#siege — Public Fediverse posts

Today's Flickr photo with the most hits: La Defense

#LaDefense #paris #siege #sculpture

@thejapantimes A #siege of #Cuba by the US.

The soldiers replaced the settlers at the door

Follow @1ban_news for daily coverage.

https://1ban.news/qusra-siege-army-inside-homes-huckabee-words/

#1ban #qusra #siege #army #inside #geopolitics

The settler movement's friend calls the Qusra siege an 'act of terror

Stay curious — follow @1ban_news.

https://1ban.news/huckabee-qusra-settler-siege-act-of-terror/

#1ban #huckabee #qusra #settler #siege #geopolitics

Crusader garrison under siege fire (Giuseppe Rava)

الطفل محمد الخطيب، 50 يوماً فقط من العمر، يحمل من #الوجع ما يفوق عمره بسنوات. طفل يصارع #إصاباته في ظل استمرار #معيقات #السفر و #العلاج، بينما يترك حقه في #الرعاية رهينة #الحصار و #القيود.

Child Mohammed Al-Khatib, only 50 days old, carries more #pain than his age suggests. He struggles with his #injuries amid ongoing #travel and #treatment obstacles, while his right to #care remains hostage to the #siege and #restrictions.

https://www.wacoca.com/games/1394670/ 【R6S】Stage1開幕直前スペシャル！最新移籍情報と開幕カードを総チェック!!（レインボーシックスシージ） ##GAMING ##R6S #CAG #esports #eスポーツ #FPS #Ｇ２ #G2Esports #Game #GameNews #games #GamingNews #KINOTROPE #Liquid #R6 #R6S大会 #R6X #Rainbow6Siege #RainbowSix #RainbowSixSiege #RainbowSixSiegeProLeague #SCARZ #shaiiko #SIEGE #TeamLiquid #TomClancy'sRainbowSixSiege #ゲーミング #ゲーミング最新情報 #ゲーム #ゲーム攻略 #ゲーム最新情報 #シージ #ともぞう #ニュース #ビジネス #マンシージ #レインボーシックスシージ #山野智三 #日本代表 #解説

Assault on a medieval castle

https://piefed.social/c/historyart/p/2111491/assault-on-a-medieval-castle

GOD WILL PROVIDE THE CRUSADE'S LOGISTICS

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/2053026/god-will-provide-the-crusade-s-logistics

HUZZAH

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1985360/huzzah

US-Justizministerium will Rechtsextreme freisprechen lassen!

Im Zuge des von Donald Trump initiierten Sturms auf das Capitol 2021, wurden zahlreiche Rechtsextreme der Gruppierungen Proud Boys und Oath Keepers strafrechtlich verurteilt.

US-Präsiden Trump hatte sie nach Amtsantritt 2025 begnadigt- aber damit gelten sie weiterhin als „verurteilt“. Nun fordert das Justizministerium in Berufungsanträgen die Aufhebung der Verurteilungen, das dies „in the interests of justice“, d.h. im Interesse der Gerechtigkeit, sei.

Während also alles was nach Antifaschismus, nach Links oder auch Queer aussieht verfolgt, verleumdet, beschimpft oder gar als Terrorismus verfolgt wird, werden Rechtsextreme von der US-Regierung erst begnadigt und dann hofiert.

Bericht aus „The Guardian“
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/14/january-6-convictions-overturn-doj-proud-boys-oath-keepers

Berufungsantrag als PDF:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cadc.39855/gov.uscourts.cadc.39855.01208840665.0.pdf

