Everything about Holyrood Palace totally explained
The
Palace of Holyroodhouse, or informally
Holyrood Palace, founded as a monastery by
David I of Scotland in
1128, has served as the principal residence of the Kings and Queens of
Scotland since the
15th century. The Palace stands in
Edinburgh at the bottom of the
Royal Mile. The Palace of Holyroodhouse is the official residence in Scotland of
Queen Elizabeth II, who spends time at the Palace at the beginning of the summer.
Holyrood is an anglicisation of the
Scots Haly Ruid (Holy Cross).
Abbey
» Main article: Holyrood Abbey.
The ruined
Augustinian Abbey that's sited in the grounds was built in 1128 at the order of King David I of Scotland. It has been the site of many royal coronations and marriage ceremonies. The roof of the abbey collapsed in the 18th century, leaving it as it currently stands, a ruin.
The Abbey was adapted as a Chapel for the
Order of the Thistle by King
James VII (and II of England), but was subsequently destroyed by a mob. In 1691 the then-new
Kirk of the Canongate replaced the Abbey as the local parish church, where today the Queen attends services when in residence at the Palace.
Palace
In the
15th century a guesthouse stood on the site of the present north range of the Palace, west of the Abbey and its cloister. Many of Scotland's medieval Kings stayed here before the palace’s construction, and by the late 15th century Holyrood was a royal residence in all but name; not only was
James II born at Holyrood in
1430, it was in Holyrood that he was crowned, married and laid to rest. Between
1498 and
1501,
James IV constructed a new building, with Holyrood becoming a
palace in the true sense of the word.
The palace was built around a quadrangle, situated west of the abbey cloister. It contained a chapel, gallery, royal apartments, and a great hall. The chapel occupied the present north range of the Great Quadrangle, with the Queen’s apartments occupying part of the south range. A third range to the west contained the King’s lodgings and the entrance to the palace. He also oversaw construction of a two storey gate house, fragments of which survive in the Abbey Courthouse.
James V added to the palace between
1528 and
1536, beginning with the present north-west tower. In this tower are the famous suite of rooms once occupied by
Mary, Queen of Scots.
The wooden ceilings of the main rooms are from Mary’s time and the monograms MR (Maria Regina) and IR (Jacobus Rex) refer to Mary and her son,
James VI. Shields commemorating Mary’s marriage to
Francis II of France are believed to have been carved in
1559 but put in their present position in
1617. The suite contains an audience chamber and the Queen's bedroom, leading from which are two turret rooms. It was in the northern turret room, on
March 9 1565, that the infamous murder of
David Rizzio took place in Mary's presence. In later centuries, tourists were often convinced that they could see his blood stains on the floor.
After James VI became King of England in
1603 and moved to London, the palace was no longer the seat of a permanent royal court. James visited it again in
1617 as did
Charles I in
1633, when he was crowned King of Scotland in Holyrood Abbey.
In
1650, either by accident or design, the palace was fired during the visit of
Oliver Cromwell and his soldiers. Cromwell had the palace rebuilt, but his rebuilding was pulled down and
Charles II had the palace re-constructed in its present form between
1671 and
1679 by Sir
William Bruce.
James VII and II lived at Holyrood between
1679 and
1682 while still Duke of York, in the aftermath of the
Exclusion crisis.
After
1707, the Palace was used during the elections of Scottish
representative peers.
Bonnie Prince Charlie held court at Holyrood for five weeks
during the
1745 Jacobite Rising, and following the
French Revolution,
George III allowed
Louis XVI's youngest brother,
the Comte d'Artois to live at Holyrood. After their second exile, the French royals lived at Holyrood again from
1830 until
1832 when they moved to
Austria.
In modern times, monarchs have spent at least one week every year formally holding
court in the Palace in
Edinburgh. The present Queen still uses it when she's in Scotland for State occasions (on non-State occasions, she stays at
Balmoral). Its use has increased substantially since the setting up of the
Scottish Parliament in
1999, with various members of the Royal Family, notably
Prince Charles and
Princess Anne often staying there. At one time it was thought that a member of the Royal Family, widely expected to be the Princess Royal (who has strong Scottish connections) may well become a full-time royal resident in the Palace, representing the Queen; however, this hasn't come to fruition, and the idea was probably no more than a rumour or fanciful thought by some. At the Palace the Queen meets and appoints the
First Minister of Scotland. During the British presidency of the
European Union a meeting of the
European Council took place here.
During times when neither the Queen nor another member of the Royal Family is in residence, it's open to the public.
The
Queen's Gallery is located within the Palace complex, while the new
Scottish Parliament Building is located across the road from the palace.
Big Royal Dig
The Palace of Holyroodhouse was one of three Royal sites excavated over four days by the
Time Team of archaeologists led by
Tony Robinson, on 25th-28th August 2006. In the
United Kingdom,
Channel 4 devoted an evening programme to each day's findings and also followed the whole dig live on
More4, together with a
simulcast on the internet.
Timed to help celebrate the 80th birthday of
Queen Elizabeth II, along with many other events ongoing throughout 2006, this marked the 150th dig conducted by
Time Team. For the first time, the Queen gave permission for trenches to be dug in
the Garden of
Buckingham Palace, as well as in
Windsor Castle, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The Big Royal Dig is an example of the Queen opening up her homes for greater access to the public, as she did during her
Golden Jubilee Weekend in 2002 and throughout 2006 for her 80th birthday.
The archaeologists had an unprecedented opportunity to probe the geophysics and history of three royal residences over a four-day period, with teams working concurrently in the three locations.
Part of the
cloister of
Holyrood Abbey, running in line with the existing ruined
Augustinian Abbey built in 1128 by King
David I of Scotland, was unearthed. Also the square tower of the lost palace of
James IV was discovered. Unfortunately they didn't locate the
real tennis court of his granddaughter,
Mary Queen of Scots. (This had been targeted near "Queen Mary's Bath-house", a building on the periphery of Holyroodhouse.)
Notably, they found an area of reddened earth, where
Henry VIII had ordered the palace to be burned when chagrined at the Scots' refusal to marry the infant Mary Stuart (later
Mary Queen of Scots) to his son Edward (later
Edward VI).
Among the objects found at Holyroodhouse were a
seal matrix
, used to stamp the wax seal on correspondence or documents, and a
1634 double tournois coin The archaeologists also targeted the mound in the garden of Holyroodhouse, where Queen
Elizabeth II played as a girl.
The Keeper of Holyroodhouse
A measure of the importance of Holyroodhouse is the status of its Keeper, who was appointed to oversee the Palace in the absence of the court. There were various grants of the office of
Keeper of Holyroodhouse until
1646 when
King Charles I conferred it heritably on the
1st Duke of Hamilton, whose descendants have retained it ever since. The post is one of the
Great Offices in the Royal Household in Scotland, and indeed the private ducal apartments cover a larger area of the palace than the state ones. As well as his own deputy, the Keeper still appoints the
Bailie of Holyroodhouse, who is responsible for law and order within the Holyrood Abbey Sanctuary. The High Constables of Holyroodhouse are responsible to the Keeper.
There was formerly a separate
Keeper of Holyrood Park, which surrounds Holyroodhouse, and the title was held on an hereditary basis by the
Earls of Haddington. This was purchased by the Crown and the office extinguished in 1843 after disputes over the Keeper's right to allow quarrying within the Park.
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