Edinburgh Castle

Summary

Episode Summary: Dan Snow's History Hit – "Edinburgh Castle"

Release Date: August 10, 2025

In this captivating episode of Dan Snow's History Hit, renowned historian Dan Snow takes listeners on an immersive journey through the storied walls of Edinburgh Castle. Accompanied by Mari Summers, a Senior Castle Guide, Snow delves deep into the castle's rich history, dissecting pivotal moments that have shaped Scotland and, by extension, the United Kingdom.

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1. Introduction to Edinburgh and Its Rich Tapestry

Dan Snow opens the episode by painting a vivid picture of Edinburgh—a city steeped in myth and legend, yet equally abundant in documented history. He remarks:

"Edinburgh is a city where there's no shortage of myth and legend, but also, thankfully, a vast reservoir of actual history as well."
[02:00]

Snow highlights Edinburgh's geographical significance, noting its construction atop Castle Rock, a volcanic crag that has been a human settlement for approximately 10,000 years. He emphasizes the city's enduring allure, especially during the Edinburgh Festival and the Fringe Festival, where the streets transform into a vibrant hub of creativity and performance.

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2. The Foundations of Edinburgh Castle

As Snow ascends Castle Rock, he reflects on the fortress's ancient origins:

"Around 2,000 years ago, we think a small fort called Dun Eden was built by the Celtic Godin people on what is now Castle Rock."
[02:15]

Mari Summers elaborates on the castle's longevity:

"This castle originally started as an early Bronze Age settlement. There have been people living here for 3,000 years."
[06:38]

The castle's strategic location is underscored by its formidable defenses, including a dry ditch and a single massive gatehouse hewn from the living rock, making it one of the most besieged sites in British history without ever being captured by force.

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3. Edinburgh Castle Through the Ages

a. The Post-Roman Era and the Wars of Independence

Snow delves into the tumultuous post-Roman period, highlighting Edinburgh's role as the royal center of Scotland. He recounts the intricate dynastic marriages that intertwined Scottish and English royalty, notably the union of Malcolm III and Margaret, which had lasting political ramifications.

"David was the one that truly fortified Edinburgh Castle... He brought lots of Norman ideas, engineers."
[12:00]

Mari Summers discusses the castle's destruction under Robert the Bruce's scorched earth policy during the Wars of Independence, save for St. Margaret's Chapel:

"From 1307 onwards, every castle keep stately home that they captured, they destroyed. So Edinburgh Castle was raised to the ground."
[16:55]

b. The Stuart Dynasty and Mary Queen of Scots

The narrative shifts to the 16th century, focusing on Mary Queen of Scots. Snow details her tumultuous reign, including her marriage to Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and the subsequent scandals that led her to seek refuge in Edinburgh Castle, where she gave birth to her son, James VI.

"Mary then fled for her own safety to Edinburgh Castle, which was more defensible."
[28:00]

Mari Summers provides an intimate look into the castle's royal apartments, where Mary endured personal tragedies and political turmoil, ultimately leading to her abdication and tragic execution.

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4. The Crown Jewels of Scotland

A significant highlight of the episode is the exploration of the Scottish Crown Jewels. Mari Summers describes these treasures:

"The Sceptre was gifted in 1494, the sword in 1507. They're both Italian papal gifts to King James IV of Scotland."
[31:37]

She narrates the daring tale of their preservation during Oliver Cromwell's invasion:

"Two very impressive local women went in under the guise of delivering supplies and left with their skirts a little fuller than before."
[33:12]

Furthermore, the discovery of the jewels by Sir Walter Scott, a famed Scottish novelist, adds a romantic twist:

"111 years, nobody has seen them, but Walter Scott finds them."
[34:58]

This revelation turned the jewels into one of Scotland's earliest tourist attractions, enhancing Edinburgh Castle's allure.

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5. The Jacobite Rebellions and Modern Military Significance

Snow recounts the Jacobite Rebellions, particularly focusing on Bonnie Prince Charlie's unsuccessful attempt to seize Edinburgh Castle:

"He besieged the front door of the castle, but he could never get in through force or through any sort of wily nature."
[37:48]

Mari Summers shares an intriguing anecdote about a cannonball from the castle still embedded in a local restaurant, symbolizing the enduring legends of the rebellion.

The episode also touches on the castle's military role in the 20th century, notably during World War I when the iconic one o' clock gun was fired at a German Zeppelin:

"Only time the one o' clock gun has ever been fired in anger."
[39:54]

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6. Edinburgh Castle Today

Mari Summers concludes the historical tour by emphasizing the castle's dual role as both a military garrison and a tourist attraction. She shares stories of past prisoners, including American captives from various wars and notable figures like the Red Clydesider, Davy Kirkwood.

"We were putting him in one of the darkest of the cellars and he was said to have remarked afterwards that he thought he was going to be left there to die."
[42:17]

Additionally, she highlights the daily firing of the one o' clock gun, a cherished tradition that continues to draw crowds eager to witness this historic practice.

"You need to put your earplugs in."
[43:34]

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7. Conclusion and Future Explorations

As the episode wraps up, Dan Snow expresses his gratitude to Mari Summers and teases the next installment of his summer tour, promising an exploration of the ancient ruins of Pompeii.

"Make sure you hit follow in your podcast player so you don't miss out."
[45:01]

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Notable Quotes:

• "Edinburgh is a city where there's no shortage of myth and legend, but also, thankfully, a vast reservoir of actual history as well." – Dan Snow (02:00)

• "This castle originally started as an early Bronze Age settlement. There have been people living here for 3,000 years." – Mari Summers (06:38)

• "From 1307 onwards, every castle keep stately home that they captured, they destroyed. So Edinburgh Castle was raised to the ground." – Mari Summers (16:55)

• "Two very impressive local women went in under the guise of delivering supplies and left with their skirts a little fuller than before." – Mari Summers (33:12)

• "Only time the one o' clock gun has ever been fired in anger." – Mari Summers (39:54)

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Final Thoughts:

Dan Snow's exploration of Edinburgh Castle serves as a microcosm of Scotland's broader historical narrative. From ancient settlements and royal dramas to military sieges and modern-day traditions, the castle embodies the resilience and enduring spirit of Edinburgh. This episode not only educates but also enthralls listeners, inviting them to appreciate the layers of history etched into the very stones of this magnificent fortress.

