Dunfermline Abbey, Scotland

In the second half of the 11th Century, King Malcolm III of Scotland married Margaret of Wessex at Dunfermline. Margaret was an Anglo-Saxon princess, who had been born in Hungary while in exile. She was the sister of Edgar Aetheling. Margaret had returned to England in 1057, but fled to Scotland following the Norman Conquest in 1066, and by 1070 she had married the King, and become Queen of Scotland. Queen Margaret was also the mother of three Scottish Kings, Edgar, David I and Alexander I.

Queen Margaret wanted to set up a religious community at the site where she had married King Malcolm III. She sent a request to Archbishop Llanfranc at Canterbury, and he arranged to send her three monks from Canterbury Cathedral Priory. Queen Margaret’s foundation at Dunfermline may have been the first Benedictine monastery in Scotland.

Malcolm III’s rule lasted for 35 years, from 1058 to 1093. At this time, his Kingdom did not comprise all of what is Scotland today, the north and western territories still remained under Scandinavian rule following Viking invasions. Malcolm’s first Queen was Ingibiorg Finnsdottir, a Scandinavian noble, she was the mother of his son, Duncan II of Scotland. His second wife, Margaret, gave him eight children. Their daughter, who was born Edith but is far better known as Matilda, or Good Queen Maud, was married to Henry I of England. Malcolm III died in 1093, at what has become known as the Battle of Alnwick, where he was ambushed by Robert de Mowbray, the Earl of Northumbria. His son Edward, was also mortally wounded in the fight, and upon hearing the news of their deaths, Queen Margaret, who may have already been ill, died soon afterwards. Queen Margaret was buried at Dunfermline and King Malcolm III’s body was later moved to join her there.

Queen Margaret’s youngest son was crowned David I of Scotland in 1124. He was intensely pious and devoted to the memory of his mother, Queen Margaret. He further endowed the monastery at Dunfermline with great wealth to ensure its success. He had plans to make the Abbey into a major establishment, so that it could continue to be used as a burial place for Scotland’s royal family. In 1128, the Prior at Canterbury became Dunfermline’s first Abbot. King David had planned to make the Abbey at Dunfermline a larger and more ornate building than anything Scotland had seen before. In order to do this he brought in masons from England, it is thought that some of those he hired had recently worked on Durham Cathedral. David I would have been exposed to Norman building work, as he had spent a large part of his life at the court of his brother-in-law, Henry I, where he also met and married the Norman heiress, Maud, Countess of Huntingdon. He later supported the Empress Matilda’s cause during The Anarchy, in England; after all she was his niece.

King David I of Scotland also bestowed upon Dunfermline Abbey, lands in Fife and Midlothian, as well as portions of the royal income. By the time of his death in 1153, he had also granted it half ownership of the Queensferry passage across the Forth, which his mother Queen Margaret established. He encouraged other nobles to also contribute to the Abbey’s coffers. The Abbey was granted the parishes in Perth and Dunfermline itself, as well as a further twenty-five parish churches. In 1150, enough of the Abbey church was completed for it to be consecrated. It is likely that the monk's choir was finished by then, and the nave we see today was well advanced. Because of the vast wealth that had been bestowed upon the Abbey, Dunfermline had an important position in the social and political structure of the region. In 1245, Pope Innocent IV granted the Abbot the right to wear the mitre, putting him on an equal footing with a Bishop.

In 1250, Pope Innocent IV Canonized Queen Margaret, and she became remembered as Saint Margaret. Dunfermline Abbey had already become a place of pilgrimage, bringing further financial benefits to the monastic establishment. This allowed for the rebuilding of part of the church to house a larger, newly built shrine, and her body was moved to it's new location. The shrine would have been made of precious materials and possibly decorated with a timber cover, which would only be lifted on important occasions. It was located behind the high alter and probably raised, so it could be seen from the choir. The pilgrims would have had access to the shrine down the aisles.

The greatest disruption to life at Dunfermline occurred in 1303, when Edward I of England ordered the domestic buildings to be destroyed, during the Wars of Independence. It was said that not one stone was left upon another when he was through, leaving the monks without living quarters. Extensive rebuilding work was underway by 1329, when Robert the Bruce contributed towards the costs of construction just before his death. He chose to be buried in the Abbey church and was buried before the high altar on the 9th of June. A marble tomb was imported from Paris and erected over his body, but this no longer survives.

Although the Abbey church in Dunfermline was begun in 1128, the only surviving part is the nave. As is common in churches of the period, it is three stories in height. At the lowest level, the tall arcade is carried on cylindrical piers, at the middle level is the gallery, which is open to the roof space above the aisles, and on top is the clerestory, with windows that throw light into the nave.

By 1559, there were no more than 25 monks living at Dunfermline. Like many other monastic communities it was now headed by a Commendator instead of an Abbot. Commendators were usually royal appointees, granted a religious house as a reward for their service, and few of them showed any real interest in monastic life. As church reforms came through Scotland, the main concern of many of the commendators was to obtain as much of their Abbeys possessions for themselves, rather than any protection for the foundations. In Dunfermline’s favour was the continued interest shown by royalty, because of the royal burials the Abbey contained. In 1587, James VI passed the Act of Annexation, by which he attempted to reclaim as much of the Church’s property as he could, and he retained Dunfermline Abbey. In 1589, he granted it to his queen, Anne of Denmark, and she ordered the remodelling of the royal guesthouse into a royal palace for herself.

From the 17th to the 19th Century, there were various attempts made to shore up the parts of the Abbey church that were still in use. The rest of what was left of the monastic buildings rapidly declined. In 1672, part of the choir was blown down after it had fallen into disrepair, and the great central tower fell in 1753. A decision was made to build a new church for the parish, on the site of the original eastern limb in 1817. In the course of the work, human remains, considered to be those of King Robert the Bruce were found, and then were reinterred in the position later occupied by the pulpit. Once the new church was completed, the old nave became the responsibility of the state and it was decided to preserve it in its medieval condition.