History Sunday: Dunfermline Abbey

Welcome to my History Sunday blogpost.  As my approximately 4 frequent readers know I am Scottish and frighteningly proud of being so.  Ever since I moved down to England it seems I have become more Scottish; answering questions with aye, and improving my accent.  For this history Sunday I really wanted to write about a Scottish historical figure, not the usual ones like William Wallace or Robert the Bruce, but preferably a queen.  I also thought about doing a history of Scotland one but I would be writing pages until the end of time.  Scotland only became Scotland in the 11th century and even then what we know now as Scotland is different from the first kingdom of Scotland.  I looked at the queens consort list and wanted to write about Saint Maragaret of Scotland; unfortunately she is English, more specifically a daughter of the Earl of Wessex.  When I looked at the list I realised that most of the medieval Queen consorts of Scotland have been English, or French.  There are about three who were Scottish, daughters of Scotland's nobles, but there is sparse information on them that would take barely a paragraph to write up.  It saddened me that I didn't know anything about the historical figures of Scotland; I don't know anything about Scotland during the middle ages and I can name every English monarch from the 11th century to the 17th but no Scottish ones.


To placate the huge disappointment this realisation was I decided on Dunfermline Abbey.  I travel a lot during the summer, going to see this castle and that castle, and on my bucket list for Scotland was the famous Dunfermline Abbey, resting place of the kings, Queens, and royals of Scotland.  I went to this place during the summer of 2014 and as self-appointed ambassador for Scottish heritage sites getting to it is easy; there's a train stop called Dunfermline Town, which you can get to from Edinburgh Haymarket, on a Scotrail line; alight at this station and follow the signposts, or your phone's GPS, until you reach the Abbey which is on the way to the main town centre.  It's probably easier by car.

At this point I'd also like to mention that every picture on this post was taken by yours truly during my visit, no pinterest or google images, I promise.

The Abbey was supposedly originally founded by King Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, or King Malcolm Canmore of Alba (Scotland in Gaelic), and his wife Saint Margaret of Scotland who I mentioned above.  When I went to Edinburgh Castle I was told of Saint Margaret and how she was a very pious woman and this apparently rubbed off on her husband, and it certainly did to her children who were also either cannonised or admired for their piety by chroniclers.  One of their daughters was the wife of King Henry I of England, and their sons became Kings of Alba.
The knave, pictured on the left, is actually the oldest part of the Abbey dating to the 12th Century..  Apparently the Abbey claimed that Saint Margaret was its founder and forged an earlier foundation charter than David I's reign.  King Malcolm and his wife did found something here but it's unclear whether it was the Abbey or just a church.  Dunfermline Abbey became the centre point for the growing cult of Saint Margaret, Scotland's only cannonised royal.  This would have meant a lot of money coming in and so obviously the monks in residence here would have wanted people to keep thinking Saint Margaret founded it therefore forging the charter.

The Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Trinity and Saint Margaret (Dunfermline Abbey) was actually founded by their son King David I in 1128.
Dunfermline Abbey kept standing through the relatively calm years from its founding until the 13th Century when, you guessed it, Edward I stormed his way across the border during the Scottish War of Independence.  He held court at the Abbey in 1303 and then when he left he burned down the buildings.  I don't understand this act.  Edward I was a pious king, Dunfermline was a chartered Abbey with a Saint and numerous kings of Scotland buried in it, did he not fear the wrath of God would come down upon him for effectively destroying a holy place?  Perhaps it was because the kings were buried there that he partially destroyed it.  Nevertheless the Abbey kept standing even after the English were gone.

What I really want at this moment in the post is the guidebook I bought when I was there because it has so much information about this time and about life at the Abbey, but it's at home an I'm in Leicester so apologies.

Let's jump to the Scottish Reformation.  I know nothing about this; I only know about it in England but along those same lines Scotland joined in.  For those who don't know the English Reformation happened around the 1530s and was instigated by Henry VIII of England so he could marry Anne Boleyn.  The Catholic church wouldn't grant a divorce to Henry from his then wife, the poor Katherine of Aragon, and so he broke with Rome, made himself the head of the English church, divorced Katherine in this new religion and married Anne Boleyn, much to her ill fate.  And so began Protestantism.  Because Scotland and England have always been so geographically close, we share a common-ish culture, and our kings married daughters of the kings of England, it was only a matter of time before this new religion came over the border. 

The ruins of Dunfermline Palace

The Scottish Reformation happened in 1560 and banned Mass, etc, and made way for Protestantism.  This would be a very definitive blow against Marie de Guise, effective ruler of Scotland, and her Catholic daughter, the incompetent Mary, Queen of Scots.  Mary was the great-grandaughter of King Henry VII of England through his daughter, Margaret Tudor.  She was shipped off to France when she was very young to marry the Dauphin of France, the heir to the throne, leaving a regent to rule Scotland, and this burden eventually fell to her French mother, Marie de Guise, a catholic.
John Knox was the leader of the Scottish reformation and forced the issue in the wake of Marie de Guises death in early 1560.  Queen Mary didn't arrive in Scotland until 1561.
As all the Abbeys were sacked in England, so they were in Scotland, and one day in March 1560 the Abbey was sacked.
It was rebuilt, in part, in 1570, and reopened for worship in 1821, a huge gap, I know.  It has been extensively restored in the interim between those two periods, but it hadn't been completely destroyed to begin with anyway.  It is now a sight of historical importance as it is, save Iona, the place of the most Scottish Royal burials.  According to the Abbey these people are buried there, although when I was there I must have been looking in the wrong place because I didn't see any grave markers at all.  I do know that they will have been destroyed during the reformation but apparently Saint Margaret and her husband King Malcolm's tomb was restored on the orders of Queen Victoria in the 19th century.
Royals: Malcolm Canmore, Saint Margaret and their sons; Duncan II, Edgar, Alexander I and his wife Sybilla of Normandy, and David I with his wife Maud of Huntingdon.  
Malcolm IV, Alexander III, his wife Margaret of England, and their sons David and Alexander.  Robert the Bruce.
The wives and family members of some kings are also buried there but the full list is on Wikipedia if you're interested.

Dunfermline Palace is also adjoining the Abbey and is a ruin now also; has probably always been there in one form or another and was used to house royal and important guest when they visited the Abbey, it's the only part of the place you have to pay to get into, but it's not steep and the views are excellent.  King Charles I was born in Dunfermline Palace because his mother, Anna of Denmark and wife of King James VI of Scotland, lived in the palace at that time.  When James became King of England after the death of Elizabeth I in 1603 the palace fell into disrepair and ruin, which can still be seen today.

It doesn't take long to go around the Abbey and the Palace, but the inside is breathtaking, as all Abbeys are, and the views are amazing too especially if it's a good day like it was when I visited.  Dunfermline town is also just behind the Abbey so you can go for lunch and some shopping afterwards.  A nice day out overall and it is amazing to know you're walking in the same space as some of the most vibrant of Scotland's kings.