# otd

27 December 1794, Alexander Gordon Laing, who would become the first European to reach Timbuktu from the north, was born in Edinburgh.

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2022-12-27

21 August 1689, Jacobite forces supporting the exiled James VII attacked a pro-government regiment of covenanters in Dunkeld, near its Cathedral, in what became known as the Battle of Dunkeld (Scots Gaelic: Blàr Dhùn Chaillinn), destroying much of the town.

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2022-08-21

20 August 1561, Mary Queen of Scots, Queen-Dowager of France, already widowed at the age of 18, returned to Scotland and Holyrood House after an absence in France of some thirteen years.

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2022-08-20

16 June 1338, the English abandoned their five-month-long seige of Dunbar Castle, whose defence had been famously commanded by 'Black Agnes,' Countess of Dunbar.

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2022-06-16

15 May 1239, Alexander II, King of Scots, married his second wife, Marie de Coucy in Roxburgh. Two years later, she would secure the succession by giving birth to an infant son, later Alexander III, on whose Regency Council she would later be fated to serve.

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2022-05-15

22 April 1753, the Scottish Episcopal Church observed Easter according to the new style for the first time.

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2022-04-22

9 March 1566, David Rizzio, secretary to (and some detractors argue lover of) Mary Queen of Scots, was murdered in the pregnant Queen's presence.

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2022-03-09

10 February 1305, Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, stabbed and killed Sir John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, and rival claimant to the throne, before the high altar in Greyfriar’s Kirk, Dumfries, for which he was excommunicated by the Pope, Clement V.

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2022-02-10

16 January 1707, the Estates of Parliament agreed the Treaty of Union with England by 110 votes to 67, in no small part due to payments made to key participants, As Burns said, we were "bought and sold for English gold, Such a parcel of rogues in a nation."

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2022-01-16