Thistle Chapel

Today is the feast of St Andrew, and a suitable day on which to blog about the Order of the Thistle, whose present Chapel in St Giles' Edinburgh is 105 years old this year.

 

The Queen attends the Order of the Thistle ceremony in Edinburgh earlier this year

 

Image: Andrew Milligan/PA/Daily Telegraph 

 

The Chapel Royal at Holyrood as laid out for the Order of the Thistle by King James VII in 1687

After Jan Wyck

Image: Andrew Cusack

I hunted this picture out a while ago for a friend who is a specialist in the life and reign of King James II and VII and think it worth sharing - so far as I know it is the only picture of the interior of the abbey at Holyrood before the vault collapsed in the eighteenth century.

There is a useful, illustrated account of the history, insignia and chapels of the Order, and a discussion of the oath taken by the Knights today at http://www.andrewcusack.com/2010/order-of-the-thistle/

The Scottish Coronation in 1633

Today is the 380th anniversary of the coronation of King Charles I as King of Scots at Holyrood in 1633.

King Charles I in 1633
The print commemorates the Coronation
Image: Wikimedia

Holyrood Palace in the early seventeenth century.
A drawing by James Gordon of Rothiemay about 1649

Image:Wikipedia

This was the first coronation in Scotland since that of King James VI in 1567, and as with the coronations of King James V and Queen Mary I, had been that of an infant. Not since that of James IV in 1488, at the age of 16, had there been the coronation of near adult, and before that it was that of King James I in 1424 which had last seen an adult ritually receive the Honours of Scotland. Probably for these reasons the King appointed acommission to research the rite, and this is a major source for our knowledge of the Scottish ceremony. Only once since has there been a Scottish coronation - that of King Charles II in 1651 - and were, as is, I think to be desired, there to be a restoration of the ceremony and as discussed here in the context of possible independence, the 1633 report would be an important source.

The 1513 and 1543 ceremonies had taken place in the Chapel Royal at Stirling and that of 1567 in the parish church of the Holy Rood there. The abbey of Scone, traditional place of coronations up to 1424, had been destroyed, and for this occasion the ceremonial was located in the remains of Holyrood abbey, which had seen the coronation of King James II in 1437.

All that remained of the abbey was the nave, the remainder of the church having been demolished in 1570, and the structure was now restored for the occasion.

The interior of the Chapel Royal in the late seventeenth century

Image:leithhistory.co.uk

Further renovated by King James VIi to act as the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle in 1687 it was sacked by the edinburgh mob in the following year during the revolution and was left in decay. In 1768 the vault collapsed, reducing it to ruins:

The interior of the Chapel Royal today

  Image:Wikipedia

A late nineteenth century plan to restore it for the Thistle Chapel was deemed impractical, and the new Chapel of the Order added to St Giles Cathedral in the centre of the city. Incidentally it was on this visit to Scotland that King Charles  establsihed the new diocese of Edinburgh with St Giles as its cathedral.

The service was an opportunity to show liturgical ideas in accord with the ideas of Bishop William L aud of London who accompanied the King on his journey, and the episcopal genuflections in the service caused raised eyebrows, and indeed raised ire amongst the more Presbyterian of the King's subjects.

The principal officiant was Archbishop John Spottiswoode of St Andrews, of whom there is a biography here. The Oxford DNB life of him by A.S.W.Pearce can be seen here.

Archbishop John Spottiswoode of St Andrews

Image: scottish-places.info

For the ceremony the King wore the mantle of King James IV - as with other realms then and now such state vesture can have along life.

The text of the Coronation Oath sworn by Kings of Scots from King James VI onwards was approved by the Scottish Parliament  in 1567:

I, N.N., promise faithfully, in the presence of the eternal, my God, that I, enduring the whole Course of my Life, shall serve the same Eternal, my God, to the utmost of my Power, accordingly as he required in his most Holy Word, revealed and contained in the New and Old Testament; and according to the same Word shall maintain the true Religion of Jesus Christ, the preaching of his Holy Word, and due and right administration of his Sacraments, now received and practised within this Realm; and shall abolish and oppose all false Religion contrary to the same; and shall rule the People committed to my Charge, according to the Will and Command of God, revealed in his foresaid Word, and according to the lovable Laws and Constitutions received in this Realm, in no way repugnant to the said Word of the Eternal, my God; and shall procure to my utmost to the Kirk of God and whole Christian people true and perfect Peace in all times coming; the Rights and Rents, with all just privileges of the Crown of Scotland, I shall preserve and keep inviolate, neither shall I transfer nor alienate the same; I shall forbid and repress in all Estates and all Degrees theft, Oppression and all kind of Wrong; in all Judgements, I shall command and procure that Justice and Equity be kept to all creatures without exception, as he be merciful to me and you that is the Lord and Father of all Mercies; and out of all my lands and empire I shall be careful to root out all Heresy and Enemies to the true Worship of God, that shall be convicted by the true Kirk of God of the foresaid Crimes; and these Things above-written I faithfully affirm by my solemn Oath.

