How to raise an army in Edinburgh - unfurl the blue blanket - Susan Morrison
Every year at the Mercat Cross, The Incorporated Trades of Edinburgh proudly unfurl their banner. It's called the Blue Blanket. Don’t be fooled by the name. This is no soft cuddly comforter. This flag could raise an army.
The origin of the Blue Blanket is murky. Alexander Pennecuik gives one account in his 1790 book, “An Historical Account of the Blue Blanket; or, Craftsmens Banner”. He writes that an army of ‘Edinburgh mechanicals’ (craftsmen) joined the Crusades of 1099 under a blue standard, defeated the Saracens and brought their victorious ensign home. It was presented to St Giles, and became known as The Blue Blanket. Probably hokum, but a good tale.
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Hide AdPennecuik wrote that some returning Edinburgh crusader/craftsmen took to calling themselves the “Knights of The Blanket”. He clearly regards this a most excellent title, because he spends a couple of lines being snooty about the English Order of the Garter. The Blanket, he points out, had seen battle. The English order was created after the Countess of Salisbury’s garter fell off. Well, no chivalric order should be named after a woman’s badly-tied undergarments.
The banner got a starring role in 1482. The 22 year old King James III was facing some serious sibling rivalry. His brother Alexander thought he could rule Scotland better. To make his dream a reality, he got an army from Edward IV of England. Presumably Edward was too busy to trek North so he gave command to his brother Richard, a man who would also one day turn on his kin, seize a throne, lose a battle and eventually be dumped under a carpark in Leicester.
James’ family did not, as we say today, have his back. Just as well. They’d only have put a dagger between his shoulder blades. Two of his uncles had him imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle. Alexander, Duke of Albany took the throne as Lieutenant-General of the kingdom.
However, James was the rightful king of Scotland, whatever these usurping nobles and English invaders might say. The people in the city below the battlements became restless.
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Hide AdThe crafts and guilds of the city were highly organised, and wealthy. They had actually been trying to broker a peace deal, but at some point, the talks broke down, and the city lost patience. Pennecuik says the “citizens surprised and stormed the castle of Edinburgh; and to the great dissatisfaction of the rebellious nobles set their Sovereign at liberty.”
James III was thrilled. He was probably well aware of the short life expectancy of royalty in captivity. A thankful king presented the incorporations with what Pennicuik describes as a “new” Blue Blanket.
The king announced that at the appearance of this banner, ‘all the artificers of Edinburgh are obliged to repair to it… and fight under the Convenor’. In other words, they could raise a citizen army.
Unfurling the blanket also automatically gave the Deacon Convener of the Trades an audience with the Monarch. This worked to the advantage of James V, who found himself at the mercy of an engineered mob. City merchants had loaned a lot of money to James, and they wanted it back. In order to persuade him, they created a riot. Their paid lackeys actually laid hands on His Majesty and threw him in the common jail. The tradesmen unfurled the Blue Blanket and demanded to see their king. The merchants backed down, let the trades in and the incorporations escorted James V back to Holyroodhouse.
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Hide AdIn gratitude, James called for Cuthbert, the Deacon Convener, to offer him and the followers of the Blue Blanket something in thanks for his rescue, which he would be happy to grant, especially if Cuthbert suggested something involving treasonous merchants, removed heads and pointy stakes. He must have been surprised when Cuthbert didn't, because the Deacon Convener had been nobbled. The merchants knew Cuthbert was a weak and greedy man. They bribed the Deacon Convener with what Pennecuik calls a ‘lusty purse of gold’ to tell James that the best gift the guilds could have was to be relieved of the “toilsome affair of being magistrates, and let the disloyal merchants be loaded with that office.”
Yeah, right. James didn't fall for it either. Cuthbert’s treachery was exposed, and he was drowned in the Nor Loch.
In 1513 it is said the guilds followed the Blanket to Flodden. The hammermen, the baxters and the cordiners. And probably their apprentices, too. In Edinburgh City Chambers there’s a stunning painting re-creating Randolph Murray breaking the news of the terrible defeat to the city. The tattered and bloody Blue Blanket is at his feet.
The first verifiable reference to the Blanket being raised in protest is in 1543. The guilds wouldn't have got much from a meeting with their monarch. Mary Queen of Scots was only a baby at the time.
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Hide AdHer son, James VI, had a fairly jaundiced view of the demanding craftsmen of Edinburgh and their badge of defiance. He wrote in his ‘Book of Instruction’ to his son Charles “they think we should be content with their work, how bad and dear it may be: and if they be in anything controlled, up goeth the Blue Blanket”.
It looks like James was still irked by some shonky work done by an Edinburgh tradesman. Charles should have listened to his dad. Mobs are dangerous. Risings can become revolutions. Cromwell’s men beheaded Charles in 1649 after a war that started with a riot. Wherever the blue blanket came from, it's part of our city now. The fragile faded 1661 flag is carefully kept behind glass by Incorporated Trades of Edinburgh. The new flag was created in 2012 to continue the proud tradition of unfurling that people’s banner, the Blue Blanket. Fortunately, we dropped the rioting bit.
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