Eric Stair-Kerr

“ On emerging from the tunnel gateway the stranger is confronted by the great imposing gable of the Parliament House. This building, although altered and much defaced, is still a majestic pile, and is noteworthy as having almost certainly been erected under the directorship of Cochrane, the architect, one of James III.’s unpopular favourites. Poor Cochrane was hanged at Lauder Bridge on the famous occasion when the Earl of Angus thought fit to “Bell the Cat,” and show the King that Scottish nobles would not suffer art-loving upstarts to usurp the high places at Court. ”

“ As a fortress Stirling possesses a history which places it first among the castles of Scotland; as a palace its record entitles it to rank above Dumbarton and Edinburgh. Its double use as stronghold and as dwelling-place of kings gives it a unique position among the royal houses, for Falkland and Linlithgow were pleasure palaces erected upon the sites of ancient castles, and Holyrood was built as a kind of extension to a defenceless, low-lying abbey. ”

“ During the wars with England, in the period of the Stewart sovereigns, the Borders and the neighbourhood of Edinburgh were the principal scenes of operations; but Stirling Castle was the centre of hostilities in the stirring days of Wallace and Bruce. Edinburgh, though an important fortress and town, was not the capital of the country at the time of the War of Independence. In later years, the armies of England did not need to advance any further than Lothian. The heart of Scotland lay south of the Firth of Forth; a blow struck there was felt throughout the kingdom. ”

“ The early kings, such as William the Lion, Alexander III. and Robert the Bruce, will seem to have passed like ghosts before him, but he will almost persuade himself that he has seen the Regent Morton in the flesh, crossing from the Palace to the Parliament Hall, and George Buchanan, old and infirm, ascending the stair to the schoolroom in the Keep. It may be that he will fancy he has seen some other outstanding figures belonging to the past, for Stirling Castle is not given over to the shades of one or two personalities. ”

“ When at last the King threw down his truncheon as a signal for the conflict to cease, the marshals of the field laid hold of the struggling champions and compelled them to disengage. Neither side could claim a decisive victory, though the advantage, on the whole, lay with the foreign knights. King James, however, praised the valour of each individual, and before the Burgundians returned to their own country, he entertained them sumptuously in Stirling Castle and loaded them with gifts. ”

“ At Stirling the much-beloved old castle underwent various changes as the centuries rolled on; and when, with the advance of time, the taste for luxury developed and the Renaissance style of architecture was introduced from France, the fortress, instead of ceasing to be occupied by royalty, was crowned with a richly-carved palace. Until Scotland was forsaken by her ancient line of monarchs Stirling remained as much in favour with the kings and queens as the palaces of Falkland and Linlithgow, which were almost unencumbered with a castle’s fortifications. ”

“ Stirling Castle is a many-sided subject that can be treated in more than one way. The story of the castle might be dealt with in a book divided into sections, each one taking up a special part, such as Military History, Stirling as a Royal Palace, Notable Visitors, etc.; but I have thought it better to set forth the whole of the castle’s history in chronological order, and, after discussing the buildings and their associations, to bring together the salient events connected with the three chief Scottish strongholds, and to record what the poets have said about Stirling. ”

“ When Queen Mary was scarcely one year old, he audaciously proposed, in his scheme for uniting her with Edward, his heir, that she should be sent to England for her education, and that English garrisons should hold the castles of Edinburgh, Stirling and Dumbarton. The King therefore looked upon the fortress on the Clyde as one of Scotland’s three most important strongholds, thus differing from an earlier Henry, who did not demand Dumbarton in the Treaty of Falaise, but stipulated for three Border castles along with Stirling and Edinburgh. ”

“ It may truly be said that Stirling Auld Brig has158 borne more men and women famous in Scotland’s history than any other bridge in the kingdom. Every Scottish monarch, from James I. to Charles II., nine sovereigns in all, has crossed the Forth by those arches. To most of the kings and queens, as to the majority of the Scottish nobility, the bridge was as familiar as the castle. Because of its being a clasp connecting the north with the south, this structure was almost as valuable a military post as the stronghold which overlooks it. ”

“ Even less a man of action than his father, he allowed his ambitious brother, whom he created Duke of Albany, to manage the chief affairs of state. A younger brother, the Earl of Buchan, usually called the “Wolf of Badenoch,” lived like an independent sovereign in the Highlands, and with his sons committed depredations on the low-lying districts of Angus and Moray. These unruly sons were taken captive, however, and sent to prison in Stirling Castle, where they were under the eye of the keeper, their uncle, Robert of Albany. ”

