edinburgh30 AD 1457 Mons Meg Arrives in Scotland In 1449, James II married Mary of Gueldres in Holyrood Abbey. That same year a great siege gun, made for the Queen's uncle, the Duke of Burgundy, was tested at Mons (now in Belgium). In 1457 Mons Meg (as she is now called) was shipped to Scotland as a present to the King and Queen. Three years later the King was dead, killed at the siege of Roxburgh Castle by one of his guns (NOT Mons Men!). Mons Meg was kept with the rest of the royal guns here in the castle. She was used against the English and against rebellious Scottish noblemen. Her enormous bulk (she weighs over 6 tons) soon made her obsolete as a siege gun and she was put to good use firing ceremonial salutes. In 1681, during a birthday salute for the Duke of Albany (later James VII and II, the last Stewart King) her barrel burst open and she was unceremoniously dumped beside Foog's Gate.