Palace of Holyroodhouse The Queen's Palaces

'Of all the Queen's palaces,

'the Scottish palace of Holyroodhouse boasts the most spectacular setting.'

The extinct volcano of Arthur's Seat

and the mountainous Salisbury Crags dominate the landscape.

At one end, the castle glowers down at Edinburgh...

a brooding fortress.

And then at the other end of the old thoroughfare sits Holyrood -

stately and elegant.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse has stood here for over 500 years.

'It is a treasure trove of Scotland's most glorious objects...

'Clues in a story of murder...

'mystery and a struggle for power.'

Over time, Holyroodhouse has proved itself to be far more than just a palace.

Its story is the history of Scotland itself...

it's a biography in stone!

Scotland's royal palace sits alongside the ancient abbey

that gave it its name, Holyroodhouse,

the House of the Holy Cross.

'The abbey guest house, for centuries a royal retreat,

'would evolve into a great palace...

'a building that would unite the fortunes of three kingdoms -

'France, England and Scotland.'

And it all began with Mary Stuart,

better known as Mary Queen of Scots.

She was a vibrant, clever woman...

'but a Catholic queen

'in a land overwhelmed by Protestant revolution.'

It would shape the course of her tragic life.

The palace houses a rare and fragile object...

a miraculous survival through the centuries...

..an intimate piece of embroidery stitched by Mary herself.

Embroidery was a common pastime then for women of a certain class

and Mary was particularly skilled at it,

but she chose her designs carefully and imbued them with meaning.

So when you look at this, it may seem almost childlike,

"A catte," but there were times in her life

when she was like the cat, when she was the monarch, the ruler of Scotland,

and her subjects were the little mice running around.

By the time she came to stitch this, her fortunes had reversed.

Suddenly she was the mouse,

under the watchful glare of the cat.

From the cradle, Mary had a turbulent life.

Her mother, Mary of Guise, was a foreigner in an alien land,

and her father, King James V of Scotland,

was dead within a week of her birth.

A little girl, fatherless, with a foreign mother,

was extremely vulnerable in 16th-century Scotland,

which was seething with rival tribes, clans, lords

all jostling for power - and little Mary was in the way.

And then there was the danger over the border.

In England, the bloated tyrant King Henry VIII

wanted Scotland for himself.

Whatever it took.

Henry the VIII was a brute,

not only in his foreign relations, but in his internal relations,

in his marriages and in everything else.

And if people resisted him,

his instinct was to beat them about the head until...

until they gave in.

He wanted to marry his son to the infant Mary Queen of Scots.

'One person was determined Henry would not get his hands on Mary or Scotland...

'Mary's mother.'

This portrait proclaims her status and her wealth,

with her coat of arms

and the fabulous jewel she's wearing round her neck,

but in reality she was intensely vulnerable.

She knew that her daughter's hand in marriage was a high prize indeed

and naturally it was to France that she looked for union, rather than England,

and that would secure her position and that of her daughter.

And if that meant sending her daughter away across the Channel

then Mary of Guise would do it.

In 1548, at just five years old, Mary was sent to France.

'Promised in marriage to Francis, the young heir to the French throne,

'her future seemed assured,

'but first she had to get there.'

Travel in the 16th century was a dangerous business,

not to be undertaken lightly.

Back in Scotland,

Mary's mother was afraid that storms or hostile English troops

would stop her five-year-old daughter from ever arriving.

But Mary herself was blissfully unaware of the dangers,

regarding it all as a big adventure,

despite the ship's rudder being smashed in rough seas

and everyone around her being laid low with seasickness.

To the people of France, she was a brave and intrepid heroine

who had fled from the savage English.

The ancient town of Blois welcomed the little queen.

Blois, with its picturesque setting alongside the banks of the River Loire,

was a long way from the hills and moorlands of Scotland

and culturally it couldn't have felt more alien.

Even the architecture was different.

The royal chateau at Blois

is still one of the finest palaces in the country.

It's certainly more elaborate

than the Scottish castles of Mary's birth.

French royal chateaux were masterpieces of architectural virtuosity,

reflections of the elegance of the French court,

while in Scotland they were more defensive fortresses.

But then, to be fair, given the cold and rather more drizzly climate,

it would hardly be very practical to build your staircase on the outside of a Scottish palace

and with no windows!

Inside, Mary would have found the chateau lavish.

