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align="left"><font color="#FFFFCC"><font color="#FFFFCC"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><b> <font color="#FFFFFF">MONS MEG</font></b></font></font></font><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1"><br> <b><br> </b>Mons Meg is one of two surviving 'bombard gun's presented to King James II by his uncle by marraige, Phillip the Good, Duke of Burgundy in 1457.<br> <br> The name 'Mons' comes from where they were made 'Mons" which is in present day Belgium.<br> <br> The 6 ton, muzzle-loading canon is capable of firing gunstones weighing 150kg nearly 2 miles.</font></p> <p align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">It saw action only once against the English at Norham Castle on the river Tweed. However, its great weight made it impractical to drag around in battle so by the 1650's it was retired to Edinburgh castle where it was fired to salute the marraige of Mary Queen of Scots to French Dauphin, Francis.</font></p> <p align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">Mons Meg was last fired on 14th October 1681 to celebrate the birthday for the Duke of Albany and York (later King James VII of Scotland and II of England) The ancient gun's barrel burst and it was left beside Foog's gate until it was taken to the Tower of London in 1754 and later returned to Edinburgh in 1829 where it sits proud but silent outside St. Margaret's Chapel.</font><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1"><br> </font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="148" width="361" valign="top"> <p><font color="#FFFFCC"><b><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="castle_plan.html"><font size="2">CASTLE PLAN</font></a></font></b></font></p> <p><font color="#FFFFCC" size="2"><b><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="edinburgh_castle.html">EDINBURGH CASTLE</a> </font></b></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td height="60" colspan="2"> <div align="center"><font color="#FFFFCC"> </font><div align="center"><a href="/web/20121130095612/http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/index.html" target="_parent"><img src="/web/20121130095612im_/http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/images/royalmilesign.jpg" width="400" height="74" border="0" alt="Home"></a></div> <font color="#FFFFCC"><br> </font> <br><link href="/web/20121130095612cs_/http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <div align="center"><span class="body-cnt"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">[<a href="/web/20121130095612/http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/onroyalmile.html">ON ROYALMILE</a>] [<a href="/web/20121130095612/http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/history.html">HISTORY</a>] [ <a href="/web/20121130095612/http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/photogallery.html">PHOTO GALLERY</a>] [ <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121130095612/http://www.edinburgh-events.com/">FESTIVALS</a>] [<a href="/web/20121130095612/http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/maps.html">MAPS</a>] [<a href="/web/20121130095612/http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/links.html">LINKS</a>] [<a href="/web/20121130095612/http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/offroyalmile.html">OFF ROYALMILE</a>] [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121130095612/http://www.edinburgh-sites.com/advertise.html">ADVERTISE</a></font></span><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">] </font></div> <font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br> <img src="/web/20121130095612im_/http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/images/rule.jpg" width="600" height="22"></p> <p align="right"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#0066CC"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121130095612/http://www.chameleon-arts.com/">chameleon design</a></font></b></font><br> </font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>