Transcript

[Dan Snow]

Hello folks.

Dan Snow here. I am throwing a party to celebrate 10 years of Dan Snow's history. I'd love for you to be there.

Join me for a very special live.

Recording of the podcast in London in England on 12th September to celebrate the 10 years.

You can find out more about it.

Get tickets with the link in the show notes. Look forward to seeing you there.

[Tony]

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[Dan Snow]

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[Dan Snow]

Edinburgh is a city where there's no shortage of myth and legend, but also, thankfully, a vast reservoir of actual history as well. Beyond the tales of Arthur's Court and fearsome dragons, we have Angles and Picts, Jacobites, body snatchers and artists. It feels as though every street in Edinburgh has a story to tell. Built between seven hills, much like Rome, Edinburgh has been a place of human settlement, we think for 10,000 years at least. Around 2,000 years ago, we think a small fort called Dun Eden was built by the Celtic Godin people on what is now Castle Rock. It was later captured by the English speaking Angles and renamed Edwin Bur.

Today, Edinburgh is Scotland's famously vibrant capital city. It's one of the great cities of the world and right now it's particularly vibrant because it is the Edinburgh Festival, including The Fringe Festival. So the streets are chock full of creative people, up and coming, young hopefuls, students handing out flyers, flashing QR codes, trying to get everyone to come to their shows. There are street performers, musicians, acrobats, comedians, magicians, and to collectively that just turns this into a city wide party of comedy and street performance and cabaret and theatre and culture. It's fantastic. I love it. In every corner of this place, every basement, every pub, every garret, every inch is turned into a venue. And as I walk these colorful Georgian and medieval streets with their quaint cafes and their tourist shops and their lovely houses, I'm always mindful that beneath my feet there's a network of eerie tunnels and vaults which through previous centuries have been used for all sorts of purposes. Sometimes squalid housing for the city's poorest, other times a place for stashing smuggled goods out of the way of the excisemen, whiskey distilleries, prostitution. And they have hosted all sorts of crimes as well. I tell you all this folks, because if you are even thinking of visiting the UK or Europe, then Edinburgh should be right at the top of your list. I've been here a number of times to make history shows. I've looked at the story of the 1745 Jacobin uprising when Bonnie Prince Charlie held court here. I've been to the festival loads. But one thing I have never ever done is visit Edinburgh's iconic and it's nice to be able to use that word, it's magnificent hilltop castle. And that is a major source of shame and embarrassment to me. It is quite simply one of the world's finest castles nestled atop the medieval quarter of the city. And I'm walking up that castle now. It's the only major castle in Britain that I've never visited. So this is a red letter day for me folks. I might be slightly out of breath as you can hear, because it sits right on top of Castle Rock, a prominent volcanic crag in the heart of the city. It's what really defines, makes Edinburgh so unusual and so unique. And before anyone panics, that volcano that is now extinct, do not worry. But it was the defensive feature, it was the prominent feature that attracted people to settle here and defend themselves here in the first place. The so called Old Town with its more medieval layout that formed around the castle, the New town people saw early modern, the Georgian New Town stretches out below me now, which has a very different and equally magical character. I'm walking up now to the main gate. Really it's the only Gate, because you can only approach this castle from one side up this volcanic crag. And this is where Mary Queen of Scots came seeking refuge. This is where her son, James VI was born. And he was the man who would eventually unite the crowns of England and Scotland, become James I of England. It has been the site of countless sieges. It was captured by the English at one point. It was taken back by Robert the Bruce's nephew in the wars of Independence. Its vaults have held prisoners of both Napoleonic wars and the American Revolutionary Wars. It's been one of my lifelong ambitions to explore this castle. And I'm glad I'm bringing you along on this podcast to do it. I'm just coming up to the drawbridge now. And here is Mari Summers. She's a senior castle guide. How are you, Mari? Good to meet you.

[Mari Summers]

Hi, Good to meet you as well.

[Dan Snow]

And you are going to show me around what is, well, rightfully and obviously called the best castle in the uk. So, folks, for this episode of My Summer Guide to Europe, let's get on with our tour of Edinburgh Castle.

[Mari Summers]

So this castle originally started as an early Bronze Age settlement. There have been people living here for 3,000 years. We have archaeological evidence going back that far. We know that it is also the longest continuously occupied site, certainly in Scotland, most likely in the uk.

[Dan Snow]

Yeah, take that, Dover Castle.

[Mari Summers]

So we have early Bronze Age. Absolutely. Early Bronze Age hearths. We have Iron Age roundhouses. And then it goes all the way through. We have got evidence of Roman trading.

[Dan Snow]

Really?

[Mari Summers]

Yeah. As far north as Edinburgh, which people.

[Dan Snow]

Didn'T really expect to see. Romans got beyond Hadrian's Walls, but certainly their traders and merchants and. And I guess Roman objects and ideas would have traveled even further than the legions they did.

[Mari Summers]

Absolutely. We're all good. We get to skip the queue.

[Dan Snow]

Okay, so we're coming up to our first layer of defense. Well, the first layer defense is the geography, of course. But then we, as we get to this point now, is this a motor? Is a ditch that's been dug.

[Mari Summers]

So this is a dry ditch.

[Dan Snow]

Right.

[Mari Summers]

We have never had a moat here at Edinburgh Castle. Yep. We're at the top of a hill. The water doesn't stay here either, but it's a 40 foot drop into the ditch. So it's not particularly fun for anybody to try and climb back out of on the other side.

[Dan Snow]

Humans dug this out.

[Mari Summers]

Yes.

