Edinburgh is celebrating 900 years of city status this year, having been created a royal burgh in 1124, the first year of the 29-year reign of King David I (1084-1153). Historians refer to the establishment of a network of burghs and markets and the foundation of monastic institutions that occurred during his reign as the ‘Davidian Revolution’.
Markets and monasteries
Markets and monasteries were very much connected because when, in 1128, King David donated one of his favourite hunting grounds for the foundation of the Augustinian abbey of the holy rood, or crucifix, his grant included the right to establish a trading burgh just outside the monastery walls – today’s Canongate. Among the other benefactions were fishing rights on the River Tweed; half of the tallow, fat, and hides from beasts slaughtered for the king in Edinburgh; funds from the port of Perth to pay for vestments; the teinds (tithes) from some 27 parish churches; and the authority to take timber from royal forests for building purposes.
The partially excavated footings of the first monastic church indicate that it was a relatively modest structure. It was colonised from Merton, in Surrey, being the third of Merton’s seven daughter-houses, and there are strong similarities between the main churches of the two institutions. Both had small cruciform churches, without aisles but with shallow transepts and a rectangular presbytery. Merton had two chapels projecting from the eastern side of each transept, whereas Holyrood had just one on each side.
Tea with the junta