With every surface decorated,

she'd have seen how the symbols and insignia of royalty

proclaimed a sense of majesty.

Take a look at this rather regal porcupine!

Bit of an eccentric symbol you might think,

but his bristles represent the military might of a former king,

and you know, Mary might have wondered what kind of animal

would represent her when she became Queen of France -

not a Highland cow, one would hope, but she did have red hair, so...

maybe a clever fox, or a beautiful bird, perhaps?

Mary married the heir to the throne, Francis, in April 1558.

He was 14, she was 15.

Within a year they had been crowned King and Queen of France.

The celebrations reached as far as Scotland,

where a great canon was fired from Edinburgh Castle,

but Mary's thoughts were focused on her future here, in France.

But after just three years of marriage, Francis fell ill...

and died.

Mary was heartbroken.

She wrote a poem pouring out her grief.

"I feel his beloved touch at work and in repose

"always close to me."

Mary had no choice...

but to go home.

Mary's return was a historic moment.

At just 18 years old,

she was determined to impose her rule on this unruly nation.

By all accounts,

the citizens of Edinburgh were thrilled to have their queen home -

they lit bonfires to celebrate

and cheered her on her way to Holyrood.

And even though Mary had spent 13 years in France,

and she was fluent in French, she still retained her Scots

so she was able to thank them in their own language.

Definitely a strong start!

Mary had been shaped by foreign tastes and fashions.

To her, Scotland seemed distinctly backward,

but Holyrood would have to do.

The most comfortable option in a harsh Scottish winter.

She adapted the old living quarters of her mother...

..and made them her own.

Richly coloured,

hung with thick tapestries to keep out the cold Scottish drafts,

these rooms were far more lavish and comfortable

than in most castles in Scotland.

And as Mary lay here and looked up at the wood panelled ceiling...

she must have thought

this is not where she intended to be.

After all, she was destined to be the glorious Queen of France,

but then seeing her parents' initials in the ceiling,

MR, for Maria Regina,

and IR, for Jacobus Rex,

she must have felt she'd come home.

Mary took up the reins of power

with firm ideas about how she wanted to govern.

'Scotland had always been rather a scruffy little kingdom.'

English people, when they came to the courts of Scotland,

were always amazed at the familiarity

with which Scots addressed their king.

I mean, they'd walk up to the king and say, "Hey, Jimmy!",

and strike up a conversation with him.

'Mary Queen of Scots, however, had been in France,

'which had the most magnificent monarchy in Europe,'

so part of her strategy was to make the courts at Holyrood more splendid.

Life at Holyroodhouse was by no means all work and no play.

Mary relished nothing more than a day out hunting in the palace grounds.

There wasn't always a plentiful supply of prey

here at Holyrood Park, but that was no bar to Mary,

who loved the thrill of the chase as much as her Scottish subjects.

And so roebuck and stags would be herded up from other estates,

carried here in a litter

and then released so that she could hunt them.

And then when that wasn't enough,

wild boar were brought over from FRANCE

and then Mary could hunt them here at her leisure.

But ultimately there was no escape from her royal destiny.

Mary had to provide an heir and so marry again.

One man stood out, her cousin,

Henry Stuart Lord Darnley,

painted here aged 17, alongside his younger brother.

It would be a disastrous choice.

As always with these portraits,

it's about much more than just what he looks like,

though he's a fine figure of a man.

The painting is full of symbols about their status and their power

and their importance as a family.

Just look at the watch around his neck

and the expensive gloves he's holding in his hand.

It might seem rather funereal to us these days

that they're both dressed head to toe in black,

but back then only the seriously wealthy could afford black clothes

because black was the most expensive kind of dye.

Darnley was a good looking man.

Mary was smitten.

'He was quite handsome, he was a vigorous young man,'

but he was a thug!

He was an aristocratic thug.

He liked fighting...he liked sex...

you know, he caught horrible diseases

and he was, in all other respects,

apart from the fact he was a suitable candidate,

he was a complete catastrophe.

In July 1565 she married Darnley

and two months later she was pregnant...

..but soon her new husband began to show his true character.

He was always drunk, he was brutal, he ran after other women,

but the culminating disaster of their relationship

was when he got it into his head

that there was something wrong in the relationship

between Mary Queen of Scots and her Italian secretary David Rizzio.

