James IV James IV and his wife
Margaret Tudor frequently stayed at the palace. In November 1504 Margaret Tudor was in residence when two people were suspected of having plague. James IV was away in the north of Scotland. The queen left for Edinburgh with her household servants, including
African women known as the "More lasses", who went first to
Inverkeithing. This was a false alarm.
James V (1512–1542) and his second wife
Mary of Guise also used the palace. On 14 June 1562 after dinner at Dunfermline,
Mary, Queen of Scots, produced a
gold ring set with a heart shaped diamond and declared she would send it to
Queen Elizabeth with some verses she had written herself in Italian. At this time a meeting of the two queens was discussed.
Anne of Denmark James VI stayed at Dunfermline Palace in June 1585 to avoid the plague which raged in Edinburgh. He had a proclamation made to regulate the prices of food, drink, and lodgings for his courtiers in Dunfermline town. In 1589 the palace was given as a wedding present by the king to his bride
Anne of Denmark. James VI had to compensate the
Master of Gray, who had rights to the title of
Abbot or Commendator of Dunfermline, and allocated him 12,000
merks from a
subsidy paid by Elizabeth I. Anne of Denmark gave birth to three of their children in the palace;
Elizabeth (1596), She would sometimes travel between Edinburgh and Dunfermline by boat, taking meals at
South Queensferry. She improved the palace during the decade. (died 1602), Master of Work to King James VI and Anne of Denmark,
National Records of Scotland Anne of Denmark was given the lands formerly belonging to Dunfermline Abbey, and was known in charters of abbey lands as the "Lady of Dunfermline". In February 1596,
Alexander Seton, Lord Urquhart, was appointed as her Bailie and Keeper and Constable of the palace. The palace staff included the keeper
John Gibb, the chamberlains of the estates
David Seton of
Parbroath,
William Schaw, and
Henry Wardlaw of
Pitreavie, the gardener John Lowrie, the plumber James Coupar, who fixed the lead roofs, and Thomas Walwood, foreman of the coal pits. She was entertained by an English musician
John Norlie and her fool
Tom Durie. Later, a story circulated that Tom Durie had stumbled on the queen holding a secret
Mass at the palace. When
George Bruce acquired lands near Dunfermline in 1599, he undertook to carry sand to the building works at the palace. In 1600, Anne of Denmark completed a new building at the palace known as the "Queen's House", or "Queen Anna of Denmark's House" or the "Queen's Jointure House". It was demolished in 1797. The new work was cruciform in plan. It was a tall building with a driveway known as a "pend" running through its basement level, replacing an earlier gateway. This feature can be compared with the
Queen's House at
Greenwich which was also built over a roadway. A Latin inscription (now lost) recorded that the "gateway and temple-like superstructure" was reconstructed for Anne. Near the west front of the abbey there were houses for the senior officers of her estates. There was a tennis court in the old abbey cloister.
Charles was born at Dunfermline in 1600, followed by
Robert in 1602. Anne of Denmark was attended by her German physician,
Martin Schöner, and Margaret Douchall, the wife of
Jerome Bowie. The royal nursery at Dunfermline was managed by
Margaret Stewart, Mistress of Ochiltree.
Isobel Colt was one the nurses. It is said that a local gentlewoman, Margaret MacBeth, widow of Henry Durie of Craigluscar, provided the queen with herbal remedies and attended the royal births. At the time of Charles' birth in November 1600, a new green velvet and taffeta bed was built for Anne in a room in the palace. In November 1601 Anne prepared a lodging for her daughter
Princess Elizabeth, but the princess remained at
Linlithgow Palace on the king's orders. There was a steep stairwell outside Anne of Denmark's bed chamber, and in March 1602 the English courtier
Roger Aston fell down it and was unconscious for three hours. At this time there was a plague scare in Edinburgh, and the
Privy Council was anxious that the contagion should not reach the "ordinary place of residence of the Queen, his highness' dearest spouse, and of their majesties' bairns". Ferry crossings to and from Dunfermline were suspended, except for royal councillors and household servants with a clean bill of health.
Prince Charles at Dunfermline After the
Union of Crowns in 1603, the removal of the Scottish court to
London meant that the building came to be rarely visited by a monarch. Prince Charles, who was a sickly child, stayed at Dunfermline for a year. His guardians were Alexander Seton and his wife Grissal Leslie.
Jean Drummond, later Countess of Roxburghe, looked after him and an older woman, Marion Hepburn, was in charge of
rocking his cradle. Hepburn had previously been appointed to rock the cradle of his older sisters
Margaret and Elizabeth. The Prince was slow to learn to walk and was provided with an oak stool with wheels to train him, described in the
Scots language as a "tymber stule with rynand quheillis to gang in". An English courtier,
Robert Carey, came to Dunfermline and stayed with Alexander Seton, and wrote that Prince Charles was "a very weak child".
Dr Henry Atkins wrote from Dunfermline in July 1604 to Anna of Denmark, saying that Prince Charles could now walk the length of the "great chamber" or "longest chamber" several times daily without a stick, "like a gallant soldier all alone". Atkins added that Charles, walking without a staff, was "not so bold as
Ajax but as wary as
Ulysses". Atkins reported that Charles began his journey to England on 17 July 1604, crossing the Forth to the Lord Secretary's house near Edinburgh. Alexander Seton and his wife Grizel Leslie brought Prince Charles to England in 1604, and he was lodged at
Oatlands Palace. Robert Carey and his wife
Elizabeth were appointed to look after him. Some of the Prince's old servants from Dumfermline went to England and were given pensions, including Marion Hepburn, the seamstress Joan Drummond, the laundress Agnes Fortune, the chamber door keeper
George Kirke, and the cook John Lyle. Ten tapestries from the
royal tapestry collection were still at Dunfermline Palace in 1616, left from the time the infant Prince Charles resided at the palace. In 1618
John Taylor, the Water Poet, lodged for a night at the house of the keeper since 1584,
John Gibb, which was presumably a part of the palace. Taylor described the site, "the Queenes Palace, a delicate and princely mansion, withall I saw the ruins of an ancient and stately built Abbey, with fair gardens, orchards, meadows, belonging to the Palace." When Anne of Denmark died in 1619 ownership of the palace and her lands in Scotland passed to Prince Charles. A new great seal of the lordship was made and the "new great house" built by his mother was repaired. The town was devastated by a fire on 25 May 1624 and Prince Charles sent £500 sterling in aid.
Charles I and Charles II In February 1633
Lord Traquair, the treasurer-depute, inspected
Linlithgow Palace, Dunfermline Palace, and
Stirling Castle to estimate for repairs in advance of a royal visit. Charles I returned to Scotland in 1633 for his
coronation but only made a brief visit to his place of birth. The last monarch to occupy the palace was
Charles II who stayed at Dunfermline in 1650 just before the
Battle of Pitreavie.
Anne Halkett described meeting him there. Soon afterwards, during the
Cromwellian occupation of Scotland, the building was abandoned and by 1708 it had been unroofed.
Bishop Pococke was shown the site of the "skaipell" or tennis court in 1760, between the monastic refectory and the abbey tower. The "Queen's House" of 1600 was demolished in 1797. Drawings and engraved views shows battlements and stair towers with conical roofs. All that remains of the palace is the kitchen, its
cellars, and the large south wall with a commanding prospect over the
Firth of Forth to the south. ==References==