Editing Edinburgh (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Surgeons' Hall, Nicholson Street - geograph.org.uk - 3529543.jpg|thumb|left|[[Surgeons' Hall]], one of the [[Greek Revival architecture|Greek Revival]] buildings that earned Edinburgh the nickname "Athens of the North"]]

The earliest known human habitation in the Edinburgh area was at [[Cramond]], where evidence was found of a [[Mesolithic]] camp site dated to c. 8500 BC.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Earliest evidence found of settlers in Scotland: hazelnuts and stone tools excavated near Edinburgh date to around 8500 BC |url=http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba60/news.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102050435/http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba60/news.shtml |archive-date=2 November 2013 |access-date=31 October 2013}}</ref> Traces of later [[Bronze Age]] and [[Iron Age]] settlements have been found on Castle Rock, [[Arthur's Seat]], [[Craiglockhart Hill]], and the [[Pentland Hills]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Coghill |first=Hamish |title=Lost Edinburgh |publisher=Birlinn Ltd |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-84158-747-9 |pages=1–2}}</ref>

When the [[Roman Empire|Romans]] arrived in Lothian at the end of the 1st century AD, they found a [[Celtic Britons|Brittonic]] Celtic tribe whose name they recorded as the [[Votadini]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ritchie |first=J. N. G. and A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1z4rAQAACAAJ |title=Edinburgh and South-East Scotland |publisher=Heinemann |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-435-32971-6 |page=51 |access-date=6 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101001136/https://books.google.com/books?id=1z4rAQAACAAJ&dq |archive-date=1 January 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> The Votadini transitioned into the [[Gododdin]] kingdom in the [[Early Middle Ages]], with Eidyn serving as one of the kingdom's districts. During this period, the Castle Rock site, thought to have been the stronghold of Din Eidyn, emerged as the kingdom's major centre.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Driscoll |first1=Stephen |title=Excavations within Edinburgh Castle in 1988–91 |last2=Yeoman |first2=Peter A. |date=1997 |publisher=[[Society of Antiquaries of Scotland]] |isbn=978-0-903-903127 |series=Society of Antiquaries of Scotland monograph series |volume=12 |page=227}}</ref> The medieval [[Welsh language|Welsh-language]] poem ''[[Y Gododdin]]'' describes a war band from across the Brittonic world who gathered in Eidyn before a fateful raid; this may describe a historical event around AD 600.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Ifor |title=The Beginnings of Welsh Poetry: Studies |publisher=University of Wales Press |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-7083-0035-0 |page=47 |author-link=Ifor Williams}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Chadwick |first=Nora K. |title=The British Heroic Age: the Welsh and the Men of the North |publisher=University of Wales Press |year=1968 |isbn=978-0-7083-0465-5 |page=107 |author-link=Nora K. Chadwick}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dumville |first=David |date=1995 |title=The eastern terminus of the Antonine wall: 12th- or 13th-century evidence |journal=[[Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland]] |volume=124 |pages=293–98|doi=10.9750/PSAS.124.293.298 |issn=0081-1564 }}</ref>

In 638, the Gododdin stronghold was besieged by forces loyal to [[Oswald of Northumbria|King Oswald]] of [[Northumbria]], and around this time, control of Lothian passed to the [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]]. Their influence continued for the next three centuries until around 950, when, during the reign of [[Indulf]], son of [[Constantine II of Scotland|Constantine II]], the "burh" (fortress), named in the 10th-century ''[[Pictish Chronicle]]'' as ''oppidum Eden'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Watson |first=William |title=The Celtic Place Names of Scotland |year=1926 |isbn=978-1-906566-35-7 |page=340|publisher=Birlinn}}</ref> was abandoned to the Scots. It thenceforth remained, for the most part, under their jurisdiction.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lynch |first=Michael |title=The Oxford Companion to Scottish History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-19-923482-0 |page=658}}</ref>

