This day in Edinburgh was probably my most favorite day by far in the city.
After breakfast, we hopped onto the tour bus, after walking uphill to catch it of course, and headed to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The palace is at the lower end of the Royal Mile with Edinburgh Castle being at the higher end. Yes, we walked up the hill to catch the bus that took us down the hill. It made sense at the time.
Holyroodhouse was first built approximately 900 years ago as an abbey. It was also a sanctuary for those who were having troubles with the law. Those granted sanctuary could roam freely about the palace, which included small markets and shops at that time. They also received papers that allowed them to leave the sanctuary on Sundays so they could go to the city. Apparently, arresting people on Sunday was not allowed. The sanctuary status has apparently not been officially removed from the palace, so if you find yourself in trouble with the law in Scotland, remember the Palace is at the lower end of the Royal Mile.
The Abbey later became the home to various monarchs with many of the rooms and buildings added on by James V. Although most of the original abbey is gone; parts of it can still be seen between the palace and the Queen's gardens. The Palace at Holyroodhouse is a working palace to this day, with the Queen residing there during the months of June and July. This was one of the reasons why pictures were not allowed in the palace. Another reason was that fact that many of the tapestries and some furniture had been there almost as long as the palace itself.
The first thing we saw upon entering the palace was an elegant staircase, which took us to a series of rooms each more grand than the one before. The grander the room, the closer one was to having court with the King/Queen. You were gold if you made it to the final room in which the king held court, and strangely enough, it looked like a bedroom. In fact, it was a bedroom, but probably not the bedroom in which the king slept. Meeting subjects in the bedroom meant that one was worthy enough, I guess, to be in such an intimate place with the monarch.
The dining room was also part of the tour and was partially set to show what it would look like if the Queen were there having a dinner party, or other queenly functions.
The highlight of the tour for me, were the suites occupied by Mary, Queen of Scots who, because of her tumultuous life, is probably one of the best known of the Scottish Royalty.
We entered the suite of rooms, one of which held a bed on which Mary slept. It had the orginal bed covers and tapestries and the entire thing was enclosed in glass to protect it from the elements. There was a side room in which Mary would take tea and on at least one particular occasion had audience with her secretary and close friend David Rizzio. Mary's husband at the time was Lord Darnley, very suspicious character who believed that the Queen and Rizzio were having an affair. Entering into a secret conspiracy with other nobles, which also included the overthrow of the Queen, Darnley murdered Rizzio in front of Mary's eyes. Rizzio was dragged from the small room into an outer chamber and stabbed somewhere between 54 and 57 times. They wanted to make sure he was really dead and stabbing Rizzio 50 times was apparently not adequate.
There is a brass plaque in the room near the floor marking the spot where Rizzio's body laid. Even though this murder happened over 400 years ago, it is still quite possible to see a blood stain on the solid wood floors. By the way....Darnley was killed from an apparent assassination not to long after his murdering of Rizzio.....Bloodshed and Treachery....
For more of the conspiracies and intrigue of Mary Queen of Scots' life, click here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_I_of_Scotland
From the suites we were led back outside to the ruins of the original abbey. Unfortunately, the Queen's Gardens were not open to the public during that time of year.
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