Legend of Holyrood Abbey

The ancient abbey was founded by David I., son of Malcolm Canmore and St. Margaret of Scotland, in 1128. Its foundation was due to legend and pious superstition. King David was hunting in the forest, which then surrounded Edinburgh, unattended, when an enormous stag attacked him and would have killed him but that the "Black Rood of Scotland" slipped into his hands, and at the sight of it the enraged animal fled away. That night, in a vision, the King was commanded to build an abbey, for the Canons of St. Augustine monks, to be dedicated to the Holy Cross (Rood) and the Virgin. (For "Black Rood" see "Curious Questions," Vol. I., page 341.) A shrine for so precious a relic soon made the abbey noted and wealthy. Large grants of land and privileges secured to it by successive monarchs made it, in time, the most important religious institution in the kingdom; its precinct was a refuge for criminals, and, in the case of debtors, remained so down to the abolition of imprisonment for debt in 1880. During stormy centuries the old abbey was burned and renewed many times, until during the Reformation the monks were dispersed and the interior despoiled. All that remains of it now is the roofless ruin of Holyrood Chapel.

In this Royal Chapel many of the Stuart Kings were crowned, married, and buried. Here was celebrated the royal marriage of the "Thistle and the Rose," James IV. of Scotland to Margaret of England, daughter of Henry VII. and sister of Henry VIII., from whom were to descend the sovereigns of the great British Empire. Here were installed the Knights of the Thistle; here Mary Queen of Scots was married to Lord Darnley, and here he lies buried. The last coronation here was that of Charles I. The chapel was destroyed in 1688 and restored in 1758; fourteen years later the roof fell in, leaving it, as it is now, only an interesting ruin. The old abbey was like all other monastic institutions of the Middle Ages, very frequently the temporary home of kings and princes. Its strong walls and sacred character afforded a protection not met with elsewhere. James III. resided almost entirely within the abbey, but to his chivalrous son, James IV., is ascribed the beginning of the Palace of Holyrood, which occupied the site of the ancient abbey. It was completed by his son, James V., father of Mary Queen of Scots. When Mary, the youthful dowager of France, returned to take possession of her kingdom, she naturally took possession also of her father's palace, and to her occupation of it is due the world's interest in even the ruins of Holyrood Palace.