CHAPTER XIX FALKLAND PALACE

Unless equipped with a good knowledge of Scottish history, the average tourist wandering through Fife will come upon Falkland Palace with surprise. Its situation is so remote from any centre of importance, it stands upon no great river affording an outlet to the sea, and never being a stronghold of any sort it remains at the base instead of the top of the hills among which it is built. Though elevated to the proud position of a royal burgh in 1458, Falkland can to-day be scarcely designated by any other title than that of a fair-sized village, so that the presence of the stately palace, ruined though it is, partakes of the nature of the unexpected.

The Gateway of Falkland
Palace.

Being built purely for pleasure and convenience, and with no thought of safety, the builders of the palace indulged in greater beauty of decoration than is to be seen in almost any other palace in Scotland. It suggests the dignity of a graceful French chateau, with its pilasters, bas-reliefs, statues, and canopied niches. Of [pg 92] the three sides of which the palace once consisted, only two remain, one of these being much ruined. But the south wing which has always remained more or less intact, is sufficient to prove how far from barbarous was the taste of the later Stuart monarchs.

Before the palace was erected a castle stood close to the site of the present building. It had long been a possession of the Earls of Fife, till in the fourteenth century it descended to an heiress who had no children. She bestowed the castle upon Robert Duke of Albany, the brother of the inefficient King Robert III. Upon Albany rests the dreadful charge of murdering his young nephew, the Duke of Rothesay, by starving him to death in the castle at Falkland. Rothesay was young and wild, and had annoyed his uncle by getting himself made Guardian of the Realm, a post desired by Albany. After involving Scotland in war with England, due to his imprudence in jilting the daughter of the Earl of March, who succeeded in obtaining an English army in his support, Rothesay was captured on his way to St. Andrews by his uncle, who, it is said, had his father's authority to do so. Taken to Falkland Castle the Prince never came out alive, dying of slow starvation according to one account, and of dysentery by another. It is evident that Albany was suspected of murder, for he took the trouble to be officially acquitted of any part in his death. Only grassy mounds now indicate the position of this castle, which must have been, according to the investigations of Lord Bute, of considerable extent.

The execution of Albany's son as a traitor made Falkland Crown property. The palace began to be erected by James II., but its chief builder was James IV., [pg 93] who spent large sums of money on the work, and much enjoyed the sport to be obtained in the neighbourhood. His son, James V., was often there, though apparently not for long periods at a time. He was the only monarch to die there, a sad event which occurred at the early age of thirty. In despair at the rout of his army at Solway Moss, the young monarch refused all consolation, and just seemed to wait for death, though there were no apparent signs of it upon him. Not even the news brought to him from Linlithgow of the birth of a daughter could cheer him. Merely saying the often quoted words, "It came wi' a lass and will pass wi' a lass," he turned his head to the wall and died a few days later.

No events of importance took place at Falkland during Mary Queen of Scots' brief reign, though she visited it occasionally. Her son, James VI., was much attached to it, on account of the good hunting it afforded. On one occasion he was nearly captured there by the reckless Francis Earl of Bothwell, who made one of his many attempts to seize the King. But on this midnight attack he was unsuccessful, for he and his party were forced to flee when the artillery of the palace was turned against them. They were not pursued, as they had taken the precaution to take possession of all the horses.

After James went to England he could seldom be lured from the luxury of his English palaces to visit his northern residences, but he did visit Falkland once again in the year 1617. Tremendous preparations were made for the royal visit, eighty carts lumbered up from Kirkcaldy with the luggage, and a large gathering of nobles and gentlemen made Falkland once more a gay and busy place.

[pg 94]

Charles I. came to Falkland once in the summer of 1633, after which the palace was never again to rejoice in great regal splendour. When Charles II. was being supported by the Presbyterians of Scotland, he spent a little time there, much worried by the persistency of his friends, who insisted upon his signing the Covenant. After he departed, no monarch ever resided in the palace, which was given to a Cromwellian officer during the Commonwealth, but which, at the Restoration, again became the property of the Crown.

Lying deserted and neglected all through the eighteenth century, the palace became a quarry for those who needed building materials, till in 1820 it was bought by Mr. John Bruce of Grangehill, who, with the assistance of Sir Walter Scott, arrested the ruin and restored the remaining structure.