Legend relates that in 1127, while King David I was hunting in the forests to the east of Edinburgh during the
Feast of the Cross, he was thrown from his horse after it had been startled by a
hart. According to variations of the story, the king was saved from being gored by the charging animal when it was startled either by the miraculous appearance of a holy cross descending from the skies, or by sunlight reflected from a
crucifix which suddenly appeared between the hart's antlers while the king attempted to grasp them in self-defence. As an act of thanksgiving for his escape, David I founded Holyrood Abbey on the site in 1128. In the church was preserved, in a golden
reliquary, an object said to be a fragment of the True Cross brought by David's mother,
St. Margaret, from Waltham Abbey, and known thereafter as the Black Rood of Scotland (the
Holyrood (cross)). At the battle of Neville's Cross, in 1346, this precious relic fell into the hands of the English, and it was placed in Durham Cathedral, from where it disappeared at the Reformation. The abbey was originally served by a community of Augustinian
Canons Regular from
Merton Priory. The layout of the original church at Holyrood, now known only from excavations, probably came from the 1125 church at the priory. The original abbey church of Holyrood was largely reconstructed between 1195 and 1230. Some scholars believe the high vaults to be sexpartite (though this is not clearly supported by the 17th century illustrations of the interior). Such a design was probably archaic in that period, and difficult to execute or maintain. Evidence of the construction qualities of the stonemasons has remained on the S aisle vaults, which are set on an almost square plan of 4.4 m (14 feet), but built relatively roughly, with thin flagstones and not much attention to keeping the vertices straight. They were probably plastered, with exposed thin ribs. Among the chief benefactors of Holyrood during the four centuries of its existence as a religious house were Kings David I and II; Robert, Bishop of St. Andrews; and
Fergus of Galloway. The
Parliament of Scotland met at the abbey in 1256, 1285, 1327, 1366, 1384, 1389 and 1410. In 1326,
Robert the Bruce held parliament here, and there is evidence that Holyrood was being used as a royal residence by 1329. Between 1498 and 1501,
James IV constructed a royal palace at Holyrood, adjacent to the abbey cloister. The Abbey refectory was converted into a Great Hall for the Palace, and a new refectory was built to the east for the community . In 1507 and 1508 the dances,
masques, and banquets concluding the tournaments of the
Wild Knight and the Black Lady were held in the converted refectory. A corps of guards were instituted at the end of the 15th century to guard the monarch and enforce law and order within the precincts of the palace and Abbey Sanctuary called the
High Constables and Guard of Honour of the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
16th century onwards Royal influence over the abbey further increased when in 1538
Robert Stewart, the infant, illegitimate son of
James V, was appointed as
commendator of Holyrood. During the War of the
Rough Wooing, the invading English armies of the
Earl of Hertford inflicted structural damage on Holyrood Abbey in 1544 and 1547. Lead was stripped from the roof, the bells were removed, and the contents of the abbey were plundered. In 1559, during the
Scottish Reformation, the abbey suffered further damage when a mob destroyed the altars and looted the rest of the church. With the Reformation and the end of monastic services, the
east end of the abbey church became redundant. In 1569, Adam Bothwell, the commendator of Holyrood, informed the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland that the east end was in such a state of disrepair that the choir and transept should be demolished. This was done the following year, retaining only the nave, which by then was serving as the parish church of the
burgh of
Canongate. Between 1570 and 1573 an east gable was erected, closing the east end of the former nave, all but two of the windows in the nave were blocked up, the royal tombs were removed to a new royal burial vault in the south aisle and the old east end was demolished.
Alexander Dunbar Winchester (
Prefect Apostolic of Scotland) became the Dean of the Royal Chapel. The abbey church was remodelled according to the plans of
James Smith, and was fitted with elaborate thrones and stalls for the individual
Knights of the Thistle, carved by
Grinling Gibbons. However, in 1688, following the
Glorious Revolution, the Edinburgh mob broke into the abbey, entered the Chapel Royal and desecrated the royal tombs. The association of the church with these events and the absence of a royal court left the building out of public interest.
James Hamilton, 6th Duke of Hamilton commissioned the architect
John Douglas and the stonemason James McPherson to replace the ageing timber roof trusses by stone vaults and outer stone slabs, the work being carried out between 1758 and 1760. However, this proved to be a disastrous change. The excessive weight of the stone could not be supported by the walls. The strength of stone vaults depends on the containment of their thrusts, which the decayed flying buttresses could not contain any more, and a small movement (less than 1/30 of the span) can cause severe deformation and collapse. It took six years for the deformation to become alarming. This forced the
Barons of the Exchequer (the administrators of the Palace) to close the church on safety grounds in 1766, following inspection by
William Mylne. On 2 December 1768 the roof collapsed in two stages, leaving the abbey as it currently stands, a roofless ruin. The restoration of the abbey has been proposed several times since the 18th century – in 1835 by the architect
James Gillespie Graham as a meeting place for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and in 1906, as a chapel for the Knights of the Thistle – but both proposals were rejected. ==List of abbots==