CHAPTER VIII 



HOLYROOD PALACE 



Of all the royal palaces in Great Britain, Holyrood has had 

 by far the most chequered career. To give a full account of 

 the many vicissitudes through which it has passed would 

 involve writing the history of Scotland for nearly eight cen- 

 turies. Founded as an Abbey in 1128, its situation on the 

 eastern outskirts of Edinburgh soon marked it out as a 

 suitable residence for Scottish kings. During nearly four 

 hundred years they went there, when state business called 

 them to the capital, as visitors. But the fact of one king, 

 David I., having been its founder, and many subsequent 

 sovereigns its benefactors, gradually established a sort of right, 

 and the Abbey became a recognised royal residence. James IV. 

 found the old buildings too small to accommodate his house- 

 hold, and early in his reign the first palace was built. The 

 only part of this building which has survived the numerous 

 sackings, burnings and destructions that have taken place, is 

 the north-west tower. 



The next addition was erected by James V. But this did 

 not last long, for in 1 544 Edinburgh " was sacked ; the beau- 

 tiful Abbey of Holyrood was laid in ashes, James V.'s new 

 palace was gutted " by the English under Hertford. A 

 second destruction took place only three years later. By that 

 time the monks had fled, the palace was more or less in ruins, 

 but the Abbey roof was still intact. The soldiers of Hertford, 

 now Duke of Somerset, stripped off the lead to make bullets, 

 and left the ancient building to the mercy of rain and snow. 

 Twenty years afterwards a still more cruel demolition of the 



church took place. Choir and transepts were wilfully pulled 



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