This is the best likeness that remains

of the man who caused all the problems.

He was undoubtedly a favourite of Mary's -

she promoted him from being a musician in her private music group to becoming her secretary,

but it was no more than a friendship,

though certainly one that Mary valued.

There were so few continental Europeans here at the palace,

and Mary must often have felt more French than Scottish,

but Darnley thought there was more to it.

On the night of 9th March 1566, here at Holyroodhouse,

Darnley determined to put an end to Rizzio's relations with Mary.

All was quiet.

It was a night like any other as Darnley crept up the back stairs.

He burst into Mary's bedchamber and then into the supper room here,

where Mary was sitting with Rizzio and some other guests.

Darnley demanded that Mary should hand Rizzio over.

Mary refused,

and bear in mind she was seven months pregnant at the time,

and Rizzio all the while was clinging to Mary's skirts,

cowering in terror.

At this moment, five co-conspirators of Darnley's burst in,

bodily dragged Rizzio off Mary,

dragged him into the next room and stabbed him there

some 50, 60 times, until he was dead.

And then when it looked like Mary might sound the alarm,

she was threatened herself with being cut into collops,

cut into pieces, if she made so much as a sound.

Mary fled the palace

and shortly after, in the safety of Edinburgh Castle,

gave birth to a son she named James.

As for Darnley, Mary claimed to have forgiven him...

but barely a year later,

he was found murdered in mysterious circumstances.

Within three months, Mary had married the main suspect.

It was all too much for the Scottish nobles -

she was forced to abdicate.

The future of Scotland lay once more with a small fatherless child.

James was proclaimed king at just one year old.

But his father's family, the Darnleys,

had even bigger ambitions for the young king,

and no-one more than his scheming grandmother Margaret,

who would commission an extraordinary object.

This is one of the most important early jewels in the entire royal collection.

It's gold...

with enamels, and rubies, and emeralds

and it's full of complex symbols,

which would have been clear at the time,

but some of which we can no longer decipher.

And it has lots of little hidden compartments,

like here...

..where you can see a skull and cross bones.

And then inside...

..more symbols and figures.

Here you can see Time, with his cloven hooves,

and the mouth of hell here.

But it's only when you read the inscription round the outside...

..that you see this is also a symbol of Margaret's ambition

for her family and for her grandson.

It reads, "He who hopes still constantly with patience

"shall obtain victory in their claim."

In other words, slow and steady wins the race.

And on the back...

..that ambition is illustrated by

what's known as The Pelican In Its Piety, and it's the pelican

drawing blood from its own breast to feed its young,

that's Margaret caring for her grandson, for James.

And here's Darnley prone here,

he's dead.

And the sunflower growing out,

the sunflower being Margaret's grandson James,

turning towards the sun, representing Elizabeth I.

And it's the clearest representation of Margaret's fervent desire

that her grandson James should become king,

not just of Scotland, but of England too.

Meanwhile, life for Mary had gone from bad to worse.

Defeated and fearful for her life, she fled to England

and threw herself on the mercy of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth.

Mary Queen of Scots, poor girl,

believed that Queen Elizabeth was on her side.

I think Elizabeth was genuinely horrified

when this problem arrived unexpectedly on her doorstep.

So she made sure that

Mary Queen of Scots would be locked up in close confinement

all the time she stayed in England and really left it at that.

In a world torn apart by religion,

Catholic Mary was now prisoner in her Protestant cousin's kingdom.

Elizabeth was the cat and poor Mary the mouse.

Mary just got more and more desperate

and I think she just wanted some dramatic resolution of this situation

and a plot against Elizabeth's life

was her foolish way of pursuing the same.

The outcome was inevitable.

The English Queen decided Mary must die.

'One picture, the most tragic in Holyrood's whole collection,

'captures her final moments.'

This is Mary as Catholic icon.

As martyr.

She has not one crucifix, but two...

her prayer book in her hand...

and then, just to that side there,

you can see where her Catholicism led her,

in this gruesome scene of Mary being beheaded

on the scaffold at Fotheringay, by order of Elizabeth.

And the executioner is poised there with his axe

and you can see he's already landed one blow

because the blood is pouring from Mary's neck.

And, in fact, in those days...

unless you were very lucky, or you had a very skilled executioner with a sharp blade,

it usually took more than one blow to sever your head

and in Mary's case, as the accounts go from the time,

the first blow hit her on the back of the head,

the second blow...virtually decapitated her,

all but for one sinew...

and then to cut that the axe was used as a saw.

