1 00:00:03,720 --> 00:00:08,120 DAN JONES: For me, a great British castle is a fortress, a palace, a home. 2 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:13,520 And a symbol of power, majesty and fear. 3 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:17,120 For nearly a thousand years, 4 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:20,400 castles have shaped Britain's famous landscape. 5 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:26,400 These magnificent buildings have been home 6 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:30,920 to some of the greatest heroes and villains in our national history. 7 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:34,520 And many of them still stand proudly today, 8 00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:37,640 bursting with incredible stories 9 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:41,840 of warfare, treachery, intrigue, passion and murder. 10 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:46,520 Join me, Dan Jones, 11 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:51,440 as I uncover the secrets behind six great British castles. 12 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:55,160 This time, I'm in Edinburgh, 13 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,280 these days, home to the famous yearly spectacle 14 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:00,880 that is the military tattoo. 15 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:04,240 But over its 1,000-year history, it's earned the accolade 16 00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:07,760 of being the most besieged castle in the land. 17 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:12,960 Edinburgh Castle is a truly iconic British landmark, 18 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:15,560 with a truly deadly history. 19 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:18,800 It's been the scene of legendary betrayals, 20 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:21,280 backstabbing and conspiracies, 21 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:25,120 as well as some of the most epic battles ever witnessed 22 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:28,280 between England and Scotland's kings and queens. 23 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:38,560 Edinburgh Castle is most the fought-over castle in Britain. 24 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:43,400 It's been attacked 23 times, 25 00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:50,360 by everyone from warring Scottish clans to English kings and even German airships. 26 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:54,240 It has survived them all, 27 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:59,360 and today it still stands, dominant over the surrounding landscape, 28 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:05,440 bristling with cannon, unbroken and magnificent. 29 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:08,760 One of the greatest fortresses ever built. 30 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:13,280 And one that still packs a punch today. 31 00:02:16,920 --> 00:02:18,440 This is the One o'clock Gun. 32 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:22,840 And a gun like this has been fired from the walls of Edinburgh Castle 33 00:02:22,920 --> 00:02:29,240 every day except for Sundays, Christmas Day and Good Fridays since 1861. 34 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:33,000 Now, the boom it makes echoes over the city of Edinburgh below 35 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:36,800 and out to the Firth of Forth, where it helped shipping keep time. 36 00:02:48,920 --> 00:02:50,720 -Phew. -(CROWD CHATTERING) 37 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:56,680 Now, that explosion is a daily reminder 38 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:00,760 that Edinburgh Castle still has a working military garrison. 39 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:05,040 This is a living fortress, and a very impressive one, too. 40 00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:10,760 Wherever you walk, for miles around, 41 00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:15,920 you see this mighty castle looming over the countryside. 42 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:21,000 The very granite it stands on is a natural wonder. 43 00:03:21,920 --> 00:03:24,800 Edinburgh Castle sits on top of Castle Rock, 44 00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:27,480 a vast outcrop of volcanic rock 45 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:32,600 that first erupted from the earth 350 million years ago. 46 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:35,720 Now, the volcano that produced it, well, that's long extinct, 47 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:39,360 but the rock remains the focal point of the city. 48 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:44,440 It's also the perfect defensive spot to put a military settlement 49 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:47,040 declaring to everyone for miles around, 50 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:49,680 "We are here to dominate you." 51 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:58,080 People have lived on Castle Rock since the Bronze Age. 52 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,000 That's nearly 3,000 years ago. 53 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:02,400 (BAGPIPE PLAYING) 54 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:06,000 And for at least half of that time, 55 00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:09,080 it's been the base for warriors to get together 56 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:10,720 before going off to battle. 57 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:15,440 To eat, to fight and of course, to get drunk. 58 00:04:15,960 --> 00:04:18,600 We know that there was a castle full of warriors at Edinburgh 59 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:22,080 from as far back as 1,400 years ago, because it's mentioned 60 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:26,200 in one of the earliest known poems in British history, the Gododdin. 61 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:29,760 The Gododdin celebrates the deeds of one of these warriors and it says, 62 00:04:29,840 --> 00:04:33,680 "There was no one who more completely, from the fortress of Eidyn, 63 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:35,040 "scattered the enemy." 64 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:38,320 The fortress of Eidyn, well, that's Edinburgh Castle. 65 00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:42,120 And the poem also says that these warriors spent a full year 66 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:46,080 feasting and drinking mead before they went out to fight. 67 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:52,800 By the Middle Ages, Scotland was becoming a unified kingdom. 68 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:54,960 Edinburgh was its leading city, 69 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:59,440 and the castle was controlled by the Scottish kings and their families. 70 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:04,000 And that's when the castle we see today started taking shape. 71 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:12,360 One tiny building within the sprawling castle complex 72 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:16,080 lets us peer inside that long-forgotten world. 73 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:24,760 It's this chapel, dedicated to Scotland's only royal saint. 74 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:28,120 This is St. Margaret's Chapel, 75 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:35,000 and it was put up nearly 900 years ago, in 1130, by King David I of Scotland 76 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:37,160 in memory of his mother, Queen Margaret. 77 00:05:38,840 --> 00:05:41,160 Queen Margaret was an English princess 78 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:45,000 who came to Scotland to marry King David's father, 79 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:49,160 the powerful, long-ruling Scottish king, Malcolm III. 80 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:52,920 Tragically, she died three days 81 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,240 after learning that her husband, King Malcolm, 82 00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:56,360 (SOLDIERS SHOUTING) 83 00:05:56,520 --> 00:06:01,000 and her eldest son had been killed in battle by the English. 