#uspol #usgov #trump #oath #oathkeepers #proud #proudboys #uspresident #potus #rightwing #rechtsextrem #rechtsextremismus #antifa #antifaschismus #doj #usdoj #deutschland #mittwoch #theguardian #capitol #conspiracy #siege #queer #antifacsist

https://www.wacoca.com/games/1358728/ 【R6S】最新試合から学ぶプロの技18選！Shaiikoが強い理由を知っていますか？（レインボーシックスシージ） ##GAMING ##R6S #Ｇ２ #G2Esports #Game #GameNews #games #GamingNews #KINOTROPE #Liquid #Nintendo #playstation #R6 #R6S大会 #R6X #Rainbow6Siege #RainbowSix #RainbowSixSiege #RainbowSixSiegeProLeague #SCARZ #shaiiko #SIEGE #steam #TeamLiquid #TomClancy'sRainbowSixSiege #ゲーミング #ゲーム #ゲームニュース #ゲームレビュー #ゲーム実況 #ゲーム攻略 #ゲーム最新情報 #シージ #ともぞう #ビジネス #マンシージ #レインボーシックスシージ #山野智三 #新作ゲーム #日本代表

Specialized Crusader ship during the Siege of Acre, 1291 AD (Graham Turner)

https://piefed.social/c/historyart/p/1958215/specialized-crusader-ship-during-the-siege-of-acre-1291-ad-graham-turner

Christian Spanish forces during the Conquest of Mallorca, ~1230 AD

https://piefed.social/c/historyart/p/1936905/christian-spanish-forces-during-the-conquest-of-mallorca-1230-ad

Le squelette de d'Artagnan retrouvé par des archéologues dans une église? Des indices trouvés aux Pays-Bas
https://information.tv5monde.com/international/le-squelette-de-dartagnan-retrouve-par-des-archeologues-dans-une-eglise-des-indices-trouves-aux-pays-bas-2815180
#archéologie #PaysBas #France #mousquetaire #dArtagnan #livre #littérature #squelette #os #artefacts #histoire #guerre #siège #église #sépulture #analyse #découverte

Medieval siege tower in action

https://piefed.social/c/historyart/p/1921035/medieval-siege-tower-in-action

> Thursday, April 9, “Countercultural Fascism”
>
> This talk will discuss how James Mason, today’s most important neo-Nazi terrorist ideologue, was discovered by a clique of 1980s and ‘90s counterculturalists. Boyd Rice, Adam Parfrey, Michael Moynihan, and Nikolas Schreck used the underground music and publishing networks of their day to promote him and ultimately create Mason’s book Siege. Their linking of a radical cultural movement with explicit fascist politics, and subsequent denial of this as “playing with extremes,” clearly presaged the reactionary approach of 4chan and its spawn, who use the same playbook of “it’s just a joke”—when it clearly is not. I [Spencer Sunshine] will describe how this union of music and politics came about, and what the implications of this are for today’s subcultures.

#JamesMason #BoydRice #AdamParfrey #MichaelMoynihan #NikolasSchreck #CounterculturalFascism #Siege

“Countercultural Fascism” and “A Short History of Nazi-Satanism”
https://spencersunshine.com/presentations/

1 p.m. EST / 10 a.m. PST
April 9 and April 16, 2026
online presentations and discussion

Sliding scale $10–$100 (covers both)

No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds

To register, send a message here:
https://spencersunshine.com/contact/

#SpencerSunshine #TheSatanicTemple #SatanicTemple #AbraxasCircle #JamesMason #Siege #BoydRice #AntonLaVey #ChurchofSatan #CharlesManson #NeoNazis #NeoNaziMovement #NaziSatanism #AntifascistResearch #Antifascism #Antifascist #NOTAFLOF

Wake up, new KHAN just dropped!

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1868796/wake-up-new-khan-just-dropped

‘We have to fight with our cinema,’ says director of #Chronicles from the #Siege at #Berlinale #berlin #germany #yt

https://youtu.be/SCdo01rCbkU

#StopTheGenocide ✊ 🔥

Gaza’s al-Aqsa hospital at risk of collapse amid Israeli siege, aid restrictions

https://www.newarab.com/news/gazas-al-aqsa-hospital-risks-collapse-amid-israeli-siege

The Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza risks shutting down due to the breakdown of generators amid a continued Israeli siege on the territory.The government hospital had previously been operating on two main generators that have since stopped working, forcing the medical centre, which serves more than one million people, to rely on a single, small backup generator.The spokesperson for al-Aqsa hospital, Khalil al-Dakran, told The New Arab's sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the hospital risks being forced to halt operations due to the ongoing Israeli ban on bringing spare generator parts and fuel into the besieged Gaza Strip.As a result, al-Dakran added, the medical staff at the hospital have begun rationing electricity and stop its supply to non-vital sections of the facility altogether to ensure the running of critical departments.Al-Aqsa hospital hosts multiple intensive care, kidney and cardiac units, as well as operating rooms, emergency departments, and neonatal incubators.It is also the only government hospital to remain functioning in central Gaza.The single generator is not sufficient to cover the bare minimum needs of the hospital, al-Dakran told al-Araby al-Jadeed, adding that there was an ongoing crisis suffocating the operation of Gaza’s hospitals.Under the ceasefire agreement reached in October 2025, 600 aid trucks should have entered Gaza daily to respond to the dire humanitarian conditions caused by two years of genocidal war.

The Primrose Lady of Lady Fife’s House: the thread about the Ninth Day of Christmas

This part in the Edinburgh and Leith themed Twelve Days of Christmas thread is preceded by a post about the “Maiden Castle”.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me; Ladies (dancing). There are many options to choose from with respect to Edinburgh and Leith placenames – there’s at least 16 sets of street names with a Lady or Ladie in them in the book of Edinburgh place names. I shall go somewhere close to home with Lady Fife (sometimes spelled Lady Fyfe) who lent her name to a house, a “brae”, a well, and a street in Leith. Lady Fife was Dorothea Sinclair (1739-1818), wife of James Duff, 2nd Earl of Fife.

Lady Fife’s House was more commonly known as Hermitage House and had been completed prior to 1744 in the lands of Coatfield Mains, just to the south of Leith Links between the roads to Lochend and Restalrig. The origin of the Hermitage name is unclear, but when the house was built, it was advertised as being the house “large new house in Hermitage Park“, which suggests the name was already known for the area, and was not taken from the house itself. It was described as having “Kitchen, 12 fire rooms, garrets, closets and other conveniences, all neatly and substantially finished, with a stable, hay loft and brewhouse, and other offices“. In January 1744 it was advertised for sale in the Caledonian Mercury and described as “new built” and extending to 42 acres of lands. It was at this time the property of the estate of the recently deceased Thomas Mercer of Binhall; his widow, Elizabeth Jamieson, was then still resident in it.

The house continued to be advertised for annual let from 1753 to 1760 (it’s unclear if it was formally occupied during this period) and was optimistically described as being “newly finished” at least 16 years after completion! Lady Fife had bought the house in 1794 after she separated from her husband as a result of there being no legitimate heirs (and probably helped by him siring numerous children through extramarital affair). One of the main conveniences of the house was said to be “a pipe of fine water brought into the kitchen“, making it one of the first houses in Leith to have running water. It’s not clear if the water came from the new public supply for Leith from Lochend Loch or if it was tapped off of the well of the name Lady Fife’s Well opposite the house on Leith Links. A large rookery is described as being kept in the grounds.

The distinctive cruciform footprint of the mansion, with four detached wings arranged around the main building, is clear on Roy’s Lowland Map of the 1750s, the house would have been relatively new at this time.

It is described as having “three pavilions, presently used for summer lodgings“, which I assume account for three of the 4 structures at the end of the “arms” extending from the main block of the house. It also had a walled kitchen garden that grew fruit trees and 8-20 acres of grazing.

You will notice that in the 1804 map above, the land ownership is recorded as “Miss Primrose” (the same is true in the 1817 town plan also). This is on account of Lady Fife’s mother being Margaret Primrose, Countess of Caithness; Dorothea had obviously foregone using the title of her philandering husband – at least for the purpose of land ownership. She gives this family name to the current day Primrose Street which is just to the west of where the house once stood.

By 1839, the house was in the possession of the Wood family, merchants and shipowners of Leith. The end of the Wood line of ownership was Miss Mary Wood, who died there in 1871 age 80. She left a huge legacy, including £1,000 for the Leith Ragged School, £2,000 each for Leith Hospital, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and the Blind Asylum and £15,000 for the reconstruction of St. James’ Episcopal Church and school on Constitution Street. These bequests alone totalled c. £3.3 million today.

