stirling-1963-vol-1/05_219

Transcription

No. 192 -- CASTLES AND TOWER-HOUSES -- No. 192
death, which took place only a few months later, a
second French marriage was arranged with Marie of
Lorraine, daughter of Claude, Duke of Guise. Speaking
of the results of the first of these marriages, Lesley
remarks: "Here is to be remembred, that thair wes mony
new ingynis and devysis, alsweill of bigging of paleices,
abilyementis, as of banquating and of menis behaviour,
first begun and used in Scotland at this tyme, eftir the
fassione quhilk thay had sene in France". ¹ Apart from
the considerable additions made to the Palace of
Linlithgow, ² the most important of the Royal buildings
erected in the closing years of James V's reign were the
Palaces of Falkland ³ and Stirling. Detailed accounts
survive for the work at Falkland, where the Palace was
in the course of erection from about 1538 to 1541; ⁴ but
no complete accounts remain for the building of the
new Palace at Stirling, and consequently the exact date
of its erection and the identification of the craftsmen
employed on it are less certain. An account for the first
few months of 1538 suggests that no major building
operations were in progress at that time, ⁵ but preparations
were being made by October of the following year ⁶ and
work was in progress in 1540. ⁷ The occurrence of "I 5"
in the window pediments on the E. façade of the Palace
(cf. p. 197) indicates that the building was approaching
completion at the time of James V's death, which took
place in December 1542. ⁸ Although the names of the
craftsmen employed are for the most part unknown, it
would seem likely that the building programmes at the
two Royal palaces were connected, and that some of the
workmen who are mentioned in the Falkland accounts
may later have been transferred to Stirling. That this
was so is suggested, for example, by the fact that, in the
case of the masons, the labour force at Falkland dwindled
rapidly during 1540, just at the time when building
operations at Stirling seem to have been getting under
way. Of the master-masons who worked at Falkland,
John Brownhill was appointed master-mason to the king
in 1532 ⁹; the accounts indicate that nearly all his time
was spent at Falkland, at least until September 1541.
Thomas French was appointed master-mason to the
king in 1535 ¹⁰; he worked at Falkland for the latter part
of the building season in 1538 and 1539, but his name
does not appear in the accounts for the years 1540 and
1541. James Black was also working at Falkland during
1538 and 1539 but, like French, his name does not figure
in the 1540 and 1541 accounts. Nicolas Roy was sent to
Scotland from France by the Duchess of Guise, and was
appointed master-mason to the king two days after his
arrival in April 1539 ¹¹; he worked at Falkland without
intermission from July 1539 to July 1541. Thus of the
three masons who held the office of master-mason to the
Crown at this time, Thomas French seems perhaps the
most probable to connect with the design of the Palace
of Stirling; on the other hand, it should be remembered
that nothing is known of the work undertaken by the six
French masons who had been sent to Scotland in July
1539. ¹² Of the Masters of Works who are mentioned in
connection with the building operations at Stirling, James
Nicholson held his appointment from 1530 until about
1541 ¹³; but Sir James Hamilton of Finnart, who was
appointed principal Master of Works to the king in
September 1539, was also closely concerned with the
Castle until his downfall a year later. ¹⁴ In August 1541
Robert Robertson, carver, was appointed "principale
ourseare and maister of all werkis concernying his craft
and utheris" within the Castle. ¹⁵ His trade suggests that
he may have had a hand in the woodwork of the Palace,
which included the carved ceiling of the King's Presence
Chamber (cf. p. 202), although this has also been
attributed to John Drummond, master-wright to the
king. ¹⁶ A cachepole, or tennis court, a contemporary
example of which may still be seen at Falkland, ¹⁷ was
erected in 1539 ¹⁸ and two kitchens were built three years
later. ¹⁹
Little is on record about the Castle during the early
years of Mary, Queen of Scots, who had been crowned
in the chapel ²⁰ in 1543 at the age of ten months but was
sent to France in 1548 in accordance with the treaty of
Haddington. A Master of Works account for 1558-9
survives. ²¹ but it is concerned with relatively minor
repairs and is not particularly informative. In 1559 the
Castle was occupied for a time by French troops; there
is a tradition that the Queen-Dowager, Mary of Lorraine,
caused them to build the Spur Battery in order to
command the bridge. ²² In 1561 Mary, Queen of Scots,
returned to Scotland as a widow, and in that year she
had a near escape from death by fire at Stirling Castle. ²³
In 1565 she held a convention of her nobility there to
receive and ratify her decision to marry Darnley; the
marriage took place at Holyrood on 29th July 1565.
Their son, who was to succeed the Queen as James VI

1 Lesley, History of Scotland, Bannatyne Club, 154.
2 Inventory of Midlothian and West Lothian, No. 356.
3 Inventory of Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan, No. 238.
4 M. of W. Accts., i, 201-21, 243-63, 269-88.
5 Ibid., 227-8.
6 Accts. L.H.T., vii (1538-41), 256.
7 Ibid., 474.
8 A pediment from one of the old dormer windows of the
Palace is said to have borne the date 1557 (Cast. and Dom. Arch.,
i, 475). This suggests that the upper storey may not have been
finished until this time, but cf. p. 216, n. 3.
9 Reg. Sec. Sig., ii (1529-42}, No. 1119.
10 Ibid., No. 1643.
11 Balcarres Papers, S.H.S.., [Handwritten] Λ 20; Accts. L.H.T., vii (1538-41), [Handwritten] i Λ
330; Reg. Sec. Sig., ii (1529-42), No. 3002.
12 Accts. L.H.T., vii (1538-41), 184.
13 Reg. Sec. Sig., ii (1529-42), No. 487.
14 Ibid. No. 3144; Accts. L.H.T., vii (1538-41), 256, 482.
15 Reg. Sec. Sig., ii (1529-42), No. 4191.
16 Drummond, W., The Genealogie of the Most Noble and
Ancient House of Drummond, 1681, 62. Cf. also R.C.A.M., The
Stirling Heads, H.M.S.O. (1960), 8 f.
17 Inventory of Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan, No. 238.
18 Accts. L.H.T., vii (1538-41), 168.
19 Ibid., viii (1541-6), 72, 84.
20 Lesley, op. cit., 174.
21 Vol. i, 293 ff.
22 This part of the Castle is designated "The French Spur"
on both Slezer's and Dury's plans (P.R.O., M.P.F. 246; and
Pl. 56; Nat. Lib. of Scot. MS. 1645, Z 2/16 and Pl. 59),
but the present battery is the result of substantial remodelling
carried out in the early 18th century (cf. p. 191).
23 Scottish Papers, i (1547-63), 555.

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