[Dan Snow]

So first things first. We got this huge ditch.

[Mari Summers]

Yep.

[Dan Snow]

And then we come to this massive gate house. You come here and you're looking up at the main castle. The main medieval castle ahead of you and you've got. Again, almost. You've got cliffs here, or even once you're in the lower ward, you couldn't scale up there. And it's hewn from the living rock and then walls built on top of those. It's just astonishingly strong, isn't it?

[Mari Summers]

Oh, it really is. We are the most besieged site in British history.

[Dan Snow]

Yeah.

[Mari Summers]

With at least 26 sieges to our name.

[Dan Snow]

Wow.

[Mari Summers]

And not once were we taken by.

[Dan Snow]

Force, is that right?

[Mari Summers]

Yes, we have been taken in many different ways. It's been surrendered to the enemy, it's been hoodwinked and so on, but it's never been taken by force.

[Dan Snow]

Unlike Tower of London, where a bunch of random peasants ran in and sacked it.

[Mari Summers]

Absolutely.

[Dan Snow]

This is a proper castle.

[Mari Summers]

On a good day up here, your visibility is about 40 miles.

[Dan Snow]

Amazing.

[Mari Summers]

It's amazing. We can see all the way out to the Isle of May, going out towards the North Sea if it's a really good day. But we quite regularly can see as far as North Berwick and over into Fife as well. There is no way to creep up on Edinburgh Castle. No, that's for sure. Particularly not when it was first being occupied. All of the towns city that you see now around you, it was all open field land, so there was no cover for people to be able to sneak in and attack the castle.

[Dan Snow]

That was important in the early medieval period, what people used to call the Dark Ages, as it remains all the way through history. Because the English have always been poking their little noses up here, haven't they?

[Mari Summers]

Yes, it has rather handed over from Scottish English control several times throughout our history.

[Dan Snow]

So. But talk me through. So that post Roman world, that world that's so fascinating, when the nature and the complexion of these isles was really up for grabs, There were Viking armies, English armies marching deep into Scotland. There were Scottish armies marching to what's now northern England. What was the state of Edinburgh during that period?

[Mari Summers]

So Edinburgh was the royal centre of Scotland and indeed, as you're saying, quite a lot of northern England at times as well. Well, so one of our strongest monarchies, Malcolm III and his wife Margaret, who went on to become St Margaret, they ruled from Edinburgh Castle.

[Dan Snow]

Now, the 11th century in Britain is politically a pretty confusing time. And as a result of that political and military upheaval, you get a web of dynastic marriages as families seek diplomatic and political advantage or conquest. There were shifting borders and if you aren't super familiar with the history of what's going on, don't worry. In fact, I've got an episode in the 11th century coming out in the podcast soon.

But for the purposes of this podcast.

This is the context you need. When the Normans conquered England from 1066 onwards, the last heir of Alfred and Athelstan, so that line of Wessex, those Anglo Saxons, the last heir to that, the last man who could claim the English throne from that family, was called Edgar the Etheling. And he'd fled to Scotland where King Malcolm III welcomed him and and gave him shelter. As a result, Malcolm, the Scottish king married Edgar's sister Margaret, an Anglo Saxon princess. It's said this highly political arranged marriage was also in fact, a real romance, one for the ages. There were eight children and their union gave Malcolm a decent stake in English politics. And he took the opportunity to raid northern England several occasions, which turned out to be an error, because on the other side of things male was William the Conqueror. And a few times the Conqueror marched north into Scotland, forcing Malcolm to swear oaths of allegiance to him. When Malcolm died in 1093, his crown was seized by his brother Donald, who sort of rejected the English, the Anglo Saxon blood that ran in his nephew's and niece's veins. And they were exiled to England, where they grew up in the Norman court. One of them, Malcolm and Margaret's youngest son, David, eventually returned to Scotland, becoming king. In 1124, he returned to the Edinburgh Castle, which at that stage was more royal residence than a military fortress. And it's David I that really turns the castle into, well, the sort of fortress that we recognize today.

[Mari Summers]

He was the one that truly fortified Edinburgh Castle. So he was the one who built a tower keep which was the new royal residence, which St Margaret's Chapel was also a part of and is now the only surviving building from.

[Dan Snow]

And he was the guy who grew up in the Norman court in England. And so he brought lots of Norman ideas, engineers. So he's building kind of French style castles of which Edinburgh is just a classic example.

[Mari Summers]

Oh, absolutely. He brought that feudal system with him. He took a lot of French inspiration, he took a lot of Norman inspiration and a lot of Anglo Saxon inspiration and brought it all up to us here in Scotland. And that time as well was so tumultuous throughout Europe. So it's one of the reasons why we're also so heavily fortified is because he was aware he could not turn this into any sort of palace. It had to be his fortified royal centre to make sure that he could actually shore up his defenses and continue to rule.

[Dan Snow]

Because I'll tell you what, those Plantagenets down south, land hungry folk, aren't they?

[Mari Summers]

Just a little.

[Dan Snow]

So the English Crown invading Ireland, this period, Wales, and always pushing into Scotland as well.

[Mari Summers]

Yes, but we did like to push back. I mean, there are several times where that border kept creeping a little bit further south. Also, David had the in, as it was with the English court, because his sister was Queen Matilda. So that connection there kind of kept a little bit more peace between Scotland and England than it did for Wales and Ireland.

[Dan Snow]

So we're now in the middle ward. I'm seeing to my left, further up the hill, more walls. Are you telling me that there's a whole nother layer of defenses you've got to get through to get far to the castle?

[Mari Summers]

There is, yes. It's actually one of the most mysterious of our defences. Right at the top of the hill, there is a gate we call Fug's Gate. And Fug's Gate. Well, we don't know why it's called that. There are several different theories as to why it got that name. One is the weather. Scottish weather is well known for being temperamental and quite foggy. So an old translation perhaps has gone awry. So it's become Fugsgate instead of foggygate. There's also a Dutch architect around the same time by the name of Fug, but we have no record of him ever working in the uk, so that one's quite unlikely. Our personal favorite, though, is in Scots we can sometimes call older folk old fogies. And at that time, in the defences of the castle, the oldest soldiers would have been the ones to have been posted at the last of the gates. Okay, so it could have been that it was the old fogies gate.

