History of the Abbey and Palace of Holyroodhouse

Front matter

A KKKI'KI! OK TIIK ( IIAI'I.I, i;i)YAJ_. HOLY ROOD

AllEYAM® FALAeg

HISTORY

Preface

This volume, the object of which is the elucidation of the venerable Abbey of Holyrood, or the Holy Cross, and of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, may be considered the successor of another narrative on the same interesting themes.

In 1834 Mr Henry Courtoy was appointed, under Commission of the Privy Seal, sole Beadle and Keeper of the Chapel-Royal of Holyrood. With an ardour and zeal rarely displayed, and scarcely to be expected from one not a native of Scotland, though long an enthusiastic admirer of its antiquities and traditions, Mr Courtoy began to form collections illustrative of the edifice with which he is officially connected, the Palace, and the adjoining royal domain of the Parks, Arthur's Seat, and Salisbury Crags. The result was the publication, in the years 1837 and 1838, of a volume entitled — " Historical Guide to the Abbey and Palace of Holyrood, including the Annals of the Chapel-Royal, the Natural History of the Environs, and the Laws and Privileges of the vi

PREFACE.

Sanctuary, collected by Henry Courtoy," and edited by Mr James Macmillan. That volume was so well received by the Public, that it has been for several years out of print. Such, however, is the anxiety of visitors of the Chapel-Royal and Palace to possess a narrative of the interesting events connected with those edifices, that the production of this volume, illustrated and embellished by wood-cuts and engravings which cannot fail to render it acceptable to the reader, was considered necessary.

It may be sufficient to state, that the present volume differs in arrangement and details from its predecessor. To preserve the narrative or text entire, the Natural History of the Environs, the Laws and Privileges of the Sanctuary, which are now to a great extent unnecessary, and a variety of curious and important matters, will be found in the " Notes and References" which conclude the Volume. The Engravings are valuable additions to this narrative. These are the work of Mr John West, Edinburgh, and evince that he is entitled to the very highest reputation in his profession.

J. P. L.

Contents

Chapter I. The Miraculous Foundation, . . Page 1 II. The Abbots and their Proceedings, . . 9

III. HoLYROOD rebuilt BY Abbot Crawfurd, . 20

IV. A Royal Marriage at Holyrood, . . 33 V. James Y. at Holyrood, . . . .46

Chapter 1. The Miraculous Foundation

ME most munificent benefactor of the Papal Hierarchy and the Monastic Orders in Scotland

J \^^/ was King David L, or St David, as he was also called, the sixth son of Malcolm HI. and of his canonized Queen St Margaret, and the successor of his brothers Edgar and Alexander I., from 1124 to 1153. Malcolm and his Queen, though enthusiastic in their zeal, particularly the latter, for the then system of religion, made few donations to ecclesiastics, merely commencing an endowment of Benedictines at Dunfermline, and granting a small portion of land to the Culdees in Fife ; but it was reserved for David I., whom one of his royal successors wiHily designated " a sore saint for the crown," ^ to transmit his name to posterity as the founder of several noble religious houses, the ruins of which never fail to excite admiration, and one of these is the Abbey of Holyrood.

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According to the legend, tlie Abbey of Holyrood is connected with the ground on which David I. escaped from an enraged stag by the miraculous intervention of the Cross. This apparently contradicts the statement that when the King founded the Abbey in honour of the Holy Cross, the Virgin Mary, and all Saiitts, for Canons Regular of the Order of St Augustine brought originally from St Andrews, he placed the convent within Edinburgh Castle, the church of which he assigned to the Abbey; but that fortress may have been the temporary residence of the ecclesiastics after the event occurred which excited David's piety, till the Abbey vfas ready for their reception. As it respects the legend, a great authority has declared that it would be " superfluous to confute it," and that " it has not even the merit of antiquity, for it appears to be a fiction more recent than the days of Boece;"'^ but though Boece has varied his narrative of the reign of David 1. with the legend of Holyrood, and Bellenden is accused as the author of the interpolation, yet it has been proved not to be a modem invention.^ The Ritual Book of the Abbey, which is the primary authority for it, could scarcely be its origin, and it occurs in one of the ancient Service Books of the monastery prepared in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. ^ This book is supposed to have been compiled during the reign of the first James, probably while he was a captive in England; and though the earlier seals of the Abbot and Convent contain no allusion to the legend, the chapter seal used in the reign of the first James, displaying the stag with the cross between its antlers, indicates that it had been believed, and it is repeated in subsequent seals.

