Archives de Tag: Scotland
Madeleine of Valois, king James V’s first wife
In the first half of the XVIth century, France and Scotland were not only bound by the Auld Alliance, a treaty of mutual military assistance between the two kingdoms dating from the end of the XIIIth century. Many Scots were also permanently living on the Continent: Scottish merchants living in the cities of Rouen and […]
June 1538: Marie de Guise discovers Scottish fashion
After an exhausting sea crossing from France, Marie arrived on a sandy beach on the Scottish East coast near Crail. She was accompanied by the duke of Guise her father, her sister Louise, her ladies in waiting and many Frenchmen. All disembarked the galleys and moved towards castle Balcomie, probably passing fishermen, villagers and townspeople. […]
‘And Yet It Stands’. Mary of Guise’s emblem pictured by Scottish artist Iona Leishman
ADHUC STAT – ‘And yet it stands’ – was the motto of Marie de Guise‘s personal emblem, accompanied by the pictura or image representing, according to French historian Gabriel de Pimodan, a crown set above a rock beaten by winds and waves. It is also the title of this summer’s exhibition of new paintings from […]
Portraits of James V of Scotland and the celebration of dynasty
« There is evidence to suggest that the Stewart kings were keenly aware of the need both to circulate an official likeness and to assemble a gallery of dynastic forebears. Portrait artists were seemingly employed at the Scottish court from the reign of James I. When Mary Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringhay Castle in […]
16th century cloaks: Lord Seton’s red golden ‘mante’
George Seton was born in 1531 in Tranent, East Lothian. The Latin inscription from the wall of the Seton Collegiate Church in the Lothians states, that George had been living in France as a boy. After his father’s death in 1549, he returned to Scotland to become 5th Lord Seton. Soon afterwards, he was appointed […]
1314-2014 : News of the Battle of Bannockburn
In early summer of the year 1314, by a small river named Bannock Burn in Scotland, took place one of the most famous battles in European history. The battle of Bannockburn was fought on june 23th and june 24th between the armies of king Edward II of England (1284-1327) and king Robert the Bruce of Scotland […]
Unicorn hunt at Stirling castle
Stirling castle in Scotland has just received an all new and bright coloured tapestry, the sixth out of a series of medieval inspired hangings already decorating its Renaissance palace. These modern replicas are woven by West Dean Tapestry in a studio at Stirling castle and in the south of England and depict the « The Hunt […]
