Old Photograph Cottages Houses Harbour Crail East Neuk Of Fife Scotland

Old photograph of cottages and houses by the harbour in Crail, on the coast of the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. Crail became a Royal Burgh in the 12th century. King Robert the Bruce granted permission to hold markets on a Sunday, in the Marketgait, where the Mercat Cross now stands. The decision caused such outrage in religious circles that John Knox delivered a sermon at Crail Parish Church damning the fishermen of the East Neuk for working on a Sunday. Despite the protests, the markets were a huge success and were amongst the largest in Europe. King James V, the father of Mary Queen of Scots, sent for his wife, Marie de Guise, whom he had recently married by proxy in Paris, and she landed in Crail in June 1538, accompanied by a navy of ships under Lord Maxwell, and 2,000 lords and barons whom her new husband had sent from Scotland to fetch her away, Queen Mary landed at Crail in Fife on 10 June 1538, just over a year since the landing of Queen Madeleine. She was formally received by the king at St Andrews a few days later with pageants and plays performed in her honour, and a great deal of generally blithe rejoicing, before being remarried the next morning in the Cathedral of St Andrews.



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