THE MIRACULOUS FOUNDATION.

The legend of the origin of the miraculous foundation of Holyrood; as set forth by Bellenden in his translation of Boece, is curious, though not without its parallels in some other countries. It is entitled — "How Kyng David past to the hunters on the Croce Day in hervest, how he was dung fra his hors be ane wyld hart, and how he founded the Abbay of Halyrudhus be myracle of the Holy Croce." ^ In the fourth year of his reign, according to the legend, David I. visited the Maiden Castle" of Edinburgh. In the vicinity of the Castle was a most extensive forest, probably that known as Drumselch, which abounded with deer and other animals of the chase. On Eood Day, or the festival of the Exaltation of the Cross, which was observed with great solemnity, David was employed in pious contemplations; but after the celebration of divine service some young nobles waited on him, and requested that he would join them in a hunt in the said forest. Alwin, canon of the Order of St Augustine, who had been the King's confessor in England when he was Earl of Huntingdon and Northumberland, attempted to persuade him not to join in any diversion on such a solemn day, but rather to devote it altogether to religion. The King, however, yielded to the request against the advice of Alwin, and the hunting party proceeded to the east of the city, near the locality of Salisbury Crags. David and his attendants were soon separated, and when he came towards the base of the Crags, one of the finest deer he had ever seen suddenly appeared, and ran with fearful violence towards him. The King's horse was so alarmed as to become unmanageable, and the hart threw the royal rider to the ground, severely wounding him in the

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thigh. While David held out his arms to save himself from the attack of the infuriated hart, a piece of the true Cross which he possessed in a crucifix, though, according to Father Hay, it marvellously slipped into his hands, caused the animal to disappear at the spot where springs the Rood Well. ^ His attendants came to him from all parts of the forest to congratulate him on his escape, and fell on their knees, devoutly adoring the Holy Cross, and the miraculous preservlition of their King. David returned to Edinburgh Castle, and in the night he was admonished in a vision to found an Abbey for Canons Regular of the Order of St Augustine near the spot where he was preserved by the Cross. When he awoke he made known his vision to Alwin, who zealously encouraged him to obey the divine command. He immediately sent to France and Flanders, and obtained " richt crafty masons" to erect the Abbey, which he dedicated to the Holy Cross. The piece of the true Cross, of which, as the legend sets forth, " na man can schaw of quhat mater it is, metal or tree," was preserved with due care in the Abbey of Holy rood till the reign of King David Bruce, the only son of King Robert Bruce, who succeeded his father in 1329. That monarch carried it with him, when he penetrated into England, as far as Durham, in 1346, and it was secured and placed in that Cathedral after the disastrous battle fought on the 17th of October, in which the Scottish forces were, entirely defeated, and the King, with many of the nobility and barons, taken prisoners.

The Canons Regular of St Augustine, or the Austin Canons, as they were called, for whom Holyrood was founded, followed chiefly the rule of the celebrated St

THE MIRACULOUS FOUNDATION.

Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in the fourteenth century. Though they were obhged to observe the statutes of their Order, they were less austere than monks, living together under one roof, and having a common dormitory and refe^ctory. Their habit was a long black cassock, with a white socket over it, and above the cassock a black cloak and hood. The monks were always shaved, but the Canons Regular wore beards, and were privileged to have a covering for the head.

