James IV had the Great Hall built as an awe-inspiring stage for state banquets and ceremonies. Completed in 1512, the hall was a place for high politics, international diplomacy and feasting, showing the king as a man of power and good taste.
The Great Hall was lavishly decorated with the latest Continental styles, showing the king’s sophisticated taste. Only the hammer beam roof and its supports remain to give a glimpse of that opulent world. The roof supports are decorated with carvings celebrating James VI’s marriage alliance with England.
Just months before his death in 1513 at the Battle of Flodden, it is thought that James IV entertained the Irish chief, Hugh O’Donnell of Tyrconnell, in his newly-completed hall. The two leaders sealed a treaty as the Scots prepared for a war with England.
In 1561, Mary Queen of Scots hosted a banquet in the Great Hall to celebrate her return to Scotland from France.
High to the right of the fireplace is a barred window, known as the ‘Laird’s Lug’ (the Lord’s Ear). The king could use it to eavesdrop on his courtiers when they gathered in the hall below. A number of other castle have a similar feature.
The Great Hall has been decorated with suits of armour, swords, guns and pole arms since the 1880s. Most were obsolete British Army service weapons but some were trophies from foreign wars. Much of the armour was captured during the English siege of Saint-Martin-de-Ré, France, in 1627. The bronze mortars displayed are the same design as those used by government forces against the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
SOURCES:
- Information signs at Edinburgh Castle
