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THIS MONTH IN SCOTTISH HISTORY
1 July 1505: The Barber Surgeons of Edinburgh are granted a charter by the City Council enabling them to practise surgery within the city. This marks the beginnings of the Royal College of Surgeons.
1 July 1543: The Treaty of Greenwich is agreed between King Henry VIII of England and the Earl of Arran, providing for the marriage of the then infant Mary, Queen of Scots to Henry's son. It is later repudiated by the Scottish Parliament.
1 July 1690: William of Orange defeats James VII/II at the Battle of the Boyne, north of Dublin in Ireland. James returns to France from Ireland, and the hopes of Scottish Jacobites of his return to Scotland evaporate.
1 July 1782: The Act of Proscription is repealed and the kilt and wearing of tartans comes into more general use.
2 July 1645: The Marquis of Montrose and the Royalists again defeat the Covenanters at the Battle of Alford, in Aberdeenshire, but this time with considerable loss of life on both sides. Montrose has defeated the Covenanters throughout northern Scotland.
4 July 1796: Robert Burns takes up residence at the Brow Inn to seek a cure for what we now know was rhumatic fever. The "cure" comprises drinking the waters of the Brow Well and bathing in the Solway Firth.
4 July 1901: The death of Peter Guthrie Tait, a mathematical physicist best known for his joint-authorship of a textbook which defined the science of physics.
4 July 1913: The birth in Tokyo of Oswald Wynd, the novelist who sometimes wrote under the pseudonym "Gavin Black".
5 July 1560: The Treaty of Edinburgh is agreed between England and France bringing to an end the siege by English troops of French forces occupying Leith.
5 July 1745: Charles Edwards Stuart sails from France for Scotland with two ships. The Elisabeth, carrying his military supplies and gold, is badly damaged in an encounter with a Royal Navy ship and has to turn back.
6 July 1249: King Alexander II dies on the island of Kerrera, in Oban Bay, after a premonition while on board his fleet. The military action dissipates on his death.
7 July 1930: The death of the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes.
10 July 1559: Francis, the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, becomes King Francis II of France.
11 July 1274: The birth of the future Robert the Bruce, or Robert I of Scotland at Turnberry Castle.
13 July 1249: Alexander III is crowned King of Scotland at the age of 8.
20 July 1889: The birth in Stonehaven of John Reith, who goes on to become 1st Baron Reith and the father of the BBC.
20 July 1912: Andrew Lang, the prolific Scottish historian, translator, journalist, poet, writer, teacher, biographer and anthropologist dies.
21 July 1796: The death in Dumfries of Robert Burns, regarded as Scotland's national poet and an icon who has loomed large in Scottish culture and consciousness ever since.
22 July 1650: Oliver Cromwell invades Scotland and proceeds to the eastern edge of Edinburgh. The Scots form a defensive line within the city.
23 July 1745: Charles Edward Stuart lands on Eriskay in the Western Isles.
24 July 1567: Lords Ruthven and Lindsay visit Mary Queen of Scots and insist she abdicates immediately or be killed. She abdicates.
26 July 1513: King James IV responds to pleas for assistance from France and gives notice to his brother in law, King Henry VIII, that he is going to invade Northumberland.
29 July 1565: Mary Queen of Scots marries her cousin Lord Darnley in a Catholic wedding.
31 July 1547: French naval forces in support of the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots bombard St Andrews Castle and capture the Protestant rebels. These include John Knox, who is sent to become a galley-slave.
31 July 1786: Robert Burns publishes Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. This collection of verse contains many poems that will later be regarded as classics.
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