Holyrood, an abbey and palace of Edinburgh. In the year 1128 King David I. of Scotland founded at Edinburgh an abbey of canons regular, of the order of St Augustine. According to the legend, it was founded on the spot where the king, whilst hunting on Rood Day in the fourth year of his reign, in the forest that then surrounded Edinburgh, was thrown from his horse and nearly gored by a hart, and was only saved by a mysterious hand putting a flaming cross between him and the animal, at the sight of which the hart fled away, leaving the king safe. The abbey was dedicated to the Holy Cross or Rood, a casket of gold, elaborately wrought and shaped like a cross, which was brought to Scotland by Margaret, wife of Malcolm, king of Scotland, about 1070. This casket was held in great veneration as containing a splinter of the true Cross, and became one of the heirlooms of the kingdom. The Black Rood of Scotland, as it was called, was carried before the army of David II. when he invaded England in 1346, and fell into the hands of the English at the battle of Neville's Cross. The victors placed it in the shrine of St Cuthbert in the cathedral of Durham. At the time of the Reformation it disappeared, and nothing has been known about it since. The abbey church was built in the Norman and early Gothic styles. The abbey was several times burned by the English, especially in 1544 (when the transepts were destroyed) and 1547. At the Reformation the monastery was dissolved; and the abbey church having been repaired was henceforth used as the parish church of the Canongate. In 1687 James VII., having built another parish church for the Canongate, converted the abbey church into the chapel royal of Holyrood. It was plundered and burned by the mob at the Revolution in 1688, and remained in neglect until 1758. In that year it was repaired and roofed; but the roof was too heavy for the walls, and it fell in 1768. Since then the chapel has been left in a state of ruin. The vault, built as a burying-place for the royal family of Scotland, contained the ashes of David II., James II., James V., and of many other royal and historical personages, such as the Duke of Albany, Lord Darnley, &c.
The abbey of Holyrood early became the occasional abode of the Scottish kings. Robert Bruce and Edward Baliol held parliaments within its walls. James II. was born in it, crowned in it, married in it, buried in it. The foundations of the palace, apart from the abbey, were laid about 1501 by James IV., who made Edinburgh the capital of Scotland. Henceforth Holyrood Palace was the chief seat of the Scottish sovereigns. It was mostly destroyed by the English in 1544, but immediately afterwards rebuilt on a larger scale. Queen Mary took up her abode in the palace when she returned from France in 1561. Here, in 1566, Rizzio was torn from her side and murdered. It was garrisoned after the battle of Dunbar in 1650 by Cromwell's troops, who burned the greater part of it to the ground. It was rebuilt by Charles II., from the designs of Sir William Bruce of Kinross, between 1671 and 1679. After the accession of James VI. to the throne of England it ceased to be occupied as a permanent royal residence. But George IV. held his court in it in 1822, and Queen Victoria occasionally spends a night within its walls. At the present day the disposition of the rooms in the older portion seems to be much the same as in the time of Queen Mary. The picture-gallery, containing badly-painted 'portraits' of fabulous Scottish kings, and a few genuine works of art, possesses romantic interest as the scene of the balls and receptions of Prince Charlie in 1745.
The palace, with its precincts and park, was in Catholic times a sanctuary for all kinds of offenders, but afterwards the privilege of Sanctuary (q.v.) was extended to none except insolvent debtors. De Quincey is the most illustrious person who availed himself of the privilege. But now, from recent ameliorations in the laws affecting debtors, especially the Debtors (Scotland) Act, 1880, the protection has no longer legal validity. See Historical Description of the Monastery and Chapel Royal of Holyrood House (1819), and D. Wilson, Memorials of Edinburgh (1848).