The ruins of Linlithgow Palace are located in the town of Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland, west of Edinburgh. The palace was one of the principal residences of the monarchs of Scotland in the 15th and 16th centuries. Although maintained after Scotland's monarchs left for England in 1603, the palace was little used, and was burned out in 1746. It is now a visitor attraction in the care of Historic Environment Scotland.
Origins
A royal manor existed on the site from the 12th century."Linlithgow Palace: Property detail ". Historic Scotland.
This was later enclosed by a timber palisade and outer fosse to create a fortification known as 'the Peel', built in 1301/2Linlithgow Palace – Official Guide 1948 by occupying English forces under Edward I. The site of the manor made it an ideal military base for securing the supply routes between Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle. The English fort was begun in March 1302 under the supervision of two priests, Richard de Wynepol and Henry de Graundeston, to the designs of Master James of St George, who was also present.Notices of Original Documents illustrative of Scottish History, Maitland Club, (1841), 67–83, (headings only). In September 1302, sixty men and 140 women helped dig the ditches; the men were paid twopence and the women a penny daily.Accounts of the Master of Works, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1957), p. lxvi (Latin). One hundred foot-soldiers were still employed as labourers on the castle in November and work continued during the Summer of 1303.Simpson, Grant, & Galbraith, James, ed., Calendar Documents Scotland in PRO and British Library, vol. 5 supplementary, SRO (n.d), no. 305, no. 472 (h, j, u), 'j' mentions Robert de Wynpol (Wimpole) working in Summer 1303, 472 (k) mentions the Warwolf lupus-guerre siege engine at Stirling Castle.
Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, a daughter of Edward I, was at Linlithgow Palace in July 1304. She was pregnant and travelled to Knaresborough Castle in England to have her child.Christopher Woolgar, The Great Household in Late Medieval England (Yale, 1999), p. 98. In September 1313, Linlithgow Peel was retaken for Scotland by an ordinary Scot named William BynnieJohn B. Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, vol. 2 (H. Colburn, 1850), pp. 168 or Bunnock who was in the habit of selling hay to the garrison of the peel.George Waldie, A History of the Town and Palace of Linlithgow (Linlithgow, 1868), p. 25. When the gate was opened for him, he halted his wagon so that it could not be closed, and he and his seven sons leapt out from their hiding place under the hay, and they captured the peel for King Robert the Bruce. King Robert sent reinforcements and had the peel dismantled so that it could not be retaken by the English.
In January 1360, King David II visited Linlithgow and the peel was repaired 'for the king's coming'.
In 1424, the town of Linlithgow was partially destroyed in a great fire. King James I started the rebuilding of the palace as a grand residence for Scottish royalty, also beginning the rebuilding of the Church of St Michael immediately to the south of the palace: the earlier church had been used as a storeroom during Edward's occupation. James I set out to build a palace rather than a heavily fortified castle, perhaps inspired by Sheen Palace which he probably visited in England. The royal apartments were decorated by Matthew the Painter in 1433.John G. Dunbar, Scottish Royal Palaces (East Linton: Tuckwell, 1999), pp. 8, 169. Mary of Guelders, the widow of James II and mother of James III, made improvements in 1461, for the visit of the exiled Henry VI of England.Marilyn Brown, Scotland's Lost Gardens (Edinburgh, 2015), pp. 63, 71. Over the following century the palace developed into a formal courtyard structure, with significant additions by James III and James IV.
James IV and Margaret Tudor
James IV continued to repair and rebuild the palace. When he visited he gave the masons a tip known as "drinksilver". He gave 18 shillings to the masons "at the Palace work" in April 1489, and two gold angel coins in September. In November 1497, James IV ordered the master mason of Lillithgow to go to Stirling Castle to provide a plan for his new lodgings there. Andrew Cavers, Abbot of Lindores, was made supervisor of construction at Linlithgow.Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 108, 120, 367, 369.
James IV bought crimson satin for a new doublet to wear while formally welcoming the Spanish ambassador Don Martin de Torre at Linlithgow in August 1489. Silverware and tapestries were brought from Edinburgh for the event, and the wardrobe servant David Caldwell brought cords and rings to hang the tapestry in the palace. New rushes were brought from the Haw of Lithgow for the chamber floor. Entertainment included a play performed by Patrick Johnson and his fellows.Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 117–8, 132–3, 142. After a visit to Stirling the King returned to Linlithgow and played dice with the Laird of Halkett and his Master of Household.Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 120. In November 1497 he played cards and bought jesses and leashes to go hawking.Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 366–9.
James IV spent Easter 1490 at the palace, visited the town of Culross, and returned on 18 April to play dice with Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus and the Laird of Halkett, losing 20 gold unicorn coins.Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 132–3. The King spent Christmas 1490 and Easter 1491 at Linlithgow. On 9 April he bought seeds for the palace gardener. The poet Blind Harry came to court at Linlithgow at least five times. James IV was interested in medicine and experimented taking blood from his servant Domenico and another man at Linlithgow.Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 175–6: Anne McKim, The Wallace (Canongate, 2003), p. viii. Perkin Warbeck was a Christmas guest in 1495.William Hepburn, The Household and Court of James IV of Scotland (Boydell, 2023), p. 67: David Dunlop, "The 'Masked Comedian': Perkin Warbeck's Adventures", Scottish Historical Review, 70:190 part 2 (October 1991), pp. 100–101. The king's mistress Margaret Drummond stayed at Linlithgow in the autumn of 1496.Marilyn Brown, Scotland's Lost Gardens (Edinburgh, 2015), p. 71: Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 323. The park dykes were rebuilt in 1498.Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 380.
