This gave the town the privilege of holding a market, and the power to raise money by taxing goods coming into the burgh for sale.

[2] To the north of Edinburgh lay the Nor Loch, formed in the early 15th century in the depression where Princes Street Gardens are now laid out.

Given under our Great Seal at Stirling the last day of April, and of our reign the thirteenth year, anno 1450.In a further royal charter of 28 April 1472, King James III ordered the demolition of houses built on or outside the King's Wall, which were hampering efforts to strengthen the defences.

[14] However, excavations in the 2002-2004 by Headland Archaeology in the Cowgate, in advance of a housing development, found what is thought to be remains of the King's Wall.

On 9 September, the Scots met the English at the Battle of Flodden, and were heavily defeated, with King James killed on the field.

[14] Work started at the western end, and the final section was the stretch from Leith Wynd to the Nor Loch, incorporating the New Port.

Continuing east, the wall passed the Kirk o' Field, where the Old College now stands, and ran along Drummond Street, turning north at the Pleasance to enclose the former Blackfriars Monastery.

On 6 May, having captured Leith, Hertford's men, under the command of Sir Christopher Morris, blew open the Netherbow Port with their artillery.

In 1558 the Protestant Lords of the Congregation marched on Edinburgh against the Catholic French Regent, Mary of Guise, and were able to take control of the town without difficulty, despite the guards posted at the city gate.

[25] Following the forced abdication of Queen Mary, Scotland's nobility was divided between her supporters, and those of the infant King James VI, represented by a series of regents.

Edinburgh was held for the Queen by William Kirkcaldy of Grange, and in May 1571 the town was besieged by the Regent's forces under James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton.

The besiegers under Regent Mar had only seven guns, and while they did manage to breach the Flodden Wall, the inner defences were too strong for an assault.

In 1618 the town council bought 10 acres (4.0 ha) of land to the west of Greyfriars Kirk, which was enclosed between 1628 and 1636 by the Telfer Wall.

[30] By the 17th century the King's Wall had been almost completely absorbed within later buildings, although it is briefly mentioned in the "Extent Roll", a town survey of 1635, and limited sections appear on James Gordon of Rothiemay's map of 1647.

[2] This was due to fear of an English attack on Edinburgh during the Anglo-Scottish war (1650–1652) following the defeat of the Scottish army at the Battle of Dunbar.

The quickly made changes included taking the four ornamental tops off the Netherbow Port, in order to install cannon.

In 1736, the lynching of Captain John Porteous by an Edinburgh mob led the British Government in London to impose sanctions on the town.

Porteous, Captain of the Town Guard, had been convicted of murder following the shooting of spectators at a public hanging, but following a reprieve, a mob broke into the Tolbooth Jail and executed him.

[33] When the town was threatened by the Jacobite rising of 1745, a company of volunteer citizens was raised for the defence of the city, and the mathematics professor Colin Maclaurin advised on improvements to the walls.

On the morning of 17 September, a group of Highlanders under Donald Cameron of Lochiel rushed the Netherbow Port as the gates were opened, and Edinburgh was captured without a fight.

[38] By now, the New Town was under construction, and although smuggling of goods through the city walls was still being punished, complaints about the zealousness of the guards were widely circulated.

[40] Nothing remains of Edinburgh's earliest enclosures, and very little of the King's Wall survives, although parts are probably incorporated in later buildings.

This was exposed, identified and recognised as a fortified wall, initially by two labourers working on the renovation and restoration of the old Oliver & Boyd publishers in 1983.

[42] Four sections of the Flodden Wall survive: to the north and south of the Grassmarket; in Greyfriars Kirkyard; and along Drummond Street and the Pleasance.

North of the Grassmarket the wall runs alongside Granny's Green Steps and has been incorporated into later buildings, including the former Greyfriars Mission Kirk.

The Flodden Tower, as it is sometimes known, comprises two remaining walls with a total length of 17.2 metres (56 ft),[16] pierced by crosslet gunloops and a 19th-century window.