This abbey was founded in 1136 at a place then called Fordell, and was endowed by David I. and his nobles with extensive lands. The monks were of the Cistercian order, and were brought from Rievalle in Yorkshire. The original buildings were not finished till 1146, and on the 28th of July in that year the church was solemnly consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It is thought that such buildings with an oratory were probably the residence of the monks, and their period would suggest the Norman style, like that of the abbeys of Kelso, Jedburgh, and Dryburgh. Every trace of these early buildings has disappeared, and, situated as it was on the border-country, Melrose Abbey was exposed to danger, and frequently suffered in the wars between the two countries. It was in the chapter-house at Melrose that the Yorkshire barons united against King John and swore fealty to Alexander II. in 1215. In 1295 Edward I. gave formal protection to its monks, and in 1296 he issued a writ ordering a restitution to them of all the property they had lost in the preceding struggle. In 1321 or 1322 the original structure was destroyed by the English under Edward II., and the abbot, with a number of the monks, was killed. In 1326 Robert I. gave a grant of L2000 to be applied to the rebuilding of the church, and in 1329, a few months before his death, he wrote a letter to his son David, requesting that his heart should be buried at Melrose and commending the monastery and the church to his successor's favour. His wish was granted, and so late as 1369 we hear of King David II. renewing his father's gift, and it is to this grant we owe a considerable part of the present building. In 1328 Edward III. ordered the restoration to the abbey of pensions and lands which it had held in England, and which had been seized by Edward II. In 1334 the same king granted a protection to Melrose in common with the other Border abbeys, and in 1341 he came to Melrose to spend Christmas. In 1385 Richard II., exasperated by his fruitless expedition into Scotland, spent a night in the abbey and caused it to be burned. Notwithstanding these disasters, the abbey increased in wealth and architectural splendour, and it was not till more severe damage and dilapidations befell it during the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI. and Elizabeth, that ruin began finally to impend. The approach of the Reformation influenced its downfall, and though donations for rebuilding were given by various individuals, the abbey never recovered the damage then suffered. In 1541 James V. obtained from the Pope the abbeys of Melrose and Kelso, to be held _in commendam_ by his illegitimate son James, who died in 1558. In 1560 all the "abbacie" was annexed to the Crown, and in 1566 Mary granted the lands to James, Earl of Bothwell, with the title of Commendator. After passing through the hands of Douglas of Lochleven and Sir John Ramsay, the estates were ultimately acquired by the Scotts of Buccleuch.