A later version was introduced in 1689.

A new ampulla for the oil of anointing was made for the occasion - it can be seen today in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh:

The gold ampulla which held the anointing oil for King Charles I at his 1633 Scottish coronation

Image: homesand property.co.uk

Scottish monarchs had been anointed since 1329 following a grant of the right to King Robert I for his successors by Pope John XXII in that year.

The regalia used were the Honours of Scotland as still to be seen in the Crown Room at Edinburgh Castle, and about which there is an article here.

The Honours of Scotland

Image: graphics.stanford.edu

The Coronation was also marked by the issue of commemorative medals by the King's favoured medallist, Nicholas Briot:

Coronation medal by Nicholas Briot

Image:charlesriley.co.uk

Several buildings erected in that Coronation year record in their plasterwork national symbols and the number of monarchs since the establishment of the monarchy by King Fergus I in the fourth century BC. As part of the 1633 celebrations portraits of 107 kings were displayed, some of which (by George Jamesone) survive. There is more about this legendary history here.

The Order of the Thistle

Today being St Andrew's feast day seems an appropriate one on which to post something about the Most Noble and Most Ancient Order of the Thistle, founded in its present form in 1687.

There is a detailed and well referenced article here about the Order.

To that I would add the following reflections.

The ascription of the foundation of the Order to King James III (1460-88) appears to derive in particular from the presence in the inventory of his treasure made after his death at the battle of Sauchieburn in 1488 of a collar whose description matches that of the present Order. The design of links bearing the Thistle and sprigs of rue, said to be the floral emblem of the Picts looks to my eye like a typical late medieval punning rebus - Thistle and rue/Thistle Andrew.

St Andrew with King James III and the future King James IV.
From the Trinity Panels by Hugo van der Goes
Royal Collection on loan to the National Gallery of Scotland
Photo from Englishmonarchs.orm

I discussed these points with a Scottish academic at the last Fifteenth Century Conference to be held in Oxford. She had done her doctoral thesis on chivalric culture in late medieval Scotland, and was clear in her own mind that James III had not founded an Order such as the Thistle. Nonetheless he does seem to have at least produced the design of the collar, and indeed to have promoted the Thistle as a national emblem. Like his son King James IV and his grandson King James V he seems to have been keen to demonstrate the courtly and artistic claims of the Scottish monarchy.

King James V's claim to be the founder of the Order arises partly from the fact that he is depicted in contemporary as well as later paintings wearing a collar of Thistles - perhaps his grandfathers'.

Anonymous, probably contemporary, portrait of King James V
Photo from Wikipedia

It is at least likely that the KIng established an Order in about 1540, but that his death in 1542 caused it to founder during the minority of his daughter Queen Mary I. One reason for him founding his own chivalric order was that, courted by the great powers of the day he had received the Garter from King Henry VIII, the Golden Fleece from the Emperor Charles V and the St Michael from King Francis I, and wanted to show himself their equal in courtly display.

The restored carvings showing the arms of England, Scotland, Spain and France encircled by their chivalric Orders over the entrance to the Palace at Linlithgow, built by King James V circa 1540
Photo from Scottishramparts.com

Thereafter the Order appears to have disappeared, and indeed in other Protestant countries such as Denmark and Sweden late medieval chivalric orders went into abeyance until later centuries revived them.

When King James VII established the Order in 1687 I think I am correct in saying that I have seen it stated that he designated purple mantles for the knights, and that the choice of green dates from the further revival under Queen Anne in 1703 - no conferments having been made since her father's flight in 1688. In 1687-8 King James had athe St Andrew Jewel made- a cameo with the saltire and thstle surrounded by twelve diamonds. This was one of the jewels he took with him into exile, and they were bequeathed to King George III in 1807 by Cardinal York (the de jure King Henry IX and I). On December 8th 1830 King William IV orded that they be displayed with the Honours of Scotland in Edinburgh Castle.

King James VII also renovated the nave of Holyrood Abbey as a Chapel Royal, but this was sacked and the royal tombs desecrated in 1688 by the Edinburgh mob, and in 1768 the vault of the nave collapsed, leaving the ruin one sees today. The restoration of these remains of the abbey church 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. In the case of the latter plan I think it rather a missed opportunity, although Sir Robert Lorimer did produce instead in 1911 the beautiful chapel of the Order at St Giles Cathedral.

The Queen and Prince Philip with the Officers of the Order of the Thistle outside St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh

Photo from shug17uk on Flickr