stirling-1963-vol-1/05_218

Transcription

No. 192 -- CASTLES AND TOWER-HOUSES -- No. 192
Designer of the Great Hall, ¹ but the little contemporary
evidence that remains concerning its erection suggests
that the greater part of the building may have been
constructed during the reign of James IV. This theory
is supported by the resemblance of certain of its
architectural details to those of the Forework of c. 1500
to c. 1510. ² Certainly the wall-head was not completed
until 1501, ³ and an English plasterer was still working

[Hand written in margin] *

on the structure in 1503. ⁴ Other important building-
operations were undertaken at the Castle during the
reign of James IV, and although the detailed building-
accounts have not survived, the progress of the work
may be followed fairly closely from references appearing in
the Treasurer's Accounts. The main effort was directed
towards the erection of the Forework (p. 191) on the SE.,
the innermost of the three barriers on that side of the
Castle. Work began about 1500, and by August of the
following year the fore-tower, probably the rectangular
tower at the SW. end of the Forework, known today as
the Prince's Tower (p. 193, n. 2), was approaching
completion at the hands of John Yorkstoun, mason. ⁵
The kitchen tower, which is probably the one that stands
at the NE. end of the Forework and is now known as the
Elphinstone Tower (p. 193, n. 3), was being constructed
by "Johne masoun" in 1503. ⁶ John Lockhart, mason, was
responsible for the erection of the central gatehouse,
which was begun by 1501 and was sufficiently advanced
for the portcullis to be installed by June 1504; the project
seems to have been completed by 1506. ⁷ With the
completion of the gatehouse and the two principal towers
of the Forework, work was concentrated upon the
intervening sections of the curtain-wall upon which both
Lockhart and Yorkstoun were employed in 1508-8. ⁸
The accounts for the next three years are missing, but
the Forework was probably completed during this
period seeing that, when they resume in 1511-2,
Lockhart is working on the upper part of the "gret
towre -- in the northtest nuk of the Castele of
Striveling" ⁹ - presumably the building known today as
the Mint (pp. 213 ff.). Other building operations
undertaken during the reign of James IV include some
work on the chapel, which was erected into a collegiate
church in about 1501, ¹⁰ and the rebuilding of the old
church within the Castle in about 1505. ¹¹ In 1496 Walter
and John Merlioune, masons, were engaged upon the
erection of a building described as the King's House and
this was being roofed by November of the same year. ¹²
Work was also done on the old hall, ¹³ on the old chambers
on the W. side of the old close, ¹⁴ on the "cors chalmeris", ¹⁵
and on the nether tower ¹⁶ ; none of these buildings can
be identified today although some no doubt stood on the
site now occupied by the Palace of 1540-2, which
incorporates older work (cf. p. 200). The barras, in this
case the lists or tilting enclosure, comes on record in
1507 ¹⁷; its position is not given, but the barras of 1625
was on the low ground below the W. quarter of the
Palace. ¹⁸ With the battle of Flodden in 1513 the work
was halted; among others, George Campbell, principal
gardener of the great garden of Stirling, died on the field
"under the standard of the lord king". ¹⁹
Within a month of the death of James IV in this
battle, his infant son was crowned at Stirling. Buchanan
says ²⁰ that he was "educated with the utmost parsimony;
and when he came of age, he entered into empty palaces,
stript of all their furniture". His mother, Margaret
Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England, who had
assumed the Regency in 1513 and whose jointure
included Stirling Castle, took refuge there with her
children in 1515, but was besieged by the Duke of
Albany, deprived of her children and sent to England. In
1529 she handed the Castle over to James V in exchange
for the lands of Methven, ²¹ and, on this, details of
repairs and other building work begin to reappear in the
records. Thus in 1530 John Bog made a passage down
from the Castle to the Park ²² - possibly a gate in the
position of the built-up postern in the Nether Bailey
(cf. p. 219). A Master of Works Account for repairs
executed in 1531 and 1532 is preserved, and is of some
interest for the names of apartments that it records
incidentally. As well as the Great Hall, there is mention
both of the "litill hall" ²³ and of the "dusty hall", ²⁴ one of
which is presumably the hall of 1502-4 (supra). Repairs were made to
the Royal apartments, ²⁵ and also to the chambers of the
Earl of Argyll, the Master of the Household. ²⁶ There is
also mention of the "cros chalmer" ²⁷ which is probably
the "cors chalmer" of 1513, (supra) and a note of
the closing-up of a window in the wine cellar. ²⁸ None
of these apartments can be identified with any certainty
today.
In January 1537 James V married Madeleine de
Valois, the eldest daughter of Francis I, and after her

1 Ibid., i, 176; Excheq. Rolls, ix (1480-7), xlii ff.; xiii (1508-13),
xcii.
2 Cast. and Dom. Arch., i, 470. Cf. also pp. 193 ff., 205 ff. below.
3 Accts. L.H.T., ii (1500-4), 82.
4 Ibid., 381.
5 Ibid., 85.
6 Ibid., 275. It contains a kitchen on the first floor (cf.
p. 196); in 1583 the term "kitchen tower" was applied to the
building now known as the Mint (cf. p. 185).
7 Ibid., 85, 277; iii (1506-7), 88.
8 Ibid., iv (1507-13), 44.
9 Ibid., 281.
10 Ibid., i (1473-98), 331, 357; Excheq. Rolls, xii (1502-7),
xxxviii.
11 Accts. L.H.T., iii (1506-7), 82; Excheq. Rolls, xiii (1508-13),
59.
12 Accts. L.H.T., i (1473-98), 277, 306.
13 Ibid., ii (1500-4), 269, 276; iii (1506-7), 83.
14 Ibid., iv (1507-13), 46.
15 Ibid., 526.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid., iii (1506-7), 395.
18 R.P.C., xiii (1622-25), 706.
19 Excheq. Rolls, xiv, (1513-22), 38.
20 The History of Scotland, ed. Aikman (1827), ii, 324.
21 Excheq. Rolls, xv, p. lxix.
22 Accts. L.H.T., v (1515-31), 436.
23 M. of W. Accts.,i, 110.
24 Ibid., 105, 107-9.
25 Ibid., 103-11.
26 Ibid., 108-10.
27 Ibid., 107.
28 Ibid., 110.

-- 183

[Hand written] * Cf. H.M. Gen Register House,
Clerk of Penicuik papers, No. 5013