A grisly end indeed.

'But for Mary's son James,

'the predictions of greater power would come true.'

James VI of Scotland would become James I of England too.

In 1603 he travelled south to claim his second crown.

It was a triumph for the Stuart dynasty.

But the triumph would be short lived.

The Stuart grip on power would end in civil war

and the execution of James' son Charles I by the English Parliament.

The fortunes of the Palace of Holyroodhouse

would descend to their lowest ebb.

While the troops of Oliver Cromwell were billeted there in 1651,

fire broke out and the Palace was badly damaged.

Years of neglect followed,

as Scotland too was devastated by civil war,

made worse by the clan loyalties of the Highlanders.

'Holyrood's renaissance came in 1660,

'with the restoration of the monarchy.

'Its saviour was Charles II.'

If you met Charles at a dinner party,

you would find him immensely charming.

I mean, he was clearly one of those people who had that, sort of...

spot light quality, in that when he talked to you,

you would think you were the only person in the room.

He was a person who had that sort of glamour

that makes him a hugely popular figure at times,

you know, he would definitely be,

as it were, a celebrity without trying!

A fine classical courtyard, as good as any to be seen in France,

was part of Charles II's new building programme

to bring the palace up to date.

'He did, I think, really wish the two nations to be closer

'and so the building of a very modern, up-to-date palace

'is a token of that desire.'

Part of the establishment of the English royal presence,

as if he's physically there in the Scottish capital.

Nothing like this had ever been seen in Scotland before.

The primary function of a grand house here

was as a defensive fortress,

but now, with this elegant, dignified building,

the King was declaring he was utterly secure

of his hold on Scotland.

'Inside, every view was designed to impress.

'Starting with the great staircase.

'This was the cutting edge of both technology and design,

'standing out from the wall,

'its great weight barely supported from below...'

'But the point was not so much to look down...

'but to look up.'

The main focus of the staircase, the piece de resistance,

is the plasterwork, which seems to spring out of the ceiling,

and it was made by English plasterers,

the best in the business. What they did which was so novel

was they would create the moulds on the ground, on frames,

and then build them up, adding horse hair as they went,

to create this three-dimensional effect.

They would then fix them to the ceiling

and embellished them by hand, almost bringing them to life.

And they weren't just decorative, they were making a point.

Hovering up there are lifelike and certainly life-size angels,

holding the Honours of Scotland, the crown jewels if you like.

The crown, the sceptre...

and the sword.

This palace could only belong to a king!

But, like Mary before him,

Charles would embrace the latest foreign tastes and fashions.

'From the moment that Charles comes back,'

you CAN see that his style is going to be different

and it's also going to be French.

One of the little examples

is the way that he immediately redesigns his bedchamber,

which was actually a place where you met people rather than you slept.

It is very important to carry on the style which is across Europe.

It's the kind of thing which ought to surround a king.

The painting above the fireplace shows the infant Hercules

of Greek mythology, half man, half God,

strangling evil serpents from his cradle.

It's a rather heavy hint about the heroic nature and godlike qualities

of the King himself!

And on the ceiling...

there's Hercules again, all grown-up,

entering the home of the gods at Olympus.

And take a look at the menagerie all around the frame of the painting.

They're all symbols of the Greek gods.

So you've got the peacock, which represents the Greek goddess Hera,

and then there are eagles...

..owls...

..and, just peering over the edge,

a pair of what look like King Charles spaniels,

the King's preferred breed of dog -

his own divine symbol?

Under Charles,

Holyroodhouse was decorated with the most fashionable French tapestries.

These ones show scenes from the violent life of the goddess Diana.

And while the story dates from an ancient era,

palace guests might have spotted a thinly veiled contemporary warning.

This tapestry shows the awful vengeance being wrought

by the gods Apollo and Diana

on the mere mortal who dared to think herself superior to them.

Perfect choice of subject for a king now in triumph

over the men who dared to challenge his family's right to rule

and beheaded his father.

The monarchy and all its values had been well and truly restored.

The tapestries at Holyroodhouse

make up one of the finest collections in Britain,

but their delicate condition requires dedicated specialist care.

-Hello, Margaret.

-Hello.

