Our depiction of Edinburgh and the Canongate was inspired by a drawing in the British Library made by the English military engineer Richard Lee, who accompanied Hertford’s forces in 1544. Lee’s drawing is the earliest moderately realistic picture of Edinburgh and would influence how the English portrayed the Scottish capital into the seventeenth century (a variant of Lee’s illustration is included in John Speed’s atlas, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain, published c.1611). It is possible that Lee’s plan was created to explain the outcome of the Edinburgh expedition to Henry VIII of England. On 19 May 1544 the Earl of Hertford informed Henry that he was sending him ‘Master Lee, who I assure your Majesty hath served in the journey both honestly and willingly, [and] doth bring unto your Highness a plat of Leith and Edinburgh so as your Majesty shall perceive the situations of the same, which is undoubtedly set forth as well as is possible.’
St Giles’ was the most important church in the burgh of Edinburgh (although it was not a cathedral until the 1630s). In 1544 St Giles’ was still a Catholic Church. It was lavishly decorated with statues and stained glass, and housed the altars of the local craft guilds. The feast day of St Giles (on 1st September) was marked by a religious procession along the Royal Mile. In 1558 Protestant Reformers disrupted the religious festivities, throwing a statue of St Giles to the ground, and smashing it upon the paving stones. Two years later Scotland officially rejected Catholicism, and St Giles’ became a Protestant place of worship. Music by the Edinburgh Renaissance Band - Ane Lessone upone the first psalme. Digital Reconstruction and video - Sarah Kennedy - Head of Virtual Visualisations - Smart History Historical Research - Dr Bess Rhodes - - Head of Historical Research - Smart History