One Latin household books survives from the reign of James IV, (National Records of Scotland, E32/1). It covers dates from 1511 to 1512, giving daily expenses of food for the households of James IV and that of Margaret Tudor. The accountant was the Bishop of Caithness. Like the later Scottish household books, it includes entries in journal form, with a daily header that often records where the royals were. Other expenses known as ‘oncosts’ include a boat sent north to collect the produce that formed part of the income of the Scottish crown.1 The manuscript pages are brittle and have often been conserved and rebound.

Regina absentis perigrinando versus Albam Basilicam, Rege apud navum

Thursday 4 September 1511 is the second page (E32/1 f.2r-v) and one of the more colourful entries. Margaret Tudor went on pilgrimage to Whitekirk in East Lothian while the king was on his boat, the Great Michael or Margaret at Leith or Newhaven. A cropped note on f.2v seems to be a technical accounting detail, the Abbot of Holyrood paid the expenses of Margaret’s household’s main meal during the excursion.

Memorandum … Jovis quarto septembris apud Albam Basilicam super expensis abbattis sancto crucis in prandio

Other visits to Whitekirk are recorded in the royal Treasurer’s Accounts.2 The household book has some more on the ships over the year, there is a banquet on the Michael, and James spends several days at the Pool or Powes of Airth, where he built a dockyard, while Margaret stayed in her more comfortable bower at Linlithgow Palace.3

I’m not sure if 4 September was a special day for Margaret or at Whitekirk, but certainly a day to remember. When Margaret came again to Whitekirk on Tuesday 5 June 1512, a few days before Whitsun, James travelled from Holyrood to Linlithgow for dinner. Clearly, she found the church a special place.

And to visit the church, details, Whitekirk Church New Life Trust

Whitekirk, East Lothian
Banketum in navis vocat Michel – Item empt per Schaw die predicto apud magnum navum vocat Michael rege regina …
Regina absen’ apud Alba’ Basilica’ – Rege apud Ed in prandio cena Linlithgw … 15 June 1512, E32/1 f.136r.

  1. Aonghas MacCoinnich, ‘The Maritime Dimension to Scotland’s “Highland Problem”, ca. 1540–1630’, Journal of the North Atlantic, 12 (2019), pp. 47, 68. ↩︎
  2. James IV rode from Stirling Castle to Whitekirk on 16 October 1507 and played cards with a courtier that night, making his offerings in the church on the following day. On 19 October, he was at Hailes Castle and gave a ‘drinksilver’ tip to the masons working there, Accounts of the Treasurer, 4 (Edinburgh, 1902), pp. xv, 35, 79-80. ↩︎
  3. A good example is Friday 2 April 1512, a fish day. Margaret was at Linlithgow while food and drink for James was carried to the Powes, and Schaw bought his beer in Airth, E32/1 f.98. Provisions for the king at “Polertht” that day are also mentioned in the Accounts of the Treasurer, 4 (Edinburgh, 1902), p. 339. ↩︎

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