Spynie Palace
Encyclopedia
Spynie Palace, also known as Spynie Castle, was the fortified seat of the Bishops of Moray
for about 500 years. The founding of the palace dates back to the late 12th Century. It is situated about 500m from the location of the first officially settled Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Moray, in present day Spynie Churchyard. For most of its occupied history, the castle was not described as a palace — this term first appeared in the Registry of Moray in a writ of 1524.
had no fixed abode but moved between houses at Birnie, Kinneddar and Spynie. In 1172, King William I, the Lion
, made grants to the church of the Holy Trinity of the bishopric of Moray and to Bishop Simon de Tosny
. Formal permission for the permanent move to Spynie was given by Pope Innocent III
in April 1206 to Bishop Bricius de Douglas and probably carried out by 1208. Bishop Bricius attended the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and may have appealed to Innocent to transfer the see of Moray to Elgin. However, he certainly wrote to him requesting the move before July 1216. The cathedral church at Spynie was considered vulnerable to attack and too far from market and Elgin with its Royal castle would have been seen as a better option. Bricius did not live to see the changes, dying in 1222, but by his successor, Bishop Andrew of Moray
. Although the See of Moray was transferred to the Church of the Holy Trinity in Elgin on 19 July 1224, the Bishop of Moray's episcopal palace was to remain at Spynie.
The first recorded mention of the castle is in a document held in the British Museum. This manuscript dates from the early 14th century but appears to have been compiled between 1292 and 1296 and was apparently for the use of English administrators during King Edward I of England's
occupation of Scotland. The first writ issued at Spynie Castle was in 1343 and is recorded in the Register of Moray
In this period Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, otherwise known as the Wolf of Badenoch, attacked and burned Elgin Cathedral
in June 1390. It also appears that he took Spynie Castle as King Robert III (Buchan's brother) issued an instruction to Buchan in August 1390 forbidding him to ‘intromit’ the Castle of Spynie for any reason. Following Bishop Alexander Bur's death in 1397, the King, in conformity with feudal established practice during the period of the vacant Seat, took possession of the castle and perversely appointed the now reformed Wolf of Badenoch to be warden of the castle. After the election of the new bishop, the King issued a writ on 3 May, 1398 to Buchan to hand over the castle and contents to Bishop William without claiming expenses.
(1435–60) was responsible for moving the main gate to the east wall which contained a strong portcullis. The architectural detail of the upper section of the gate remain and show the gatekeeper's room complete with small fireplace. John, as well as being the Bishop of Moray, was also the king's Master of Works and had been responsible for alterations to the castles at Inverness and Urquhart as well as the palace at Linlithgow. The fine stonework and styling of the gate may have been carried out by the master-masons working on the restoration work at Elgin Cathedral following its destruction in 1390.
The most significant buildings were established in the later 15th century through into the 16th century when David’s Tower (also known as Davey’s Tower) was built along with other substantial accommodation areas. The tower is the largest by volume of all medieval Scottish towers measuring 19m by 13.5m and 22m in height and was started by Bishop David Stewart (1462 – 76) and completed by Bishop William Tulloch (1477 – 82). It has 6 storeys above ground and had a garret on the top. Below ground is a vaulted basement which is approximately 1.5m below the level of the courtyard; it contains a circular dungeon, 5.3m in diameter, lit only by a narrow loop looking to the west and has a slightly domed vaulted roof. The ground floor contained the hall which is 12.8m by 6.7m and lit by large windows with built in stone seats. At the NE corner was a spiral staircase which led to the upper floors. Each of these floors were similar in design with a single large room and smaller chambers leading off it. The tower is plain and practically lacking in architectural features; the external walls were originally rendered while the internal walls were plastered.
Stewart was also responsible for converting the old hall in the west range to kitchens to service the tower. It was said that the building of the tower was a reaction to intimidation from the Earl of Huntly whom Stewart had excommunicated for failing to pay his taxes. During the mid 16th century, a walled garden to the south of the castle precinct, was established mainly to house an orchard. A deed was signed in the garden in 1556 indicating that it would have been a pleasant place to relax in. The household diet was further supplemented when a rabbit warren and a doocot were added in 1569. Bishop Patrick Hepburn (1538 – 73), the last Roman Catholic bishop at Spynie, installed wide-mouth gun-loops to boost the castle defences and enlarges some windows. He continued to live at Spynie for a period after the Reformation
.
