Mercat Cross
We visited the Mercat Cross with Calum and Rowie during their tour and they told us of how significant it still is to Edinburgh today. We stood here chatting about it for a good couple of minutes which deemed it worthy for a post of its own.
There are actually two versions of the MC, the (potential) original, and the Victorian one that we see today. We say potential original as there may have been one before the one that was mentioned in the charter of 1365. We don't know for sure how many of these monuments were arranged and moved like we have seen over the last few centuries.
Anyway, the original stood move within the High Street on the south side and was on the eastern end of St Giles. It was then moved in 1617 further down the High Street and remained there until 1756 when it was demolished.
Some of the pieces were then taken to Drum House and re-erected and this version of the monument stood until 1866 before they were removed and taken back to St Giles and put up on the east side of the north door. Five of the sculpted heads from the original monument were obtained by none other than Sir Walter Scott who very patriotically used them as part of his garden wall at his house at Abbotsford.
The new, somewhat reduced in structure, monument was again moved to its current location at the rear of St Giles and awarded with a new base drum. As the heads had a new life elsewhere and the MC could not be considered complete, they were replaced with the royal arms of Britain, Scotland, England, Ireland, the burgh arms of Edinburgh, Leith, Canongate, and the University arms. It seems that the MC has always been topped with the national mascot of Scotland, a Unicorn.
Traditionally, the MC has always been a place to announce official and important news to the people of Edinburgh. The royal and parliamentary proclamations that were important to Scotland were read here and still are to this day. Calum was telling us that it took an extra few days for Scotland to be notified of the late Queen's death as they had to announce it at the MC, whereas the rest of the world knew straight away.
The Mercat Cross isnt just a monument for official proclamations however, no, it is a staple of Edinburgh and has had a varied and somewhat gruesome role over the years as well. We'll start off lightly with the monument being awarded a coat of pain for the Royal Entry of Mary of Guise to the city in 1538.
In 1556 the monument stood proud and draped in a tapestry to celebrate the end of the dispute between merchants and craft organisations, but then its uses took a darker turn. 1565 holds a record by John Knox, who notes that Sir James Tarbet was tied to the cross on two separate days and pelted with eggs. One day he was tied for an hour, the other four. His crime? He dared to utter the Tridentine Mass which had been banned five years earlier.
1573 made the MC an official witness to legal pubic murder (executions). The chances are that by now there had already been several executions in the area, but these were officially recorded as taking place at the MC. On the 3rd of August 1573, William Kirkcaldy of Grange, his brother James, James Mosman, and James Cockie were all hung here following the surrender of the Queen's Men that brought the end of the Lang Siege of Edinburgh Castle. These men, those fairly noble along with two jewellers had been minting coins in the Queen's name within the castle, obviously this was a crime as Mary Queen of Scots had been forced out and therefore this act became a form of treason.
Not too many years later in 1584, Robert Henderson, a baker's apprentice, was burnt alive at the MC as an example to those who dabble under the influence of Satan. His crime was arson ultimately, but it was a bit more dramatic back then as the boy was recorded as using powder and a candle to burn his father's heather stack and then his house which could have gone on to burn down the whole town. He fled, was caught, and taken to his death the next day.
1591 was quite brutal in terms of executions at the MC. There are only two recorded instances of death by being 'broken upon the row' in Scotland, it was a horrific way to die and therefore we assume wasn't overly popular. That or the crimes were never severe enough to bother recording. But in 1591 the first recorded use of this execution method within Scotland was for John Dickson as he had murdered his parents.
The second time this method was used, also at the MC, was in 1604. Robert Weir was caught after four years for strangling the husband of Jean Livingstoun of Dunipace. She had hired her father's servant, who she may have also been sleeping with, through her nurse, to commit the foul deed. She was beheaded by the Maiden (a guillotine) at Girth-Cross on the 5th of July 1600, which was a privilege considering women were usually put to death by being drowned or strangled and then burnt. Her nurse suffered the latter on the same day, although it isnt mentioned that she was strangled first.
Also in 1600, the corpses of John, Earl of Gowrie and his brother Alexander Ruthven, were brought to the cross in order to be hung, then drawn and quartered. They were already dead, so this was a public display for the sake of it due to their part in the Gowrie Conspiracy. Their heads were then put on spikes at Edinburgh's Old Tolbooth and their limbs were skewered on spikes in various places in Perth.
1601 was eventful as it brought two notable executions in one day. The 27th of April brought the death of both James Wood who was decapitated in the morning, and Archibald Cornwall who was hung at the MC in the afternoon.
Three years later in 1604, the MC bore witness to 12 executions on the same day and for the same crime- being part of an outlawed clan. Alastair MacGregor of Glen Strae, head of Clan Gregor which had been outlawed, was hung along with 11 of his kin.
