11/13/2014
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| Haggis--Yum! |
I guess we're getting seriously addicted to haggis. I was salivating for it as I went to sleep last night; couldn't wait til breakfast this morning.
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| Our hotel |
After our delicious breakfast, we hopped on a train to Stirling. The train from Edinburgh runs to Dunblane, with Linlithgow and Stirling as calling points. Dunblane is where Andy Murray grew up. Linlithgow (pronounced Lin-lith-goe) is another castle included in the Historic Scotland pass, but we don't have enough time to visit it.
So, 50 minutes later, we're at the town of Stirling. Not quite as commercialized as we expected--almost no souvenir shops, can you believe it? The hike up to the castle is pretty steep. I was huffing and panting and felt like my heart was ready to give out. It didn't help that Baby was being the Nazi general, forcing me to walk faster.
The whole way up, I kept thinking, "Where's the other tourists?" We were the only ones walking the path (there's only one way up to the castle). When we reached the top of the mountain, aaaaahhhh... The car park is filled with tour buses!
Admission was included in the Historic Scotland pass and we got a 20% discount for the audioguides (3 pounds usually). Sweet.
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| Stirling Castle |
There are free tours (included in admission) that depart from the main courtyard every hour, on the hour. Our tour guide gave a pretty in-depth tour of the castle. Like Edinburgh Castle, Stirling has 1000 years of history.
The Great Hall:
It may not look it now with all the stone buildings at Edinburgh and Stirling, but at one point in time, the majority of castles in Scotland were painted this honeycomb color. They call it "King's Gold." But air pollution, corrosion, and Scotland weather have contributed to the paint wearing off on almost all the castles. In England, to show off your castle, you painted your castle white (white being an expensive paint color). Well, in Scotland, the king painted his castle the honeycomb color above, and soon, all the nobles wanted to paint their castles exactly the same way. The precursor to modern interior/exterior design. It's like Keeping Up with the Joneses, medieval style.
Unlike the cannons at Edinburgh Castle, these cannons have seen action. Stirling Castle is situated on a very strategic position. It is said that whoever controls the castle controls the bridge (Stirling bridge), and therefore, controls the whole of Scotland. This was the only bridge that allows passage from north to south, so if you owned the castle, congratulations. You now control everyone who comes and goes in this country.
The far left tower is called Ladies Tower. This is where John Damian performed his flying experiment. During King James
IV's reign, the learned king established an era of culture and prosperity in the realm. He was keen to have intellects, artists, poets in his court, to show his nobles that he was a true Renaissance prince.
One of the men included in his court was John Damian, an Italian alchemist who claims he's figured out how humans can fly. So King James makes an event out of this, inviting his nobles to witness the attempt. Wagers are taking place--will he fly? Will he crash? Damian comes out with his cloak of feathers, leaps off Ladies Tower...and lands 200 feet below in a pile of dung.
He broke several bones, but he got lucky as he was still alive. He tells the king that he knew his attempt would likely fail because he used chicken feathers, not eagle feathers.
Everyone knows chickens can’t fly.
Damian claimed he couldn’t get his hands on eagle feathers, so used chicken instead. King James laughed so hard, he awarded Damian with a pension for life. Ah, if we only had Damian's masterful bullshitting skill!
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| Stirling Castle's gate |
The Battle of Bannockburn took place in the fields just beyond the flags:
This decisive battle helped turn the tide in the Wars of Scottish Independence. The Scots were losing this never-ending war, especially with Edward I on the throne. Edward was known as the "Hammer of the Scots." He really, really, really wanted Scotland for his own. I can imagine him sitting in front of his desk, frowning at a map of the British Isles. He's already conquered Wales and Ireland some 20 years before--now if only he could conquer Scotland, this entire island will be his.
But the Scots are a fiery, independent bunch who don't like English rule. They keep putting up resistance to Edward's army, and when Edward finally captures William Wallace through trickery and betrayal, Edward decides to make an example of Sir Wallace so that the Scots won't rise up against him again.
Wrong.
They just bide their time until old Edward dies and his frivol son, Edward II, ascends the throne. Edward II is not like his father. He's seen as a weak successor to his father by his own noblemen (his father even thought it too!). While his father has been away, fighting all these battles to enlarge his empire, Edward II stays at home, writing poetry of all things. He's married to Isabella of France (known as the She-wolf of France), but they don't get along. Edward II spends his days writing explicit X-rated poetry to young men.
