Officially opening, under royal charter of King James VI in 1583, the University of Edinburgh played a significant role in the Scottish Enlightenment and has remained one of the most prestigious universities in the UK. The current The Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA) traces it origins back to the formation of a Forbes Chair of Architecture in 1947, a joint post with the Edinburgh College of Art. Raymond Gordon Brown was the first holder, having just resigned from the position of Principal at the Architectural Association, London. In 1963, the School of Architecture was moved from the Faculty of Arts to the Faculty of Social Sciences and in 2002 was transferred to the School of Arts, Culture and Environment, housed within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2009 a merger with Edinburgh College of Art's School of Landscape Architecture took place, forming ESALA.