On 31 May 1503 the palace was given to Margaret Tudor the bride of James IV.Foedera, vol. 8, p. 71: Joseph Bain, Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, 1357–1509, Addenda 1221–1435, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1888), p. 344 no. 1713 It was to become the new queen's favourite home in Scotland.Linda Porter, The Thistle and the Rose: The Extraordinary Life of Margaret Tudor (London, 2024), p. 108, Ale wives in Linlithgow town brewed beer for her.Aeneas James George Mackay, Exchequer Rolls, 1508–1513, vol. 13 (Edinburgh, 1891), p. 540. A mason, Nichol Jackson, completed battlements on the west side of the palace in the summer of 1504. An African drummer known as the "More taubronar" performed at the palace.Imtiaz Habib, Black Lives in the English Archives, 1500–1677: Imprints of the Invisible (Routledge, 2017): Accounts of the Treasurer, 1500–1504, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 440, 444. When the King stayed at Linlithgow in July 1506 a coat was bought for a fool, and James IV visited the building work at the quire of St Michael's Church. He gave the master mason a tip of 9 shillings.Accounts of the Treasurer, 1506–1507, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1901), pp. 204–5. The son of James IV and Margaret Tudor, the future James V, was born in the palace in April 1512. The captain of the palace, Alexander McCulloch of Myreton, took on the role of the Prince's bodyguard.William Hepburn, The Household and Court of James IV of Scotland (Boydell, 2023), p. 134.
The household of Margaret Tudor at Linlithgow included the African servants Margaret and Ellen More.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1902), pp. 339, 324, 401, 404. In April 1513 the roof of the chapel was altered and renewed, and a new organ was made by a French musician and craftsman called Gilyem and fixed to the wall. Timber was shipped to Blackness Castle and carted to the Palace. The windows of the queen's oratory, overlooking the Loch, were reglazed.Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1902), pp. 442, 523–5. An English diplomat, Nicholas West, came to the palace in April 1513 and was met by Sir John Sinclair, one of the courtiers featured in William Dunbar's poem Ane Dance in the Quenis Chalmer.Michelle Beer, Queenship at the Renaissance Courts of Britain (Woodbridge, 2018), p. 93. West talked to Margaret Tudor and saw the baby Prince. He wrote "verily, he is a right fair child, and a large of his age".Henry Ellis, Original Letters, vol. 1 (London, 1824), p. 74.
After the death of his father at the Battle of Flodden, the infant James V was not kept at Linlithgow, but came to the palace from Stirling Castle dressed in a new black velvet suit accompanied by minstrels in April 1517, and went on to take up residence in Edinburgh Castle.Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1903), p. 111. Margaret Tudor rewarded the King's nurse and governess, Marion Douglas, with a grant of the lands near Linlithgow Palace called the Queen's Acres in July 1518. Marion's daughter, Katherine Bellenden, made the king's shirts.HMC 14th Report, part III: Roxburghe, vol. 1 (London), pp. 28–9: The Douglas Book, vol. 3, p. 388.
James V
When the teenage James V came to Linlithgow in 1528, Thomas Hamilton supplied him with sugar candy.Excerpta e libris domicilii Jacobi Quinti regis Scotorum (Bannatyne Club: Edinburgh, 1836), p. 169. James V added the outer gateway and the elaborate courtyard fountain.John G. Dunbar, Scottish Royal Palaces (Tuckwell/Historic Scotland/RCAHMS: East Linton, 1999), pp. 6–21. The stonework of the south façade was renewed and unified for James V in the 1530s by the keeper, James Hamilton of Finnart.Henry Paton, Accounts of the Masters of Work: 1529–1615, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1957), pp. 115–131. Timber imported from Denmark-Norway, including "Estland boards" and joists, was bought at the harbours of Dundee, South Queensferry, Montrose, and Leith, and shipped to Blackness Castle to be carted to the palace. Three oak trees were cut down in Callender Wood to provide tables for dressing food in the kitchens, and seven oak trees from the Torwood. The improvements included altering the chapel ceiling and trees were brought from Callender to make scaffolding for this. Six hogshead barrels were bought to hold the scaffold in place.Henry Paton, Accounts of the Masters of Work, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1957), pp. 123–6.
The older statues of the Pope, the Knight, and Labouring Man on the east side of the courtyard, with the inscriptions on ribbons held by angels were painted. New iron window grills, called yetts, were made by blacksmiths in Linlithgow, and these, with weather vanes, were painted with red lead and vermilion. A metal worker in Glasgow called George Clame made shutter catches for the windows and door locks in iron plated with tin. The chapel ceiling was painted with fine azurite. Thomas Peebles put stained glass in the chapel windows and the windows of the "Lyon Chamber", meaning the courtyard windows of the Great Hall.Henry Paton, Accounts of the Masters of Work, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1957), pp. 126–7, 128.