THE celebrations for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee centre around her official birthday which this year took place on Thursday, June 2, the 69th anniversary of her coronation, with the Trooping of the Colour – otherwise known as the Queen’s Birthday Parade – and the flypast the most notable events.
The ceremonial official birthday of the monarch, as opposed to their actual birthday, is a tradition dating to the reign of King George II who ruled from 1727 to 1760. Born in what is now Germany, his birthday was November 10, but with the weather always being inclement at that time of year, in 1748 King George II came up with the wheeze of having a second “official” birthday, combining it with the Trooping of the Colour held during the summer.
It did not become an annual event each June until the reign of George IV, but even before George II, there had been a tradition of marking the monarch’s birthday, usually with loyal addresses by burghs, the drinking of toasts and the parroting of politicians eager to curry favour with the king or queen – some things don’t change.
Back in 1792, however, in that douce old town of Edinburgh, the birthday of George’s II’s grandson, King George III, was marked in quite a different way.
On this date 230 years ago, the capital of Scotland was witnessing the height of what became known as the King’s Birthday Riots, or the Dundas Riots.
It was an astonishing event, much neglected in official histories of the Union, because for a brief few days in June, 1792, anarchy looked set to overcome the state, and that occasional hydra, the Edinburgh Mob, briefly threatened the established order.
The French Revolution of 1789 was fresh in memories, though it would not be until January, 1793 that King Louis XVI would be guillotined. Scotland at that time was in a summer of discontent with radicals arguing for vast political and economic reforms and the ordinary people hit by a double whammy of increased taxes and food shortages due to the hated Corn Law. Such radicals as Thomas Muir of Huntershill advocated what was in effect a revolution and such was the fear of the authorities that in May, 1792, a law was passed banning seditious writing.
That only led to handbills being printed calling for demonstrations against the authorities as personified by Lord Advocate Robert Dundas, who was implacably opposed to Muir in particular. There was huge civil unrest, though no actual revolution, in Edinburgh in late May and early June, and Lord Provost Sir James Stirling ordered mounted troops on to the streets. This only served to infuriate the public and the Edinburgh Mob duly appeared as if by magic.
On the evening of the King’s Birthday, Monday, June 4 – his actual birthday – the City Guard and their cavalry colleagues were feasting and drinking in the Old Parliament Hall on the Royal Mile when shots were fired, apparently in celebration by drunken troops. The Mob gathered outside but dispersed after smashing some windows.
The flame had been lit, however. Former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill in his excellent book Radical Scotland describes what happened next: “Crowds of up to 2000 people gathered in the High Street and from there things quickly escalated. A sentry box was torn from the ground on the High Street and carried down the Royal Mile to the Netherbow Port. There it was burned and the crowd began setting off fireworks. Dragoons who were coming up the High Street were set upon and forced to retreat.
“The Lord Provost had arranged for troops to be on hand and they were called out as the authorities began to lose control.
“The Riot Act was read by the Sheriff, with the Lord Provost ordering the dragoons to confront the crowd. Mounted troops then rode their horses along pavements to disperse the crowd, but this just led many demonstrators to escape into stairwells or up closes where cavalry could not follow.”
Over the next 48 hours, serious clashes continued, with an effigy of Dundas being burned outside his mother’s house and the Lord Provost’s home being attacked. In one street battle, shots were fired by the troops and at least one demonstrator was killed.
On the night of Wednesday, June 6, a fierce clash led to marines being summoned from the port of Leith to disperse the rioters. Macaskill asserts: “A round-up was carried out on this final night of the riots and a few arrests were made but it was basically only stragglers and drunks who were detained.”
A King’s Birthday to forget, then, and how unlike the celebrations for the current queen.
I’ve been asked by what right is Elizabeth our queen. The question of whether Scotland should be reigned over by a monarch or an elected head of state is one that will surely be decided by the Scottish people post-independence, but I can certainly assert that Elizabeth II is the legitimate Queen of Scotland if you accept that the Scottish and English Parliaments had the right to dispense with King James II on grounds of his Roman Catholicism in 1688/89.
If you also accept that William II (III of England) and his wife Mary II (second Queen Mary in both kingdoms) were rightfully made the joint monarchs and that Catholics had to be excluded from succession then Elizabeth II is the rightful queen, the descendant of James IV of Scotland and his queen Margaret Tudor. Here is the bloodline to prove it: James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor > James V of Scotland > Mary, Queen of Scots > James VI of Scotland/I of England > Elizabeth of Bohemia > Sophia, Electress of Hanover > George I > George II > Frederick, Prince of Wales > George III > Prince Edward, Duke of Kent > Queen Victoria > Edward VII > George V > George VI > Queen Elizabeth II.
As I always assert, this bloodline going back to the mix of Stewart and Tudor proves one thing – that Elizabeth is Queen of Scotland first as the English borrowed our King James VI to be their monarch. So lang may yer lum reek, ma’am.
