HISTORIC HOLYROOD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 964, 9 March 1911, Page 4

HISTORIC HOLYROOD.

The announcement that King George and Queen Mary will hold a Court at Holyrood Palace soon after their Coronation, and that they will also reside there during their stay in Scotland, has caused much gratification. Holyrood is the famous abbey and palace of Edinburgh. It early became the occasional residence of the Scottish Kings. Robert Bruce and Edward Baliol held Parliaments within its walls. James 11. was born in, it crowned in it, married in it, and buried in it. The foundation of the palace, apart from the abbey, were laid about 1501, by James IV., who made Edinburgh the capital of Scotland. Henceforth Holyrood Palace was the chief seat of the Scottish sovereigns.

It was mostly destroyed by the English in 1544, but immediately afterwards re-built on a larger scale. Queen Mary took up her abode in 1561. Here, in 1566, Rizzio was torn from her side and murdered. It was garrisoned after the battle of Dunbar in 1650 by Cromwell’s troops, who burned the greater part of it to the ground. It was re-built by Charles 11. from the designs of Sir William Bruce, of Kinross, between 1671 and 1679. Alter the accession of James VI. to the throne of England, it ceased to be occupied as a permanent Royal residence. But George IV. held his Court in it in 1522, and Queen Victoria and King Edward, although they, ou rare occasions, held a Court there, did not care to sleep in the old place, as its condition was supposed to be far from sanitary. The Scottish Department of the Board of Works has, however, recently spent many thousands in overhauling the drains, etc.