Robert the Bruce, who leads the Scottish army at the time, decides to take advantage of Edward II's lah-di-da nature. He wants to entice Edward to Scotland to defeat him decisively. So Robert and his cohorts start laying siege to all the English-held castles in Scotland. His strategy's successful. Pretty soon, 20 of the 24 Scottish castles under English control fall to Robert.
But Edward still doesn't come up to engage in battle, staying in the comforts of England instead.
So Robert decides to lay siege to Stirling Castle. This ought to get Edward up here, he thinks. Stirling is the most important castle in Scotland because of the strategic location of its bridge, controlling passage and supplies from north to south. When Edward hears of this, he knows he must act. If Stirling falls into Scottish hands, he'll have a revolt with his own noblemen. So he leads an army 16,000 strong into Scotland.
Robert hears Edward's coming up and his camp rejoice. Moral is pretty high because they've taken back 20 castles already. But when they see Edward's troops of 16,000 men, their morals plummet. Fast.
On the day of the battle, Robert's racing his horse in front of his men, rallying them to fight. Henry de Bohun, one of Edward's men, sees Robert racing about, very lightly guarded. Henry decides to attack Robert. If Robert dies, there won't be a competitor to Edward's throne, and thus, no reason to have a battle today.
Robert sees Henry charging at him, and responds in kind. When they clash, Robert splits open Henry's head with his trusty axe. This immediately boosts his troops morale, and they prevail through the day.
Most battles during this time last for only a few hours. But Bannockburn lasted for 2 days, in part because when it came nighttime on the first day, the English retreated a bit to regroup. The next morning, they were surprised to see Robert's army come out of the cover of trees and knee in prayer.
Edward supposedly said, "They pray for mercy!" He thought they were surrendering.
One of his subjects replied, "For mercy, yes. But from God, not from you. These men will conquer or die."
It turned out to be a ruse. While Robert and half of his army were putting on the show, the other half surrounded Edward's army from the flank. It was carnage that day. Scots say that out of the 16,000 Englishmen who came to fight, only 5,000 made it home alive. And only 1 or 2 Scottish fatalities!
English refute this and say that only 500-700 of their men were killed that day.
Sounds GoT to you, yet?
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| Great Hall |
The above is the Great Hall's interior. The oak beam roof is modeled after Edinburgh Castle’s Great Hall. Hearths run along the length of the wall, which is unique to this castle. This is a symbol of wealth and generosity, as usually the fireplace is only next to the throne to heat the king and queen. It’s saying "I have money for fire, and I’m spending it on you. Look how generous I am."
The Royal Chapel was ordered built by King James VI. His wife, Queen Anne, was due to give birth for the much-hoped for heir. King James wanted a chapel fit for a king, so he modeled this after the Temple of Soloman.
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| Royal Chapel |
As with every house, each generation sees a need to improve upon the old structures. Never more so than with kings. They'd tear apart castles to rebuild in an effort to make their mark everlasting in the world. The building on the right with its stepped gable roof was originally the King's tower in the medieval era. But later generations didn't like the medieval look, so they leveled the tower down and rebuilt. There are two filled-in windows smack in the middle veering right--these two are all that remain of the medieval tower decoration.
The King's Inner Hall:
The inner hall was where courtiers would wait for an audience with
the king. The kings of Scotland are unique that they are held accountable with
the people. Through the ages, the ways a man could become king were rather
radical compared with the Continental princes. Where France rules by divination
(Dieu et mon droit—God and my right), Scots can actually vote to change the
king. Or, the king can bequeath the kingship to a chosen heir (not necessarily
his son) upon his death.
In the Throne Room (next door to the Inner Hall), you can see all these intricately carved wooden circles on the ceiling:
These came to be known as The Stirling Heads. In 1777, the ceiling collapsed because these wooden heads were too heavy. The then-Governor’s wife was a skilled amateur artist and she drew sketches of the Stirling Heads during her time here. It’s thanks to her sketches that craftsmen are able to replicate the heads you see on the ceiling of the King’s throne room. Over time, through neglect and not keeping records, the meaning of these heads were lost. In the last decade or so, scholars have painstakingly researched what each head meant. The middle one is thought to be King James V. Beside him are his two wives--Madeleine of Valois, who died soon after arriving in Scotland (Scotland's June weather did not agree with her), and Mary of Guise. This latter union would produce one daughter: Mary, Queen of Scots.