[Dan Snow]

Oh, I love that.

[Mari Summers]

That's the one we quite like here on site as well.

[Dan Snow]

Mehari is very fit because we've basically been walking uphill throughout this entire interview. And you're not breathless at all. But a steep section here now. We're approaching the summit now.

[Mari Summers]

Yes, we're approaching the summit. So through the gate you find the ancient castle, you find the royal castle.

[Dan Snow]

There's a lot of masonry up here, isn't there? I mean, how are you bringing supplies? It just must be a huge effort to bring everything up this hill.

[Mari Summers]

It really is. It required a lot of manpower, but also horse and cart. And that actually is one of the most interesting parts of our roadway that we have. We have two separate types of cobbles, thicker cobbles for wheels and humans. But in the middle there are smaller cobbles and that is to allow horses hoofs to actually gain traction so they can get themselves up the hill as well. So it means that it's not all humans having to carry large lumps of rock up to the top of the castle.

[Dan Snow]

Wow. We're passing site gate now. These are the inner walls, are they?

[Mari Summers]

Yes.

[Dan Snow]

Right.

[Mari Summers]

These truly are the inner defense walls. You can still see though, even up here, we have got gun loops available so that we could defend from here. But as we come up, we actually on our left, have a water tower because funnily enough, being at the top of a hill, water doesn't want to stay here. So the soldiers used to have to go down to one of the wells with buckets of water and come up and fill.

[Dan Snow]

You're joking.

[Mari Summers]

Nope.

[Dan Snow]

Wow. I bet that's if you go to sleep on guard duty. I bet that's your job.

[Mari Summers]

Yeah, I don't think that's one people were volunteering for. Quickly.

[Dan Snow]

And we're now. Right, well, we're on top. I think we've reached the top, haven't we?

[Mari Summers]

We have, thankfully, yes. No more climbing today. But this is our royal heart and it is also home to the oldest building, not just in the castle, but also in the entirety of the city. This is St. Margaret's Chapel.

[Dan Snow]

So that is a thousand years old approach. It is magical.

You can tell straight away by looking very, very tiny, little rounded Norman windows with a whole wonderful mosaic of different types of masonry and things that have been put in there.

[Mari Summers]

Keeps our conservation unit very busy, that's for sure. This building actually, though, did not used to sit separately, as was mentioned earlier. It used to be part of a much larger building. There used to be a tower keep sat to the left of the building. So it used to be the small chapel which, which was meant for the royals to use when they were staying in the castle. We actually used to have a second church here called St. Mary's Church, which used to sit where our war memorial now sits. So the chapel itself, it's the oldest building on site by over 300 years. Because after Thomas Randolph came in and stole the castle in 1314, unfortunately, Robert the Bruce did have a scorched earth policy as they were pushing down through Scotland. So from 1307 onwards, every castle keep stately home that they captured, they destroyed. So Edinburgh Castle was raised to the ground.

[Dan Snow]

Was it really?

[Mari Summers]

It was.

[Dan Snow]

Wow.

In telling the story, I can understand why some people find British history a little bit complicated. It can be hard to understand why the famous patriot king of Scotland. Robert the Bruce destroyed Edinburgh Castle. But hopefully this makes it a bit clearer. In the late 13th century, Scotland had a succession crisis. There were no obvious Scottish heirs from the royal line to the throne. And so 13 candidates stepped forward to take the throne. 13 aristocrats who all thought they'd give it a go. Eventually, it came down to just two Robert Bruce, grandfather of the more famous Robert the Bruce that you'll have heard of, and John Balliol. The Scots decided they'd invite King Edward I of England to arbitrate over the final decision, which proved to be a terrible mistake. He supported John Balliol, but also demanded that his claim to be overlord of Scotland be recognised. Having got that agreed to, it didn't take long for Edward to invade, to make it real, to lock in that overlordship. He sacked Berwick. He defeated Balliol, the Scottish king. He removed the Stone of Destiny to England, the ancient symbol of Scottish kingship and sovereignty. And the Scots fought back. And from this mire, from this situation.

Well, the first hero of the Scottish.

Wars of Independence emerges. William Wallace. He wins the Battle of Stirling Bridge. He becomes the guardian of Scotland. But his regime did not last. In 1297, less than a year later, he was captured by Edward's men and he was taken to London for a trial. He was found guilty of treason, although he denied it because he said he'd never been a subject of King Edward. It's impossible to be a traitor when you've never been subjugated by someone. And then he was sentenced to death, one of the most brutal forms of execution in the medieval era. He was dragged, naked behind a horse to Smithfield. He was then hanged till the point he was almost dead. Then he was cut down. His insides were removed while he was still conscious and burned. Then his head was chopped off and his body was cut into quarters. His head was dipped in tar and placed on a pike on London Bridge to dissuade others of rebellion and even more grisly. His four limbs were then sent to be displayed in Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling and Perth. He obviously never then received a Christian burial. But this grisly warning did not work. The lords and the people of Scotland were determined to fight the English. So the fighting rumbles on and a new leader emerges. Robert the Bruce. He crowns himself King Robert I of Scots. In 1306. He and his men swee through Scotland, reclaiming important strongholds, castles, lands. It's during this time that Bruce's men arrive in Edinburgh and snatch the castle from the English. In a daring Raid led by his.

[Mari Summers]

Nephew, King Robert the Bruce. He never visited the castle, but his nephew, Sir Thomas Randolph, he did. He was the man who recaptured the castle and he actually did so with only 30 men. So he was in the town and he met a man called, called William Francis, who had been garrisoned here at Edinburgh Castle. And he told them that he knew a route in over the castle walls. The reason he knew the route was because he apparently had climbed out several times before to go into town to meet his love.