The recorded executions go quiet for a while after Clan Gregor were put to death, but they picked up again in 1649 after the Scottish Estates stood at the MC and proclaimed Charles II King following the execution of his father, Charles I, six days before. This was during the Second English Civil War and so the decision to do this was made to challenge the English Parliament's acceptance of the Commonwealth as England had moved to become a Republic. So following this, the Royalist leaders were captured and executed, bearing in mind the new King wasnt even allowed into Scotland until he agreed to make the state religion Presbyterian, and even he was in support of his father and tried to save him from his fate. George Gordon, 2nd Marquis of Huntly was executed at the MC on 22nd March 1649 and James Graham, the Marquis of Montrose who we'd spoken about in our post on St Giles was brutally executed on 21st May 1650. Five of his close men were also beheaded here not long after.
The political executions didn't stop here. On the 4th of February 1652 a proposal was read at the MC for the Scotland to be incorporated into the Commonwealth. Three days later the King's Arms were hung on the public gallows. Two years later two more important proclamations were made, the first was that old Ollie Cromwell was to be the protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland which basically meant the Royals were out. The second was that Scotland had joined the Commonwealth. It remained this way until 1660 when King Charles II finally won back his throne and the monarchy was restored.
Not long after the Restoration of the Monarchy, those Parliamentarians who thought they were so clever back in 1649 got their comeuppance. Archibald Campbell, Marquis of Argyll, the very same who had James Graham executed and paraded his pieces around the country, was executed at the MC for high treason along with three others. He was beheaded by the Maiden on the 27th of May 1661. A few days later on the 1st of June, James Guthrie and Captain William Govan were hung, as was Lord Warriston on the 22nd July 1663.
We are extremely aware that this post has turned into an obituary for executions at the Mercat Cross, but we are getting to the end. It seems the 1600s were blood thirsty. 1679 brought the executions of John King and John Kidd at the MC. Both of these men were Presbyterian ministers and they were executed for taking part in the battle of Bothwell Bridge. A year later David Hackston who played his part in the murder of Archbishop James Sharp was hung, drawn and quartered at the MC which is marked as being an unusual punishment for Scotland at this time as it was a favourite in England for treason.
In an interesting turn of events took place in 1685. Archibald Campell's son, who shared his name but was the 9th Earl of Argyll, was executed, like his father, at the MC but for attempting to raise a rebellion to coincide with the Monmouth Rebellion.
Three years later a different stand took place at the MC when a mob burnt the woodwork stolen from the chapel of King James VII at Holyrood Abbey along with an effigy of the Pope. But this was the last and only recorded 'vandalistic' act seen at the MC in reference to either the monarchy or religion of the time.
1697 brought the execution of Sir Godfrey McCulloch of Myreton and Cardoness. He was beheaded by the Maiden for the crime of murdering William Gordon. You'll be pleased to learn that this is the last recorded execution at the MC that we will discuss today.
1745 Charles Edward Stuart had himself read regent at the MC along with having his father proclaimed King James VIII. Two versions of events followed this historic event staged by the 'Young Pretender'. The first is that all the ladies watching the event at the MC waved their white hankies from their windows and cheered until their voices strained in honour of the day. The other is that barely anyone was seen on the streets to witness or indeed commemorate the day, a stony silence ad boycott of the event seemed to take place indicating of Scotland's views of the new king. A year later the Prince was defeated at Culloden and the Jacobite Army colours were burned at the MC.
1752 brought the MC's involvement in a new movement, this time it was regarding Scottish Gaelic Literature. The Jacobite Army Captain Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, who was also a Scottish Gaelic national poet and wrote a collection of Gaelic poetry which was the first ever secular book to be published in Gaelic, had launched a series of vocal attacks against the Whig Political Ideology and the House of Hanover. As a result copies of his 1751 book of Gaelic poetry were burnt at the MC by the public hangman which went down in Scottish Literary history.
The Mercat Cross also has its own legend! The folklore aspect to this monument is that in 1513 while artillery was being prepared for the Battle of Flodden in Edinburgh, a demon called Plotcock appeared and read out the names of those who would be killed at the MC. A witness who also happened to be a former Provost of Edinburgh, Pitscottie, saw Richard Lawson who lived nearby and had been named throw a coin at the MC to appeal his death and he went on to survive the battle. Sadly the legend fails to mention if anyone else who was named survived or if they all died, but for dramatic effect we will go with the fact Lawson survived as he appealed the demon.
In terms of the site itself, it is nestled behind St Giles and available for viewing 24 hours a day. Its design is quite striking and its pretty noticeable, especially with its Unicorn on top. Undoubtedly haunted due to all the executions that took place here, the Mercat Cross still stands strong all these centuries later, luckily seeing no further deaths at its feet.
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