castle of Edinburgh became completely obsolete. As the result, within the next ten years there was huge work done on constructing new artillery bastions in the northern and western parts of the Castle.
The last time the Castle participated in military actions was during the last upsurge of the Jacobites in 1745. They managed to seize the city then, but without heavy artillery it was meaningless to storm the Castle. After the bombardment of the Jacobites’ fortifications from the Citadel the rebels left the city.

In the coming years the Castle was used mainly as a prison, especially during the Seven Years’ War, the Napoleonic wars and struggle for the independence of America. At that time several new buildings were constructed, among which are: powder depots, the House of the Governor (1742) and the New Barracks (1796-1799).

In 1811, a great prison break happened in the Castle. 49 convicts managed to escape through a hole in the Southern Walls. Local authorities made a decision to move the prison and give the Castle status of a National monument.

In 1818 Sir Walter Scott received a permission to search for the Scottish crown, which after the union of Scotland and England was hidden in the Castle of Edinburgh. On February 4 of the same year, the team of the would-be famous writer was able to find it in one of the Castle’s chambers.
In 1822 the Castle was visited by the King of Great Britain George IV. He became the first reigning monarch to have visited the Castle since 1651.

In 1830s, the palace was opened for visitors, and in 1845 the Chapel of Saint Margaret was opened for religious service; for many years it had been used as a warehouse. In 1880s, the Big Hall and the Argyll Tower under the Portcullis Gate were restored.

In the coming years several various blueprints how to rebuild the Castle were reviewed, but none of them was carried through. The Castle was successfully taken out from under submission of the War Office of Great Britain and transferred to the Ministry dealing with castles and palaces – the Office of Work, although the military garrison remained there as long as until 1923.
During the First and Second World Wars the Castle of Edinburgh was again turned into prison, in particular for captured German pilots of the Luftwaffe.

At the present time the entire Castle is managed by Historic Scotland.

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