[Dan Snow]

Oh yes, that's the Achilles heel of all these castles. People sneaking it out for nefarious purposes.

[Mari Summers]

Always is. So William Francis, he leads Thomas Randolph and these, their men up the back cliff face, up the cliffs, up the cliffs. Wow, there is roots, supposedly. Maybe not these days, but there was back then. And they managed to climb over the castle defenses, surprise the English garrison inside, and they then unlocked the doors, allowing the rest of the Scottish force in.

[Dan Snow]

That's an audacious commando range. Gives anything in World War II. That's an extraordinary thing.

[Mari Summers]

Absolutely. And it's one of those stories people don't really know about. But unfortunately it did have a little bit of a downside for Edinburgh Castle itself, because King Robert the Bruce during the wars of Independence, he had a scorched earth policy. So every castle they recaptured as they traveled south through Scotland, they destroyed it was to try and stop an English force from coming in behind them and catching them in a pincer movement, as it was. And when he got to Edinburgh Castle, it was no different. At Edinburgh Castle, they also destroyed the entire site with the exception of St. Margaret's Chapel.

[Dan Snow]

Let's just quickly finish up the story.

Of Scotland's fight for its sovereignty.

Robert the Bruce won a decisive victory.

At the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. And from that point, Scotland really regained control of its own affairs. There was a peace treaty signed between Robert the Bruce and Edward iii in which England recognizes Scotland as an independent kingdom and Bruce as its rightful king. Only a year after that though, in 1329, Robert the Bruce dies. His son David II takes over and faces lots of English backed invasions. He's actually captured by the English and held for 11 years until an enormous ransom is paid. Another treaty is signed. But Scotland did remain sovereign until the act of Union in 1707. We're going to spill forward now in our tour of Edinburgh castle to the 16th century. We'll be looking at the Stuarts after this short break.

[Anthony Delaney]

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[Maddy Pelling]

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[Anthony Delaney]

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[Maddy Pelling]

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[Anthony Delaney]

Watch a jury deliberate the fate of the last three women to be hanged for witchcraft in England.

[Maddy Pelling]

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[Mari Summers]

So we've now arrived in Crown Square Square, which is the heart of the castle these days. And we're going to be making our way over to the Great hall, which is our royal banqueting hall here at the castle.

[Dan Snow]

So after Robert the Bruce smashed it down, it reemerges as a sort of military site or as a center of royal power administration, government domestic. How's the castle adapt?

[Mari Summers]

We return to being a royal site again. We are rebuilt, this time by David ii. So he, he builds what we call David's Tower. David's Tower was another large tower keep and it stood all the way through until 1573 when it was destroyed in the Lang siege. And realistically, 1573 was the end of the royal power here at the castle.

[Dan Snow]

Wow. We've entered now this astonishing hall where there's medieval suits of armor around. Picture, friends, picture in your mind's eye what you would love a medieval hall to look like. And that is what this one looks like. Wood paneling, stained glass windows, halberds, swords, spears, vaulted ceiling.

Unbelievable.

[Mari Summers]

Well, what you see is also a Victorian.

[Dan Snow]

Oh, darn it. That's classic.

[Mari Summers]

Isn't it just? So the great hall has actually itself seen several renovations over the years, but the one original feature in the room is our roof. Our ceiling is called a hammer beam roof. That means there's absolutely no metal in it whatsoever. It is all wooden pegs and it was constructed by shipbuilders rather than carpenters back in the early 1500s. And it's meant to represent the upturned hull of a ship.

[Dan Snow]

It looks exactly like that. Yeah.

[Mari Summers]

So it was built for James iv, who at the time had One of the largest armadas in the world.

[Dan Snow]

Oh, yes. And Henry VIII was very jealous of that, wasn't he?

[Mari Summers]

He was indeed. So much so that he decided to steal a couple of his ships at one point.

[Dan Snow]

So the story of British naval greatness, people don't realize it actually begins in Scotland, not England. That's what's fascinating. Yeah.

[Mari Summers]

Yes, it really does. So our hammer beam roof is original. It's from the early 1500s. It is one of only two surviving hammer beam roofs left.

[Dan Snow]

So you would eat in here, The.

King would receive diplomatic visitors, all the.

[Mari Summers]

The above, yes. This was a banqueting hall when it was designed. The first use was in approximately 1511, 1512. James IV unfortunately, didn't get much use out of it because he died in 1513 in battle. But it was actually designed not just for him, but also for his wife. So he married Margaret Tudor, Henry VII's older sister, and it was to attempt to bring a treaty of peace between Scotland and England.

[Dan Snow]

But then, awkwardly, he died fighting Henry.

VII's army in Northern England.

[Mari Summers]

Yeah, it didn't last very long. Very complicated families at this point.

[Dan Snow]

So we're now into the. The famous Stewart dynasty that people have heard of.

[Mari Summers]

Yes.

[Dan Snow]

And then many of them came to sticky ends. I won't test you because they're impossible to remember, but they're all weird and.

Wonderful ends, aren't they?

[Mari Summers]

Oh, absolutely, yes. I don't think one of them had a nice natural end to their life.

[Dan Snow]

And it's the Stuart family that give us the tragic and dramatic story of Mary Queen of Scots. She was heir to Stuart Scotland.

[Mari Summers]

She was indeed, yes. And Mary actually did spend several months living here at the castle. It wasn't her main residence in Edinburgh, that was the palace of Holyrood House, but she did live here. And very importantly to us, she gave birth to her son and heir, James.

[Dan Snow]

VI, here in 1542, the long line of Stuart kings comes to an end. King James V of Scotland died whilst campaigning. He left no male heirs behind. He did, though, leave a baby girl, Mary, who was just six days old. The reign of Mary Queen of Scots had begun and it was fraught, to say the least. She spent much of her youth in France at the court of Catherine of Medici, because she married the heir to the French throne. But then he died and she returned to Scotland at age 18. Scotland was a tumultuous country and it was the beginning of a very difficult period of personal rule. Scotland was in the grip of a Protestant Reformation led by zealots like John Knox and John Knox and others were pretty misogynist. They did not like the queen. They took all opportunities they could to preach against her.