Ruxby, an agent provocateur of Elizabeth I of England
, who had tried to lead Mary, Queen of Scots, into a plot with English Roman Catholics, was imprisoned in Spynie Castle in 1566 for eighteen months during Bishop Patrick Hepburn's tenure.. Hepburn fell foul of the Privy Council for sheltering his relative Bothwell
in 1567 who had fled from Spynie to Orkney and finally to Denmark.
As part of the pacification following the abdication of Queen Mary, Regent Morton, in a meeting of the Privy Council at Perth on 23 February 1573, ordered that the castle be made available to the Crown, if needed:
On 29 July 1587, King James VI gave the castle and estate to Alexander Lindsay, 1st Lord Spynie and remained in his hands until he surrendered them back to the Crown in December 1605. During this period in 1595, Spynie was one of the castles that had additional fortification installed as protection against a perceived threat from the Spaniards.
, who was a well known royalist, ceased to be the bishop in 1638 when all bishops were deposed by the general assembly — he and his family continued to live at Spynie however. Guthrie refused to subscribe to the Covenant and prepared the castle for a siege which duly arrived in 1640 in the form of Covenanter
Col. Sir Robert Monro and his 800 men. Guthrie surrendered the castle immediately on 16 July and the castle was disarmed, however he was allowed, together with his wife and servants, to stay within the castle. Although under house arrest, Guthrie was forced to pay for the upkeep of the garrison of twenty four men. In September of 1640, Gutherie on rather dubious accusations was imprisoned in Aberdeen. The castle was then granted to the Earl of Moray by King Charles I
. Elgin and surrounding areas were staunchly anti-Royalist and after his victory against the Covenanters at Auldearn on 9 May 1645, James Graham, Marquis of Montrose turned his attention towards Elgin. The Laird of Innes and Grant of Ballindalloch and some burgesses from Elgin prepared the castle for a siege. Montrose occupied Elgin and burned the homes of leading Covenanter supporters in the town and the farmyard buildings belonging to Spynie but did not attempt to take the castle. Spynie had become the centre for the Covenanters in the area and this fact had not gone un-noticed with the Royalists. The Marquis of Huntly laid siege to the castle in late 1645 leaving Lord Lewis Gordon in charge but the castle's defences held until it was relieved by John Middleton, the future Earl of Middleton.
Following the restoration of the Episcopy to the Scottish Church in 1662 ownership of the castle passed back to the church, but it was starting to fall into decay. Parliament granted Bishop Murdo MacKenzie £1000 for repairs and this sustained the building up to 1689 when the last occupant, Bishop William Hay was expelled after refusing to take an oath of allegiance to King William
and Queen Mary
. The palace passed into the hands of the Crown and the fine iron work and wood carvings removed. Local people plundered the walls for stonework for building works until the early 19th century when the Crown stopped the quarrying and instituted a maintenance policy.
Images:
Bishop's Palace *Ruins:http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/elgin/spynie/images/seview.jpg,http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/majorsites/images2/spynie1.jpg,http://www.phouka.com/travel/castles/spynie/spynie15.jpg
Bishop of Moray
The Bishop of Moray or Bishop of Elgin was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Moray in northern Scotland, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics...
for about 500 years. The founding of the palace dates back to the late 12th Century. It is situated about 500m from the location of the first officially settled Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Moray, in present day Spynie Churchyard. For most of its occupied history, the castle was not described as a palace — this term first appeared in the Registry of Moray in a writ of 1524.
Background
The beginnings of the Bishopric of Moray are unclear. The first mention of a bishop was Gregoir in the 1120’s when his name appeared on several royal charters. The early Bishops of MorayMoray
Moray is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.- History :...
had no fixed abode but moved between houses at Birnie, Kinneddar and Spynie. In 1172, King William I, the Lion
William I of Scotland
William the Lion , sometimes styled William I, also known by the nickname Garbh, "the Rough", reigned as King of the Scots from 1165 to 1214...
, made grants to the church of the Holy Trinity of the bishopric of Moray and to Bishop Simon de Tosny
Simon de Tosny
Simon de Tosny was a 12th century Cistercian monk and prelate. Simon was a monk of Melrose Abbey, and served there until he moved to become Abbot of Coggeshall Abbey in Essex. He resigned this abbey in 1168, and returned to Melrose...