84 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:09,440 Three of Margaret's surviving sons went on to become kings of Scotland, 85 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:12,320 each of them consolidating Edinburgh's place 86 00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:15,640 as the seat of Scottish royal power. 87 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:23,920 But hostilities with the kings of England would continue for centuries. 88 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:27,080 And none was deadlier 89 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:31,320 than the war with the English warrior king, Edward I, 90 00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:34,920 who would earn the nickname the Hammer of the Scots. 91 00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:42,920 In March 1296, Edward's army invaded Scotland and marched on Edinburgh. 92 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:44,120 (SOLDIERS SHOUTING) 93 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:51,560 Now, people didn't call Edward I the Hammer of the Scots for nothing. 94 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:53,440 (SOLDIERS SHOUTING) 95 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:56,640 He was a warrior king 96 00:06:56,720 --> 00:07:00,560 with a vast collection of siege catapults known as trebuchets. 97 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:06,520 And arriving in Edinburgh, he deployed the most fearsome of them all, 98 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:07,960 Warwolf. 99 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:12,120 Said to be the largest trebuchet ever made, 100 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:15,040 Warwolf needed 30 wagons to transport it 101 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:19,720 and could hurl missiles weighing around 300 pounds. 102 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:31,960 After a three-day battering, the Scottish defenders of Edinburgh Castle 103 00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:35,160 quite sensibly gave up and the English moved in. 104 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:39,160 They installed their own garrison, and humiliatingly for the Scots, 105 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:42,000 they stayed here for the next 18 years. 106 00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:46,280 It would take nearly two decades 107 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:50,360 for the Scots to dislodge the English from Edinburgh Castle. 108 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:54,160 Edward I's invasion marked the beginning of a conflict 109 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:56,880 known as the Wars of Scottish Independence, 110 00:07:57,160 --> 00:08:01,360 which would rage between the two sides for over half a century. 111 00:08:01,960 --> 00:08:03,760 When they weren't fighting the English, 112 00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:08,200 competing claimants to the Scottish throne plotted against each other. 113 00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:09,360 Give him fire! 114 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:11,720 This grinding period of unrest 115 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:16,120 meant Edinburgh Castle would be the scene of a litany of murders, 116 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:19,560 massacres and jaw-dropping treachery, 117 00:08:20,120 --> 00:08:24,720 as conflicting sides fought over this mighty fortress. 118 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:30,560 In the Middle Ages, 119 00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:34,960 England's warmonger king, Edward I, invaded Scotland. 120 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:41,960 He used the latest military machinery to smash Edinburgh Castle into submission 121 00:08:42,040 --> 00:08:45,000 and he took the castle for himself. 122 00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:48,640 The English then held it for nearly 20 years. 123 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:55,080 This fortress, built to house and protect Scottish royalty, 124 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:59,240 had become a humiliating sign of English triumph. 125 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:06,000 The Scots didn't have the firepower to retake Edinburgh Castle by force. 126 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:08,680 But what they did have was stealth, 127 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:13,360 cunning and a little bit of top-secret information. 128 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:21,800 In 1314, a wily Scottish nobleman called Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, 129 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:26,120 hatched a simple and astonishingly brazen plot 130 00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:29,360 to regain this monster of a castle. 131 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:32,720 He was going to climb over the wall. 132 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:40,160 You look at that cliff and it's pretty daunting, but that's the point. 133 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:42,440 The whole reason the castle is up there 134 00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:45,960 is because that is supposed to be impossible to climb. 135 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:47,880 But that's not what Moray thought. 136 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:53,160 According to chronicles of the time, he'd learned about a secret route 137 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:57,560 up the rock face, over the wall and into the castle at the top. 138 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:00,400 Historian David Caldwell 139 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:04,400 thinks he's got to the bottom of this incredible story. 140 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:08,000 They knew it was possible because they met up with a guy 141 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:10,600 who was the son of a previous governor of the castle... 142 00:10:10,680 --> 00:10:12,200 -Okay. -...William Francis. 143 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:15,880 And he used to escape over the wall, at that point, at night, 144 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:17,800 to go and visit his woman in town. 145 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:23,360 So, he knew it was possible with the use of a ladder over the wall at the top. 146 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:26,200 But how on earth did Moray get up this rock face? 147 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:30,360 With a great deal of difficulty, I think, and by the look of it, but I don't know. 148 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:32,120 I mean, you can just imagine that 149 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:34,240 they could have got up that sort of gully there. 150 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:37,560 And you can see there's a sort of platform and quite a substantial ledge. 151 00:10:37,680 --> 00:10:38,680 JONES: Yeah. 152 00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:40,920 Now, I think that's where 30 men could have had a rest, 153 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:43,240 as we know from the accounts of the escapade. 154 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:46,040 -Just a rope ladder to get over? -Just a rope ladder, yeah. 155 00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:47,440 And there were just 30 of them 156 00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:50,760 and the garrison of the castle was probably about 200. 157 00:10:50,840 --> 00:10:54,000 So, even just getting into the castle was still a major risk 158 00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:57,680 that they could actually overpower the garrison and take it. 159 00:11:02,040 --> 00:11:04,720 JONES: Unbelievably, Moray's plan worked. 