The Abbey was founded in 1128,^ and though the great charter is dated in 1143,^ it is evident that the Canons had previously obtained possession, for in that charter they were authorized to erect a street between their church and the King's burgh, and which, as subsequently stated, was the origin of the Canongate/'* The site of the Abbey and Palace of Holyrood, though sufficiently romantic and sheltered in the verdant plain at the base of Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat, is obscure when contrasted with the splendour and elegance of the modern and extended city; but the choice, it is plain from the legend, was not left to the option of St David and his pious confessor Alwin. The original monastery, which has long disappeared, and its church, were constructed on the same principles which are seen in other religious houses now in ruins, only differing in architectural details. An account of its internal arrangements is preserved, which intimates that it was a most splendid edifice, and it is evident that the founder of the Abbey of Melrose would not be deficient in the decoration and embellishment of Holyrood. The church consisted of three divisions. In the east end was the great altar, which was ascended by

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steps; the choir contained the pulpit, from which the epistles and gospels were read ; and the nave was the place of prayer for the people. Both the interior and exterior were imposing and ornamental, and the endowment was also most munificent. It is already observed that the Canons received a donation of the church of Edinburgh Castle, and of the ground on which they were authorized to build [herhergare) the future burgh of the Canongate — " inter eandem ecclesiam,'' say& David I. in his charter, referring to the church of the monastery — " et meum hurgumy The Canons were also endowed with the church and parish of St Cuthbert's at Edinburgh ; the barony of Broughton, now a northeastern suburb of the city, on which, near the Water of Leith, were subsequently erected the village and mills still called the Canonmills; the lands of Inverleith, now the parish of North Leith; the chapel of Corstorphine, with thirty-six acres, and the chapel of Libberton, with thirty acres, which then belonged to St Cuthbert's church, in the vicinity of the city ; the church of Airth on the south side of the Forth, in the county of Stirling ;^^ also a salt-pan and twenty-six acres in the said parish; the villages and lands of Pittendriech, Fordam, and Hamer;^^ an hospital, with a ploughgate of land and a perpetual annuity of forty shillings out of the town of Edinburgh; for supplyingthe canons with apparel, one hundred shillings out of the petty tithes of Perth, from the first duties payable to the King out of the first merchant ship which arrives at Perth, and if none arrive, the sum of forty shillings out of his revenues in Edinburgh ; also forty shillings out of Perth, with a house in Edinburgh free

THE MIRACULOUS FOUNDATION.

of customs and duties ; twenty shillings, with a house, and the draught of a fishing net, out of Stirling; a house in the town of Berwick; another in Renfrew, with a rood or fourth part of an acre, a draught of a net for salmon, and a herring fishery; a draught of two nets in a locality called Scypwell ; as much wood as the Canons required from the royal forests in the counties of Stirling and Clackmannan; one half of the tallow, lard, and hides of animals slaughtered in Edinburgh ; the tithes of " whales and sea-monsters," and of all pleas ^nd profits" from the river Avon, which chiefly separates the county of Stirling from that of Linlithgow, including the whole coast of the Frith of Forth to Coldbrandspath, or Cockburnspath, on the coast of the German Ocean in Berwickshire; the half of the '^^ pleas and profits" of Kintyre and Argyll ; the skins of all the rams, sheep, and lambs, which die "naturally," belonging to the royal castle of Linlithgow; eight ohalders of malt, eight of meal, and thirty cart-loads of brushwood from Libberton, and one of the mills of the Dean near Edinburgh, with the tenths of the mills of Libberton and Dean, and those of the King's new mill at Edinburgh and Craigendsmark^ to be held in free and perpetual alms. No person was to be allowed to harass or disturb any of the Canons, or their vassals residing on the lands, or unjustly to exact any auxiliary work or secular customs from them. The Canons, and their vassals and servants, were to be exempted from all tolls or duties ; and even their swine were to be free from " pannage," or from duties charged for feeding in the royal or other woods. An annual sum of L.IO was granted for lighting and repairing the Abbey Church.

The burgesses of the Canongate, under the Canons, were to have the liberty of buying and selling goods and merchandise without molestation, and no bread, ale, or vendible commodity, was to be taken without their consent. The Abbot of Holyrood was also entitled to hold his courts of regality in as " full, free, and honourable manner," as the Bishops of St Andrews and the Abbots of Dunfermline and Kelso enjoyed their recognised privileges.

CHAPTER 11.

THE ABBOTS AND THEIR PROCEEDINGS.

