STIRLING, a town of Scotland, situated on the river Forth, thirty miles north-west of Edinburgh, in W. Long. 3. 50. N. Lat. 56. 12. It is also called Stirling, and Striveling; from the former of which Boethius falsely derives the name Sterling money; because, says he, Osbeir, a Saxon prince, after the overthrow of the Scots, established here a mint. The name of Striveling is said to have been derived from the frequency of strifes or conflicts in the neighbourhood. The town contains about 4000 inhabitants. It has a manufacture of tartans and shalloons, and employs about 30 looms in that of carpets. The great street is very broad. In it is the tolbooth, where is kept the standard for the wet measures of Scotland. The other streets are narrow and irregular.—Stirling is in miniature a resemblance of Edinburgh; being built on a rock of the same form, with a fortress on the summit. The origin of the castle is unknown. The rock of Stirling was strongly fortified by the Picts, amongst whom architecture and several other useful arts had made a considerable progress. As it lay in the extremities of their kingdom, the possession of it was the occasion of frequent contests betwixt them and their neighbours the Scots and Northumbrians; each of whose dominions did, for some time, terminate near it.
When the Scots, under Kenneth II. overthrew the Pictish empire near the middle of the ninth century, they endeavoured to obliterate every memorial of that people. They not only gave new names to provinces and towns, but, with all the rage of barbarians, demolished many magnificent and useful edifices which had been reared up by them, and this fortress among the rest. It was, however, soon rebuilt, though upon an occasion not very honourable to the Scots.
Upon the death of Kenneth II. in 855, his brother Donald V. mounted the throne of Scotland. In the begin-
Stirling. beginning of his reign the kingdom was invaded by Osbreccht and Ella, two Northumbrian princes, who, uniting their forces with the Cumbrian Britons, and a number of Picts, who upon their expulsion from their native country had taken refuge in England, advanced to Jedburgh, where Donald encountered them; and, after a fierce and bloody battle, obtained a complete victory: but, having taken up his station in Berwick, in supine security, the Northumbrians, informed of the careless posture in which the Scottish army lay, surprised them by a hasty march, dispersed them, and made a prisoner of the king. Pursuing the advantage they had gained, they marched northward, and subdued all before them to the Frith of Forth and the town of Stirling. But the forlorn situation of the Scots, without a king and without an army, obliging them to sue for peace, they obtained it, upon condition that they should pay a sum of money for the ransom of the king, and yield up all their dominions upon the south side of the Forth to the conquerors.
The Northumbrians taking possession of the territories ceded to them by this treaty, rebuilt the castle of Stirling, and planted it with a strong garrison, in order to preserve their new conquests, upon the frontiers of which it was situated. Our authorities also inform us, that they erected a stone-bridge over the Forth, upon the summit of which a cross was raised, with the following inscription in monkish rhyme.
Anglos a Scotis separat erux ista remotis;
Arms hic sunt Bruti, Scoti sunt hic, cruce tuis.
Which is thus translated by Bellenden.
I am free marche, as passengeris may ken,
To Scottis, to Britonis, and to Inglismen.
None of the ancient English historians mention this conquest. The whole story, as well as the inscription, wears much of a monkish garb; yet its authenticity is not a little confirmed by the arms of the town of Stirling, upon which is a bridge, with a cross, and the last line of the above Latin distich is the motto around it.
We must not, however, imagine, that in those times that fortress bore any resemblance to the present structure, which is adapted to the use of fire-arms. Its size and form probably resembled those castles which, under the feudal constitution, the English and Scottish barons used to erect upon their estates for dwelling-houses; and which, in those barbarous ages, they found necessary to fortify for their defence, not only against foreign invaders, but often against the attacks of their own neighbours. It is directly such a Gothic figure as this which represents the Castrum Strivelense upon the arms of Stirling.
This fortress, after it had continued in the possession of the Northumbrian Saxons about 20 years, was, together with the whole country upon the south side of the Forth, restored to the Scots, upon condition of their assisting the Saxons against their turbulent invaders the Danes. Upon the arms of Stirling are two branches of a tree, to represent the Demus Strivelense; but the situation and boundaries of that forest, which was probably a wing of the Caledonian, cannot be ascertained. Upon the south of Stirling, vestiges of a forest are still discernible for several miles. Banks of natural timber still remain in the castle-park, at
Murray's wood, and near Nether Bannockburn; and stumps of trees, with much brushwood, are to be seen in all the adjacent fields.
When Kenneth III. received intelligence of the Danes having invaded his dominions, he appointed the castle of Stirling to be the place of rendezvous for his army; and he marched from thence to the battle of Loncarty, where he obtained a victory over those rovers, in the end of the 10th century.
In the 12th century, this castle is spoken of as a place of great importance, and one of the strongest fortresses in the kingdom. In 1174, a calamity, not unusual amongst the Scottish monarchs, befell William, who at that time occupied the throne. He was taken prisoner in an unsuccessful expedition which he made into England; and, after having been detained 12 months in captivity, was released, upon stipulating to pay a large sum of money for his ransom; and, until payment thereof, delivering into the hands of the English the four principal fortresses in the kingdom, which in those days were Stirling, Edinburgh, Roxburgh, and Berwick. This was the first great ascendant that England obtained over Scotland; and indeed, the most important transaction which had passed between these kingdoms since the Norman conquest.