. Formal permission for the permanent move to Spynie was given by Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III was Pope from 8 January 1198 until his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni....
in April 1206 to Bishop Bricius de Douglas and probably carried out by 1208. Bishop Bricius attended the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and may have appealed to Innocent to transfer the see of Moray to Elgin. However, he certainly wrote to him requesting the move before July 1216. The cathedral church at Spynie was considered vulnerable to attack and too far from market and Elgin with its Royal castle would have been seen as a better option. Bricius did not live to see the changes, dying in 1222, but by his successor, Bishop Andrew of Moray
Andreas de Moravia
Andreas de Moravia was a 13th century Scottish bishop. He may have been from the "de Moravia" family of Flemish origin who were lords of Duffus and other areas in the Greater Moray region in this period. In the time of Bishop Bricius' episcopate , there was a man called "Andreas" who was rector of...
. Although the See of Moray was transferred to the Church of the Holy Trinity in Elgin on 19 July 1224, the Bishop of Moray's episcopal palace was to remain at Spynie.
The 12th and 13th century castle
The first castle was a wooden structure built in the late 12th century and was revealed in excavations carried out between 1986 and 1994. The excavated evidence suggests that the buildings were surrounded by a rectangilar ringwork and ditch which seem to have enclosed an area of roughly the same as the 14th century curtain wall,ie, an enclosure of 45 - 65m and is large even by medieval ringworks found elsewhere in Britain. It is likely that the buildings would have consisted of the bishop's house with a hall, a bed chamber and a chapel and also holding a brewhouse and a bakehouse. The stone buildings first appeared in the 13th Century with the establishment of what was thought to have been a chapel and which had coloured glass windows.The first recorded mention of the castle is in a document held in the British Museum. This manuscript dates from the early 14th century but appears to have been compiled between 1292 and 1296 and was apparently for the use of English administrators during King Edward I of England's
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
occupation of Scotland. The first writ issued at Spynie Castle was in 1343 and is recorded in the Register of Moray
The 14th and early 15th centuries
The remaining wooden buildings were gradually replaced with stone and this continued through into the 14th century when the first main castle building was erected. This was a near square structure built within a 7 meter high curtain wall. The main entrance in the wall faced to the south and a tower that projected from the South-East corner had narrow openings for archers.In this period Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, otherwise known as the Wolf of Badenoch, attacked and burned Elgin Cathedral
Elgin Cathedral
Elgin Cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, sometimes referred to as The Lantern of the North is a historic ruin in Elgin, Moray, north-east Scotland. It was established in 1224 on an area of ground granted by Alexander II that was close to the River Lossie and outside of the burgh of...
in June 1390. It also appears that he took Spynie Castle as King Robert III (Buchan's brother) issued an instruction to Buchan in August 1390 forbidding him to ‘intromit’ the Castle of Spynie for any reason. Following Bishop Alexander Bur's death in 1397, the King, in conformity with feudal established practice during the period of the vacant Seat, took possession of the castle and perversely appointed the now reformed Wolf of Badenoch to be warden of the castle. After the election of the new bishop, the King issued a writ on 3 May, 1398 to Buchan to hand over the castle and contents to Bishop William without claiming expenses.
The later 15th and 16th centuries
It is thought that Bishop John de WinchesterJohn de Winchester
John de Winchester was a 15th century English cleric who distinguished himself as an administrator and bishop in Scotland. Winchester was a student of canon law from 1418, graduating with a bachelorate in 1421....
(1435–60) was responsible for moving the main gate to the east wall which contained a strong portcullis. The architectural detail of the upper section of the gate remain and show the gatekeeper's room complete with small fireplace. John, as well as being the Bishop of Moray, was also the king's Master of Works and had been responsible for alterations to the castles at Inverness and Urquhart as well as the palace at Linlithgow. The fine stonework and styling of the gate may have been carried out by the master-masons working on the restoration work at Elgin Cathedral following its destruction in 1390.
Scottish Reformation
The Scottish Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Papacy in 1560, and the events surrounding this. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation; and in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along Reformed lines, and politically in...
.
Ruxby, an agent provocateur of Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
, who had tried to lead Mary, Queen of Scots, into a plot with English Roman Catholics, was imprisoned in Spynie Castle in 1566 for eighteen months during Bishop Patrick Hepburn's tenure.. Hepburn fell foul of the Privy Council for sheltering his relative Bothwell
James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell
James Hepburn, 1st Duke of Orkney , better known by his inherited title as 4th Earl of Bothwell, was hereditary Lord High Admiral of Scotland. He is best known for his association with and subsequent marriage to Mary, Queen of Scots, as her third husband...
in 1567 who had fled from Spynie to Orkney and finally to Denmark.