QSf^^HE Abbey of Holyrood received an increase V property and revenue by a charter from

j William the Lion, granted between 1172

and 1180, and the churches and chapels in Galloway, which of right belonged to the monastery of Icolmkill or lona, with all their " tithes and ecclesiastical benefices," exclusive of several churches in Fife and other counties, were assigned to the Canons. The first Abbot was the founder's confessor Alwin, who resigned the Abbey in lloO, and is said to have died in 1155. He was succeeded by Osbert, whose death occurred in the year of his promotion, though his name is not in the list of Abbots in the old Ritual Book. William was Abbot in 1152, and is a frequent witness to charters during the reigns of Malcolm IV. and William the Lion. During Abbot William's rule, Fergus, then Lord of Galloway, became a Canon of the Abbey. The successor of William was Robert, who lived also in the reign of William the Lion ; and this Abbot granted to the inhabitants of the newly projected burgh of the Canongate various privileges, which were confirmed, with additional benefactions, by David II., Robert III., James II., and James III. Those sovereigns granted

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to the bailies and community under the Abbots the annuities payable by the burgh, and also the common muir between the lands of Broughton on the west and the lands of Pilrig on the east, on the north side of the road from Edinburgh to Leith.

The fifth Abbot of Holyrood was John, who presided over the monastery in 1173. He was witness to a charter of Richard, Bishop of St Andrews, granting to the Canons of Holyrood the church of Haddington, with the lands of Clerkington. About this time, according to Fordun, the Canons still resided in Edinburgh Castle, and in 1177, Vibian, Cardinal Presbyter and Apostolic Legate, convened the Scottish Bishops in that fortress, where many ancient canons were confirmed, and new ecclesiastical enactments enforced. ^ In 1189, however, the first year of the reign of Richard T. of England,^ an assembly of the Scottish Bishops^ rectors of churches, nobility, and barons, was held in the monastery of Holyrood, and this seems to have been the first meeting of any importance congregated within its walls. It was occasioned by the celebrated Coeur-de-Lion, who had invited William the Lion to his court at Canterbury, recognising the complete independence of Scotland, ordering the boundaries of the two kingdoms to be re-established as before the captivity of the Scottish King, and granting him full possession of all his fees in the earldom of Huntingdon and elsewhere on former existing conditions. It was agreed in this convention that William the Lion was to pay 10,000 merks for this restitution — a sum supposed to be equivalent to L. 100,000 sterling of the present day.^ Though the clergy contributed their share of this money, they reimbursed themselves to a certain degree by imposing a capitation tax on their tenants, which was so heavy as to induce many to elude payment by leaving their places of residence. ^

The successor of John, as Abbot of Holyrood, was William, and during this time, in 1206, John, Bishop of Galloway, relinquished his episcopal function, and became one of the Canons. He was interred in the church, and a stone recording his name and dignity was placed over his grave. The next Abbot was Walter, Prior of lona, who was appointed in 1210, and died in 1217. His successor was William, whose retirement is alone recorded. He was succeeded by another William, who, in 1227, on account of old age and the burden of his duties, resigned the Abbey, and retired to the island of Inchkeith, resolving to lead a solitary life ; but after a residence of nine weeks he returned to the Monastery as a private monk. The next Abbot was Helias, or Ellas, described as the son of Nicolas a priest — pleasant, devout, and affable, and who was interred in St Mary's Chapel, behind the great altar. He drained the marshes in the vicinity of the monastery, by which the locality was rendered more salubrious, and he surrounded the cemetery with a brick wall. Helias was succeeded by Henry, who was nominated Bishop of Galloway in 1253, after the death of Gilbert, Bishop of that see, though he was not consecrated till 1255.^ Ralf, or Radulph, was appointed Abbot on the removal of Henry to the see of Galloway. On the 14th of January 1255, in the reign of Alexander III., an assembly was held at Holyrood, in which the King, with advice of his magnates, settled a dispute

HOLYROOD.