The [[royal burgh]] was founded by [[David I of Scotland|King David I]] in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, though the date of its charter is unknown.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Daiches |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/edinburgh00davi |title=Edinburgh |publisher=Hamish Hamilton |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-241-89878-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/edinburgh00davi/page/15 15] |author-link=David Daiches |access-date=6 November 2015 |url-access=registration}}</ref> The first documentary evidence of the medieval [[burgh]] is a [[royal charter]], {{circa|1124–1127}}, by King David I granting a [[burgage|toft]] in {{lang|la|burgo meo de Edenesburg}} to the [[Dunfermline Abbey|Priory of Dunfermline]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barrow |first=Geoffrey |title=The Charters of King David I: The Written Acts of David I King of Scots ... |year=1999 |isbn=978-0851157313 |page=63|publisher=Boydell Press}}</ref> The [[shires of Scotland|shire]] of Edinburgh seems also to have been created during David’s reign, possibly covering all of Lothian at first, but by 1305 the eastern and western parts of Lothian had become [[East Lothian|Haddingtonshire]] and [[West Lothian|Linlithgowshire]], leaving Edinburgh as the county town of a shire covering the central part of Lothian, which was called Edinburghshire or [[Midlothian]] (the latter name being an informal, but commonly used, alternative until the county's name was legally changed in 1947).<ref name=Chalmers>{{cite book |last1=Chalmers |first1=George |title=Caledonia |date=1889 |publisher=Alexander Gardner |location=Paisley |page=579|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hywv0eVoI-8C&pg=PA579 |access-date=24 December 2022 |chapter=Edinburghshire: Of its establishment as a shire}}</ref><ref>{{cite legislation UK|type=act|act=Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947|year=1947|chapter=43|section=127|accessdate=24 December 2022}}</ref>

[[File:Sunshine on the Crags (28877122034).jpg|thumb|right|Edinburgh, showing Arthur's Seat, one of the earliest known sites of human habitation in the area]]

Edinburgh was largely under English control from 1291 to 1314 and from 1333 to 1341, during the [[Wars of Scottish Independence]]. When the [[English invasion of Scotland (1298)|English invaded Scotland in 1298]], [[Edward I of England]] chose not to enter Edinburgh but passed by it with his army.<ref>{{cite book |last=Prestwich |first=Michael |date=1988 |title=Edward I |publisher=University of California Press |page=479 |isbn=9780520062665}}</ref>

In the middle of the 14th century the French chronicler [[Jean Froissart]] described it as the capital of Scotland (c. 1365), and [[James III of Scotland|James III]] (1451–1488) referred to it in the 15th century as "the principal burgh of our kingdom".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dickinson |first=W C |title=Scotland, From The Earliest Times To 1603 |publisher=Thomas Nelson |year=1961 |location=Edinburgh |page=119}}</ref> In 1482 James III "granted and perpetually confirmed to the said Provost, Bailies, Clerk, Council, and Community, and their successors, the office of [[Sheriff principal|Sheriff]] within the Burgh for ever, to be exercised by the Provost for the time as Sheriff, and by the Bailies for the time as Sheriffsdepute conjunctly and severally; with full power to hold Courts, to punish transgressors not only by banishment but by death, to appoint officers of Court, and to do everything else appertaining to the office of Sheriff; as also to apply to their own proper use the fines and escheats arising out of the exercise of the said office."<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Marwick |editor1-first=J. D. |title=Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh, 1403–1528 |date=1869 |publisher=Scottish Burgh Records Society |location=Edinburgh |pages=314–339 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/edinburgh-burgh-records/1403-1528/pp314-339 |access-date=26 December 2022 |chapter=Appendix: Abstracts of charters and other documents}}</ref> Despite being [[Burning of Edinburgh (1544)|burnt by the English]] in 1544, Edinburgh continued to develop and grow,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dickinson |first=W C |title=Scotland, From The Earliest Times To 1603 |publisher=Thomas Nelson |year=1961 |location=Edinburgh |pages=236–8}}</ref> and was at the centre of events in the 16th-century [[Scottish Reformation]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Donaldson |first=Gordon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9gg9AAAAIAAJ |title=The Scottish Reformation |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1960 |isbn=978-0-521-08675-2 |page=53}}</ref> and 17th-century [[Covenanter|Wars of the Covenant]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Scottish Covenanter Memorials Association |url=http://www.covenanter.org.uk/Greyfriars/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513123235/http://www.covenanter.org.uk/Greyfriars/ |archive-date=13 May 2013 |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=covenanter.org}}</ref> In 1582 Edinburgh's town council was given a [[royal charter]] by [[James VI and I|King James VI and I]] permitting the establishment of a university;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Charter by King James VI, 14 April 1582 |url=http://ourhistory.is.ed.ac.uk/index.php/Charter_by_King_James_VI,_14_April_1582 |access-date=15 August 2021 |website=University of Edinburgh – Our History}}</ref> founded as ''Tounis College'' (Town's College), the institution developed into the [[University of Edinburgh]], which contributed to Edinburgh's central intellectual role in subsequent centuries.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grant |first=Alexander |title=The Story of the University of Edinburgh during Its First Three Hundred Years |publisher=Longmans, Green |year=1884 |location=London}}</ref>