As part of the pacification following the abdication of Queen Mary, Regent Morton, in a meeting of the Privy Council at Perth on 23 February 1573, ordered that the castle be made available to the Crown, if needed:
the hous of Spyne salbe randerit and deliverit to oure Soverane Lord and his Regent foirsaid quhen it salbe requirite on XV dayis warning, without prejudice of ony partiis rycht.
On 29 July 1587, King James VI gave the castle and estate to Alexander Lindsay, 1st Lord Spynie and remained in his hands until he surrendered them back to the Crown in December 1605. During this period in 1595, Spynie was one of the castles that had additional fortification installed as protection against a perceived threat from the Spaniards.
The 17th century
In 1606, King James restored to the bishopric of Moray the endowments that remained. Bishop John GuthrieJohn Guthrie (Bishop of Moray)
John Guthrie was a Scottish prelate active in the first half of the 17th century. The son of the goldsmith Patrick Guthrie and Margaret née Rait, in 1597 he completed an MA at the University of St Andrews, becoming a Reader at the church of Arbroath in the same year...
, who was a well known royalist, ceased to be the bishop in 1638 when all bishops were deposed by the general assembly — he and his family continued to live at Spynie however. Guthrie refused to subscribe to the Covenant and prepared the castle for a siege which duly arrived in 1640 in the form of Covenanter
Covenanter
The Covenanters were a Scottish Presbyterian movement that played an important part in the history of Scotland, and to a lesser extent in that of England and Ireland, during the 17th century...
Col. Sir Robert Monro and his 800 men. Guthrie surrendered the castle immediately on 16 July and the castle was disarmed, however he was allowed, together with his wife and servants, to stay within the castle. Although under house arrest, Guthrie was forced to pay for the upkeep of the garrison of twenty four men. In September of 1640, Gutherie on rather dubious accusations was imprisoned in Aberdeen. The castle was then granted to the Earl of Moray by King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
. Elgin and surrounding areas were staunchly anti-Royalist and after his victory against the Covenanters at Auldearn on 9 May 1645, James Graham, Marquis of Montrose turned his attention towards Elgin. The Laird of Innes and Grant of Ballindalloch and some burgesses from Elgin prepared the castle for a siege. Montrose occupied Elgin and burned the homes of leading Covenanter supporters in the town and the farmyard buildings belonging to Spynie but did not attempt to take the castle. Spynie had become the centre for the Covenanters in the area and this fact had not gone un-noticed with the Royalists. The Marquis of Huntly laid siege to the castle in late 1645 leaving Lord Lewis Gordon in charge but the castle's defences held until it was relieved by John Middleton, the future Earl of Middleton.
Following the restoration of the Episcopy to the Scottish Church in 1662 ownership of the castle passed back to the church, but it was starting to fall into decay. Parliament granted Bishop Murdo MacKenzie £1000 for repairs and this sustained the building up to 1689 when the last occupant, Bishop William Hay was expelled after refusing to take an oath of allegiance to King William
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
and Queen Mary
Mary II of England
Mary II was joint Sovereign of England, Scotland, and Ireland with her husband and first cousin, William III and II, from 1689 until her death. William and Mary, both Protestants, became king and queen regnant, respectively, following the Glorious Revolution, which resulted in the deposition of...
. The palace passed into the hands of the Crown and the fine iron work and wood carvings removed. Local people plundered the walls for stonework for building works until the early 19th century when the Crown stopped the quarrying and instituted a maintenance policy.
List of Bishops of Moray
Pre-reformation
Protestant
|
Royal visitors
|
Main references
- Buchanan, George: The History of Scotland, Vol III, 1856
- Donaldson, G: The Foundation of Elgin Cathedral, in Maclean, A 1974 (ed): Elgin Cathedral and Diocese of Moray,, Inverness, p. 2
- Fawcett, R: Elgin Cathedral, Edinburgh, 1991
- Lewis, Pringle: Spynie Palace and the Bishops of Moray, Edinburgh, 2002
- MacGibbon; Ross: Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1887
- Simpson, W D: The Palace of the Bishops of Moray at Spynie, Elgin, 1927
External links
- Mysterious Britain & Ireland: Spynie Palace
- Mary, Queen of Scots website
- Undiscovered Scotland Feature Page on Spynie Palace
Images:
Bishop's Palace *Ruins:http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/elgin/spynie/images/seview.jpg,http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/majorsites/images2/spynie1.jpg,http://www.phouka.com/travel/castles/spynie/spynie15.jpg
- Bishop's Church:http://www.headstones.fsnet.co.uk/spynie1.jpg
