At Linlithgow, in West Lothian, St Michael's raises its Gothic mass right beside the royal palace — one of the finest in Scotland. This church, completed under royal patronage in the full sixteenth century, is intimately linked to Scotland's most emblematic sovereign: Mary Stuart was baptised here.
A church under royal patronage
St Michael's was completed in 1540, after a long building campaign that James IV came to visit in 1506. Its immediate closeness to the palace of Linlithgow — the favourite royal residence of the Stewarts, where James V and then Mary Stuart were born — made it the court's church during its stays. A great building of late Scottish Gothic, it bears witness to the refinement of royal ecclesiastical architecture on the eve of the Reformation, adorned with statues and carvings that, a few decades later, would be judged 'popish'.
The baptism of Mary Stuart
St Michael's strongest link with history is the baptism of Mary Stuart, born in the neighbouring palace in 1542, only a few days before the death of her father James V. Baptised in this church, the little queen — a sovereign from birth — received here the first sacraments of a life that would be one of the most tragic in history. But St Michael's also knew the Reformation: in 1559, the Lords of the Congregation (the Protestant lords) destroyed the 'popish' statues there, purging the church of its Catholic décor. To see: the statue of St Michael on the south-west buttress, the aluminium crown by Geoffrey Clarke (1964, replacing the stone crown), the nineteenth-century windows.
Did you know?
According to the chronicler Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, in the weeks before the disaster of Flodden (1513), a mysterious old man dressed in a blue robe is said to have appeared to James IV as he prayed at Linlithgow, to beg him to renounce the war against England — and to beware the counsel of women. The king took no notice: he set out, and perished at Flodden with the flower of his nobility. This apparition, true or legendary, still haunts the church of Linlithgow.
Notes
St Michael's Parish Church lies at Linlithgow, West Lothian, beside the palace; a working church, open to visits. Hours to check.
Quiz
- Which queen was baptised at St Michael's?
- Mary Stuart (born in the neighbouring palace, 1542)
- Elizabeth I
- Anne of Denmark
- What did the Lords of the Congregation do in 1559?
- They destroyed the 'popish' statues
- They gilded the church
- They razed it
- Who, according to legend, appeared to James IV before Flodden?
- An old man in a blue robe dissuading him from war
- A golden angel
- The pope