Stirling Castle A few structures of the fourteenth century remain, while the outer defences fronting the town date from the early eighteenth century. Before the union with England, Stirling Castle was also one of the most used of the many Scottish royal residences, very much a palace as well as a fortress. Several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1542, and others were born or died there. There have been at least eight sieges of Stirling Castle, including several during the Wars of Scottish Independence, with the last being in 1746, when Bonnie
Walter Scott of Branxholme and Buccleuch Later, Dame Janet favoured the alliance of James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell and Mary, Queen of Scots, and was said to have infiuenced them by witchcraft. After the death of James V in 1542, Scott was among those who opposed the proposed marriage of the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, to Henry VIII's son Prince Edward, and became active in the wars with England later known as The Rough Wooing. He was made Keeper of Newark Castle for nineteen years in 1543. In 1545, Scott joined the unlikely alliance of Arran and Angus against the invading English at the Battle