Dr Rachel Delman (Oxford, IASH Fellow): Queenship and Architectural Patronage in Late Medieval Scotland
In 1449, Mary of Guelders arrived on the shores of Leith to marry James II of Scotland at Holyrood palace. Following her husband’s sudden death at the siege of Roxburgh in 1460, Mary assumed her position as regent, ruling Scotland on behalf of her eight-year-old son until her death three years later. While Mary’s role as a successful stateswoman is now widely recognised, little attention has been paid to the considerable building projects she carried out during this period. In my paper, I will explore how Mary utilized architectural patronage for the expression of her authority and influence as regent. I will focus on her domestic works at Falkland, Ravenscraig, Stirling and Linlithgow castles, as well as her non-domestic commission of Holy Trinity collegiate church in Edinburgh, and her wider patronage of Stirling and Fale hospitals. I will ask how Mary expressed her newfound power through the type, design and location of such buildings, and consider whether she, as a noblewoman raised at the Burgundian court, used architecture as a vehicle for cultural transfer. In the final part of my paper, I will compare Mary’s building projects to those of other noblewomen who were responsible for commissioning castles and other works in fifteenth-century Britain. In doing so, I will consider how typical Mary’s building projects were, and ask whether we can define her architectural patronage as distinctly ‘feminine’.