Abbeys -- Scotland; Cathedrals -- Scotland; Church architecture -- Scotland
_Stirling (Chapel Royal, St. Mary's, and St. Michael's)._--On the north
side of the Castle Square is the building erected by King James VI. as a
chapel, and generally called now the armoury. There seems to have been a
chapel in the castle founded by Alexander I., and it was connected with
the monastery at Dunfermline. The original dedication is unknown, but in
the fourteenth century there is mention of the chapel of St. Michael,
which may possibly date from the time when an Irish ecclesiastic--St.
Malachi or Michael--visited David I. at Stirling Castle, and healed his
son, Prince Henry. The chapel was rebuilt in the early part of the
fifteenth century, and in the time of James III. became an important
church. It was constituted both as a royal chapel and as a musical
college, and endowed with the rich temporalities of Coldingham Abbey.
This chapel was the scene of the penitence of James IV., who, after the
victory at Sauchie, "daily passed to the Chapel Royal, and heard matins
and evening song: in the which every day the chaplains prayed for the
King's grace, deploring and lamenting the death of his father: which
moved the King, in Stirling, to repentance, that he happened to be
counselled to come against his father in battle, wherethrough he was
wounded and slain. To that effect he was moved to pass to the dean of
the said Chapel Royal, and to have his counsel how he might be
satisfied, in his own conscience, of the art and part of the cruel deed
which was done to his father. The dean, being a godly man, gave the King
a good comfort: and seeing him in repentance, was very glad thereof."
James IV. endowed the chapel with large revenues, and in 1501 erected it
into a collegiate church for dean, subdean, chanter, sacristan,
treasurer, chancellor, archpriests, sixteen chaplains, six singing boys
and a choir master. It was the richest of the provostries, and held many
churches. The deans of the chapel, who were first the provosts of
Kirkheugh at St. Andrews, afterwards the bishops of Galloway, and
eventually the bishops of Dunblane, possessed in their capacity as deans
an episcopal jurisdiction. The chapel, erected by James III., fell
evidently into a ruinous condition, and in 1594 James VI. pulled the old
structure down and erected on its site the present building. It was the
scene of the baptism of Prince Henry.
ST. GILES, EDINBURGH
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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