Look at this, so tell me what you're doing here.

Well, I'm conserving this tapestry.

I'm almost finished,

-I've been working on this tapestry for over a year.

-Over a year?!

So the end is just round the corner here.

How long would something like this take to weave?

Well, if there were three men working on this, a tapestry this size

-maybe would just take about seven months to weave.

-Gosh, right.

Because I have some small experience of weaving tapestries myself

I can appreciate the skill involved in these.

I have to admit when I look at them, and certainly with this one,

they look like - forgive me -

but they look like a poor relation to the paintings

because they're so drab, you know, the colours are so sludgy and muddy.

Well, of course, what's happened is that the colours,

the vegetable dyes that they used, have all faded over time.

For instance, this blue area here,

this originally would have been green, shades of green.

The iris down here would have been more pinky or violet.

So, when they were up on the walls, were they...

sort of, jewel-like colours, rich and vibrant?

Yes, in fact, I think we would probably be quite surprised

at how bright they were.

Perhaps we would think they were maybe a bit vulgar,

but I suppose when it was candlelight, you know, dark rooms,

bright colour's just wonderful.

So it takes a leap of faith,

-we've got to look at these tapestries in a different way really?

-I think you do.

I think the fact that tapestries are still here for us to enjoy,

this tapestry is 400 years old

and, erm, bearing in mind how much it's gone through,

it's been cleaned, it's been repaired, but it's still here,

and we're lucky enough to be so close to it

and even just to walk around Holyroodhouse

and just to be able to see these tapestries. I mean, 400 years!

What will they have seen?

So the next time you look at a tapestry, you must remember all this!

I'll think of you, Margaret, I promise!

'Under Charles II,

'the most impressive celebration of regal history was the Great Gallery.'

Commissioned all in one go from the Dutch artist Jacob de Wet,

the portraits are meant to show every Scottish monarch

from the beginning of time.

Jacob de Wet wasn't the finest of painters,

so perhaps it's as much by accident as by design

that all these portraits look so similar,

but the point he was trying to make is,

here are the great figures of the Stuart dynasty gathered in one room.

And if you want to find a family characteristic -

have a look at the noses!

But the Stuart hold on power was not at tight as the family had hoped.

The Dynasty, so often rocked by religious differences,

lost both the English and Scottish crowns.

By 1715, a distant German cousin, reliably Protestant,

sat on the throne.

Once again, Holyroodhouse looked a long way from the centre of power...

..but one direct Stuart descendant would return

to try to re-establish Stuart rule.

He was known as the Young Pretender,

but would go down in history as Bonnie Prince Charlie.

The destiny of both Scotland and England

would be decided here, in the Highlands.

Everything rested on the ability of one man

to rouse the nationalist ardour of Scotland.

In 1745, a small boat landed off the west coast of Scotland,

not far from here, in the Hebridean islands.

It carried a 24-year-old man,

Charles Edward Stuart, who believed his claim was more legitimate

than the man currently sitting on the throne,

the unpopular George II, who was German!

As grandson of the last Stuart king, Charles declared his claim

and that of his father to the thrones of Scotland and England.

The fight would start in Scotland,

where the Stuart name still held sway.

He planned to rally support among the Highland clans

and lead an army south,

but he didn't get the most encouraging reception.

This is where Charles first set foot on the mainland.

A local clan chief had warned him he'd find no supporters here,

he'd best go back to France.

But Charles was undeterred. he said, "I have come home, sir,

"and I am persuaded that my faithful Highlanders will stand by me."

Charles wrote to the local highland chiefs

urging them to meet him here at Glenfinnan...

at the head of Loch Shiel.

'Charlie MacFarlane is descended from a Highlander who volunteered to fight for him.'

This was where the Prince rendez-voused his army

and he arrived here, having come up the loch,

to find nobody arrived yet and...

after two or three hours he was getting anxious

and then the sound of the pipes was heard

and the clan Cameron came over that pass there,

and more of them came down the glen from Glen Dessary.

800 or so of them.

They must have been quite a sight as they came down from the glens?

-Yes, yes.

-And they were all in highland dress?

Of course, yes, yes, that was the dress they wore for centuries.

Was that the moment he knew he could make a bid for the throne?

Oh, yes, yes, I think he thought that before then.

I think, you know, erm...

He was young and full of hope

and...

and headstrong too, you know?