160 00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:15,560 He and his men climbed the sheer rock, jumped the walls, 161 00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:20,600 and slaughtered the English soldiers inside. 162 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:23,240 In the blink of an eye, 163 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:26,680 Edinburgh Castle was back in Scottish hands. 164 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:32,480 And Moray was a hero. 165 00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:35,880 But there was plenty more trouble still to come. 166 00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:40,640 Less than 100 years after Moray's climb, 167 00:11:41,040 --> 00:11:43,960 a new Scottish royal family was on the throne. 168 00:11:44,560 --> 00:11:46,760 They were called the Stuarts. 169 00:11:47,240 --> 00:11:52,520 The Stuarts would become one of the most famous dynasties in British history. 170 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:56,160 But not always for the right reasons. 171 00:11:56,240 --> 00:12:00,080 And Edinburgh Castle saw them at their very worst. 172 00:12:05,160 --> 00:12:08,160 For centuries, this was a place of backstabbing, 173 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:10,240 skullduggery and intrigue 174 00:12:10,560 --> 00:12:15,600 as kings of Scotland and their enemies played a real-life Game of Thrones. 175 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:20,680 And no episode better showcases this castle's deadly history 176 00:12:20,800 --> 00:12:22,520 than something that took place 177 00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:26,000 somewhere above our heads during the 15th century. 178 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:30,480 It's one of the most notorious events in all of British history, 179 00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:32,120 The Black Dinner. 180 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:39,840 In 1437, the Stuart king, James I, was murdered. 181 00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:46,000 This left his young son, James II, as king. 182 00:12:46,080 --> 00:12:50,560 James II came to the throne when he was just six years old 183 00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:52,280 and on his mother's orders, 184 00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:56,080 he was kept in Edinburgh Castle for his own safety. 185 00:12:56,160 --> 00:12:57,840 By the time he was 10, 186 00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:03,080 the real power lay in the hands of the governor of the castle, William Crichton, 187 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:07,160 and his treacherous ally, Alexander Livingstone. 188 00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:12,640 These two would stop at nothing to protect their hold over the young king. 189 00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:19,000 Their scheming and plotting came to a head one fateful night in November 1440. 190 00:13:19,760 --> 00:13:23,840 Crichton and Livingstone's main rivals for influence with James II 191 00:13:23,920 --> 00:13:26,080 were the infamous Douglas clan, 192 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:31,920 a family who'd been powerful members of the Scottish aristocracy for 300 years. 193 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:35,400 Like the king, the heads of the Douglas clan were very young. 194 00:13:38,120 --> 00:13:40,360 William, Earl of Douglas, was 16, 195 00:13:40,920 --> 00:13:42,720 his brother was even younger. 196 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:47,880 Nevertheless, Crichton and Livingstone still saw them as a dangerous threat 197 00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:53,120 and they hatched a dastardly plot to silence them forever. 198 00:13:55,280 --> 00:13:56,880 In November 1440, 199 00:13:56,960 --> 00:14:00,360 the Douglas boys were invited to Edinburgh Castle for dinner. 200 00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:02,840 It would be the last meal they ever ate. 201 00:14:06,560 --> 00:14:08,840 While the young men were enjoying their dinner, 202 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:12,840 a servant brought out a very unusual dish, 203 00:14:16,040 --> 00:14:19,080 the severed head of a black bull. 204 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:21,160 It was a signal. 205 00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:24,080 The Douglas boys were dragged from their seats. 206 00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:30,120 Outside, they were subjected to a sham trial. 207 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:40,360 Then both of them were beheaded. 208 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:41,840 -(THUD) -(HEAD ROLLING) 209 00:14:41,920 --> 00:14:47,000 This grotesque double murder is now known as the Black Dinner. 210 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:54,600 You might have thought the horrific events of the Black Dinner 211 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:58,640 would have put James II off bloodshed forever, 212 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:02,560 but instead he grew up to be a king who relished war. 213 00:15:03,240 --> 00:15:06,120 He particularly loved one lethal weapon 214 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:09,800 that took Europe by storm during his lifetime, 215 00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:11,040 the cannon. 216 00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:17,960 Thanks to James, Edinburgh Castle is full of cannons, 217 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:21,480 and one in particular really stands out. 218 00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:24,480 This massive cannon is called Mons Meg, 219 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:28,280 and she came to Edinburgh Castle in the middle of the 15th century 220 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:30,600 as a gift to the King James II 221 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:33,520 from his wife's uncle, the Duke of Burgundy. 222 00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:36,480 Now, Mons Meg was actually a wedding present 223 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:40,640 and if she's not very romantic, she certainly was deadly. 224 00:15:40,720 --> 00:15:44,720 This monster could fire a stone nearly two miles, 225 00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:46,920 and not any old cannonball. 226 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:51,480 The balls that came out of here would have weighed 150 kilograms, 227 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:53,000 that's nearly twice my body weight, 228 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:56,880 and had a diameter of around 500 millimeters, 229 00:15:56,960 --> 00:16:00,680 which isn't too far from a modern Tomahawk missile. 230 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:03,120 So, this wasn't just any old cannon, 231 00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:06,240 she was a medieval weapon of mass destruction. 232 00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:12,640 I met up with medieval firearms expert Professor Ronald Hutton 233 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:14,720 to check out the sort of cannon 234 00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:17,640 that James II would have loved to play with. 235 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:21,160 It's owned and operated by Colin Herriett. 236 00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:26,120 Colin, this looks like a pretty serious piece of military hardware. 237 00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:27,600 Hefty ol' piece of iron. 238 00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:33,040 It's a copy of a 16th-century port piece, same as was on the Mary Rose. 239 00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:35,840 This is a shortened version and she's a breech loader. 240 00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:37,080 She's not a muzzle loader. 241 00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:38,920 Everything don't get stoked in from that end, 242 00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:40,760 it gets stoked in from this end. 243 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:42,760 And this is a gun stone. 244 00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:44,840 Wow, that's heavy! How much do you think that weighs? 