She was a Catholic, she was a.

Woman, she was everything he despised. And her life was one of scandal and murder and assault and abuse. In 1565, she married her cousin, Henry Stuart, known as Lord Darnley. He was descended through his mum from the Tudor family, so that strengthened her claim to the English throne, which she already had a good claim to through her great grandfather, Henry vii. Their marriage was unhappy. He was drunk and a lothario. He flew into a violent rage. He felt threatened by Mary's close relationship with her secretary, David rizzio. And on the 9th of March 9th, 1566, he burst into Mary's private chambers at the palace at Holyrood, where she was dining with Rizzio. He and his men dragged him out of the room, stabbed him multiple times. He died in the outer chamber. Mary then fled for her own safety to Edinburgh Castle, which was more defensible. And it was while she was at Edinburgh Castle that she gave birth to her only child, James, on the 19th of June, 1566.

[Mari Summers]

So we are now in the royal apartments of Edinburgh Castle. This is where Mary would have lived when she was here in the castle, but this is also home to a very small room. But that is where she gave birth to James.

[Dan Snow]

Right. A big moment for the future of Scotland and Britain. Oh, my goodness. We've just entered a very, very small wood panel room with some beautiful painting onto that wood and an astonishing view over Edinburgh. And we're all alone in this room. This is extraordinary. So this Mary was in here?

[Mari Summers]

Yes, well, that is what we currently believe, although historical documentation is being discovered as we speak, and we don't quite know these days. But this is certainly the room that is now considered the shrine to her giving birth.

[Dan Snow]

Wow.

[Mari Summers]

So James would then go on to become James VI of Scotland and first of England. But at the time, very soon after his birth, his mother was forced to abdicate in his favor.

[Dan Snow]

This was because of yet more scandal surrounding Mary. In 1567, the year after Rizzio's murder, Darnley himself, well, his house was blown up and he was found in the gardens having been strangled. It's a real mystery that's never been solved. Many believe Mary was involved, perhaps with a man called James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell. But to this day, no one can say for certain. After the murder of Lord Darnley, Bothwell took Mary Dunbar Castle, claiming its her own safety. It was there that he was believed to have sexually assaulted her and then forced her to marry him. This marriage outraged Scottish nobles. Mary was captured by rebel lords at Carberry Hill and imprisoned at Loch Leven Castle. She was then forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son, James Vill. As I said, this was not an easy life and it was one that only got worse from this point on.

And she went on to a very tragic life. She escaped to England, was a prisoner of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth of England, and then eventually executed. By Elizabeth.

[Mari Summers]

Yes. She'd met a very unfortunate end. 19 years imprisoned in England before she was eventually executed.

[Dan Snow]

She should never have left these walls.

[Mari Summers]

No, she really shouldn't have.

[Dan Snow]

So her son, James VI of Scotland, Scotland, the boy king, he grows up, he plays his cards right. Elizabeth Tudor dies with no heirs, and all thanks to the fact that Henry VIII married his sister to the King of Scotland through that line, the Stuarts. James V, he's the closest male relative.

[Mari Summers]

Yes, he is. So that was actually something that Mary had set in motion herself. She had spoken in correspondence with Elizabeth and had begged her to make James her heir, because by this point, Elizabeth had already claimed to be the virgin Queen and that she would never marry. So Mary saw her opportunity to get her son on the throne, even if she never would. So James was always there, lurking all the way through the end of Elizabeth's reign and when she died, eventually he was given the monarchy and James, via.

[Dan Snow]

A few jumps from one brant, the family tree. Next, the current kings and queens of Great Britain are directly descended from James vi.

[Mari Summers]

Yes, it's come all the way down that Stuart line and here we are.

[Dan Snow]

In the room which she was born.

[Mari Summers]

Yes.

[Dan Snow]

Very special.

[Mari Summers]

Yeah. So we're now going to make our way up to see the Crown Jewels of Scotland.

[Dan Snow]

Really? Yes. Nice.

[Mari Summers]

So these are what we call the honors of the kingdom, and they are a very small collection in comparison to the ones you'll see in the Tower of London, but they are very special to us. So the Scottish honours, the honours of the kingdom, they're made up of three pieces. We have the Sceptre, the Sword of State and the Crown of Scotland. The Scepter was gifted in 1494, the sword in 15, 1507. They're both Italian papal gifts to King James IV of Scotland.

[Dan Snow]

So much older than the English Crown jewels, which are all hastily reconstructed after the Civil Wars.

[Mari Summers]

Absolutely. So our jewels, our crown from 1540 is Scottish and it's actually possibly a little bit older. It's got bits of an old Scottish crown in it. But when Oliver Cromwell came along in 1650, he tried to steal our jewels, much like he destroyed the English jewels. But we had heard what had happened in England and in London, and so we were very canny. And we actually hid our crown jewels in a castle in the very north of Scotland called Dunottar Castle. Yes. So they were there. Cromwell worked out where they were and an army was sent to go and retrieve them. But two very impressive local women went in under the guise of delivering supplies to those inside the castle and left with their skirts a little fuller than before. Yes. So as it turns out, actually everything's quite collapsible in our collection. The scepter comes apart in the middle. It actually unscrews.

[Dan Snow]

That's clever.

[Mari Summers]

Yes. It was built. They added a section in the middle and made sure it could unscrew in the middle at that point, which was good foresight.

[Dan Snow]

Collapsible.

[Mari Summers]

Yep. The crown actually splits into two. So again, very easy to hide. Swords are not meant to be destroyed, unfortunately. So they did have to cut it in half. And to this day, you can actually see the markings on the blade of the sword. But they stuck them in their skirts and their baskets and they carried them out. They were actually escorted through the camp by the commander. So he escorted the crown jewels that he was there for away. One of the women, her husband was the local minister, so they were buried in the floorboards of Kenef Church nearby.