Also he, you know, was... He had great charm as well.

And, of course, the people...

looked on him as they would on a chief done out of his rights,

he was the rightful heir to the throne

and that was one good reason for supporting him.

A month later, in a wily early morning assault,

Charles's supporters took Edinburgh as the city slept.

Their leader soon triumphantly followed.

As Bonnie Prince Charlie made his way to Holyroodhouse,

curious crowds lined the streets of Edinburgh to welcome him

and he looked every inch a bona fide royal,

decked out in Highland dress with a tartan cloak.

And as the trumpets sounded and the heralds proclaimed his father king,

the people cheered!

The palace now became Bonnie Prince Charlie's campaign headquarters.

And this is his call to arms,

to summon yet more troops to accompany him into battle.

It was written here, at Holyroodhouse, and it says,

"All those who are willing to take arms for our service as volunteers

"are hereby ordered to repair this day at two in the afternoon

"to the Great Hall," that's in here,

"of this our Palace of Holyroodhouse,

"there to have their names enrolled."

And it's signed...

Charles.

As he dreamt of victory, the aspiring prince slept here...

the best bed in the house!

When this bed was commissioned in 1682, it cost a king's ransom,

the equivalent in today's money of £30,000,

and nine tenths of that was the fabric.

You see what was once a rich red velvet...

and then around it the brocade of a silver or metallic thread.

It's what's known as an angel bed,

hanging from chains from the ceiling,

as if suspended from heaven,

and then it has these magnificent ostrich plumes

and egret feathers at the corners and again it's a status symbol.

Only the wealthiest could possibly afford these feathers from exotic climes -

and just think, when Bonnie Prince Charlie slept in this bed

he really must have felt like a king in the making.

After only six weeks, Charles left Holyroodhouse.

He hoped he'd return in triumph...

..but he was never to see the palace again.

Though he came within 130 miles of London, he was forced back north...

and eventually to a final confrontation with George II's government troops near Inverness...

at Culloden.

It was at Culloden, wasn't it, where it all went wrong?

That was where his headstrong nature came in,

he took command himself, and he was no general,

and he got it all wrong,

they should never ever have fought when and where.

The time was wrong and the place was wrong.

And then the behaviour of the government forces,

-it's left a scar here in Scotland.

-Yes, terrible. Yes, yes.

They weren't sparing the wounded, they were killing,

killing people left, right and centre.

Erm... can't begin to tell you of the atrocities, they were terrible.

My father used to say, during the war...

terrible things were happening during the war...

and, you know...

we, as children, would say,

you know, we're very fortunate here in the Highlands

how we're getting so little of the war, and he would say...

-This is the Second World War?

-.."We had our war already," he said.

-What, Culloden?

-Yes, and the aftermath of Culloden.

At Holyroodhouse, one picture captures the crushing defeat

of Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highland soldiers.

Perhaps it's just as well the picture's not so easy to get a good look at.

It's a piece of propaganda,

it shows the government troops clearly with the upper hand,

well dressed, well armed...

and then the supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie,

exhausted, starving...

they look like a rabble

and certainly they were no match for the government troops.

Culloden was a blood-soaked massacre.

When the battle was over,

the blood lust was running so high among the victors

they went on to slaughter men, women and children unfortunate enough to be living near by.

Charles escaped to France...

but he never got over his failure to take the British crown.

In Scotland, the authorities cracked down on his rebel supporters.

Highlanders could no longer wear tartan,

now a crime against the state.

Almost 60 years passed before they could sport it again.

And its rehabilitation happened here at Holyroodhouse.

In 1822, George IV came to Edinburgh.

It was the first visit to Scotland by a reigning British monarch

for over 100 years.

It was designed to signal a new era

in relations between Scotland and England.

It was a time for reconciliation.

It said to the world, "Well, we haven't forgotten our history,

"we still have a great affection for our history

"and we don't want our history to be forgotten,

"nevertheless, our history is behind us

"and what we are going to do is march into a new era of history

"where Scotland will be a fully equal and prosperous member of the United Kingdom."

Naturally, a highlight of the trip was the King's visit to his palace.

The part that Holyrood played in all this pageantry

was that it was the visible seat and symbol of the old Scottish monarchy,

of the old Stuart house.

So, in a sense it was necessary for this German to come to Holyrood

saying, "I'm not coming here as a concrete foreigner,

"I'm coming here as the heir to all this Scottishness."

