The palace witnessed three interviews between the great reformer, John Knox, and his young and beautiful Queen. Using his pulpit as the opportunity for declaiming against the doings of the Queen and that of idolators generally, John Knox was called to task by Mary, who ordered him to appear before her at Holyrood. The first interview took place in the audience-chamber, leading into the Queen's bedchamber. Only Lord James Stuart, afterwards the Regent Moray, was present at the interview, in which Knox answered the Queen's accusations very cleverly. The second interview was held in the Queen's bedroom, the room which remains much as she left it, with the actual bed in which she slept. Off this room were two small rooms, in one of which she was supping with her Italian secretary, David Riccio, when the band of armed men, headed by her husband Darnley, burst into the room. Riccio clung to the Queen's dress, but was torn apart, stabbed, and dragged out to be despatched with many wounds at the top of the staircase.
Queen Mary's son, James VI., spent some time of every year in the palace, and restored it when he was expecting his Danish bride.
Charles I., who had been crowned King of Scotland in the chapel at Holyrood, restored the building, which was wrecked by a mob in 1688, after James VII. (James II. of England) had endeavoured to set up the Roman Catholic worship there. The chapel suffered another disaster about the middle of the eighteenth century, when the architect who had been entrusted with the work of restoring the building put on too heavy a roof, which fell in, destroying all but the bare walls. The royal vault at the east end of the south aisle still remains, containing the bodies of David II., James II., James V., and his Queen, Magdalen of France, and Henry Lord Darnley.
From the time of Charles II., who rebuilt the palace much as we see it now, and James VII., who stayed in the palace when Duke of York, Holyrood became deserted, the later Stuarts and the Georges not visiting their northern capital. But in September, 1745, the palace once more broke into gaiety and splendour, when Prince Charles Edward entered Edinburgh and held high court in the home of his ancestors. His father was proclaimed as King James VIII., ladies flocked to the balls to win a gracious smile from the handsome Prince, and the kingdom seemed almost won. But in the midst of all the apparent brightness, the Prince realized that his cause was not so successful as he had at first hoped; the Highlanders, indeed, were flocking in, but the Lowlanders held aloof. After a few weeks Prince Charlie determined to risk all on the desperate march into England, leaving Edinburgh never to return again.
Since then Holyrood has only once rejoiced in the presence of the monarch, when in 1822 George IV. visited Edinburgh and received an enthusiastic welcome, chiefly through the fervid loyalty of Sir Walter Scott, who devoted all his energies to the success of the first royal visit since the time of Charles I.
For nearly a century the palace has not been used as a royal residence, but is merely occupied once a year when the Lord High Commissioner to the Assembly comes in state to the capital.
CHAPTER XVIII
LINLITHGOW PALACE
"Of all the palaces so fair