The Freedom of the City of Edinburgh is the highest civic honour bestowed by the City of Edinburgh Council. It is granted rarely to people who have distinguished themselves through their work or service, or whom the council wishes to recognise as being held in high esteem. The council dates the tradition to 1459.

The honour developed from Edinburgh's historic system of burgess-ship, under which honorary recipients were admitted as a Burgess and Guild Brother and presented with a Burgess Ticket. In modern law, honorary freedom is conferred under section 206 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The honour has also been granted to military units with longstanding connections to Edinburgh.

History Burgesses have been created in Edinburgh since the early fifteenth century. Historically, burgess status made a person a free citizen of the burgh and was generally required for those wishing to trade or earn a living within the city. The civic authorities also used honorary burgess-ship to recognise people they wished to honour.

Historically, the honour was expressed through the granting of an honorary Burgess Ticket and admission as a Burgess and Guild Brother. Benjamin Franklin was admitted as a Burgess and Guild Brother of Edinburgh on 5 September 1759 during a visit to Scotland.

By the nineteenth century, Burgess Tickets conferring the Freedom could be accompanied by ceremonial presentation pieces. Explorer Henry Morton Stanley, who received the Freedom in 1890, was presented with a silver freedom casket bearing an inscription from the city corporation.

Later recipients have included actor Sean Connery, who received the Freedom at the Usher Hall in 1991, and South African president Nelson Mandela, who was honoured on 27 October 1997. Olympic cyclist Chris Hoy received the Freedom in September 2012, followed by physicist Peter Higgs on 28 June 2014.

Conferral and ceremony Section 206 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 allows a local authority to admit as an honorary freeman a person of distinction or someone who has rendered eminent service to its area. The proposal must receive the support of at least two-thirds of the council members voting at a meeting for which the proposed admission has been specified as an item of business. The authority must also maintain a roll of honorary freemen.

Under section 207, honorary freedom does not confer rights over the property, funds or privileges of a guild or craft incorporation, or rights in historic burgess land or grazing.

Modern ceremonies retain elements of the older burgess tradition. When 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force received the Freedom in July 2018, its representative signed the Honorary Burgess Register, described at the ceremony as the Freedom Book, before being presented with a Freedom Scroll. In March 2022, the council voted unanimously to confer the Freedom jointly on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko. The council said in February 2023 that it hoped they would be able to receive the honours in person after the end of the war in Ukraine.

Military freedoms The Freedom has also been conferred on military units. When such a freedom is exercised ceremonially, a unit may parade through the city with drums beating, colours flying and bayonets fixed.

The 3rd Battalion, The Rifles became the first English battalion to be granted the Freedom of Edinburgh in 2012 and exercised it with a parade through the city on 3 November that year.

The Type 42 destroyer HMS Edinburgh was conferred the Freedom during its final visit to its namesake city in May 2013, after a 30-year affiliation with Edinburgh. Its crew exercised the freedom with a parade before the ship was decommissioned.

603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron received the Freedom on 3 July 2018. In November 2021, the council unanimously approved the same honour for E (Lothians and Border Yeomanry) Squadron of the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry. The squadron received the Freedom and paraded through Edinburgh in April 2022.

Following the decommissioning of HMS Edinburgh, its affiliation and Freedom passed to the future HMS Edinburgh, a Type 26 frigate under construction. As the new ship is not expected to enter service until after 2030, the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth was given permission to hold the affiliation temporarily. Its crew exercised the Freedom in Edinburgh on 18 September 2026, marching from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to the City Chambers and St Giles' Cathedral.

Revocations The honour has occasionally been withdrawn. Irish politician Charles Stewart Parnell had his name removed from Edinburgh's list of burgesses in December 1890. The Spectator reported at the time that the Town Council had unanimously approved a report ordering its removal.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who had received the Freedom in 2005, was stripped of it by a council vote on 23 August 2018. The motion referred to the humanitarian crisis affecting the Rohingya people in Myanmar and to the council's unsuccessful attempts to obtain a response after asking Suu Kyi to use her position to address the situation. Contemporary reporting described the decision as the second revocation of the Freedom in two centuries, after Parnell.

See also Burgess of Edinburgh Edinburgh Award Freedom of the City

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