Royal guns at the King's Wark

The King's Wark stands on the corner of Shore and Bernard Street in Leith, not Edinburgh. It's a weel kent hostelry now, but the site was originally occupied by a complex of buildings established by James I in the early 1430's - partly a royal residence with tower, hall and chambers; partly a store house and cellars for conducting royal business, and along with Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Abbey it was also an arsenal for artillery weapons. Situated in the medieval port of south Leith it provided a secure site for importing and exporting with other European trade ports. Royal goods could also be conveniently moved to and fro along the River Forth to Stirling, with the castle there being another major royal residence. 

What the original buildings looked like can only be imagined; great damage was inflicted during the English invasion in 1544, a chapter in what is now known as the Rough Wooing. Over the centuries the buildings changed hands many times and were subjected to many changes of use and neglect. The Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh has a stone lintel from Leith bearing the royal arms dated to the late 15th century. Although the provenance cannot be definitely established the museum's caption states that it may have formed part a doorway in one of the original King's Wark buildings. Given the fineness of the carving, and use of the royal arms, I think this is a reasonable punt.

As well as being the father of the King's Wark, James I was the first of the Stuart kings to actively begin accumulating gunpowder artillery. In 1406 at the age of 11, he became an honourable captive of the English, and spent eighteen years at the English court. He was taken on campaign by Henry V, and saw the effect of the English bombards at numerous sieges in France during the Hundred Years War.

After his release back to Scotland in 1423 James began restructuring the military establishment; part of this modernisation was procuring his own bombards. These were large  cannon with a bore of more than 8 inches, designed to batter the walls of fortifications with stone balls. Mons Meg is an extreme example. The Exchequer Rolls show that in 1430 James authorised payments for 'bombards, engines and instruments of war' totalling £600 to be shipped from Bruges to Scotland. 

This included a bombard called The Lion, which bore the inscription: 'For the illustrious James, worthy prince of Scots. Magnificent king, when I sound off I reduce castles. I was made at his order, therefore I am called Lion'. If the histories are to be believed the gun caused damage to vessels of wine in the same cargo, due to its moving around on the sea voyage. In spite of James' self aggrandising bluster, The Lion was subsequently lost to the English in 1436 when he abandoned the siege of Roxburgh Castle, leaving all his 'bombards, engines and instruments of war' behind.

Artillery continued to be purchased in Flanders throughout the 15th century, and also gifted to successive Stuart monarchs from their continental allies. Most notably James II received 22 iron veuglaires and 46 iron coulovrines in 1449 as part of an extensive weapons dowry when he married Mary of Guelders, grand niece of the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good. The final and most impressive part of this gift came in the shape of Mons Meg in 1457.

The Treasurers Accounts for 1473 have James III spending a significant amount of his own money on the production and procurement of artillery - £753 6s 5d. He was also gifted bombards by Archduke Sigismund of Austria, although these never made it to Scotland, being lost en route in a storm at sea. 

The auld alliance with France was also instrumental in providing guns to the Scots. Two separate accounts from 1496 place a pair of modern copper alloy artillery pieces in the possession of James IV, whose Spanish ambassador at that time, Pedro de Alaya reported them having been gifted to his father James III by Louis XI of France. As further evidence a letter written by John Ramsay, the forfeited Earl of Bothwell and spy to Henry VII, also mentions 'two great curtals that war send out of France'; most likely the same guns referred to by de Alaya. 

©Historisches Museum Basel, Maurice Babey

The above picture shows two fine examples of mid 15th century siege artillery: a wrought iron bombard similar in construction to, but smaller than Mons Meg; and an extremely high quality copper alloy curtal or courtau. They were taken as booty by the Swiss Confederacy from the defeated Burgundians after the battles of Grandson and Murten in 1476. Both guns were made in Flanders.

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In the winter of 1495 Anglo-Scots relations were already precarious, and the arrival at the Scottish court of the pretender to the English throne Perkin Warbeck, set a cat amongst the pigeons. James IV ordered the host to prepare for major raids into England, and for the next eighteen months preparations for war went into overdrive. Leith would have been a bustling environment at this time, with many trades allied to artillery work to be found there, particularly smiths and wrights. 

The Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland for the years 1473-96 illuminate the movements of several of these men working in and around Leith (with several specific mentions of the King's Wark) engaged in maintaining and repairing the  artillery, and construction of close carts and carriages for the movement of guns and other equipment such as powder and shot between Leith, the Castle and the Abbey. 

Some of the individuals whose names come over to us deserve to be mentioned. One such man was Johne Lam [sic], whose name first appears in July 1496. John was a 'smyth' and gunnar' based in Leith, and was to find himself heavily engaged in the preparation of the artillery. John is found  manufacturing 'gunchameris' for guns taken from The Flower, one of the royal ships. Breech loading guns had chambers for the powder charge, and these were placed at the back of the barrel and wedged in place. The picture below shows gun chambers at The Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Orders were also placed for other 'irne grath' - accessories and furnishings for holding the guns in place on their wooden stocks.

John is also found carrying out repairs - he has taken receipt of a broken gunstock brought from the King's Werk for rebanding. The wheels are then also delivered and shod with iron tyres. For going with the guns on the campaign into England in 1496 he is paid his wage for a fortnight of 26 s 8d - just over £1000 in today's money. The gun pictured below would cost roughly the same amount to manufacture.

The background to the Scots campaign against England in 1496-97 is complicated, tied up with foreign pretenders, failed attempts to find a bride for the young James IV, European dynastic politics, and just the general mischievousness of a 25 year old king desperate to make his mark. Following the 1496 raid across the border, Henry VII declared that 'England should make war on the Scots wherever they could, on land and sea.' In the end the English had other fish to fry and no invasion into Scotland came. Ultimately, Henry should have been pleased that James exposed Warbeck as a fraud with no support for his 'cause' forthcoming in England. The toil and money that went into making the campaign a reality is down to the ordinary men from Leith, Edinburgh and beyond. It is interesting to stand in front of the King's Wark today and try to imagine the scene there almost 530 years ago.... 

Sources: 

Accounts of The Lord High Treasurers of Scotland 1473-98

James I. Michael Brown

James III. Norman McDougall

James IV. Norman McDougall

Artillery of the Dukes of Burgundy, 1363-1477. RD Smith and K DeVries

Canmore

National Museum of Scotland

Guns in Scotland, PhD thesis 1981. David H Caldwell