Scottish Towns - Dunfermline

Scottish

Towns

Dunfermline - History

Dunfermline, birthplace of seven kings (including Charles I), an empress, a queen and four princes. It is also the final resting place of nine kings, five queens, six princes and two princesses.

Margaret, sister of English Edgar the Atheling, was shipwrecked in the Firth of Forth whilst fleeing from the Norman invasion of England. She came ashore just east of Rosyth at St MArgaret's Hope.
In 1070 she married King Malcolm Canmore in Culdee chapel (on the site of the present abbey).

The reign of Malcolm and Margaret had a profound influence on Scottish history and culture. Malcolm, although he could neither read nor write, was a well travelled, intelligent and wise man, fluent not only in his native Gaelic but also in Northern English, the 'British' of Strathclyde and Cumberland, Norse, Norman French and Latin. Margaret could only speak English, which became for the first time the language of the Scottish Court. Thus the English speaking part of Scotland became dominant with Dunfermline as its capital, threatening to displace St Andrews as the hub of ecclesiastical affairs in Scotland.

Sadly their benevolent reign ended in 1093 when Malcolm and his eldest son Edward were killed at Alnwick during another English attempt to invade Scotland. Queen Margaret, already in poor health herself, died four days later.

Edward I of England, in a fury borne of frustration at failing to subdue the Scots, burned Dunfermline Abbey. After Scotland's victory at Bannockburn Robert the Bruce ordered that the Abbey be rebuilt and decreed that a light should burn perpetually at St Margaret's Shrine, giving orders that his own interment should also be at Dunfermline Abbey.

Robert the Bruce was buried at Dunfermline Abbey in 1329 but was forgotten over the centuries until excavation work was carried out during the building of a new church on the site of the old ruined choir. A tomb was discovered containing the remains of Robert the Bruce, identified by a shroud of gold cloth and the fact that the breastbone had been severed to facilitate the removal of his heart. (Knowing he would be unable to travel, Robert the Bruce instructed that his heart be removed and taken to the Holy Land in atonement for his killing of the Red Comyn).

Dunfermline ceased to be a Royal Burgh after the death of James I, with Charles II (first to inherit a United Kingdom throne) the last monarch to stay at Dunfermline Palace in 1650, after which the Palace became a ruin.

The town was almost destroyed by fire in 1624 with the result that it has few antiquities in relation to its long and fascinating history. It became a hand-loom weaving town noted for its damask linen and silks but perhaps Dunfermline is best known today as the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie.