In the troubles of after days all three castles submitted to the Protectorate, but in the following century none of them changed hands when the Jacobite risings disturbed the peace of Scotland. Dumbarton lay out of the routes of the insurgents both in the Fifteen and in the Forty-five, though the Earl of Mar’s chiefs at one time had made up their minds to seize it; but Stirling and Edinburgh could not be neglected in either of those campaigns. In the earlier rebellion the attempt to storm the latter fortress failed because the well-laid plans were badly carried out; and the former castle was saved from attack by Argyll’s success in preventing Mar from crossing the River Forth. In the Forty-five both strongholds held out stoutly for King George, although the towns outside their gates made little or no resistance to the dreaded Highland clans. As a fortress Stirling possesses a history which places it first among the castles of Scotland; as a palace its record entitles it to rank above Dumbarton and Edinburgh. Its double use as stronghold and as dwelling-place of kings gives it a unique position among the royal houses, for Falkland and Linlithgow were pleasure palaces erected upon the sites of ancient castles, and Holyrood was built as a kind of extension to a defenceless, low-lying abbey. Edinburgh Castle, it is true, was for centuries a seat of kings as well as a famous fortress, but long before the Stewarts took up residence in England the abbey-palace as a home had superseded the stronghold. In the sixteenth century Edinburgh Castle was preferred by royalty to Holyrood only in times of peril. Queen Mary moved up from the valley to the rock before giving birth to James VI., the Riccio murder having made her realise the danger of living at the palace. [Illustration: A CHIMNEY OF THE PALACE.] There was never a Holyrood Palace at Stirling to rob the castle of any of its glory. Kings might have lived in Cambuskenneth Abbey instead of on the summit of the windy rock; but it did not seem good to James IV. or any other monarch to erect a royal house beside the convent near the river. At Stirling the much-beloved old castle underwent various changes as the centuries rolled on; and when, with the advance of time, the taste for luxury developed and the Renaissance style of architecture was introduced from France, the fortress, instead of ceasing to be occupied by royalty, was crowned with a richly-carved palace. Until Scotland was forsaken by her ancient line of monarchs Stirling remained as much in favour with the kings and queens as the palaces of Falkland and Linlithgow, which were almost unencumbered with a castle’s fortifications.