James V had this portion of the castle built for his marriage to Madeleine of Valois, daughter to King Francis I of France. This whole building is rich with symbolism, every artistic detail carefully thought out and put in place to assert James's right to rule. James V became king as an infant, when his father died in the Battle of Flodden. The next decade or so was ruled by a regent. So when James V formally took power of the throne, he was very anxious to prove he had the right to be king. It is said that one of his robes has 49.500 pearls sewn on it, modeled after his father-in-law, King Francis I's, clothes. This way, James is showing his noblemen not only does he have the wealth and power to buy these clothes, he's related to the powerful King of France.
King's bedchamber (he didn't really use it as a bedchamber; he used this room to meet with his inner circle of friends):
Queen's bedchamber:
After Madeleine died, James recognized that he needed to make a new alliance. Quickly. So he asks the King of France for his other daughter's hand in marriage. Francis denied this, but suggested Mary of Guise, one of his relatives, instead. Mary of Guise had very powerful connections. On one side, the King of France. The other, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. James was eager for this match.
When Henry VIII found out about this proposed marriage, he became alarmed and immediately set out to win Mary of Guise for himself. He was in between wives at the time. If France and the Holy Roman Empire sided with Scotland through a marriage alliance between James and Mary, England would be left standing alone. So he wrote to Mary, saying that he liked tall women (she was very tall for the time) and asked her to be his wife.
She replied that she may be tall, but she had a "little neck," in reference to the beheading of Anne Boleyn. Mary accepted James's proposal and came to the court at Stirling with a whole entourage, complete with her own tailor and midget. Midget!
Mary and her ladies-in-waiting all wore black. Not because of mourning, but because black was a very expensive color to make at the time, and it had become the new en vogue color. Wow. A few hundred years before our time, the French were already in love with black!
France and Scotland had been friends for the past 200 years at this point in time. The relationship between these two countries is older than the current UK, and certainly a lot older than the EU. I'm not sure if it was Mary and James's wedding that secured it, but at some point in time, France and Scotland agreed to a pact that, in essence, meant that the two countries would combine into one country. It's never been repealed. To this day, anyone holding a Scottish passport can go into France unhindered and vice versa.
Mary's throne room:
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| View from the ramparts |
Angel got a kick out of this photo (painting of James V and Mary of Guise):
She cracked herself up so hard, I could swear she'd pee in her pants any second. I asked her what was so funny. She replied, "If the Grevilles had bought this painting, James and Mary wouldn't have hands anymore!" The Grevilles from Warwick had bought a lot of paintings that were worth a lot of money, and they bought gold frames to place these paintings in. When they realized the paintings wouldn't fit, they had the paintings cut down to size...destroying the value of these paintings. Hands are the hardest things to paint (and therefore, the most expensive), and the Grevilles just cut out the hands of a lot of the paintings. They bought a painting of Charles I and his wife, Henrietta Maria, gazing at each other--very rare (therefore very valuable) as most kings and queens don't marry for love.
Angel cracked herself up that the Grevilles could've cut up James and Mary of Guise so they wouldn't be gazing at each other (James and Mary were in love too).
When James married Mary of Guise, her mother remarked:
Wowza. Coooou-gar!
Because of the restoration work with The Stirling Heads, they have been put on display in an exhibit. This is the court jester:
Who we like to think of as the court fool these days. But they often played a sinister role at court. Everyone tried to avoid them when possible. The jester was sent by the king to spy on his subjects. During a night of festivities and drinking, it's natural for tongues to loosen. The jester would ply you with jests and riddles--and with your head already woozy--you might just let slip something that might end up costing you your head. Or, the jester might make up something about you and blackmail you. "If you don't give me money, I'll tell the king you said this to me" of that nature.
The heads are all wooden now, but during King James's time, they would have been painted vibrant colors. The paint's lost now from weather and air pollution. There's an interactive display where you can paint the jester and learn about each color in the context they were used for paints and fabrics:
Lapis lazuli! Crazy expensive--more expensive than gold. And they crushed this up and used it to paint with???
This is Angel's color-blind coloring efforts:
Angel: Thank you, thank you!
This wooden head is rather unique in that the border is etched with music notes:
It could be the oldest surviving piece of Scottish musical notation!
Princes Tower where James VI was tutored. He scratched
graffiti on the walls (ha like every little kid): "God made Man and Woman God
made Man James 6." How cute!
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| The Little Prince...or, The Little Dictator |
The Prince's Tower overlooks this outdoor hallway:
The statues above are of devils, to remind the young prince of good versus evil.