The grounds of Hermitage House were once filled with many species of hardwood trees, but this land was gradually swallowed up by building – the first plots, those along the Lochend and Restalrig Roads, were advertised for sale for “building houses upon” as early as 1771. On these plots were built villas including Upper Hermitage, Hermitage Hill, Hermitage Cottage and Hermitage Park. A row of Georgian villas – Hermitage Place was built along the Links. In 1868 the trees of Upper Hermitage were cut down to be replaced by the model streets of the “Lochend Road colonies” houses that took their name; Oakville, Ashville, Thornville, Woodville, Woodbine, Elmwood and Beechwood Terraces. The Hermitage House itself was demolished about 1877 and the Edinburgh Cooperative Building Company was granted a warrant in October 1878 to complete the Leith Links colonies houses on the site (Rosevale Place). Hermitage Park went around 1910, when new tenements were built on Lochend Road and a new public school taking the name Hermitage Park was built on the parkland.

In Lady Fife’s day, she was reputed to be fond of taking a walk on Leith Links. Outside the gates of her house, a public well took the name Lady Fife’s Well. The Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1852-3 records the well as “a spring on the east side of the Links near to Hermitage House, [which] was a favourite walk of Lady Fife residing in Hermitage House“. Beyond the well was (and is) the raised mound of earth given the optimistic title of Lady Fife’s Brae (the latter word being the Scots for a hill, and usually a steep one).

So what is the brae? Is it natural or man made? The Ordnance Survey marked it as an antiquity, “Remains of Pelham’s Battery” on the map of 1849. Pelham’s Battery, or Mount Pelham, was one of three English siege-works constructed as artillery firing platforms during the siege of Leith in 1560. It was named after its commander, Sir William Pelham. The Ordnance Survey Name Book says of it: “An ancient fort said to have been thrown up by the English Army at the Seige of Leith, it is situation about one chain west of Lady Fife’s Well“.

The naming authority was quoted as the antiquarian, Dr. David Henderson Robertson. Robertson had produced in his 1850 book, The Sculptured Stones of Leith, a map showing the hypothetical arrangements of the fortifications of the town during the siege of 1560. It was in this book that Robertson determined that the two remaining “braes” on Leith Links were the remains of the 16th century siege batteries.

Unfortunately Robertson’s map is only partially correct and wrong in a number of respects. The outline of the fortifications he shows is directly contradicted by numerous earlier maps, including a contemporary and accurate one made during the siege. The latter map also accurately shows the siege positions, and that these do not correlate with the mounds on the Links. The mounds are much too close to the walls of Leith for instance, and they are much too small. Plotting the locations of the English siegeworks onto a modern map, based on the contemporary map evidence and subsequent research, puts Mount Pelham (reputed to be Lady Fife’s Brae) on the slopes to the south of Hermitage House. Mount Somerset was categorically not the Giant’s Brae on the Links, but in the grounds of Pilrig House.

So if Lady Fife’s Brae isn’t the last remains of an artillery fortification, what is it? I think a far more logical explanation is that these are natural. The Leith Links are an ancient raised beach system; the earliest illustration I can find of them is from a painting by David Allan in 1787 showing William Inglis, captain of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers who played that game on them. We can see Inglis is standing atop a prominent mound, with the spire of South Leith Kirk, the cones of its glass kilns and North Berwick Law in the distance. This means we are looking north across and the view is over an obviously uneven landscape.

The 1804 Ainslie and 1817 Kirkwood maps both also show the area to be extremely lumpy and bumpy, with many prominent hillocks. The most simple explanation is that when the Links was was being flattened and landscaped in the 19th century these two most prominent mounds were left behind because local lore – supported by Antiquarians – attached a historical significance to them. This is backed up by a letter of 1888 to the Leith Herald, which writes of the intention of Leith Town Council to “level the Links” as “the holes and pitfalls are still so numerous there is a chance of breaking one’s leg if there is a deviation from the pathway“. The author of this letter notes that two “braes” – those of the Giant and Lady Fife – were to be excluded, for what he called a mistaken, sentimental idea of their heritage. He thought they should also be levelled!