245 00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:47,520 -HERRIETT: About 20 pounds. -And how do you aim her? 246 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:49,960 -Well, we squint along the barrel. -All right. 247 00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:51,800 And aiming is probably the wrong word, 248 00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:53,920 -but pointing is more like it. -(LAUGHS) 249 00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:57,800 It's quite worrying when you're firing it and that's what we're going to do now. 250 00:16:58,000 --> 00:16:59,440 So, we're going to fire 251 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:01,320 -this piece of marble... -Yeah. 252 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:03,560 -... into that van? -Hopefully. 253 00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:08,040 So, you chaps had better clear off into a safety place, I think. 254 00:17:08,120 --> 00:17:10,400 -HUTTON: With pleasure. -Because hopefully it's going to go bang. 255 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:18,440 What would a 14th- or 15th-century cannon be made from? 256 00:17:19,120 --> 00:17:22,560 It's a disgusting tub of metal 257 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:25,560 in which you put stone or sometimes metal balls, 258 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:27,800 and as often as not in the early days, it blows up. 259 00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:30,040 So, this was something very dangerous to fire? 260 00:17:30,120 --> 00:17:32,920 It's extremely dangerous and they smell horrible, 261 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:36,520 but everyone senses, rightly, that they have a future, and they have. 262 00:17:41,120 --> 00:17:44,840 Until now, it would take a couple of months to reduce a castle. 263 00:17:44,920 --> 00:17:47,320 Now you can take one out in less than a week. 264 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:48,480 JONES: That's extraordinary. 265 00:17:55,200 --> 00:17:58,000 Preparing to give fire. Giving fire! 266 00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:09,320 Whoa! 267 00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:14,600 Wow! 268 00:18:16,480 --> 00:18:17,480 Ah! 269 00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:21,320 My ears are ringing, but I'm glad I wasn't in that van. 270 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:24,560 -Ronald, can you see what it's done to it? -Yes, I can see. 271 00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:26,640 Whoa! Wow! 272 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:28,160 That... That was a loud one. 273 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:40,160 I mean, it's ripped the metal clean off the top. 274 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:41,640 HUTTON: That is horrific. 275 00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:46,600 I mean, you need only a little imagination to imagine what that does to personnel. 276 00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:48,280 It changes the world. 277 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:51,760 Nothing is ever the same once they learn how to use gunpowder. 278 00:18:51,840 --> 00:18:53,280 I think that's the point, isn't it? 279 00:18:53,360 --> 00:18:54,360 As soon as... You know, 280 00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:58,800 castles have been these great edifices that would take you months to get through, 281 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:01,520 but as soon as a weapon like that comes along, 282 00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:02,840 the whole game is changed. 283 00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:07,240 Mons Meg would only get one outing against the English 284 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:11,280 and it wasn't at Edinburgh Castle, but instead in Northumberland. 285 00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:14,080 Although she made a big bang, 286 00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:17,880 her great weight made her impractical to carry around. 287 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:22,760 But James II continued to line the walls of his castles 288 00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:26,160 with the very latest in gun technology. 289 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:29,080 And cannons were to be his undoing. 290 00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:34,480 James II's love of guns quite literally backfired on him. 291 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:38,080 In 1460, he was besieging Roxburgh Castle 292 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:41,240 and trying to fire a new type of cannon from Flanders 293 00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:45,800 called the Lion, but it exploded and it blew the king to pieces. 294 00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:49,080 He was just 29 years old. 295 00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:53,040 But his successors were just as keen on collecting artillery as James was, 296 00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,000 and under the Stuart kings, Edinburgh Castle 297 00:19:56,080 --> 00:19:59,440 became one of the most heavily armed fortresses in Britain. 298 00:20:01,520 --> 00:20:03,480 Which was just as well, 299 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:08,520 because Edinburgh Castle had plenty of enemies 300 00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:12,800 who would stop at nothing to try and breach its mighty walls. 301 00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:18,480 And one of the bloodiest assaults of all 302 00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:23,040 came from Britain's most infamous king, Henry VIII. 303 00:20:30,120 --> 00:20:32,440 Edinburgh Castle has been besieged 304 00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:36,080 more times than any other fortress in Britain. 305 00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:41,000 But no attackers ever caused as much trouble for this grand old lady 306 00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:45,960 as Britain's most notorious royal dynasty, the Tudors. 307 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:57,440 The Tudors' poisonous relationship with the Stuart kings of Scotland 308 00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:01,440 led to wars, invasions, attempted kidnappings, 309 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:04,440 and even a plot to kill a queen. 310 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:09,840 But it all started with a marriage, 311 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:15,280 which, amazingly, is still commemorated on the walls of the royal palace, 312 00:21:15,360 --> 00:21:21,040 this incredible and lavish suite of rooms built in the heart of Edinburgh Castle. 313 00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:24,680 These are the royal apartments and there's an image here 314 00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:27,360 that crops up all over the castle. 315 00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:30,960 It's the image of a rose and a thistle entwined, 316 00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:34,000 and that's more than just a pretty piece of decoration. 317 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:36,080 The rose is a symbol of the Tudors, 318 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:40,040 that great English dynasty of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. 319 00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:43,920 And the thistle represents the Stuart kings of Scotland. 320 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:48,840 And the fact that they are entwined is a reference to the marriage in 1503 321 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:52,520 of James IV of Scotland and Henry VIII's sister, Margaret. 322 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:56,320 Now, that marriage was supposed to bring about peace 323 00:21:56,400 --> 00:21:58,280 between the two families, 324 00:21:58,360 --> 00:22:01,360 but as with many families, there were as many fights 325 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:03,520 as there were hugs and smiles. 326 00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:07,000 In fact, when the Tudors and the Stuarts clashed, 327 00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:09,840 the whole of Britain had to take cover. 