Though the Scottish monarchs, in their frequent perambulations thro' the kingdom, often visited Stirling, and held their courts for some time in the castle; yet it did not become a royal residence till the family of Stuart mounted the throne, and it was from different princes of this family that it received its present form. It was the place of the nativity of James II.; and, when raised to the throne, he frequently kept his court in it. It is well known to have been the place where that prince perpetrated an atrocious deed, the murder of William earl of Douglas, whom he stabbed with his own hand. The royal apartments were at that time in the north-west corner of the castle, and are now the residence of the major. The room where the murder was committed still goes by the name of Douglas's room. See SCOTLAND, no 304, 305.
James III. contracting a fondness for the castle on account of its pleasant situation, made it the chief place of his residence, and added several embellishments to it. He built within it a magnificent hall, which in those days was deemed a noble structure, and is still entire. It now goes by the name of the parliament house, having been designed for the accommodation of that supreme court. It is covered with an oaken roof of exquisite workmanship, which is very little decayed, though it hath stood near 300 years. James also erected a college of secular priests in the castle, which he called the chapel-royal, and which proved one cause of his own ruin. As the expences necessary for maintaining the numerous officers of such an institution were considerable, he annexed to it the revenues of the rich priory of Coldingham in the Merse, which at that time happened to become vacant. This priory had for a long time been holden by persons connected with the family of Hume; and that family, considering it as belonging to them, strongly opposed the annexation. The dispute seems to have lasted several years; for one parliament had passed a vote, annexing the priory to the chapel-royal, and a subsequent one enacted a statute prohibiting every
Stirling. every attempt that was contrary or prejudicial to that annexation.
James V. was crowned in the castle of Stirling; and the palace, which is the chief ornament of it, was the work of that prince. This is a stately and commodious structure, all of hewn stone, with much statuary work upon it. It is built in form of a square, with a small court in the middle, in which the king's lions are said to have been kept; and hence it still goes by the name of the lions den. The palace contains many large and elegant apartments; the ground-story is now converted into barrack-rooms for the soldiers of the garrison; the upper affords a house for the governor, with lodgings for some of the subaltern officers.
Opposite to the palace, upon the north, stands an elegant chapel, which was built by James VI. for the baptism of his son prince Henry in 1594. In this chapel is preserved the hull of a large boat, which that whimsical monarch caused to be built and placed upon carriages, in order to convey into the castle the provisions for that solemnity.
A strong battery, with a tier of guns pointing to the bridge over the Forth, was erected during the regency of Mary of Lorraine, mother to queen Mary. It is called the French battery, probably because constructed by engineers of that nation. The last addition was made to the fortifications in the reign of queen Anne. Formerly they reached no farther than the old gate, upon which the flag-staff now stands: but in that reign they were considerably enlarged upon the side towards the town; and barracks, which are bomb-proof, with several other conveniences for a siege, were erected.
Upon the south-west of the castle lies a large park inclosed with a stone-wall, called the king's park, where the court used to divert themselves with hunting of the deer which were kept in it. At the east end of the park lay the royal gardens; vestiges of the walks and parterres, with a few stumps of fruit-trees, are still visible; but by long neglect, and the natural wetness of the soil, the place is now little better than a marsh. In the gardens is a mound of earth in form of a table, with benches of earth around it, where, according to tradition, the court sometimes held fêtes champêtres. In the castle-hill is an hollow, comprehending about an acre of ground, and having all the appearance of an artificial work, which was used for joustings, tournaments, and other feats of chivalry.
Northward of the castle lies the Govan-hill; in the middle of which is a small mount called Hurly Haak, upon which duke Murdoch and his two sons were executed for treasonable practices in the reign of James I.
The prospect from the castle is most delightful as well as extensive, being greatly beautified, especially upon the east, by the windings of the Forth; which are so many, that though the distance by land, from the bridge of Stirling to Alloa, is only four miles, it is said to be 24 by water. As this river generally runs upon plain ground, it rolls its stream in so slow and silent a manner, that what Silius Italicus saith of the Ticinus is applicable to it, if, instead of lucenti in that poet, we should for once read lutoso; for the clay-banks, together with the tide, which flows above Stirling, render the Forth perpetually muddy:
Vix credas labi, ripis tam nitis opacis
Somniferam ducit latens gurgite lympham.
The lordship and castle of Stirling were a part of the usual dowry of the queens of Scotland, at least after the family of Stuart came to the throne, in which they were invested at their marriage.
Robert lord Erskine was appointed governor of the castle by king David II. and the office continued in that family till 1715.