Unfortunately, Robertson’s theories have been taken as fact and the story of the two mounds on Leith Links being Marian siege-works have lasted the test of time. Many books have reproduced this story in good faith and the official monument plaques in the park also use this attribution. That doesn’t mean the “braes” aren’t interesting, it’s just not for the reasons that are most commonly assumed.

The Edinburgh and Leith-themed Twelve Days of Christmas Thread continues with a post about Lord Russell Place and Lord John Russell.

Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.

If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends and like-minded people, sites like this thrive on being shared.

Explore Threadinburgh by map:

These threads © 2017-2026, Andy Arthur.

NO AI TRAINING: Any use of the contents of this website to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

The thread about a surprise capture of Edinburgh Castle; when Alexander Leslie was not hoist by his own petard

This thread was originally written and published in March 2020. It has been lightly edited and corrected as applicable for this post.

In March 1639, Lord General Alexander Leslie captured Edinburgh Castle for the Covenanters by having one of his entourage sneakily apply a petard to the castle gates under cover of his appeal to the governor for its surrender. According to the Scottish military historian David Caldwell, this “has to be one of the most remarkable and easy captures of a major fortress in the history of warfare“.

A petard was a bucket or bell-shaped device that was filled with explosives and held against a wall or gate before being exploded, it channelled the explosive force towards the target and as such was a very early form of “shaped charge” weapon. The word Pétard comes from the Middle French péter, to break wind, on the basis of the noise made by the weapon’s detonation. It has entered the popular lexicon from the works of Shakespeare, the phrase “Hoist with his own petard” coming from Hamlet, and means to fall into your own trap or foiled by your own plans, as the petard was often as deadly to those using it as to the intended target.

When war broke out in 1639 between King Charles I and the Covenanting Party in Scotland – The First War of the Bishops – the King had tried to hand the governorship of the castle to Patrick Ruthven, a prominent Royalist soldier. Like many senior Scottish soldiers he had learned his craft in the service of Gustav Adolphus of Sweden during the 30 years war. Ruthven was renowned for his drinking abilities – Gustav Adolphus had used him as a emissary on account of him being able to drink the opposition under the table and still retain his faculties – but sensibly refused the job on account of the poor defensive preparations of the castle. Ruthven also declined Charles’ offer of overall command of the Royalist forces in Scotland as he was not granted absolute authority over them. Instead the castle was held by its long term constable, Archibald Haldane.

Leading the Covenanting Army was Lord General Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven, an immensely capable and respected general. Ironically he had formerly served under Ruthven in the Swedish Army and had risen to Field Marshall in that service, but now back home found himself on the opposing side.

Leslie arrived at Edinburgh castle with fellow former servants of the army of Sweden; the similarly capable Alexander “Dear Sandy” Hamilton – General of Artillery – and Robert Monro – General Major. They brought with them 1,000 locally-raised hagbutters (musketeers). Ostensibly they were there to either appeal to the garrison to surrender or to overawe them with their force. But they had a third plan in case either of these two failed; the petard.

Edinburgh Castle had been unsuccessfully attacked by the English under Hertford in 1544 when the towns of Edinburgh and Leith were burned. When Hertford, now the Duke of Somerset, returned in 1547 this time he didn’t even bother it. During the Siege of Leith, which lasted from 1548 – 1560, the Castle was held by the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, and her Scottish Catholic and French supporters and was largely unaffected. War came again to the Castle in 1573 when a combined English and Scottish protestant force besieged it in the “Lang Siege” which brought the turbulence of the “Marian” civil wars to something of a close but also reduced much of the Castle and its defences to rubble.

Gordon of Rothiemay’s remarkable bird’s eye plan of 1647 shows the castle as it would have been in 1639, largely rebuilt since being reduced in 1573. It’s not so recognisable to us after all the Georgian and Victorian additions to the castle, but the obvious features of the royal apartments (a), St. Margaret’s Chapel (b) are there.

