The History of the Monastery of the Holy-Rood and of the Palace of Holyrood House J/ _- _JI $ The History of the Monastery of the Holy-Rood and of the Palace of Holyrood House BY JOHN HARRISON C.B.E., LL.D., D.L., F.R.S.E. CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEE OF THE EDINBURGH PUBLIC LIBRARY William Blackwood and Sons Edinburgh and London 1919 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED E4H72. 'DEDICATED BY "PERMISSION TO dBost <5ractou8 dBajestg GEORGE V. KING AND EMPEROR. PREFACE. THIS book had its beginning in a series of articles on the builders of the first Palace of Holyrood House, which were ' contributed to the Scotsman.' The subject interested me, so I extended my inquiries, and now attempt to tell the long history of Holyrood, first as Monastery and then as Palace. The thread of the story stretches through so many centuries that I may be excused if I have wrongly interpreted any of the periods which I touch on. The book was nearly completed when the Great War broke out in August 1914, and was laid aside, because other work claimed my thoughts and my time. I have to thank many friends for encouragement and assistance. Especially I must express my indebtedness to the late Professor Hume Brown for wise counsel, and ' ' acknowledge that his History of Scotland has supplied the historical framework of the book. I am also indebted for ready help given me by his successor in the Chair of Ancient History in the University of Edinburgh, Pro- fessor and to Librarian Hannay ; Hew Morrison, LL.D., of the Edinburgh Public Library. My warm thanks are due to W. T. Oldrieve, H.R.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., formerly viii PREFACE H.M. Principal Architect for Scotland, who has a unique of the of and to William knowledge buildings Holyrood ; Cowan, F.S.A.S., for placing at my service his wide and exact knowledge of the antiquities of the City of Edin- burgh. I am also indebted to my lifelong friend, W. D. M'Kay, LL.D., Secretary to the Royal Scottish Academy, for his drawings of Holyrood House as it now stands. I leave the book in the hands of those who are, as " I am, lovers of mine own romantic town." JOHN HAEEISON. EDINBURGH, August 1919. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. THE MONASTERY OF HOLYBOOD ..... 1 II. THE LIFE OF THE MONASTERY . .18 III. THE FIRST PALACE OF HOLYBOOD HOUSE . .35 IV. KING JAMES V/S ADDITIONS TO HOLYROOD HOUSE . 53 V. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MONASTERY . .71 1 ' VI. QUEEN MARY COMES TO HOLYROOD AS THE "WIDOW OF FRANCE 87 vii. QUBEN MARY'S MARRIED LIFE AT HOLYROOD . .116 VIII. HOLYROOD AS THE HOME OF JAMES VI. .143 IX. THE VISITS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. TO HOLYROOD . 170 X. THE REBUILDING OF THE PALACE BY CHARLES II. .193 XI. A ROYAL PALACE WITHOUT A KING . 7 . .213 XII. HOLYROOD IN MODERN TIMES ..... 236 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. THE SCOTTISH ARMS, PROM JAMES V.'s TOWER . On board THE FRONT OP HOLTROOD HOUSE .... Frontispiece By W. D. M'Kay, R.S.A. HOLTROOD, FROM "A COLORED PLAN OR BIRD's-EYE VIEW OF THE TOWN OP EDINBURGH, DRAWN TEMP. HENRY VIII." FBOM BRITISH MUSEUM (in colour) . Facing p. 34 "THE ROYAL PALACE OF HOLY ROOD-HOUSE. BY j. o." FRONT OF JAMES V.'S PALACE, BY J. GORDON OF ROTHIEMAY, 1647. FROM COPY IN ROYAL LIBRARY, WINDSOR CASTLE n 86 "THE PALACE OP HOLYROODHOUSE WITH THE SOUTH AND NORTH GARDENS," FROM GORDON OP ROTHIEMAY's BIRD's- EYE VIEW OP EDINBURGH, 1647 ll 116 HOLYROOD PALACE, FROM HOLLAR'S VIEW OF EDINBURGH, 1670. FROM COPY IN ROYAL LIBRARY, WINDSOR CASTLE n 192 THE CHAPEL OF HOLYROOD ABBEY, FROM THE EAST . II 206 By W. D. M'Kay, R.S.A. HOLYROOD HOUSE, PROM THE SOUTH-EAST . n 212 By W. D. M'Kay, R.S.A. HOLYROOD HOUSE, FROM THE NORTH . II 236 By W. D. M'Kay, U.S.A. CROFT-AN-RIGH. HOUSE SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN BUILT BY REGENT MORAY ...... n 248 By W. D. M'Kay, R.S.A. -I- HISTORY OF HOLYROOD, CHAPTER I. THE MONASTERY OF HOLYROOD. THERE is no name which is so closely associated in the minds of Scotsmen with the national life of Scotland as is Holyrood : it seems to be so truly emblematic of the existence of Scotland as a separate nation, and of the pass- ing of that life into the broader, fuller life of the United Kingdom. Holyrood House was the home of that strange family, the Stewarts, who, with all their failings, and not- all their were a race withstanding mistakes, yet kingly ; whose personalities stand out distinctly from the back- ground of the times in which they lived. There