FALKLAND PALACE
Unless equipped with a good knowledge of Scottish history, the average
tourist wandering through Fife will come upon Falkland Palace with
surprise. Its situation is so remote from any centre of importance, it
stands upon no great river affording an outlet to the sea, and never
being a stronghold of any sort it remains at the base instead of the
top of the hills among which it is built. Though elevated to the proud
position of a royal burgh in 1458, Falkland can to-day be scarcely
designated by any other title than that of a fair-sized village, so
that the presence of the stately palace, ruined though it is, partakes
of the nature of the unexpected.
[Illustration: The Gateway of Falkland Palace.]
Being built purely for pleasure and convenience, and with no thought
of safety, the builders of the palace indulged in greater beauty of
decoration than is to be seen in almost any other palace in Scotland.
It suggests the dignity of a graceful French château, with its
pilasters, bas-reliefs, statues, and canopied niches. Of the three
sides of which the palace once consisted, only two remain, one of
these being much ruined. But the south wing which has always remained
more or less intact, is sufficient to prove how far from barbarous was
the taste of the later Stuart monarchs.
Before the palace was erected a castle stood close to the site of the
present building. It had long been a possession of the Earls of Fife,
till in the fourteenth century it descended to an heiress who had
no children. She bestowed the castle upon Robert Duke of Albany, the
brother of the inefficient King Robert III. Upon Albany rests the
dreadful charge of murdering his young nephew, the Duke of Rothesay,
by starving him to death in the castle at Falkland. Rothesay was young
and wild, and had annoyed his uncle by getting himself made Guardian
of the Realm, a post desired by Albany. After involving Scotland in
war with England, due to his imprudence in jilting the daughter of
the Earl of March, who succeeded in obtaining an English army in his
support, Rothesay was captured on his way to St. Andrews by his
uncle, who, it is said, had his father's authority to do so. Taken
to Falkland Castle the Prince never came out alive, dying of slow
starvation according to one account, and of dysentery by another.
It is evident that Albany was suspected of murder, for he took the
trouble to be officially acquitted of any part in his death. Only
grassy mounds now indicate the position of this castle, which
must have been, according to the investigations of Lord Bute, of
considerable extent.
The execution of Albany's son as a traitor made Falkland Crown
property. The palace began to be erected by James II., but its chief
builder was James IV., who spent large sums of money on the work, and
much enjoyed the sport to be obtained in the neighbourhood. His son,
James V., was often there, though apparently not for long periods at a
time. He was the only monarch to die there, a sad event which occurred
at the early age of thirty. In despair at the rout of his army at
Solway Moss, the young monarch refused all consolation, and just
seemed to wait for death, though there were no apparent signs of it
upon him. Not even the news brought to him from Linlithgow of the
birth of a daughter could cheer him. Merely saying the often quoted
words, "It came wi' a lass and will pass wi' a lass," he turned his
head to the wall and died a few days later.
No events of importance took place at Falkland during Mary Queen of
Scots' brief reign, though she visited it occasionally. Her son,
James VI., was much attached to it, on account of the good hunting it
afforded. On one occasion he was nearly captured there by the reckless
Francis Earl of Bothwell, who made one of his many attempts to seize
the King. But on this midnight attack he was unsuccessful, for he and
his party were forced to flee when the artillery of the palace was
turned against them. They were not pursued, as they had taken the
precaution to take possession of all the horses.
After James went to England he could seldom be lured from the luxury
of his English palaces to visit his northern residences, but he did
visit Falkland once again in the year 1617. Tremendous preparations
were made for the royal visit, eighty carts lumbered up from Kirkcaldy
with the luggage, and a large gathering of nobles and gentlemen made
Falkland once more a gay and busy place.
Charles I. came to Falkland once in the summer of 1633, after which
the palace was never again to rejoice in great regal splendour. When
Charles II. was being supported by the Presbyterians of Scotland,
he spent a little time there, much worried by the persistency of
his friends, who insisted upon his signing the Covenant. After he
departed, no monarch ever resided in the palace, which was given to
a Cromwellian officer during the Commonwealth, but which, at the
Restoration, again became the property of the Crown.
Lying deserted and neglected all through the eighteenth century, the
palace became a quarry for those who needed building materials, till
in 1820 it was bought by Mr. John Bruce of Grangehill, who, with the
assistance of Sir Walter Scott, arrested the ruin and restored the
remaining structure.