Defensively, the “Spur” (magenta) is the first line of defence. Built and financed by the French supporters of Mary of Guise in the 1550s and 1560s, it was a modern artillery fortification on the bastion style and protected the castle gates from direct frontal assault and had been rebuilt. The “Half Moon Battery” (green) was newer – built by Regent Morton after the Lang Siege – but with its rounded form was anachronistic.

The Spur had taken a siege lasting almost 2 years to overcome it; the Covenanters didn’t have anything like that sort of time or besieging resources on their hands, so subterfuge was a much more sensible approach. Leslie, Hamilton and Monro went up to the castle gates “between 4 and 5 in the afternoon” to parley with Haldane. As they withdrew, one of their party attached the petard to the outer gate of the spur and it was fired.

The outer gate demolished, the Covenanters’ forces rushed the spur in the smoke and confusion and quickly set about the 2 inner gates of the castle “with axes, hammers and ramming-leddirs” while others poured over the walls on scaling ladders.

The garrison were caught totally off guard and unprepared and seemingly no attempt at resistance was made. Within an hour, the castle was in Covenanter hands without loss on either side. We can only surmise how the Covenanters managed to fix and fire the petard without any of the defenders trying to stop them. Perhaps the defenders gave those renowned generals outside the gates too much deference and wouldn’t suspect that they might try any such trick. Given this amounted to the physical opening shot of The First Bishop’s War, everything up until this point being political manoeuvring, the defenders could be forgiven for not expecting an assault.

Or perhaps they didn’t even know what a petard was and what to look for. Apparently this was its first use in Scotland for a generation and only the third record of one being used at all. Petards had been banned – on pain of death – by King James VI after their use to blow up the gates of the Lord of Spynie’s house of Kinblethmont in November 1602.

Or perhaps they just didn’t underestimated their foes and didn’t respect the skill, determination and masterful planning that usually marked out Alexander Leslie.

Within a year and the conclusion of the First Bishop’s War (in the favour of the Covenanters), the Castle was back in the possession of the King and this time had to be put under proper siege by the Covenanters under Major Hugh Somerville (Leslie was in England with the main body of the Covenanter army) to take it. Defending it this time was Patrick Ruthven, who had made considerable preparations for such an event and was well supplied and garrisoned; there would be no quick trick to take the Castle this time. Ruthven held out for 3 months before a surrender was finally negotiated, both defenders and besiegers being bloodied by the experience. For his troubles, Ruthven was raised by King Charles to Earl of Forth.

Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.

If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends and like-minded people, sites like this thrive on being shared.

Explore Threadinburgh by map:

These threads © 2017-2026, Andy Arthur.

NO AI TRAINING: Any use of the contents of this website to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

The thread about Edinburgh and Leith under occupation; when “Gardyloo”, Christmas and being rude to Frenchmen were banned

From 1548 to 1560, the Port of Leith was occupied by a French garrison in support of the Queen Regent of Scotland, Mary of Guise. During that time the French fortified the town and made themselves generally unpopular with the locals. Such was the mutual bad feeling that in 1555 Mary of Guise’s Parliament made it an offence to speak ill of Frenchmen. I am not sure if this act has been repealed yet…

One of the reasons for the French being so unpopular was their constant requisitioning of ships – this was a town that relied on the sea for its prosperity and in doing so the occupiers were directly impoverishing its occupants. As a result of this, shipowners were in the habit of making their vessels be spontaneously elsewhere whenever they got wind that the French might need them, which created logistical problems for the garrison commander. In 1550, the French governor in Leith employed two pynours (porters) to remove and impound all the rudders of the ships of Leith to prevent them from slipping away without his say-so. Twelve days later, all Scottish vessels from Kinghorn to Crail were ordered to leave for Leith within three hours or face being forfeited with their masters put to death.

Opposing the French in Leith were Scottish Protestant lords – the grandiosely titled Lords of the Congregation, or The Faithful – backed by an English army. An English general, Randolph, noted in 1560 that “in no other country were ever seen so many particular quarrels, which daily cause many to keep off who mortally hate the French“: Randolph could not understand how the Scots resented the French occupiers so much but yet were so reluctant to fight with the English against them. He had money to finance 2-3,000 Scots troops to eject the French but could not get them “for love nor money“. The English ended up assaulting Leith under an incompetent commander, with untrained recruits and ladders that were too short to scale the walls. This amateurish attack was repulsed by the stretched, starving but competent and well entrenched French garrison. Further bloodshed was spared when Mary of Guise died shortly thereafter and a short peace was agreed, allowing the French to leave.