And here we come to the Douglas Garden:
King James II of Black Dinner fame killed yet another Douglas. 12
years after the Black Dinner, James isn't too happy the powerful Douglas clan is still gaining in power. He summons the 8th earl of Douglas (it was
the 6th at the Black Dinner) to Stirling. A fight breaks out, James stabs Douglas
in the throat. His courtiers go to town with Douglas, stabbing him with a pole
ax, and generally stabbing him over and over again. They threw his body out
this window into the garden below, which is why the garden is known as the Douglas Garden:
This was a serious no-no in Scottish hospitality. But, James II moved swiftly to appease Douglas supporters so that they wouldn’t rise up against him. He showered them with land grants. And they bought it.
On the ramparts, you can see the valley below and a stunning view of the William Wallace monument built in the Victorian era:
These throne chairs even have a built-in toilet!
Oldest surviving part of the castle:
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| Ramparts overlooking the valley |
They had a wonderful exhibit about kitchen life during the medieval era:
Servant rations included 1 pint of beer/day. This was before
Scotland united with England. After unification, the measurements changed. So 1
pint of Scots beer is equivalent to 3 pints of English beer. In today’s terms,
that 1 pint is actually 24 pints!
They also have a tapestry exhibit. We didn't know there was a free talk with a tapestry employee until it was too late (they only give one talk per day, as they're working on the tapestries the rest of the day). What happened is that there was a set of tapestries depicting unicorns that were once at Stirling Castle (probably a wedding gift to James and Mary of Guise). Sometime afterwards, they were looted...eventually turning up in New York. Keep in mind that before the age of photography, tapestries and paintings were highly prized as means of communication and to show off wealth. That original set is now housed at the Cloisters Museum in New York.
So, the team at Stirling decided to go about reproducing this tapestry set. They started in 2001, and will be completed sometime within the next few years. A whole team working full-time to produce 7 tapestries! Crazy!
Using techniques from the 1400s, it takes a whole day to stitch one square inch! No wonder they were so expensive!
The set of tapestries depict a nobleman and his entourage hunting down a unicorn. A man has spotted the unicorn and beckons everyone to follow him. They try to capture the unicorn, but it proves elusive. Dogs are used to try to capture the unicorn, but it runs away. What makes this set so valuable is that the artist has recreated nature exactly as it appears in real life. Certain flora always grow beside the river, so they've depicted this. Or, certain flowers grow together--and the artist has been able to recreate this.
Finally, the men use trickery to lure the unicorn. A maiden is used to tame the unicorn. When she succeeds in taming it, the men jump out and thrust their swords into the unicorn's neck. They cut off the unicorn's horn and take the unicorn back to the castle, triumphant.
The last scene of the tapestry is this:
Which shows the unicorn reborn, tame, docile and domesticated, locked in a paddock. This is symbolic of the trials of Jesus Christ, as historically, a unicorn is used to symbolize Christ (innocent, pure, etc.).
In the exhibit, they said that this final scene has a frog hidden in the tapestry. So obviously, as Angel is obsessed with livestock and animals in general, she spends a good 5 minutes staring at the tapestry, trying to find the frog.
She couldn't find it, much to her distress. I gave a cursory glance and pointed it out to her:
Even as she was taking a picture of the tapestry, she lost the frog and couldn't figure out where it'd hopped off to.
Mary of Guise's throne room:
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| Great Hall painted in King's Gold |
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| Royal Chapel next to the Great Hall |
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| Prince's Tower and the Royal Apartments |
A lot of the towers were knocked down when the advent of cannons came along. They realized that high towers were just sitting targets for cannons, so they leveled the towers to the height it is today:
The crazy history of Stirling Castle--it changes hands almost every year!
By this time, it was nearing 4:30pm and as it was freezing cold (the wind blows you sideways, seriously!), most tourists were already long gone. I think we were two of a handful of tourists left in the castle. They had closed the main gates, but there's a small door cut into the main gate, and it was through this little peephole that we exited the castle.
There was a 5:07pm train departing from Stirling back to Edinburgh and a 5:37pm. Angel didn't want to wait a whole half-hour for the 5:37pm, so she made me run down the whole freakin mountain with her. In the cold. In the rain. The pelting rain. The winds were so fierce, our umbrellas kept getting turned upside-down.
My thighs were aching so bad by the time we got to the base of the mountain. Well, at least we made it with 5 minutes to spare. :T
For dinner, we went to Sainsbury's, where they were in the middle of discounting all their hot deli items. We scored this insanely delicious mozzarella tomato pesto panini:
And a Scotch pie!
Made with British beef:
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