Cleanse the Causeway

On this date in 1520 a street fight erupted on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh between the men of Archibald Douglas (left), 6th Earl of Angus, Chief of Clan Douglas, and brother-in-law of Henry VIII; and the supporters of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran, and Chief of Clan Hamilton. About 70 combatants were killed, most of them Hamiltonian. In the pursuit of political advantage Archibald Douglas went on to fight pretty nearly everyone else in Scotland, including the forces of his wife Margaret Tudor.