between David de Leuchars, Sheriff of Perth, and the Abbey of Dunfermline. ^

Towards the close of the thirteenth century the wars of the succession to the Scottish crown were in full operation by Edward L, and the Abbot of Holyrood who had succeeded Ralf was Adam, an adherent of the English party. He did homage to Edward I. on the 8th of July 1291, and in the following month the national records were placed under his care. This Abbot was named one of the commissioners appointed by the English King in his letter to Radulphus Basset de Drayton, Governor of Edinburgh Castle, and others, regarding the appointment of commissioners for examining the Scottish records preserved in that fortress. ' In August 1296 Abbot Adam again did homage to Edward I., and it was apparently in his favour that the English monarch granted an order for the restoration of the abbey lands on the 2d of September following. He was Abbot in 1310, four years before which an order had been granted for the restoration of the abbey lands by the English monarch, and some writers allege that he went to France — that he was a sufferer in the cause of Bruce — and that he returned to Scotland after the battle of Bannockburn with a poetical encomium on the victor. ^

The successor of Abbot Adam was another Helias, or Elias, who is mentioned in a transaction connected with William Lamberton, Bishop of St Andrews, and Gervase, Abbot of Newbattle, in 1316. Six years afterwards, in 1322, the Abbey of Holyrood, in common with those of Melrose and Dry burgh, was dilapidated and plundered by the army of Edward 11.,^ who had

THE ABBOTS AND THEIR PROCEEDINGS.

advanced to the vicinity of Edinburgh without opposition, in the expectation of conquering a kingdom from which famine compelled him to retreat with dishonour, as he had not even seen an enemy, and he was obliged to terminate hostilities by a truce of thirteen years.^^ The indignities wantonly perpetrated on the Abbey of Holyrood are not minutely recorded, but the fact that no supplies could be obtained by the English soldiers, many of whom perished for want of food, sufficiently intimates that the conduct of the assailants must have been most outrageous and destructive. It may safely be assumed that the injuries would soon be repaired. The Abbot in 1326 was Symon, supposed to have been Synion de Wedale. On the 8th of March that year King Robert Bruce, who had then completely restored the independence of Scotland, held a Parliament in the Abbey, in which was ratified a concord between Randolph, Earl of Moray, afterwards Regent, and Sir William Oliphant, in connexion with the forfeiture of the lands of William de Monte Alto, and it is probable that the Parliaments of the 28th of February and the 17th of March 1327 assembled in the Abbey, A Parliament of a different description was held at Holyrood on the 10th of February 1333-4, when Edward Baliol rendered homage to King Edward III. of England as Lord of Scotland. On the 12th the kingdom was dismembered, and the national liberties surrendered, by the ratification of a treaty between Baliol and Edward III., by which the former became bound to serve with all his forces in the English wars. Sir Geoffrey Scrope, the Chief- Justice of England, appeared at the bar of this Parliament, which was

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composed of those Anglo-Scots who had been gained by bribery, and a few who preferred Baliol's claim to the crown to that of David II., the son of King Robert Bruce. Scrope, in the name of King Edward III. as Lord Superior of Scotland, required Baliol, whom he designated " King," to perform all the " pactions, agreements, contracts, and promises between them."

The successor of Abbot Symon was John, whose name occurs as a witness to three charters in 1338; and Bartholomew was Abbot in 1342. The expedition of David 11. into England, which terminated in the defeat of the Scottish army near Durham, and the capture and imprisonment of that monarch for nearly twelve years, occurred in 1346. On that occasion, as already stated, the celebrated relic of the miraculous deliverance of the saintly founder from the infuriated stag was carried from Holyrood by the invaders, in the persuasion that the presence of such an important relic would secure victory ] but after it fell into the hands of the English, and was enshrined on the high altar of Durham Cathedral, it was long held in as much veneration as it could possibly have been by its Scottish owners ; yet this Cross, designated the " Black Eood" of Holyrood, is very prominently noticed in the list of ornaments, plate, relics, and other valuables, found in Edinburgh Castle in 1391.13

