St Giles' and the Stewarts
Mary Queen of Scots never attended a service in the reformed St Giles’ although she may have attended Parliaments held here. After her abdication, Scotland was placed under the government of her illegitimate half-brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray. Regent Moray had been one of the Lords of the Congregation, and was a staunch friend of John Knox. After Moray was assassinated in Linlithgow in 1570, he was buried in St Giles’, and John Knox preached at his funeral. Moray’s tomb was destroyed, but the original brass plate was fitted to his memorial in the Holy Blood Aisle.