To underline his commitment to Scotland,

the King wore a very special outfit.

Here's George IV, resplendent in all his tartan glory,

and he was the first British monarch ever to wear tartan -

Royal Stuart tartan no less - and what's he trying to say here?

He's saying, "It's no longer an act of treason to wear tartan,

"it should be worn with pride,"

and he is the King of the Scots as well as the English.

An extravagant costume was not the only expense the King incurred.

In the interest of looking authentically Scottish,

he was also fully accessorised!

This is George IV's dirk, to go with his Highland Dress outfit.

The dirk hangs from a belt

and so it would be a very showy piece of equipment,

hanging to his side.

It's a fantastically ornate piece, isn't it?

Can you unsheathe it from its scabbard?

Give it a good tug! Oh, look at that!

Wow.

It is very elaborate, as you see.

And just look what's on the end here.

Oh, my word, what is that?

That's a type of emerald.

What a corker!

It's colossal!

It is, but imagine how splendid it would have looked

hanging from his belt.

And then the scabbard itself is amazingly ornate as well.

The scabbard is applied with gold

and we've got, again, the Scottish coat of arms, more thistles.

Yes, it's festooned with thistles, isn't it?

Look at that.

What are these two things in here?

Well, look, this one here is a little knife...

beautifully decorated with roses on one side of the blade...

-..thistles again on the other side.

-Wow.

England and Scotland.

And then the next one...

..is a fork.

-Little fork!

-It would have derived from a clansman's tools, originally,

when he was hunting.

So, once you'd got the stag down

-he could tuck in with his knife and fork!

-Absolutely.

Holyroodhouse's fortunes were looking up.

And in 1838, when Victoria became queen, they rose higher still.

The Queen was fascinated by the palace

and relished its place in Scottish history.

She even insisted that Mary Queen of Scots' apartment should be left untouched.

Victoria's interest in her tragic predecessor

lies behind one extraordinary item, now kept in Mary's bedchamber.

This is a fabulously over the top piece of furniture,

with these hearts, sort of, pulsating here...

what is it?

Well, this is a Flemish cabinet

and, erm... it has a rather interesting history.

Erm, I wonder if we might have a look down here

and it says that this was a cabinet that Queen Mary, Mary Queen of Scots,

brought from Paris and was given to the Regent Lord Marr

and it then descended in his family to Lord Belhaven

who, in 1869, presented it to Queen Victoria.

She must have loved it, belonging to Mary Queen of Scots.

Absolutely, there was a great vogue, a great cult,

for anything that had an association with Mary Queen of Scots.

A romantic, tragic heroine -

that absolutely was something the Victorians loved, didn't they?

-Yeah, very much so.

-I must admit, looking at it,

it's SO pristine, it's hard to believe that it really is that old.

Well, in fact there's a bit of a surprise

because we know now that it could NOT have belonged to Mary Queen of Scots.

In fact it was made in the second half of the 17th century,

almost 60 years after she died.

Oh, no! So when did people realise when this was actually made?

Well, in the early 20th century people began to reassess their works of art,

but it is still the most beautiful cabinet.

It is in amazing condition

and what it is, it's tortoise shell here on these raised elements

and then on an ebony ground,

-but shall we have a look inside?

-Sure.

And what was it for?

Wealthy collectors in 17th century Flanders would have purchased these cabinets

and then stored their various precious items inside

and I want to just show you, if we open up inside here...

I'm afraid there's nothing in there today,

but back in the 17th century

the collector would have placed his prized statuette in the centre there

with a mirrored recess to show it off at every angle.

So it's like a little theatre?

It is very theatrical, it was a great status symbol.

It's fantastically nouveau in a way, "Come and look at the thing I've just bought!"

Well, nothing changes.

Wow, I've never seen anything like it, I have to say.

Holyroodhouse is perhaps the least known of all the Queen's palaces

and yet, sitting at the very heart of English and Scottish politics right through the ages,

it deserves to be better understood.

This palace has witnessed some of the most dramatic

and significant moments in Scotland's history.

Home to the nation's most tragic queen,

to the first king to unite Scotland with England,

to a young pretender who hoped to overturn the old order,

and now the official residence of our current queen.

But that's just what we know about the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

I reckon these old walls are still keeping a few secrets.

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