“ Yet, although defiant Snowdon bore the brunt of the struggle for national freedom, a more heroic feat of arms than any performed at Stirling took place in this war at the Castle of Edinburgh. Thomas Randolph with a few picked men, guided by a soldier who knew a dangerous track on the northern face of the rock, climbed the cliff on a dark night, while a feint attack was made at the principal gate, and won the stronghold for Scotland and the Bruce. In a later century, a somewhat similar deed of daring was successfully carried out at Dumbarton. ”

“ Not in one long chain are the hills, but peak behind peak and row behind row, they appear as a compact phalanx of bens when the mist is lifted from off their heads. Nearer are the Braes of Doune and the fertile fields of the Vale of Menteith, in the midst of which the Forth can be seen gleaming in its lazy windings. ”

“ Although the strongholds of Scotland are, on the whole, of smaller dimensions than the castles of the adjoining kingdom, yet in her bestowal of sites suitable for fortresses, Nature has dealt more generously with the former than with the latter country. Each of the Castles of Edinburgh, Stirling and Dumbarton holds a commanding position upon a precipitous rock. ”

“ Stirling more often than the other two castles has been sought by kings as a tower of refuge. When the party of the Comyns, in Alexander III.’s minority, stealthily carried the King from Kinross, it was to the fortress above the Links of Forth that they bore their rescued charge. The faction favouring England, from whose power the sovereign was snatched, did not attempt a counter-surprise; but although the walls of the castle secured Alexander’s person, for a number of nights he must have quivered in his bed lest his former guardians should attempt to storm the fort. ”

“ As the Restoration sent Patrick Gillespie into captivity at Stirling, so the Revolution brought the fourth Earl of Perth a prisoner into the castle. Earl James had been one of Scotland’s leading men under the last Stewart king; but the days of his prosperity were brought to a close with the flight of his sovereign in 1688, and as he had espoused the Roman Catholic faith and had profited by the King’s dispensing power, he had only punishment to expect at the hands of his political opponents. ”

“ A building may be visited by pilgrims on account of its memories of one great individual. It is Queen177 Mary’s presence that dominates still the deserted chambers at Holyrood and Craigmillar, and that gives Loch Leven Castle the glamour which its other associations have failed to impart; but although the famous Queen of Scots spent many days at Stirling, the castle is so wealthy in romantic history that the elsewhere pre-eminent personality here takes its place side by side with other figures and does not occupy the forefront of the pageant of the shades. ”

“ There arrived in Scotland a man from France, who quickly won the favour of King James, and who set himself to restore Queen Mary to the throne, to overthrow the Protestant religion in Scotland and to ruin the Earl of Morton. ”

“ On June 23rd, 1314, Edward II., with his vast feudal host, amounting, perhaps, to fifty thousand men, came in sight of Stirling Castle, but between him and his goal lay Bruce’s Scottish troops, relying not upon their numbers but upon their valour and the skill of their commanders. The main body of the English army apparently kept to the low ground near the Forth, while the advanced guard marched on the higher land to the south, and encountered the Scots on the border of the New Park. ”

“ The Earl of Mar and the Master of Glamis had retired to the north of Ireland, but in the spring of 1584 they stealthily crossed the Channel, and on the 17th of April, with five hundred96 horse, they seized the Castle of Stirling. James at once raised an army in Edinburgh and marched to attack the rebels. No fighting of any sort took place, however, for the insurgent lords, taken aback by the King’s swift action and disappointed in the support of their friends, fled towards the Border before the royal army appeared. ”

“ During the Great Ice Age, when the physical features of Scotland were moulded into almost their present form, the extensive plain of the River Forth was filled by a giant glacier, which swept down from the Highland hills to the lower land on the south and east, clearing the softer rocks from its path and exposing the hard basalt of igneous sheets and old volcanic necks. ”

“ The terms of a treaty, although signed under compulsion, were held by William to be sacred, and his behaviour is in striking contrast to the conduct of the chivalry-loving Francis I. of France, who, when placed in similar circumstances three and a half centuries later, broke his oath to the Emperor Charles V. and renounced the Treaty of Madrid on the ground that a promise could not be binding when extorted from a reluctant prisoner.
King William added to the amenity of Stirling Castle by forming a royal park on the table-land to the south-west of the rock. ”

“ The great battle that established the freedom of Scotland was fought almost under Stirling rock. Indeed, to reach the castle itself was the object of the English invasion. The events leading up to the conflict are well known. In the spring of 1313, Edward Bruce, brother of King Robert, invested Stirling, but growing impatient with the long-protracted siege, he imprudently agreed to the one-sided bargain which Mowbray audaciously proposed. The compact was that the fortress should surrender if not relieved by June 24th, Saint John the Baptist’s Day, in the following year. ”

