Mary, Queen of Scots, 1542-1587; Queens -- Scotland -- Biography; Scotland -- History -- Mary Stuart, 1542-1567
Beyond this, all is very difficult to explain and understand. The church
of Kirk o’ Field, and the quadrangle of houses tenanted, just as in Oxford
or Cambridge, by the Prebendaries and Provost of that collegiate church,
lay, at an early date, _outside_ of the walls of Edinburgh. This is proved
by the very name of the collegiate church, ‘St. Mary in the Fields.’ But
by 1531, a royal charter speaks of ‘the College Church of the Blessed
Virgin Mary in the Fields, _within the walls_ of the burgh of Edinburgh,’
the city wall having been recently extended in that direction.[119] The
monastery of the Black Friars, close to Kirk o’ Field, was also included,
by 1531, within the walls of the burgh. But the town wall which encircled
Kirk o’ Field and the Black Friars on the south, was always in a ruinous
condition. In 1541, we find the Town Council demanding that ‘ane honest
substantious wall’ shall be made in another quarter.[120] In 1554, the
Provost and Prebendaries of Kirk o’ Field granted part of their grounds to
the Duke of Châtelherault, because their own houses had been ‘burned down
and destroyed by their auld enemies of England,’ in the invasions of
1544-1547.[121] In 1544-1547, the town wall encircling Kirk o’ Field on
the south must also have been partially ruined. Châtelherault built on the
ground thus acquired, quite close to Kirk o’ Field, a large new house or
château from which, according to George Buchanan, Archbishop Hamilton sent
forth ruffians to aid in Darnley’s murder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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