Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

;LINLITHGOWLINLITHGOW'the of the said gallery'in the latter of which years the castle also was injured, decorated like the others,' or it may he, as is told by anand in 1425 the earlier portions of the present palace account parts of which atupon pavementleast are contemporary, thatwere begun. James II. , at his marriage in 1449, settledon his bride, Mary of Gueldres, as her jointure, the laid a feather-bed, and upon the[or balcony] hewindow thereof helordship of Linlithgow and other lands, amounting in afiixed black cloths, that his shadow might not be seenvalue to 10,000 crowns ; James III. also, at his marriagenor his feet heard when he went to or fro.' It is morein 1468 to Margaret of Denmark, settled on her likely, however, not, as black cloth would certainly havethe palace of Linlithgow and the surrounding territory ;attracted attention, and warnings of danger had previouslyand James IV., on his marriage with Margaret of Englandreached the regent, but he was not a man 'easilyin 1503, gave her in dower the whole lordship of flustered or alarmed, and gave no further heed to whatLinlithgow with the palace and its jurisdiction and was said, save that he thought it prudent to pass rapidlyprivileges. In 1517 Stirling and his followers who had forward. In this, however, he was impeded by theattempted to assassinate Meldrum of Binns on the road crowd. The murderer had to deal with the delays andto Leith, fled to Linlithgow, where they took the ' peel difliculties of the clumsy hackbut of the day, but he didupon their heads to be their safeguard, thinking to his work to perfection. The bullet passed through thedefend themselves therein,' but they were speedily body between the waist and the thigh, and retainedpursued by De la Bastie, lieutenant to the Begent impetus enough to kill a horse near the regent's side.'Albany, and captured after a short siege. The He was carried to the palace hard by, where after a fewbattle of Linlithgow Bridge in 1526 has been already hours all was over, and the country stood once more facenoticed in connection with the parish. Sir James to face with anarchy. The Diurnal of Ocmrrents saysHamilton, who so foully murdered the Earl of Lennox, that the house, which belonged to Bothwellhaugh'swas rewarded by Angus with the captaincy of the uncle. Archbishop Hamilton, ' incontinent thairefterpalace, and having, unlike most of Angus' followers, wes all utterlie burnt with fyre.' Its site is now occupiedafterwards become a favourite of James V., he showedby the county court buildings, in the wall of whichstill more the faithlessness and atrocity of his nature by a bronze tablet commemorative of the event was insertedattempts, both in the palace of Linlithgow and in that in 1875. It was designed by Sir Noel Paton and executedof Holyrood, to assassinate the King.by Mrs D. 0. Hill, and bears a medallion portraitIn 1540 James V., by a special charter, empowered of Murray, taken from a painting at Holyrood, with thethe town for the first time to add a provost to their inscription : On the street opposite this tablet Jamesmagistracy ; and in the same year, while Mary of Guise Stewart, Earl of Murray, Regent of Scotland, was shotwas delighting herself with the beauties tand luxuries of by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, on 20 JanuaryLinlithgow Palace, Sir David Lindsay's satire of the 1570. Erected in 1875.' The hackbut with which thethree Estates was played before the king, queen, court, murder was committed is still preserved at Hamiltonand townspeople, and was received with apparent satisfactionby all alike—a pretty sure sign as to how the in voluntary exile. Some months after the deed, thePalace ; the assassin himself fled to France, and remainedwind was to blow in the coming Reformation storm. English army, which entered Scotland to readjust theOn 7 Dec. 1542, the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots arrangements that the regent's death had unsettled,was born in the palace, and as James V. died at Falklandburnt the Duke of Chatelherault's house in Linlithgow,on the 13th of the same month, and his infant and threatened to desti-oy the whole town. It was alsodaughter succeeded to the throne, the place became, for proposed during that distracted year to hold a parliamentthe period thereafter during which the queen dowagerat Linlithgow, but Regent Lennox marchingand her child remained there, the centre of all the many thither in October prevented the intended meeting.political intrigues of the time. In 1543 convocations In 1584 the rents both of money and victual of themet here on 1 Oct., and again on 1 and 19 Dec. ;and in lordship of Linlithgow were appropriated for supporting1552 a provincial council of the clergy was held. In Blackness Castle, and in 1585 a parliament was held in1559 the Earl of Argyll, Lord James Stewart, and John the town. At the king's marriage in 1592 the baronyKnox, passed through Linlithgow on their celebrated lands and palace were, according to former usage, givenmarch from Perth to Edinburgh, and demolished the in dowry to his bride, the Princess Anne of Denmark.monastic houses ; and almost ten years later, Stewart, In 1596, during a popular tumult in Edinburgh, thenow the Earl of Murray, and regent, was to return and' faithful town of Linlithgow ' afl'orded refuge to Court,end his all too brief term of power, for on 20 Jan. 1569- Privy Council, and Court of Session ; and in 1603 it70, while passing through Linlithgow on his way from shared in the grief that arose from James's abandonmentStirling to Edinburgh, the regent was shot by Hamilton of his native palaces on his accession to the Englishof Bothwellhaugh. The old story was, that it was an crown, and when the king first revisited Scotland inact of private revenge for injury of the most cruel kind 1617, and made his appearance at Linlithgow—thedone to Hamilton's wife by some of Murray's friends ;palace of which was then the residence of a Scottishbut that this is utterly false has been shown by Dr Hill sovereign for the last time—the inhabitants held highBurton, and the well-planned scheme must be regarded festival. James was met at the entrance to the townas simply a political murder. Linlithgow was chosen by James Wiseman, the burgh pedagogue, enclosed inbecause ' the Hamiltons had a strong feudal influence in a plaster figure resembling a lion, and was addressedthe surrounding district, and could thus make their preparationsby him in the following doggerel speech :among themselves. The structure of the old'Scots towns favoured such a deed. They were generallyThrice royal sir, here do I you beseech,AVho art a lion, to hear a lion's speechlaid out in one narrow street, with gardens radiatingA miracle, for since the days of .^sopoutwards on either side. These the enemy might destroy,No lion, till those days, a voice dared raise upbut the backs of the houses formed a sort of wall, andTo such a majesty t Then, king of men.protected the actual town from invasion. The arrangementwas conducive to health as well as protection, butWhen he was free, was Lithgow's wise schoolmaster.The king of beasts speaks to thee from his den.Who, though he now enclosed be in plaster,it afforded opportunities for mischief, and frequentlythose concerned in street brawls could escape through Here in 1604 the trial of the leaders of the AberdeenAssembly took place, and in 1606 and 1608 thetheir own houses into the open country. A house, belonging,according to the concurring testimony of contemporaries,to Archbishop Hamilton, was found to suit the of this period was established. When Charles I. wasAssemblies were held at which the modified episcopacypurpose, as facing the principal street. Horses and all at Edinburgh in 1633 ba intended to visit the town,other means were ready for escape westward into the and had the palace put in order for his reception, whilechief territory of the Hamiltons, where they were absolute.the magistrates and council were quite in a fluster overThere was a balcony in front, with hangings on preparations to do him honour. They ordered ait. Perhaps the citizens did honour to the occasion by thatched house in the Kirkgate to be slated, ' as it wasdisplaying their finery, and this house appeared to be unseemly, and a disgrace to the toun ; ' and also, ' con-516