[Dan Snow]

No way. What a story.

[Mari Summers]

Oh, yeah. And they were kept there for eight years until the restoration of Charles ii. And at that point, they were then returned to Edinburgh Castle.

[Dan Snow]

I've always read about one of the most famous novelists in Scottish British history, Sir Walter Scott. He was involved with the crown jewels. So what's going on there?

[Mari Summers]

Yes. So our crown jewels were actually retired in 1707 in favor of the British crown jewels that were made after 1660. And at that point, they were putting in an oak chest that we still have to this day, and it was put into our crown room and the doors were bricked up.

[Dan Snow]

Really?

[Mari Summers]

Yes. And they were left for 111 years. And this is where Walter Scott comes in. He has been doing research for his novels and he's been researching the castle, and on old maps, he finds note of a crown room or an inventory room. And. And when he does so, he realizes that it's not there now. So he asked for permission from his friend, who just so happens to be the future King George iv, if he can go in and Investigate. So they knock down the wall, open the doors, and there are the crown jewels.

[Dan Snow]

I mean, I'm sorry, but that's the most exciting thing I've ever heard.

[Mari Summers]

Absolutely. 111 years, nobody has seen them, but Walter Scott finds them.

[Dan Snow]

I mean, that's full on Indiana Jones style. But real.

[Mari Summers]

Oh, yeah. And of all the men to do it, it would be Walter Scott, isn't it?

[Dan Snow]

Exactly. Wow. And so that's why they're now on display here, looking magnificent.

[Mari Summers]

Yes. So his discovery turned them into one of the earliest tourist attractions so the public could come and visit them from 1820 onwards. So people could come into the site because at that time we were still a major military garrison, so they had to come in in very small numbers. But they could come and visit the crown jewels then.

[Dan Snow]

But it's obviously a highlight of the.

Trip to the castle.

[Mari Summers]

Oh, it really is. Everyone coming up wants to come and see the crown jewels.

[Dan Snow]

You're listening to Dan Snow's history here. There's more to come.

[Anthony Delaney]

Summer is finally here. But for those of you just like me who are counting down the days until the leaves turn golden, the nights start drawing, and it's finally acceptable to spend a whole weekend binge watching true crime in your PJs. After dark, myths, misdeeds and the paranormal can transport you there right now, twice a week, every week.

[Maddy Pelling]

Tudor murder, ancient ghosts, Victorian mysteries. Our podcast has you covered. I'm Maddie Pelling.

[Anthony Delaney]

And I'm Anthony Delaney. And we are friends and historians who love to find out about the darker side of history.

[Maddy Pelling]

Join us on the scaffold for Anne Boleyn's final moment. Step inside Tutankhamun's tomb, which is apparently cursed.

[Anthony Delaney]

Watch a jury deliberate the fate of the last three women to be hanged for witchcraft in England.

[Maddy Pelling]

Find us every Monday and Thursday wherever you get your podcasts. And now on YouTube after Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal is created by the award winning network history hit.

[Dan Snow]

Okay, so we're back on the battlements here and we've got. Well, it's a battery. Got more of these cannon.

[Mari Summers]

Yes.

[Dan Snow]

And we're looking out over. Wow, look at that view. What a beautiful view over the old town and bits the new town as well. And we should probably skip forward. I mean, this. We are basically telling the whole story of the history of Scotland here. But the Stewart family all fall out with each other dramatically over who should be the rightful kings of Britain. We get to the Jacobite rebellions. 1715 is a very famous one. 1745 is what people might have heard of, which is Bonnie Prince Charlie, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, who's seeking to get the throne back for his branch of the Stuart family over the German branch who are ruling Britain at that point. And Edinburgh is a really interesting case, isn't it, Because Bonnie Prince Charlie takes Edinburgh, but not. Not quite.

[Mari Summers]

Yeah. He never gets the castle. So he's another one of those amazing Scottish figures in our history that has never set foot within our grounds, really.

[Dan Snow]

Is that right?

[Mari Summers]

So he did manage to take the whole of Edinburgh city and he besieged the front door of the castle, but he could never get in through force or through any sort of wily nature. And instead we just occasionally would take pot shots down into the city at him.

[Dan Snow]

And presumably this is the battery where that happens. Happen from. Right, yes. You've got a great vantage point here.

[Mari Summers]

Yes, it is. And in fact, actually, one of our cannonballs from the castle does still exist in one of the buildings in the old town. Yes, it's a restaurant we now call Cannonball.

[Dan Snow]

But I love those stories because Bonnie Prince Charlie was holding court, having balls, acting like a monarch, and occasionally a cannonball from the castle would come sort of crashing through and try and ruin the party.

[Mari Summers]

Yeah, absolutely. We love trying to stop a wee party every now and again.

[Dan Snow]

It's an amazing story. And then Bonnie Prince Charlie eventually driven.

North and defeated by his cousin, the Duke of Cumberland.

The famous, infamous Battle of Culloden in 1746.

[Mari Summers]

Yes. Which was an absolute whitewash against the Scots who supported Charlie. Because that is one thing we always struggle with in our history is differentiating. Because at that point, it was very much so many folk see it to be the Scots versus the English, but it was very much a civil war.

[Dan Snow]

Yeah, yeah. So you'd have had Scottish defenders of the castle up here backing King George. You'd have had actually some English supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie down there with his army.

[Mari Summers]

Absolutely, yes. It was very much down to which branch of the family you felt was more suited to you.

[Dan Snow]

And was that the last time the castle saw a shot fired in anger?

[Mari Summers]

World War I, we had a singular shot, really. Yes. And it was from our one o' clock gun. Funnily enough, there was a zeppelin flying over the city and they attempted to fire the one o' clock gun to either scare it off or shoot it out the sky.

