The Royal Mile, one of the most famous streets in Edinburgh, runs from the castle all the way down to Holyrood Palace. When Edinburgh castle was first established this was the only accessible route, a natural ramp formed thousands of years ago gave access to a castle otherwise impregnable from the east.

With the establishment of Holyrood palace, or rather the original monastery in the 12th century, the route between the two became an important thoroughfare. Businesses and government offices sprang up as well as several churches such as the magnificent St Giles Cathedral.

By the 16th century many parts of this route became dedicated to markets and the wide area running down from St Giles towards the Canongate featured some of the city’s first permanent shops. Many of these housed small trade people who made and sold their wares, and among the most popular were the jewellers. The shops themselves were very small and were known as ‘Locked Booths’. From this we get the word ‘Luckenbooth’.

The Luckenbooth brooch became a very popular item in 16th century Scotland. It featured the ‘Heart & Crown of Scotland’ and was romantically linked to the tragic Mary, Queen of Scots as it was the brooch she had given to Lord Darnley.

The style of the Luckenbooth brooch became very popular throughout the UK. By the 18th century the trade in silver to the new world featured the little brooch and many ended up traded with Native Americans, particularly the Iroquois of the Six Nations. As a result of this the Luckenbooth became a popular decorative symbol in their costumes.

The tradition was that the young man would give his lady a Luckenbooth brooch on their wedding day. When their first child arrived the brooch would then be pinned to the babies shawl to protect it from “evil spirits”. As such it had very similar connotations to the Irish ‘Claddagh’ ring especially with the similar heart shaped theme. This tradition can be carried over to today. A Luckenbooth Brooch makes a fantastic gift for your bride on your wedding day, or a gift for a newborn as a symbol of protection and love. Whatever you pick one up for, it is and always will be an enduring symbol of Edinburgh and of Scotland.

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Neil Oliver with the stamps

A new series of stamps by the Royal Mail have been issued, depicting the Stewart monarchs who ruled Scotland between 1406 and 1603, the year of the Union of the Crowns.

The series starts with James I (1406-1437) and stops at James VI (1567-1603) who went on the become the king of England, uniting to the two kingdoms, after the death of Elizabeth I. Queen Mary, one of Scotland’s most famous monarchs, will also appear, in the series, and it will be her first time depicted on a stamp.

The series was launched by archaeologist and TV historian Neil Oliver at Stirling Castle. Along with images of seven of the nine Stewart monarchs, stamps representing significant events during this 200 year period, including the founding of the University of St Andrews in 1413 and an image of the religious leader John Knox will also feature.

Neil Oliver commented on the stamps, saying, “Mary, Queen of Scots is obviously the most famous and colourful of the Stewart monarchs and it is wonderful to see her represented on a stamp.

“I’m delighted that Royal Mail is helping bring history to life through its series of stamps celebrating the history of Britain’s Kings and Queens.”

The director of Scottish affairs for Royal Mail Group, Ian McKay, also commented: “These stamps will be popular with anyone who is interested in Scottish history and I hope they can add to the good work done by places like Stirling Castle to preserve and pass on Scotland’s heritage.”

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The wax death mask of Mary

On the 8th of February, 1587 Mary I of Scotland was executed for treason at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire. She was found guilty of conspiring against her cousin Elizabeth of England, and so after 18 years of confinement, Mary was eventually taken to the scaffold where she was beheaded at the age of 44.

The following is an account of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots taken by Robert Wynkfield.

“Her prayers being ended, the executioners, kneeling, desired her Grace to forgive them her death: who answered, ‘I forgive you with all my heart, for now, I hope, you shall make an end of all my troubles.’ Then they, with her two women, helping her up, began to disrobe her of her apparel: then she, laying her crucifix upon the stool, one of the executioners took from her neck the Agnus Dei, which she, laying hands off it, gave to one of her women, and told the executioner, he should be answered money for it. Then she suffered them, with her two women, to disrobe her of her chain of pomander beads and all other apparel most willingly, and with joy rather than sorrow, helped to make unready herself, putting on a pair of sleeves with her own hands which they had pulled off, and that with some haste, as if she had longed to be gone.

All this time they were pulling off her apparel, she never changed her countenance, but with smiling cheer she uttered these words,’that she never had such grooms to make her unready, and that she never put off her clothes before such a company.’

Mary being led to the scaffold

Then she, being stripped of all her apparel saving her petticoat and kirtle, her two women beholding her made great lamentation, and crying and crossing themselves prayed in Latin. She, turning herself to them, embracing them, said these words in French, ‘Ne crie vous, j’ay prome pour vous‘, and so crossing and kissing them, bad them pray for her and rejoice and not weep, for that now they should see an end of all their mistress’s troubles.

Then she, with a smiling countenance, turning to her men servants, as Melvin and the rest, standing upon a bench nigh the scaffold, who sometime weeping, sometime crying out aloud, and continually crossing themselves, prayed in Latin, crossing them with her hand bade them farewell, and wishing them to pray for her even until the last hour.

This done, one of the women have a Corpus Christi cloth lapped up three-corner-ways, kissing it, put it over the Queen of Scots’ face, and pinned it fast to the caule of her head. Then the two women departed from her, and she kneeling down upon the cushion most resolutely, and without any token or fear of death, she spake aloud this Psalm in Latin, In Te Domine confido, non confundar in eternam, etc. Then, groping for the block, she laid down her head, putting her chin over the block with both her hands, which, holding there still, had been cut off had they not been espied. Then lying upon the block most quietly, and stretching out her arms cried, In manus tuas, Domine, etc., three or four times. Then she, lying very still upon the block, one of the executioners holding her slightly with one of his hands, she endured two strokes of the other executioner with an axe, she making very small noise or none at all, and not stirring any part of her from the place where she lay: and so the executioner cut off her head, saving one little gristle, which being cut asunder, he lift up her head to the view of all the assembly and bade God save the Queen. Then, her dress of lawn [i.e. wig] from off her head, it appeared as grey as one of threescore and ten years old, polled very short, her face in a moment being so much altered from the form she had when she was alive, as few could remember her by her dead face. Her lips stirred up and a down a quarter of an hour after her head was cut off.

The execution

Then Mr. Dean [Dr. Fletcher, Dean of Peterborough] said with a loud voice, ‘So perish all the Queen’s enemies’, and afterwards the Earl of Kent came to the dead body, and standing over it, with a loud voice said, ‘Such end of all the Queen’s and the Gospel’s enemies.’

Then one of the executioners, pulling off her garters, espied her little dog which was crept under her cloths, which could not be gotten forth by force, yet afterward would not depart from the dead corpse, but came and lay between her head and her shoulders, which being imbrued with her blood was carried away and washed, as all things else were that had any blood was either burned or washed clean, and the executioners sent away with money for their fees, not having any one thing that belonged unto her. And so, every man being commanded out of the hall, except the sheriff and his men, she was carried by them up into a great chamber lying ready for the surgeons to embalm her.”

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