Leith

Leith, parliamentary division and seaport in Scotland, on the Firth of Forth. The second largest port in Scotland and the largest on the east coast, Leith was incorporated with the Scottish capital of Edinburgh in 1920 and went to form four of the city’s wards. As Inverleith, it was mentioned in the foundation charter of Holyrood Abbey in 1128. In 1329 Scottish king Robert Bruce (Robert I) granted the harbor to Edinburgh magistrates, who tried to strangle its trade, and in 1544 and 1547, Leith was burned by Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford. During the regency of Mary of Guise, queen consort of King James V of Scotland, a coalition of Protestant Scottish lords besieged the port in retaliation for Mary’s persecution of them. Leith was made a parliamentary burgh in 1832.