Abbot Bartholomew was succeeded by Thomas, who was Abbot in 1347. On the 8th of May 1366, a council was held at Holyrood, in which ^a treaty of peace with England was discussed. A new coinage was ordered, and an assessment was sanctioned for the annual payments of the ransom of David II., who had returned to Scotland ill 1 358. Nothing important occurs in the history of the Monastery till 1370, when David II. died in the Castle of Edinburgh, and was buried near the high altar in the Abbey Church. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster^ the fourth son of Edward III. by Lady Blanch, younger daughter and heiress of Henry Piantagenet, Duke of Lancaster, and grandson of Edmund, second son of Henry III., was hospitably entertained in Holyrood in 1381, when he was compelled to seek refuge from his enemies. The Abbey was burnt in 1385 by Kichard II. when he invaded Scotland, and encamped at Restalrig; but it appears to have been soon repaired and inhabited. Henry IV. generously spared the Monastery in 1400, on account of the kindness of the Abbot and Canons to John of Gaunt his father, declaring that he would allow no violence to be inflicted on an edifice which his paternal feelings enjoined him to respect. The successor of Thomas was John, who was Abbot on the 11th of January 1372. The next Abbot was David, who held the Abbey in 1383, in the reign of Robert II. Dean John of Leith was Abbot in 1386, and he must have been in possession a number of years, as he was a party to the indenture of the lease of the Canonmills to the burgh of Edinburgh on the 12th of September 1423. Six years afterwards, in 1429, a singular spectacle was witnessed in the Abbey Church of Holyrood. Alexander Earl of Ross and Lord of the Isles, who had enraged James 1. by ravaging the crown lands near Inverness, and burning that town, and whom the King had issued stringent orders to apprehend, suddenly appeared in the church, on the eve of a solemn festival, in presence of the King

IG nOLYROOD.

and his Queen and Court, which was frequently kept in the Abbey. He was dressed only in his shirt and drawers; and holding a naked sword by the point in his hand, which he surrendered, he fell on his knees, and with a countenance which expressed destitution and misery he implored the royal clemency. His life was spared, and he was committed a close prisoner to Tantallon Castle, under the charge of the Earl of Angus. 1^

Patrick was Abbot of Holy rood in September 143o. On the 25th of March 1438, James H., who had been born in the Abbey, and was then little more than seven years old, was conveyed from Edinburgh Castle to the church of Holy rood, and crowned with great magnificence. A similar ceremony was performed in the same place in July 1449, when Mary, daughter of Arnold Duke of Gueldres, and Queen of James II., vfas crowned. The Queen was attended by the Lord of Vere in Zealand, who was appointed by Philip the Good of Burgundy to conduct his kinswoman to Scotland; and when she landed at Leith she was received by many of the nobility, and by a large concourse of all ranks, who seemed almost barbarians to the polished Burgundians. The Queen, mounted on horseback behind the Lord of Vere, rode to Edinburgh, and was lodged in the Convent of the Grey Friars. In the course of a week after her arrival her nuptials and coronation were celebrated in the Abbey Church, with such pomp as the taste and exigencies of the time could devise.

On the 26th of April 1450, the Abbot of Holyrood was James, of whom nothing is known. Ten years afterwards the body of James II., who was killed by the bursting of one of the rudely constructed cannon of that age at the siege of Roxburgh Castle, was brought to Holyrood Abbey, and there interred. About the period of the lamented death of James II., Archibald Crawfurd, who had succeeded Abbot James probably in 1457, rebuilt the church in the style of which the nave, known as the Chapel-Royal, is the only interesting memorial. It is said that he erected the church from the foundation, and, if this statement is correct, none of the original pile commenced in 1128 by David I. now exists.

Abbot Crawfurd was a son of Sir William Crawfurd of Haining, and had been Prior of Holyrood. He was one of the commissioners sent to treat with the English at Coventry for a truce in 1459, and from that year till 1474 he was repeatedly employed in numerous treaties. In the latter year he was constituted Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, and he died in the beginning of 1483. According to the statement of his namesake,!^ Abbot Crawfurd undertook the rebuilding of the church by the authority of James II. and the permission of Kennedy, the munificent Bishop of St Andrews.

The church erected by Abbot Crawfurd was, when entire, a large and splendid edifice in the form of a cross. The outlines of the Lady Chapel, transepts, and choir, have disappeared, but enough is preserved of the nave to convey some idea of the ancient splendour of the entire edifice. The grand entrance is by a magnificent doorway on the west front, which was flanked on each side by a massive square tower. The north one still

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remains, and the south tower was either destroyed when the Abbey was demoHshed by the Earl of Hertford, or was removed to make way for the buildings of the Palace.