Mary had escaped from her imprisonment in Lochleven Castle to join her main supporters in the west of Scotland, but they were defeated at the Battle of Langside by her half-brother James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray.

[3] Moray moved against the supporters of Queen Mary in their south-west power base with a military expedition in June 1568 called the 'Raid of Dumfries' or 'Raid of Hoddom.'

It was rumoured that armed support for Mary would land there; in December 1569, William Drury, Marshall of Berwick, heard that the Spanish Duke of Alva was sending troops there from Flanders.

The deserter met Robert Douglas, a relation of the Regent Lennox, and John Cunningham of Drumquhassle and discussed with them ways of capturing the castle.

The chronicle Historie of King James the Saxt tells this part of the story differently, having Douglas and Drumquhassle setting out to recruit the former member of the garrison whose name was Robesoun.

[9] Edinburgh Castle was initially delivered by its captain, James Balfour, to the Regent Moray, who appointed Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange as its Keeper.

[12] On 22 April two Marian supporters, Arthur Hamilton of Merrynton and Alexander Baillie of Lamington, captured the king's tailor James Inglis near St Cuthbert's Church.

On 13 May, the King's men built a small artillery redoubt for three cannon on the "Dow Craig" of the Calton Hill above Trinity College Kirk, which was attacked the same night.

[14] The King's party gathered in the Canongate in a meeting known as the "creeping parliament", from their attempts to assemble inconspicuously, on 14–16 May, while Mary's supporters met in the tolbooth.

On 26 June, known subsequently as "Black Saturday", the Earl of Morton brought his soldiers to Hawkhill at Restalrig, which provoked Grange to bring his men out to the Quarry Holes (where present-day Easter Road meets Abbey Mount).

[18] Attempts were made to supply Grange and the Castle from France and George, Lord Seton, negotiated for support with Duke of Alba in the Spanish Netherlands.

In July 1571, John Chisholm, controller of the royal artillery, was captured after setting out from Dieppe with money from the exiled Bishop of Glasgow, cannonballs of four different calibres, and pikes.

[19] At this time, Grange began to the demolish houses at the top of the Canongate close to the Netherbow Port (town gate), to create an open killing ground.

Grange was more successful in raising money from loans on the security of the crown jewels, which were "laid in wed and pledge" with wealthy merchants and aristocratic allies.

Mar sent an army commanded by Captains Chisholm and Wedderburn northwards, and the Earl of Huntly sent a force north from Edinburgh with orders to "offend the Forbeses all they can.

[29] The King's party appealed to Elizabeth I of England for assistance, as they lacked the artillery and money required to reduce Edinburgh Castle, and feared that Grange would receive aid from France.

Trenches were dug to surround the castle and St Margaret's Well, one of its main sources of water, was poisoned with white arsenic, lime, and rotten meat.

[38] Scarlat, a stone mason, was killed while working in the trenches, and Regent Morton gave his widow Marion Ellane an income to support her four children.

[39] The cannon emplacements were fortified with gabions, baskets of stone made from "rysse" (willow twigs and brushwood) brought from Haddingtonshire and West Lothian to Greyfriar's Port.

[53] Ten years after these events, the English diplomat Thomas Randolph wrote to Francis Walsingham to certify that Drury had found Mr Archibald Douglas a "fit instrument" to secretly negotiate with Grange, William Maitland of Lethington, Robert Melville, and others, especially to persuade them to surrender the castle.

[56] Regent Moray and his secretary John Wood tried to gain English support by producing the Casket letters in England, which were intended to incriminate Mary in the death of Lord Darnley.

[66] Amidst the opportunities for disinformation, when uncertain news of the capture of Dumbarton reached London in April 1571, the English diplomat Thomas Randolph reported John Lesley pretending that Dunbar Castle had fallen, a fortress-port on the opposite coast of Scotland which had little significance in the war since Moray's parliament had ordered it to be demolished in December 1567.

[69] Another ballad, an Answeir to the Englisch Ballad, criticised Regent Mar, the Earl of Morton and colleagues for the rendition of the Earl of Northumberland to England after the Rising of the North;Thocht sum have playit Judas' pairt,In selling gud Northumberland,Quhy sould the whoill, for thair desert,That faine wald have that fact withstand?Or yit the countrey beir the blame?Let thame that sauld him have the schame.Mar, and the divelishe Douglassis,And namelie, Morton and Lochlevin, (Robert Douglas of Lochleven)Mackgill and Orknay, Scottisch assis, (Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney))And Cleisch quhom to the gold wes gevin, (Robert Colville of Cleish)Dunfermling that the py prepaird, (Robert Pitcairn, Commendator of Dunfermline: "pie prepared" plotted)And lowse Lindsay quho was his gaird,These onlie wer the Judassis.

[71] After the Ridolphi plot was made public in 1571, George Buchanan's short anti-Marian narrative, describing the murder of Lord Darnley, the Detectio, Ane Detectioun, and Detection of Mary Stewart were published in London and St Andrews in Latin and Scots.

In France in these years, despite much sympathy for Mary in Catholic court and Guisian circles, there were no publications in her support, probably because it was foreseen they would damage diplomatic relations with England.

[74] The late 16th-century narrative Historie of King James Sext, a major source for the civil war, sometimes attributed to John Colville (first published selectively in 1706 by David Crawford of Drumsoy and in full in 1804) was sympathetic to the Hamiltons and hostile to the Regents.

After the civil had ended, and while Mary remained captive, full-length books were published, not only setting out the context and events of the struggle, but examining the historical and theoretical aspects of monarchical rule in Scotland.

These works, like Buchanan's History of Scotland (1572), retold the stories of ancient Scottish Kings, many mythical who had been deposed justly or unjustly by their subjects, and might be compared with Mary.

[76] Both Buchanan and Chambers were patriotic writers and shared a view of Scottish kingship drawn largely from myth, that the Scots had been a migrant people from Scythia who had elected their first king, Fergus I, in response to a crisis, 251 years after their arrival in Scotland.

[78] Buchanan wrote that "wicked kings, so often as they intended tyranny over their subjects, were restrained" insisting that in his day a similar custom persisted in the election of Clan Chiefs among the Highlanders or "Old Scots".