328 00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:14,960 And once of the bloodiest fallings out happened right here at Edinburgh Castle. 329 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:22,920 Henry VIII and James IV of Scotland may have been brothers-in-law, 330 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:25,360 but they were also deadly rivals. 331 00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:28,760 So, just 10 years after the Tudors and Stuarts 332 00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:31,040 had joined their families in marriage, 333 00:22:31,120 --> 00:22:33,000 their armies were at war. 334 00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:40,000 King James IV was killed in 1513 at the Battle of Flodden. 335 00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:45,200 His death was Henry VIII's most significant military achievement. 336 00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:51,360 In 1542, James' son, James V, also died, 337 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:53,920 following another military humiliation, 338 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:56,280 this time at the Battle of Solway Moss. 339 00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:06,880 That left James V's 6-day-old daughter as the new monarch. 340 00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:10,480 She would come to be known as Mary Queen of Scots. 341 00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:16,120 And her reign plunged Scotland and Edinburgh Castle into crisis. 342 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,280 That crisis began straightaway 343 00:23:20,360 --> 00:23:25,840 as Henry VIII ordered the Scots to marry little Mary to his own son, Edward, 344 00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:31,080 so that England and Scotland would one day be united. 345 00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:36,000 The Scots were having none of it. 346 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:42,560 They refused to be bossed around by the arrogant Tudor king of England. 347 00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:44,680 Henry was furious. 348 00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:47,600 He decided to teach the Scots a lesson. 349 00:23:49,560 --> 00:23:51,240 In 1544, 350 00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:56,800 he sent an army to Edinburgh to settle things the way he knew best, 351 00:23:56,880 --> 00:23:58,360 with the sword. 352 00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:00,200 This is the Firth of Forth, 353 00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:04,200 where the North Sea meets land just outside the city of Edinburgh. 354 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:09,080 And in May 1544, all this water was teeming with ships 355 00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:13,120 packed with English soldiers on a very simple mission. 356 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,560 They had instructions from Henry VIII. And he said, 357 00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:20,800 "Put all to fire and sword, burn Edinburgh, 358 00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:24,160 "as there may remain forever a perpetual memory 359 00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:27,640 "of the vengeance of God lightened upon them 360 00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:30,320 "for their falsehood and disloyalty." 361 00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:34,360 Henry VIII wanted control of Mary Queen of Scots, 362 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:35,840 and if he couldn't have her, 363 00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:39,920 then Edinburgh and her castle would be the first to suffer. 364 00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:49,640 They called this period, with typical Scots gallows humor, 365 00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:51,760 the Rough Wooing. 366 00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:56,560 For eight years, Scotland was battered by English military force. 367 00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:58,680 But they refused to be beaten. 368 00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:03,720 The accounts of the invasion are pretty chilling. 369 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:09,000 Twelve thousand men piled off the English ships in just four hours. 370 00:25:09,120 --> 00:25:12,720 There are records of the English commandeering local fishing boats 371 00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:15,240 just to speed up the landing process. 372 00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:16,960 And once the men hit the shore, 373 00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:20,440 they started burning buildings between the Firth of Forth 374 00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:22,440 and the city of Edinburgh. 375 00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:24,640 The noise, the violence, 376 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:29,920 the sheer size of the invasion must have been absolutely terrifying. 377 00:25:32,120 --> 00:25:37,400 On the 3rd of May, 1544, the English stormed the city, 378 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:42,360 blowing open the medieval gates and killing hundreds of defenders. 379 00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:44,880 Those who survived the assault 380 00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:48,320 retreated behind the safety of the castle walls. 381 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:54,600 The English set fire to the town, 382 00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:57,800 withdrawing to their base at Leith for the night 383 00:25:57,880 --> 00:25:59,760 to watch Edinburgh burn. 384 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:07,760 Over the next three days, the burning and looting continued 385 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:12,520 not just in Edinburgh, but also in the surrounding towns. 386 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,240 Reports of the time say that, 387 00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:18,240 "Neither within the walls nor in the suburbs 388 00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:21,840 "was left any one house unburnt." 389 00:26:27,360 --> 00:26:30,360 -So, you had boats coming from the Forth. -Yeah. 390 00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:33,760 And you had troops coming across the border from England. 391 00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:35,880 -Yeah. -This is an incredible time in the city. 392 00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:40,160 What the English had been ordered by King Henry VIII to do 393 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,080 was to burn Edinburgh, take the castle, 394 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:45,560 do a lot of destruction, get lots of loots, 395 00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:49,440 in order to encourage them to have Mary Queen of Scots marry his son. 396 00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:51,440 How much damage did they do to Edinburgh? 397 00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:53,440 Some of the main gun positions 398 00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,240 fired right down the High Street of Edinburgh, 399 00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:57,840 and at various times, 400 00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:01,880 that's exactly what the holders of the castle did, 401 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:05,200 and what they evidently did in 1544. 402 00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:08,080 They fired the guns right down the High Street to hit the English. 403 00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:09,440 So, actually, you could come into Edinburgh 404 00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:12,480 and do as much damage in the surrounding area as you want, 405 00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:15,000 but taking the castle was a totally different matter. 406 00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:18,200 And they failed in their one key objective, 407 00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:20,360 which was to capture Mary Queen of Scots. 