This fortress hath been the scene of many transactions. Being by its situation considered as a key to the northern parts of the kingdom, the possession of it hath been always esteemed of great importance to those who sought to be masters of Scotland. In the space of little more than forty years, the English were four times in possession of it, and as often was it wrested from them by the Scots. In 1296, Edw. I. enraged at John Balliol's renunciation of his allegiance to him, marched into Scotland with a great army, and carried all before him. Stirling being deserted by its garrison, made no defence at all. But the English dominion in Scotland was never of long duration, being usually lost by revolutions as quick as those by which it was acquired. In 1298, the Scots, recovering their spirits, drove the invaders out of most parts of the kingdom; and laying siege to this castle, soon forced the garrison to a capitulation. This revolution obliged Edward again to assemble an army, and to march into Scotland; and, amongst his other feats, he invested the castle of Stirling, and besieged it with his whole train of artillery. It was commanded by William Oliphant, a brave officer, who held it out three months. So vigorous a defence so provoked Edward, that he ordered two pairs of gallows to be erected, and proclamation to be made in the audience of the garrison, that if they did not surrender against a certain day, every man of them should be hanged without mercy: they surrendered before the day prefixed, but rather from want of provisions than fear of Edward's menaces. They were not, however, so far reduced as not to be able to make an honourable capitulation: but the souls of conquerors have seldom been found to be so great as their names; instead of punctually observing the articles of the capitulation, the English monarch treated the garrison with great inhumanity.
After the celebrated victory at Rosling in 1303, the Scots again laid siege to this fortress. After a short defence, the garrison was obliged to capitulate for want of provisions, and the command of it was given to Oliphant its former governor. That same year, however, Edward began to besiege it; but was not able to reduce it till after a siege of more than 12 months. This was the most memorable siege that it ever underwent. Having been unsuccessful the first campaign, Edward was obliged to lead his army into winter-quarters; but during the recess, he made formidable preparations for resuming the siege early in the spring. He stripped all the lead from several roofs in St Andrew's to supply his battering machines, which, as soon as the season of the year was proper for action, he planted against the walls, and summoned the governor to surrender, but without effect. Upon which he collected all his artillery, and furiously battered the walls with stones, as we are told,
Stirling. of 200 pounds weight, which made wide breaches in them; but the governor still refused to yield. His defence was so vigorous, that numbers of the besiegers perished by arrows and stones shot from the engines of the castle. So intent was Edward upon the reduction of the place, that he exposed his own person to great danger. An arrow from the castle had killed him outright, if he had not been protected by the goodness of his armour. Holding up the weapon, he threatened to hang the man who shot it, and resolved upon a general assault. By this time, the reiterated attacks of the besiegers had made great breaches in the walls; and the garrison was so diminished, as to consist of only 28 persons, and these extremely weakened with watching and fatigue: apprehending, therefore, that a general assault would overpower them, they offered to capitulate.
Some of the Scottish historians affirm, that a capitulation was signed and sealed; but that Edward, in direct violation thereof, sent the governor prisoner to England, where he remained several years in confinement.
In the spring of the year 1314, Edward Bruce, brother to king Robert, laid siege to it; but on account of the vigorous defence made by Moubray the governor, he found himself obliged to abandon the enterprise. Only, by a treaty between them, it was agreed, that if no relief came from England before a fixed time, the garrison should surrender to the Scots. The fate of the detachment of cavalry sent from the English camp, under the conduct of lord Clifford, to the relief of the garrison, has been related under the article SCOTLAND, no 159. After the great victory at Bannockburn, the place surrendered to Robert, who treated the garrison with a humanity of which none of the Edwards had set an example.
In 1333, this castle yielded to the Balian party; and, according to some accounts, it was at that time dismantled, probably by orders from the English king, who had learned, by the experience of his grandfather, how dangerous a weapon it would prove if it should again come into the possession of the Scots: but in 1335 it was rebuilt by the orders of that monarch, and planted anew with a strong garrison. Soon after the reparation, the Brucean party, recovering strength by supplies from France, attempted the reduction of it; but it was relieved by Edward in person. Next year the siege was renewed and raised again by that monarch; but in 1341 the Scots, under Sir William Douglas, conducted the siege with such indefatigable industry, that the garrison was forced to capitulate, though upon honourable terms.
The last reduction of this fortress by siege was in 1651. When Cromwell followed king Charles II. into England before the battle of Worcester, he left General Monk behind to complete the conquest of Scotland, which he soon accomplished. Upon his arrival at Stirling, he planted his batteries in the church-yard, and upon some eminences adjoining; and in a short time made himself master of the castle. The impression made by the bullets of the besiegers are still visible upon the walls of several buildings in the castle. The marks of those shot by the besieged also still remain upon the steeple of the church; some of the corner-stones of which have been broken by them.
By this conquest Monk became master of the principal registers of the kingdom; which, upon the surrender of the castle of Edinburgh the year before, had been carried to Stirling. He sent them to England by Cromwell's orders, to be lodged in the Tower, where they remained until the restoration of Charles in 1660, when, by the orders of that monarch, they were packed up in no less than 50 hogsheds, to be carried back to Scotland; but the ship in which they were being cast away in a storm near Berwick, they were all irrecoverably lost. This calamity, together with that which befell our more ancient records by the malicious policy of Edward I. hath involved the Scottish history in great obscurity, and obliges us to remain in ignorance and uncertainty with respect to many important transactions of the nation. In 1746, the castle, defended by general Blackney, resisted the utmost efforts of the rebels.