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During its pre-history in the Iron and Bronze Ages, humans existed in the area around Holyrood, Craiglockhart Hill and the Pentland Hills, leaving traces of primitive stone settlements. At the time of its actual foundation, it was a part of the Kingdom of Northumbria, an Anglian kingdom on the east side of Great Britain, spanning from the Humber Estuary to the Firth of Forth. The area surrounding Castle Rock, then known as "Lookout Hill," became the foundation point. On the hill Edwin of Northumbria a powerful Christian king founded the fortress to secure the northern part of his territory against invasion. This fortress was known in the Brythonic language as Din Eidyn, which means "Edwin's fort" after the king. As the fortress grew, many houses were relocated towards the ridge of Castlehill. A layout began to form, when householders would be given the option to be granted a "toft" or stretch of garden behind the ridge. The name eventually developed through the English language into first Edwinesburch and then into Edinburgh, the name it is known by today. After the murder of St. Oswald King of Northumbria, Edinburgh fell under the control of the Danelaw.
In the 10th century, with the collapse of the Danelaw, the Scots captured the position. Then in the 12th century a small town flourished at the base of the castle known as Edinburgh, along side which another community rose up to the East around the Abbey of Holyrood, known as Holyrood. Together in the 13th century these became Royal Burghs. As a consequence of Edinburgh's earlier Anglo-Saxon rule, Edinburgh and the Border counties lay in a disputed zone between England and Scotland, England claiming all Anglo-Saxon Domains as English territory, and Scotland claiming all territory as far south as Hadrian's Wall. The result was a long series of border wars and clashes, which often left Edinburgh Castle under English control. It was not until the 15th century, when Edinburgh remained for the most firmly under Scottish control, that King James IV of Scotland undertook to move the Royal Court from Stirling to Holyrood, making Edinburgh by proxy Scotland's capital.
As Edinburgh remained under Scottish rule, with the nearby port and Royal Burgh of Leith, Edinburgh flourished both economically and culturally. In 1603, following King James VI's accession to the English and Irish thrones, James VI instituted the first executive Parliament of Scotland which met in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle, later finding a home in the Tolbooth, before moving to purpose-built Parliament House, Edinburgh, which is now home to the Supreme Courts of Scotland. In 1639 disputes over the planned merger, between the Presbyterian Church and the Anglican Church, and the demands by Charles I, to reunify the divided St. Giles' Cathedral, led to the Bishops' Wars, which in turn led to the English Civil War, and the eventual occupation of Edinburgh by the Commonwealth forces of Oliver Cromwell. In the 1670s King Charles II commissioned the rebuilding of Holyrood Palace. 1732 saw Lord Lyon King of Arms grant a coat of arms to the Town Council, a modified version of which is used today as the city's official emblem.
During the last Jacobite rebellion, Edinburgh was occupied by Jacobite forces, after the retreat of Jacobite forces from Derby it was reoccupied by British forces under the command of the Prince William, Duke of Cumberland.
Following the defeat of Jacobites there was a long period of reprisals and pacification. At this time, the Hanoverian monarch wished to stamp his identity on Edinburgh and new developments to the north of the castle were named in honour of the King and his family; George Street, Frederick Street, Hanover Street, Queen Street, Princes Street, Castle Street and with control of the ‘Rose’ of England and the ‘Thistle’ of Scotland these names were also allocated to streets. The original plan for this build was to be constructed in the form of King James VI's Union Flag and this shape can be detected when viewing the layout of the aforementioned streets from above.
Out of the mess left behind by the consequences of the Jacobite rebellion came a number of Scottish intellectuals, many from Edinburgh, including Adam Smith, who felt it was time to put the history of the Clans of Scotland behind them and that this was a time for Scotland to modernise. They promoted the idea of Britishness, and led Great Britain and the British Empire into a golden age of economic and social reform and prosperity. It was during this period, that Edinburgh expanded beyond the limits of its city walls, with the creation of the New Town, following the draining of the Nor Loch, which has since become Princes Street Gardens. Edinburgh became a major cultural centre, earning it the nickname Athens of the North because of the Greco-Roman style of the New Town's architecture, as well as the rise of the Scottish/British intellectual elite in the city, who were increasingly leading both British and European intellectual thought.
Edinburgh today
Edinburgh is particularly noted for its fine architecture, especially from the Georgian period. In 17th-century Edinburgh, a defensive city wall defined the boundaries of the city. Due to the restricted land area available for development, the houses increased in height instead. Buildings of 11 stories were common, and there are records of buildings as high as 14 stories,[citation needed] and thus are thought to be the pioneers for the modern-day skyscraper. Many of the stone-built structures can still be seen today in the old town of Edinburgh.
In the 19th century, Edinburgh, like many cities, industrialised, but most of this was undertaken in Leith, which meant that Edinburgh as a whole did not grow greatly in size. Glasgow soon replaced it as the largest and most prosperous city in Scotland, becoming the industrial, commercial and trade centre, while Edinburgh remained almost purely Scotland's intellectual and cultural centre, which it remains to this day as one of the greatest cultural centres of the UK and the world.
Nicknames
The city is affectionately nicknamed Auld Reekie (Scots for Old Smoky), because when buildings were heated by coal and wood fires, chimneys would spew thick columns of smoke into the air. The colloquial pronunciation "Embra" or "Embro" has also been used as in Robert Garioch's Embro to the Ploy
Some have called Edinburgh the Athens of the North and Auld Greekie for its intellectual history, with the Old Town of Edinburgh performing a similar role to the Athenian Acropolis. Edinburgh is also known by several Latin names; Aneda or Edinensis, the latter can be seen inscribed on many educational buildings.
Edinburgh has also been known as Dunedin, deriving from the Scottish Gaelic, Dùn Èideann. Dunedin, New Zealand, was originally called "New Edinburgh" and is still nicknamed the "Edinburgh of the South". The Scots poets Robert Burns and Robert Fergusson sometimes used the city's Latin name, Edina. Ben Jonson described it as Britain's other eye,[20] and Sir Walter Scott referred to the city as yon Empress of the North. |
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