408 00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:21,640 Exactly. 409 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:36,600 Mary Queen of Scots was barely a year old at the time of the Rough Wooing. 410 00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:40,560 The nobles governing Scotland in her name sent her to France, 411 00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:43,160 where she was betrothed to the heir to the French throne. 412 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:46,840 In 1558, when she was 15, 413 00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:50,360 she and her husband were crowned king and queen of France. 414 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:56,080 But two years later, her husband died of a mysterious illness. 415 00:27:57,480 --> 00:27:59,760 Now a widow in a foreign land, 416 00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:04,080 and with her mother-in-law, the feared and powerful Catherine de Medici, 417 00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,120 making it clear she was no longer welcome, 418 00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:10,720 Mary decided her future lay back in Scotland. 419 00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:16,160 Despite her years in France, she was still queen of Scotland, 420 00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:18,160 and eager to reclaim her throne 421 00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:21,000 from the nobles who'd ruled in her absence. 422 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:26,360 But when she arrived in Edinburgh, she received a mixed reception. 423 00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:31,880 This flame-haired, intelligent woman had French clothes and manners 424 00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,000 and was also a Catholic. 425 00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:39,080 Much of Scotland was now Protestant, and in 1560, while she was away, 426 00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:43,560 the Scottish Parliament had adopted Protestantism as the state religion. 427 00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:46,960 Many Scots were now suspicious of Mary. 428 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:50,240 How was Mary received? 429 00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:53,720 Joy, that at last a queen, an absent queen, 430 00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:57,360 had returned to Scotland and that she was no longer a minor, 431 00:28:57,440 --> 00:28:58,600 and would be ruling, 432 00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:01,600 but at the same time, a recognition that her religion 433 00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:03,920 was going to be unpopular in some quarters. 434 00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:09,760 In 1565, five years after her return from France, 435 00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:14,040 the headstrong young Queen of Scots married for a second time. 436 00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:16,640 She chose a Scottish nobleman 437 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:21,160 who was also her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. 438 00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:23,640 JONES: Why did she marry him? 439 00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:24,960 DR. DORAN: She was attracted to him, 440 00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:27,680 and politically there were reasons why she thought 441 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:29,520 it would be advantageous to her. 442 00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:34,520 It would help her claim to be Elizabeth I of England's successor. 443 00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:39,200 Henry Darnley was born in England, so there was a political advantage. 444 00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:43,160 JONES: But Darnley was bad news. 445 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:46,480 Described as spoilt, vain and vindictive, 446 00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:50,200 he had no interest in helping Mary run the country. 447 00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:54,840 Instead, he spent his time drinking and chasing women. 448 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:59,560 His disrespectful behavior quickly made him unpopular with the Scots 449 00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:02,080 and dragged down Mary's reputation, too. 450 00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:11,040 Despite their troubled marriage, by 1566, Mary was pregnant with her first child. 451 00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,400 But there were rumors the child was not Darnley's. 452 00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:19,520 What Darnley did next doomed their marriage. 453 00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:24,080 It resulted in Darnley conspiring against her, 454 00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:29,880 and conspiring, ultimately, to possibly seize the queen, 455 00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:33,760 but certainly murder one of her favorites, whose name was David Riccio. 456 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:38,440 Because she was, I think, fairly fearful for her life 457 00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:41,360 and possibly concerned that if she died in childbirth, 458 00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:44,800 her son would become a prisoner of Darnley, 459 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:46,640 and Darnley would seize the throne, 460 00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:48,520 that she decided to give birth 461 00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:51,960 in this very well-fortified castle of Edinburgh. 462 00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:54,640 In this period, women, 463 00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:59,520 about 20% between the ages of 20 and 35, 464 00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:01,600 died from childbirth. 465 00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:03,800 (GROANING) 466 00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:11,760 And so, Mary wrote out her will. In fact, she wrote out three wills. 467 00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:14,200 (GROANING) 468 00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:20,320 Which would make provision if she died and her son survived 469 00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:22,480 or if both died in childbirth. 470 00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:25,600 So, she was very, very well aware of the risks. 471 00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:34,560 JONES: Mary gave birth to a son, whom she named James, 472 00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:36,840 and she survived the birth. 473 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:40,200 But the turmoil that marked her ill-fated reign 474 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:42,400 was about to get worse. 475 00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:46,320 Within months of the birth of Mary's child, 476 00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:49,280 Darnley himself would be murdered. 477 00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:53,080 His naked body was found not far from Edinburgh Castle, 478 00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:58,520 strangled in the garden of a house that had been blown up with gunpowder. 479 00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:02,640 Mary was suspected of having a hand in his death. 480 00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:08,240 She became increasingly unpopular and the country descended into civil war. 481 00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:12,840 A group of rebellious Scottish lords 482 00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:17,520 forced her to abdicate in favor of her 1-year-old son, James, 483 00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:20,800 and she fled to England in 1568, 484 00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:25,560 hoping for support from her English cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. 