is a of lives led of great fascination about the story the they ; their noble of the of fate which the bearing ; working by early kings of this dynasty, one after another, met a violent death in early manhood, leaving to his successor while yet a child to take up the same struggle against an irresistible destiny. There is deep interest also in the a attempt of the later kings, continued during whole century, to rule Scotland in a manner repugnant to is linked the strong bent of its people. Above all, there to Holyrood for all time the name of the most brilliant A 2 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD of the Stewarts, Queen Mary, who possessed in fullest measure those qualities which attract the interest of the multitude and have in them the making of tragedy. This is what the Palace of Holyrood House mainly recalls to the mind of the Scot of the present day. But behind this there are the traditions of the Monastery of Holyrood the great Religious House which occupied this site for centuries before the Palace existed, and whose name the Palace inherited. To tell the story of this spot, full as it is of the memories of these long centuries, is in some measure to trace the history of Scotland, and to relate the process of her making. One fact increases the prestige of Holyrood in the eyes of Scotsmen. Like Windsor Castle in England, Holyrood House in Scotland is the only Palace now used by our kings which has been for centuries a royal dwelling-place. In the sixteenth century the Scottish kings possessed besides Holyrood House, Linlithgow Palace, the Palace in Stirling Castle, the Palace in Edinburgh Castle, and Falkland, the much-loved hunting-seat beside the Lomond Hills. Lin- lithgow, where Mary Stewart was born, stands a noble ruin, still, untenanted the Palace of impressive though ; Stirling the place of refuge for our kings when times were stormiest is used as barracks ; the Palace on the Castle Rock of is a over to tourists Edinburgh show-place given ; while Falkland has passed into private hands. Holyrood the Palace, latest founded of the royal houses, has outlived the and a rest, remains royal palace. Its history covers four centuries only; but as a dwelling-place important in the of eyes Scotland, the story is carried back until lost in the dim centuries whose history is myth, by the memories of the great religious house named after the Holy Rood. THE MONASTEEY OF HOLYROOD 3 The Abbey of Holyrood stood, as the Palace now stands, in the very midst of the old homeland of the Lowland Scot, the country in which the Scottish Reformation was nursed into life, from which sprang in later times Scottish philo- sophy and science and literature. It is the land between the hills and the sea on either side of the estuary of the river Forth. On its southern shore the Firth of Forth is marked by three great basaltic rocks. Near the entrance, right out of the sea, there springs the great impressive mass of the Bass Rock ; farther west, retired from the sea two miles or more, the picturesque outline of the Castle Rock of and at the head of the Edinburgh ; estuary, guarding the crossings of the river Forth, there rises the Rock of Stirling, around whose Castle so much of Scottish history has been enacted. The pilgrim Scot, homing from some - distant land where he has found a dwelling place, and searching for the places fullest of the traditions of his race, finds Holyrood Palace in the low country, immediately to the east of the Castle Rock of Edinburgh. Holyrood can best be seen from the hill immediately to the south from this there ; vantage-ground can be noted the of its the lawns and of symbols long history ; plots flowers which suggest that it is a place of present habita- tion the front of the of the later ; long plain building Stewart Palace, with the towers of the earlier house just and on the showing beyond ; right, somewhat retired, the ruin of the old monastic church all that remains of the Abbey which flourished here for centuries before the Palace came into existence. From the view-point of the hillside, the peculiar nature of the site on which the Palace stands can best be noted ; it is so different from that chosen for most of the great houses which have come down from the Middle Ages. 4 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD These almost without exception stand on a commanding them eminence, or are protected by a river, so as to enable in a level like East to resist assault ; even country Lothian, Dirleton a little rocky scarp was found on which to erect Castle.