Our Queen, at the request of the young King of Scots, appointed Sir William Drurie, knight marshal of Berwick, to pass into Scotland with a thousand soldiers, and five hundred pioneers, and also certain pieces of artillery, to help by siege and force of cannon to constrain those that kept the Castle of Edinburgh against the said King to yield the same into his hands....

The twenty-fifth of April, all the foot troops marched to Edinburgh, at whom were shot, after they had entered the town, diverse and sundry cannon shots out of the Castle, which did little harm to any of them (thanks be to God,) saving that captain Brickwell was hurt in the face and hands with stones raised by the said cannon shot. The same day the Castle was summoned by a messenger in manner as follows: "Sir William Kirkaudie, sometime of Grange, knight, for as much as the Queen's Majesty, my sovereign Lady, upon the earnest request of her dear cousin the King of Scots, your sovereign Lord, made to her Highness by his regent, nobility, and states of this realm, after all good means used to have reduced you to dutiful obedience of his authority by treaty, which hitherto you have not duly hearkened unto, to the only hinderance of the universal peace in this realm, by withholding that, his Highnesses' Castle, meaning, as it seems, to reserve the same for a receptacle of foreign forces, to the manifest danger both of this realm, and of my sovereign's, and therefore necessary to remove so perilous a danger to both the realms: for which consideration, her Majesty has sent her aid and succor of men, ordinance, and munitions, under my charge and leading, for the expugnation and recovery of the said Castle, to the said King's use and behoove; and therefore according to her Majesty's commandment and commission, this shall be in due manner to warn, require, and summon you, that you render and deliver the said Castle, with the whole ordinance, artillery, munitions, jewels, household stuffs, and such other implements within the same, to me, to the use and behoove of the King your sovereign, and his Regent in his name, immediately after this my letter of summons, or knowledge of the same, shall come unto you: which if you obey, as of duty you ought, then will I, in her Majesty's name, interpose myself to travail with the regent, councilors, and nobility here, for the safety of your lives. Otherwise, if you continue in your former obstinance, abiding the cannon, then no further look for grace or favour; but you, and the rest within that Castle, to be pursued to the uttermost, and holden as enemies to her Majesty, your own sovereign, and country. Given at Edinburgh, by me Sir William Drurie, knight, general of her Majesty's forces now in Scotland, this 25th of April, 1573."

The Lord of Grange, captain of the Castle, notwithstanding this summons, refused utterly to yield the fortress, who thereupon received such answer from the general, as stood not greatly to his contention. Hereupon were the pioneers set in hand to cast trenches, and to raise mounts in places convenient to plant the ordinance upon...

They within spared not to bestow such shot as they had, both great and small, very roundly, as well at the pioneers as soldiers that were appointed to guard them; insomuch that diverse were hurt, and some slain, before the same trenches and mounts might be brought to any perfection, although no diligence was wanting to hasten the same....

At length the great ordinance was placed on the mounts, and in the trenches; so that upon the 27th of May there were 30 cannons shot off against the Castle, and so well bestowed in battery at David's Tower, that by the ruins thereof then and after, the force of the English cannons was easy to consider....

Thus, by the valiant prowess and worthy policy of Sir William Drurie, our Queen's Majesty's General, and other the captains and soldiers under his charge, was that Castle of Edinburgh won, (as before you have heard,) which, by the common opinion of men, was esteemed impregnable, and not to be taken by force; insomuch, as many thought, it took the name of the Maiden Castle, for that it had not been won at any time before, except by famine or practice; but such is the force of the cannon in this age, that no fortress, be it ever so strong, is able of it self to resist the puissance thereof, if the situation be of that nature, as the ground about it will serve to convey the great artillery to be planted in battery against it....

Artillery brought from Berwick by sea to Leith, and so to the siege of this Castle: Six double cannons, fourteen whole culverins, two sacres, two mortar pieces, two bombards. Besides these there were three or four pieces of the Scottish King's, and four or five bands of Scots soldiers. The English power was a thousand soldiers, and three hundred pioneers.