485 00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:28,400 But she was out of luck. 486 00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:34,160 A suspicious Elizabeth had her arrested and the crisis in Edinburgh escalated. 487 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:39,440 The Scottish lords were now deeply divided. 488 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:43,040 One side supported Mary's Catholic claim to the throne, 489 00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:46,600 while the rebels backed her young son, James VI, 490 00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:49,280 who'd been placed on the throne in her absence 491 00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:53,360 and had spent his childhood up the road in Stirling Castle. 492 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:59,320 The standoff between the two sides would take two long years to resolve, 493 00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:02,320 and it would nearly destroy Edinburgh Castle, 494 00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:06,040 whose defenders were still loyal to the queen's cause. 495 00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:10,720 In May 1571, Elizabeth's English troops marched on Edinburgh 496 00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:14,280 and joined forces with the supporters of James VI. 497 00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:16,200 Using the latest guns and mortars, 498 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:19,240 they literally blasted the castle into submission. 499 00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:23,920 After a month-long bombardment, the walls were breached. 500 00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:27,760 David's Tower, the centerpiece of the medieval castle, 501 00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:30,880 and the tallest tower, was demolished. 502 00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:35,600 Mary's demoralized Catholic supporters within the castle surrendered. 503 00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:40,240 James VI was now secure as king of Scotland. 504 00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:45,160 But his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, remained an English prisoner. 505 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:49,960 She would be shunted around various English castles for 19 years 506 00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:55,760 before finally being beheaded for plotting against Elizabeth, in 1587. 507 00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:00,800 Yet, the Scots had the last laugh. 508 00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:04,040 When Elizabeth I died without any children, 509 00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:06,680 her Scottish cousin, James VI, 510 00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:12,520 was named her heir and crowned James I of England in 1603. 511 00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:18,240 The thistle and the rose were finally reunited. 512 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:23,400 But for Edinburgh Castle, there was plenty more drama still to come. 513 00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:33,240 For hundreds of years, 514 00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:37,360 Edinburgh Castle was besieged, battered and bombarded 515 00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:41,760 as war raged between Scotland and England. 516 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:43,520 The conflict left its mark 517 00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:47,720 on the very stone of this incredible fortress. 518 00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:51,760 And nowhere more than here at the Half Moon Battery, 519 00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:55,160 built after the Tudor Queen Elizabeth I's army 520 00:34:55,240 --> 00:34:59,600 knocked down the old medieval building called David's Tower. 521 00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:06,080 After David's Tower was demolished during Elizabeth's siege of 1571, 522 00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:07,680 the rebuilding program 523 00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:10,160 included one of the most distinctive features 524 00:35:10,240 --> 00:35:11,520 of Edinburgh Castle today. 525 00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:18,000 The Half Moon Battery wraps right around the southern face of the castle 526 00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:21,280 and is designed to give the men firing these cannon 527 00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:25,240 the maximum range of fire over the area below. 528 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:31,360 It's not the prettiest area of the castle, but I think it's utterly magnificent. 529 00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:33,080 You can't look at all this 530 00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:36,160 without understanding why they call Edinburgh Castle 531 00:35:36,240 --> 00:35:38,880 the most besieged castle in Britain. 532 00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:42,480 It looks as though it's still ready to go. 533 00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:48,280 Despite the fortified majesty of Edinburgh Castle, 534 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:53,280 its days as a royal home ended more than 400 years ago. 535 00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:58,240 For all its formidable defenses and palatial apartments, 536 00:36:00,240 --> 00:36:02,280 by the start of the 17th century, 537 00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:07,440 Edinburgh Castle had long ceased to be a place for kings and queens to live. 538 00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:15,520 Instead, royalty preferred to stay in the sumptuously decorated rooms 539 00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:17,640 of Holyrood Palace, 540 00:36:17,720 --> 00:36:19,680 at the other end of the Royal Mile. 541 00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:26,840 Occasionally, visiting kings would hold court in Edinburgh Castle, 542 00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:30,680 but for the most part, that grand old fortress 543 00:36:30,760 --> 00:36:32,760 was now a military barracks. 544 00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:37,120 During the middle of the 17th century, 545 00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:41,960 Charles II turned Edinburgh Castle into a military headquarters 546 00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:45,160 fit to house a large standing army. 547 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:50,160 In the 18th century, 548 00:36:50,240 --> 00:36:54,160 new buildings and barracks were added to the castle complex 549 00:36:54,240 --> 00:36:56,880 to prepare against the threat of foreign enemies 550 00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:01,160 like the infamous French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte. 551 00:37:04,720 --> 00:37:09,760 But as well as a barracks, Edinburgh Castle also became a jail. 552 00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:14,000 The castle vaults, rooms dug into the giant rock, 553 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:16,320 were made into detention blocks. 554 00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:23,240 Chris, this room was once a prison vault. 555 00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:25,560 How many prisoners would have been in here? 556 00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:29,760 There would be over 1,000 people in these vaults in Edinburgh Castle. 557 00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:33,560 Most of them were French, because in the 18th century, 558 00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:38,280 um, Britain spent most of its time fighting the French. 559 00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:41,440 But other countries were sucked into the conflicts, 560 00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:47,720 Spanish, Italian, Dutch, American and even some British prisoners of war. 561 00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:49,880 JONES: So, these are the prison rations, are they? 562 00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:52,200 Well, these are the prison rations for Americans. 