“ Edinburgh Castle, it is true, was for centuries a seat of kings as well as a famous fortress, but long before the Stewarts took up residence in England the abbey-palace as a home had superseded the stronghold. In the sixteenth century Edinburgh Castle was preferred by royalty to Holyrood only in times of peril. Queen Mary moved up from the valley to the rock before giving birth to James VI., the Riccio murder having made her realise the danger of living at the palace. ”

“ Stirling was held to be the safest place of residence for James V.’s daughter, the child Queen Mary. In this case grasping nobles were not so much to be feared as King Henry VIII. of England. Edinburgh lay too near the Border, and was subject to devastation at the hands of the English soldiers, while the ruthless Tudor’s agent, the Earl of Lennox, was ever seeking to capture Dumbarton. The death of the dreaded Henry did not put an end to Scotland’s fears. ”

“ All down the centuries Stirling Castle has been a place of arms, but since royalty ceased to dwell under its roof soldiers have become its most important,196 and almost its only, occupants. After the Union of 1707 the British Parliament followed the Scottish Estates in maintaining a garrison in the fortress, as well as in Edinburgh and Dumbarton, but the statement often made that the Treaty of Union requires this arrangement to be kept up has no foundation in fact. ”

“ So striking is the beauty and range of the scenery which is displayed before the observer, that even a practical man of affairs of the sixteenth century could not refrain in a business document from expressing his admiration of the view. This was Sir Robert Drummond of Carnock, who, as Master of Works under James VI., drew up a report in 1583 on the condition of the buildings of the castle. ”

“ The custody of the perilous castle of Stirling was entrusted to the chivalrous knight, Sir William Oliphant. He must have almost daily expected his hour of trial to be at hand; but not until 1304 was the stronghold besieged by King Edward, for on two previous occasions when he journeyed past Stirling, the King was not prepared to attack the strongest castle in Scotland. In that year, however, every effort was made to secure the fortress for England. ”

“ Blind Harry, who collected traditions about Wallace and wove them into a poem in the days of James III., could not help referring to Stirling Castle; but his lines on the subject are not more interesting than Barbour’s, and his work as a whole is inferior to that of his predecessor in the field of patriotic poetry.
It is difficult to believe that a Scottish poet could use hard words when writing of Stirling; yet when it suited him, William Dunbar could pen vindictive lines on the place. ”

“ Once within the same building as the King, the Earl was now as powerful as before. He managed to arrange the formation of a new Council, with himself in the principal place, and he persuaded the King to order the Parliament, which had been summoned to meet at Edinburgh, to assemble in the hall of Stirling Castle. The opponents of Morton, naturally objecting to the Estates being convened within the walls of a fortress, were determined not to appear without a protest, so they sent the Earl of Montrose and Lord Lindsay of the Byres to lay their remonstrances before the King. ”

“ Nicholas West, the envoy of Henry VIII., held several interviews with James in the castle in April, 1513. West did his utmost to induce the Scottish monarch to abandon the league with France. He was unwilling to leave James without extracting a promise that no invasion of England would take place when Henry crossed the Channel. The King of Scots stood firm, however, and would not agree to desert his old ally, so the disappointed and angry ambassador departed from Scotland, hating the people and being hated in return. ”

“ From the towers of the fortress he studied the stars, anxious to know what the future held in store. A King devoted to music, arts and science, but disliking war and manly sports, was not a monarch suited to fifteenth century Scotland. James’s brothers, Albany and Mar, would have made better rulers. It was long, however, before the smouldering discontent in the country burst into the fire of rebellion.
King James III. wrought many improvements at the castle. The Parliament Hall, which is still in existence, dates from his reign, and was probably designed by Cochrane. ”

“ Numerous examples of this “crag and tail” formation are to be found in the track of the ancient glacier, but two of the rocks stand out with striking prominence; on one is built the Castle of Edinburgh, on the other that of Stirling.
It is strange that of such natural strongholds early history has so little to say, for these fortresses were afterwards to have their names writ large on almost every page of Scotland’s romantic story. The third sister castle, Dumbarton, came earlier to the front. It was a stronghold of renown in the days of the Strathclyde Britons ”

“ This was especially the case in James V.’s time, for his weariness of life was chiefly due to despair of being able to combat Henry’s schemes.
The defeat had another effect, however, which gave rise to the troubles of Mary’s reign. Almost all the nobles of Scotland fell with their King in battle, leaving, in many cases, minors to succeed. Consequently, the government passed into the hands of the prelates, who were mostly, at this time, men of low moral character and of selfish worldly aims. ”