Less than 100 years after the exit of the French, Leith would find itself once again under military occupation after the calamitous defeat in 1650 of the Scottish Covenanter forces at the hands of Oliver Cromwell in the Battle of Dunbar. Relations between occupier and occupied this time were less strained; although English rule was firm and uncompromising there appeared to be more mutual tolerance on both sides, probably both were just exhausted from nearly 12 years of bloody warfare. The population and economy of Leith had also been shattered by a plague in 1645 that killed nearly half its population.

Cromwell entered Edinburgh on Saturday 7th December, just days after victory at Dunbar. Although the remnants of the Scottish army fought on it had abandoned the city to wage a protracted war of retreat across the country. The occupation was initially marked by restraint on the part of the victors and under Cromwell’s direct orders on 27th December three of his men were publicly flogged through the town by the “Provest marschellis men” for the offence of plundering houses without orders. Another unfortunate Roundhead was strapped to a horse with a pint jug tied around his neck, his hands bound and muskets tied to his feet, and ridden around the town for 2 hours for the offence of drunkenness. In May 1652, an English officer had his ear nailed to the public gallows and thereafter cut off for toasting the King’s health.

Civilian administration in those days was relatively limited, but the English were sensible enough to allow that of Edinburgh to continue to function – under close observation. Leith however had no such local authority of its own beyond that of Edinburgh and so was ruled directly through military courts headed by English officers “without partiality or favour“. In November 1651 they hung one of their own troopers at the Market Cross “a gallant, stout fellow” for robbing a butcher. A soldier found drunk and swearing in Leith was bound, hit repeatedly in the mouth and tied to a pillar with “a paper bound to his breast” specifying his crimes. Relations in Leith with the English seemed to be downright cordial at times (perhaps because the locals were pleased to be relieved of the constant political and economic interference from Edinburgh) but things ended up becoming too cordial. In October 1651 English soldiers had to be forbidden from marrying Leith women without the written permission of their Major and in February 1652 this prohibition was extended to the keeping of female servants!

In Edinburgh, although the town itself had been easily taken, the Castle garrison had held out and was being besieged by Cromwell’s New Model Army. Anyone found treating with the garrison was dealt with severely. A gardener at the West Kirk (now St. Cuthbert’s Parish Church) was accused of giving intelligence to the Castle; he was taken to the city guardhouse and hung from his thumbs with burning slow matches (the sort used in matchlock firearms) between his fingers until they were “burnt to the bone“.

In March 1651 the English soldiers in Edinburgh mutinied due to the lack of provisions and pay; what had been sent to them by sea had been turned back by unfavourable weather. They put their own commanders in jail and “ran through the markets of Edinburgh, plundering and robbing the people of the town, so that few would go out on the streets“. General John Lambert arrived in Edinburgh at the end of November that year to restore order and to make arrangements for quartering of his army in the city over winter. He seems to have made a positive impression with the locals; on finding out that there was no local magistrate in place to dispense justice, he reinstated some of the old ones. He also ordered the Incorporated Trades to choose their own Deacons (the principal officers of the Trades, who formed a core of the Town Council). He did however maintain a right of veto over appointments and kept the appointment of the Castle’s governor to his personal choice.

In December, Lambert ordered citizens in both Edinburgh and Leith to hang out lanterns and place candles in their windows or doors from 6PM to 9PM on account of the disorder being committed by the soldiers. This was observed but cost the inhabitants dearly as candles were an expensive commodity. Anybody found not complying was to be fined 4 shillings sterling, with the master or mistress of the house being thrown in the city guardhouse until it was paid. He also set about the perhaps impossible task of the cleaning up of Auld Reekie. Orders were given on the 24th December that the streets, closes and wynds in Edinburgh were be cleansed within 13 days and “no filth or water should be thrown forth from their windows upon pain of paying immediately 4 shillings sterling“. The proceeds of such fines were to be split equally between the informant and the poor of the town. Clearly it did not have a long lasting effect as just three years later the city was ordered to procure carts and horses for the carrying away of the filth.

