At the foot of Arthur's Seat, at the end of Edinburgh's Royal Mile, the Palace of Holyrood was the residence of the kings of Scotland and, above all, the theatre of the tragic reign of Mary Stuart. Within its walls were played the festivities, the passions and the bloody murder that precipitated the queen's fall.
The palace of the Stuarts
Born beside an abbey (Holyrood, 'the Holy Cross'), the palace was developed by the Stuart kings, notably James IV and James V, who gave it a tower of state and royal apartments. The Crown's chief residence in the capital, Holyrood received the court, the ceremonies and distinguished guests. But its name remains forever attached to a single sovereign: Mary Stuart, who lived here from her return from France in 1561 until her fall.
Mary Stuart: festivities and blood
Raised at the refined court of the Valois, Mary Stuart brought back to Holyrood the French taste for balls, music and poetry — to the great scandal of the reformer John Knox, who sternly lectured her in this very palace, denouncing her dances and her Catholic Mass. It was at Holyrood that the drama came to a head: on 9 March 1566, in the queen's small cabinet, conspirators led by her husband Lord Darnley burst in and stabbed before her eyes her Italian secretary and confidant, David Rizzio, with dozens of knife blows. This murder, committed while Mary was pregnant, shattered her marriage and set off the spiral that would lead her to abdication, to flight into England and, twenty years later, to the scaffold. Holyrood keeps the memory of those apartments where the history of Scotland tipped into tragedy.
What to see
- The apartments of Mary Stuart and the cabinet where Rizzio was killed.
- The Stuart tower of state and the royal apartments.
- The ruins of Holyrood Abbey, beside the palace.
- The setting, at the foot of Arthur's Seat, at the end of the Royal Mile.
Did you know?
There is still shown, in Mary Stuart's apartments at Holyrood, the spot where David Rizzio was murdered in 1566; for a long time a dark stain on the floor was presented to visitors as 'Rizzio's blood' that would never fade. The legend of the indelible stain, unverifiable, says well the mark left by this murder on Scottish memory: an Italian secretary stabbed before the eyes of a pregnant queen, in her own cabinet, remained the symbol of the violence that carried off Mary Stuart.
Practical information
The Palace of Holyrood (Holyroodhouse) lies in Edinburgh, at the eastern end of the Royal Mile. It is an official royal residence in Scotland; it may be visited when the court is not staying there. Opening hours and days are liable to change; it is best to check them against the official sources before visiting.
Quiz
- Which queen lived at Holyrood from 1561 until her fall?
- Mary Stuart
- Elizabeth I
- Mary of Guise
- Who was murdered in the queen's cabinet in 1566?
- David Rizzio, her Italian secretary
- John Knox
- Lord Darnley
- Which reformer lectured Mary Stuart at Holyrood?
- John Knox
- Thomas Cranmer
- John Calvin