rs between the two countries. It was in the
chapter-house at Melrose that the Yorkshire barons united against King
John and swore fealty to Alexander II. in 1215. In 1295 Edward I. gave
formal protection to its monks, and in 1296 he issued a writ ordering a
restitution to them of all the property they had lost in the preceding
struggle. In 1321 or 1322 the original structure was destroyed by the
English under Edward II., and the abbot, with a number of the monks, was
killed. In 1326 Robert I. gave a grant of L2000 to be applied to the
rebuilding of the church, and in 1329, a few months before his death, he
wrote a letter to his son David, requesting that his heart should be
buried at Melrose and commending the monastery and the church to his
successor's favour. His wish was granted, and so late as 1369 we hear of
King David II. renewing his father's gift, and it is to this grant we
owe a considerable part of the present building. In 1328 Edward III.
ordered the restoration to the abbey of pensions and lands which it had
held in England, and which had been seized by Edward II. In 1334 the
same king granted a protection to Melrose in common with the other
Border abbeys, and in 1341 he came to Melrose to spend Christmas. In
1385 Richard II., exasperated by his fruitless expedition into Scotland,
spent a night in the abbey and caused it to be burned. Notwithstanding
these disasters, the abbey increased in wealth and architectural
splendour, and it was not till more severe damage and dilapidations
befell it during the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI. and Elizabeth,
that ruin began finally to impend. The approach of the Reformation
influenced its downfall, and though donations for rebuilding were given
by various individuals, the abbey never recovered the damage then
suffered. In 1541 James V. obtained from the Pope the abbeys of Melrose
and Kelso, to be held _in commendam_ by his illegitimate son James, who
died in 1558. In 1560 all the "abbacie" was annexed to the Crown, and in
1566 Mary granted the lands to James, Earl of Bothwell, with the title
of Commendator. After passing through the hands of Douglas of Lochleven
and Sir John Ramsay, the estates were ultimately acquired by the Scotts
of Buccleuch. The abbey gradually fell into decay through neglect. The
materials were used for the erection of other structures, and Douglas
built from the ruins a house which still stands to the north of the
cloisters and bears the date 15