On December 25th 1651 the English authorities in Leith ordered that Christmas should be banned. The point being made here was probably moot however given it was not something that would have been openly observed or celebrated in Presbyterian Scotland. Indeed the Kirk, the usual incumbent authority on moral matters in Scottish towns and burghs, had banned its celebration back in 1640. However ten years later it had nothing like its former authority, especially in Leith where it had been evicted from its church buildings and relieved of its civic duties by the occupiers.

On February 7th 1652, under orders of the Commissioners of the English Parliament who were at that time resident in Dalkeith, the symbols of the Stuart Kings’ arms, crowns and royal unicorns of the city were taken down wherever they were to be found. They were stripped from the King’s pew at St. Giles’ Kirk, from the Mercat cross, the Netherbow Port, Parliament House, Edinburgh Castle and the palace of Holyroodhouse. They were then taken to the gallows and publicly hung.

In May 1654 General Monck, who had been Cromwell’s military commander in Scotland until 1652, came once again to Edinburgh to proclaim the union of England and Scotland as the Commonwealth. He was received by the Lord Provost and Bailies of the Town Council (the most senior members of the civilian authority) in their finery. Perhaps they were mindful of the rape and pillage of Dundee committed by Monck’s men back in 1651 and set out to woo the General lest they incur his wrath. They conveyed him to a “sumptuous dinner and feast, prepared by the Town of Edinburgh for him and his special officers. This feast was six days in preparing, and the bailies of Edinburgh did stand and serve the whole time of that dinner“. They also laid on a “great preparation” of fireworks which were set off from the Mercat Cross between 9PM and midnight, “to the admiration of many people“.

Cromwell also left it to Monck to resolve the interminable squabbles between the city of Edinburgh and Port of Leith. The latter wanted freedom to trade without interference from its neighbour, the former wanted to assert its historic legal rights to her port. An English merchant in Leith at the time said that the town had been “under the greatest slavery that I ever knew” and should subject to under Edinburgh no more than “Westminster to London.” As part of his overall strategy to pacify and control Scotland, Monck proposed enclosing Leith in fortifications as a garrison town – probably reconstructing the 1560 walls and bastions. The prospect of this terrified Edinburgh, as it would make it substantially easier for Leith to act independently. Edinburgh shrewdly counter-offered that it would pay £5,000 instead for a standalone Citadel outside of Leith – or it may be that the it was Monck being shrewd and he had played Edinburgh off against Leith to get them to finance his scheme. In the end the £5,000 citadel apparently cost many times that to build. The city would later buy it back for a further £5,000 from Charles II, so ended up paying for it twice. Although it was well engineered it was soon abandoned as a defensive fortification; the seaward walls and bastions had been impossible to protect from erosion by the sea and had collapsed within 30 years.

By May 1660, the Commonwealth was over (assisted in no small part by Monck) and the Houses of Parliament had proclaimed Charles II to be King. Orders were sent to the Governor of Edinburgh castle to fire 3 volleys from the guns, one for each of the Three Kingdoms. The chief gunner at the Castle gave the orders to his men but one refused saying that “The devil [would] blow him in the air that loosed a cannon for that purpose” and “if he loosed any cannon that day sum man should repent it“. The complainant was transferred to a gun overlooking the West Kirk. The first volley was duly fired and when this man went to reload his weapon, he recharged it with powder only for it to spontaneously discharge while he was doing so, there being a smouldering ember in the barrel. He was blown clean over the castle walls and off the Castle Rock itself, falling over 250 feet to his death. He was buried near where he landed in the West Kirk.

Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.

If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends and like-minded people, sites like this thrive on being shared.

Explore Threadinburgh by map:

These threads © 2017-2026, Andy Arthur.

NO AI TRAINING: Any use of the contents of this website to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.