The Mercat Cross of Edinburgh is a market cross, which stands in Parliament Square next to St Giles' Cathedral, facing the High Street in the Old Town of Edinburgh.
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👉 Mercat Cross, Edinburgh in the context of Mercat cross
A mercat cross is a structure used in Scottish settlements to denote a market square. It historically indicated that the settlement had been granted the right to hold a regular market or fair by the monarch, a bishop or a baron; the cross therefore served as a symbol of authority, and was an indication of a burgh's relative prosperity. Some burghs had more than one cross, often named for the produce sold at their base.
There are around 126 known examples of mercat crosses in Scotland, with many examples dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Scottish crosses are distinct from market crosses found elsewhere in the United Kingdom in form and iconography.
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Mercat Cross, Edinburgh in the context of Tender of Union
The Tender of Union was a declaration of the Parliament of England during the Interregnum following the War of the Three Kingdoms stating that Scotland would cease to have an independent parliament and would join England in its emerging Commonwealth republic.
The English parliament passed the declaration on 28 October 1651 and after a number of interim steps an Act of Union was passed on 26 June 1657. The proclamation of the Tender of Union in Scotland on 4 February 1652 regularised the de facto annexation of Scotland by England following the English victory in the recent Anglo-Scottish war. Under the terms of the Tender of Union and the final enactment, the Scottish Parliament was permanently dissolved and Scotland was given 30 seats in the Westminster Parliament. This act, like all the others passed during the Interregnum, was repealed by both Scottish and English parliaments upon the Restoration of monarchy under Charles II.
Mercat Cross, Edinburgh in the context of Parliament Square, Edinburgh
Parliament Square, Edinburgh, Scotland, is located off the High Street, part of the Royal Mile. The square is not a formal square, but consists of two sections surrounding St Giles Kirk on three sides: an L-shaped area to the east and south and another area on the west side of the church called West Parliament Square. The Edinburgh Mercat Cross is located on the east side of the square while an equestrian statue of Charles II of Scotland stands in front of the entrance to the Supreme Courts of Scotland adjoining Parliament House, on the west side. The Queensberry Memorial to the 5th Duke of Buccleuch, stands in West Parliament Square.
The square also includes a statue of James Braidwood, erected in 2008, who founded what is asserted to be the world's first municipal fire service, in Edinburgh, after the Great Fire of Edinburgh in 1824.