563 00:37:52,480 --> 00:37:53,760 They got half rations 564 00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:56,120 because Americans weren't really a nation then, 565 00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:58,000 they were still considered British. 566 00:37:58,080 --> 00:37:59,200 So, they were traitors. 567 00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:01,440 I mean, it doesn't look too bad. I mean, what do you get? 568 00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:03,480 A quart and a half of beer every day, 569 00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:04,760 a pound of bread every day, 570 00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:07,120 three-quarters a pound of beef every day, 571 00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:10,200 well, apart from Fridays, when you have cheese, do you? 572 00:38:10,280 --> 00:38:12,640 Yes, they would have their fish or their cheese they got on Friday. 573 00:38:12,720 --> 00:38:14,120 And this was the basic diet, 574 00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:16,440 but could you supplement this if you were a prisoner? 575 00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:19,400 Oh, yes. They were able to make things and sell them 576 00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:22,720 to people from the town of Edinburgh who come up to the castle. 577 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:25,400 They could buy their fags, then their tobacco, for their pipe. 578 00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:29,440 The more you tell me about prison in Edinburgh Castle in the 18th century, 579 00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:31,160 the more it doesn't sound like too bad a deal. 580 00:38:31,240 --> 00:38:33,640 You got your beer, you got your fags, you got a bit of writing paper. 581 00:38:33,720 --> 00:38:35,000 I don't think I'd need anything more in life. 582 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:36,640 -Unless you're an American. -Unless you're an American. 583 00:38:36,720 --> 00:38:37,800 And you were denied all that! 584 00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:41,840 JONES: When the 20th century dawned, 585 00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:46,040 most castles had long been left behind as tools of war. 586 00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:50,960 But when the First World War broke out in 1914, 587 00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:55,760 Edinburgh Castle still managed to find itself in the firing line. 588 00:38:56,480 --> 00:38:59,320 This time, the threat came from above. 589 00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:06,120 During this war, Britain was bombed from the air for the first time, 590 00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:08,080 and in the sky above Edinburgh, 591 00:39:08,160 --> 00:39:13,200 there appeared monstrous new air balloons laden with explosives. 592 00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:15,000 They were called zeppelins. 593 00:39:16,720 --> 00:39:20,920 The zeppelin was named after its inventor, Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin. 594 00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:24,920 Before the war, they were used for passenger flights, 595 00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:30,720 but from 1915, the Germans adapted them for bombing raids to Britain, 596 00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:34,360 and from 1916, they were targeting Edinburgh. 597 00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:37,360 And you can imagine how terrifying that must have been. 598 00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:42,520 For the first time, civilians were facing the threat of bombing raids from above. 599 00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:46,480 The war could literally break into their homes at any moment. 600 00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:52,120 On the evening of Sunday, the 2nd April, 1916, 601 00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:55,480 two German zeppelins reached the Firth of Forth 602 00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:59,440 and carried out the first-ever air raid on Scotland. 603 00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:06,040 Reports of bombs exploding came shortly before midnight. 604 00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:14,520 In less than an hour, 24 bombs landed on the city of Edinburgh. 605 00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:18,000 Thirteen people were killed, 24 were injured, 606 00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:20,680 and buildings across the city were destroyed. 607 00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:23,760 The bombs rained around the castle. 608 00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:26,680 One bounced from the road up to the main gate, 609 00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:31,640 another landed here in the Grassmarket, shattering windows and damaging homes. 610 00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:34,440 But that was as close as they got. 611 00:40:34,520 --> 00:40:39,600 That old castle was built to withstand a battering from medieval trebuchets, 612 00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:44,520 but it stood up pretty well to 20th-century aerial bombardment, too. 613 00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:53,960 Thankfully, Edinburgh Castle's active military duty 614 00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:56,080 is now a part of history. 615 00:40:56,360 --> 00:40:58,400 But it's celebrated every summer 616 00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:03,600 in one of the world's most popular military pageants, the Edinburgh Tattoo. 617 00:41:04,720 --> 00:41:06,480 (BAGPIPES PLAYING) 618 00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:09,560 ANNOUNCER: The Edinburgh Military Tattoo. 619 00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:12,680 A sight to stir the Scottish heart and a feast of sound to go with it. 620 00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:16,360 JONES: The tattoo's roots are in the 16th century, 621 00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:19,280 when drummers would be sent out from the garrison 622 00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:23,640 at the last post each night to inform the local innkeepers 623 00:41:23,720 --> 00:41:29,160 that it was time to turn off the beer taps and send the soldiers back to barracks. 624 00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:39,840 Today, over one and a half million tourists a year flock to Edinburgh Castle. 625 00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:44,480 And while they're in the castle, 626 00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:47,320 they can also look at the Scottish crown jewels 627 00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:48,800 and the Stone of Scone, 628 00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:52,880 an ancient rock on which the monarchs of England and Scotland 629 00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:55,520 still sit for their coronations. 630 00:41:56,280 --> 00:41:59,840 They call Edinburgh Castle the most besieged place in Britain, 631 00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:01,200 and it's hard to disagree 632 00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:03,920 when you think of the number of times it's been assaulted 633 00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:09,200 by everyone from medieval soldiers with rope ladders 634 00:42:09,280 --> 00:42:11,520 to German airships dropping bombs. 635 00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:15,640 But I think its greatest claim to fame 636 00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:18,360 isn't the number of times it's been attacked, 637 00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:20,920 but the fact that it's always survived. 638 00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:29,080 And it's still here today looming from its rocky perch, 639 00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:31,400 towering over the city around it. 640 00:42:31,480 --> 00:42:35,480 Booming its gun from the walls every day 641 00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:40,200 to remind the world that it is, as it always has been, unbreakable.