[Dan Snow]

So a huge German airship is over the city and you're using what had been a sort of signal cannon.

[Mari Summers]

Yep.

[Dan Snow]

Which had been for show all through the years before. And now you're Actually trying to take pot shot as an airship. That's an amazing story.

[Mari Summers]

Only time the one o' clock gun has ever been fired in anger.

[Dan Snow]

Wow. And is the one o' clock gun still fire at one o'? Clock?

[Mari Summers]

It does indeed. Yes, it does.

[Dan Snow]

That's the same gun that once fired.

[Mari Summers]

Not anymore? No, thankfully not, No. I think that might give our gunner a little bit of a heart attack. The gun we've got now we've had since 2001. It's a newbie. Newbie in comparison. Yes.

[Dan Snow]

Wow, that is amazing. So it saw action during the First World War?

[Mari Summers]

Yes.

[Dan Snow]

So with that exception of the First War, Edinburgh Castle, not really on the front line from the 18th century onwards. But I guess it had a military purpose.

[Mari Summers]

We did, yes. We were a fully functioning military garrison. Indeed, we actually still are to this day. But we at one point could have over a thousand men stationed in the castle. One other side of that, though was we also had prisons here.

[Dan Snow]

Oh, really?

[Mari Summers]

Yes. So we did have prisons for our own soldiers who may have misbehaved, shall we say, but we actually had prisons of war for international soldiers as well.

[Dan Snow]

Isn't that fascinating? So what we took in Napoleonic wars, that kind of.

[Mari Summers]

Yeah, we're talking Napoleonic wars and we're talking the American wars of Independence.

[Dan Snow]

So there were Americans up here or French sailors captured?

[Mari Summers]

Particularly, I guess French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish.

[Dan Snow]

Yeah. No, we were fighting everyone in that war.

[Mari Summers]

Oh, yeah, we really were. We're having fun. But our American prisoners, because a lot of folk don't realize that American ships did actually attack British ports to try and stop supplies making their way to America to support the troops there. And if they were captured in our waters, that was when they were kept here. And they were often sent to Edinburgh Castle because it was seen as the back end of nowhere and they were almost forgotten about. Some of the Americans were here for seven years.

[Dan Snow]

Wow. And then were there German prisoners during the First World War and Second World War?

[Mari Summers]

We did have some injured prisoners during World War II who were kept here in our hospital, actually downed M and things like that. Yes, that's exactly what we had here. But World War I, we did have a very interesting gentleman who ended up staying here. His nickname name is the Red Clydesider and he was actually a trade union man over in Glasgow originally. And he then had been exiled from.

[Dan Snow]

Glasgow, sent all the way to Edinburgh.

Yes, poor thing.

[Mari Summers]

Indeed. And he was here and he got himself in so much trouble that he ended up spending a night imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle.

[Dan Snow]

And he was Regarded what as such a threat to national security?

[Mari Summers]

I think they were more trying to scare the living daylights out of him. And they put him in one of the darkest of the cellars and he was said to have remarked afterwards that he thought he was going to be left there to die. No, the police just put him there for one night to scare him, hopefully. Right.

[Dan Snow]

Because he was, I guess, a radical socialist or communist.

[Mari Summers]

He was a radical socialist and he was also very opposed to the war. And that was the main reason why, was because he was seen to be affecting wartime morale. The gentleman was called Davy Kirkwood and to this day we actually know his cell as Davy Kirkwood's Hole. So it's still named after him even 100 years later.

[Dan Snow]

His name lives on.

[Mari Summers]

Indeed.

[Dan Snow]

Well, Larry, thank you so much. We galloped through thousands of years of history up here. I thank you for all the insights you brought. When people come to the castle today, what. Because it's been through so many different iterations and periods, what people ask you, what's the number one thing?

[Mari Summers]

Well, funnily enough, one of our number one questions is a rather entertaining one for the staff and that is, what time is the one o' clock gun?

[Dan Snow]

That's too good.

Why is that an institution?

[Mari Summers]

Oh, it really is, yes. People come and we'll wait for an hour to see the gun fired. And actually today we're very lucky that we're going to be able to be right beside the gun as it is being fired.

[Dan Snow]

That is amazing. And I obviously was not going to ask what time it was fired, but.

It had crossed my mind.

You never know in Britain, in Scotland, I think, because we've got a lot of weird traditions which aren't actually what they say on the tin.

[Mari Summers]

Oh, they really are, yes.

[Dan Snow]

But this is one that is exactly as advertised.

[Mari Summers]

Right. So you need to put your earplugs in.

[Dan Snow]

Thank you very much.

[Mari Summers]

Brilliant.

[Dan Snow]

The gun has been loaded. The blank shell, you'll be glad to hear, because the gun's pointed directly at the lower town in Edinburgh. Do some damage, this gun.

Oh, he's elevating the gun so it's no longer aiming, it's aiming at fife now.

[Mari Summers]

Yeah, it's their daily wake up call.

[Dan Snow]

It's a classic 105 millimeter gun used.

By the British army since the 70s. And we're just getting ready to fire it now. The gunner is just checking, checking his watch. We got 10 seconds to go. It's one o', clock, folks.

Well, that's the most spectacular end to a podcast I've ever done. Mari, thank you so much.

[Mari Summers]

Thank you. So if anyone is interested in coming to visit Edinburgh Castle, you can visit our website which is edinburghcastle Scot and you can buy your tickets there.

[Dan Snow]

Do it folks.

Thank you again to my excellent guide to Edinburgh Castle and centuries of Scottish.

History, Mary Summer Senior Castle Guide and.

To all the folks also at Edinburgh Castle who organized our visit, thank you very much.

You can find out more about the.

Castle and how to visit in the link in our show notes. You gotta go folks. Make sure you join me at the.

Next stop on our summer tour of.

Europe as I tell you everything you need to know about the ancient ruins of Pompeii. Make sure you hit follow in your.

Podcast player so you don't mess up it.

Check it out on Friday.

[Larry]

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