Melrose Abbey

Melrose Abbey, like the other three Borders Abbeys of Dryburgh, Kelso and Jedburgh, was badly damaged during the "Rough Wooing" of 1544-45, during which the English, at the instigation of Henry VIII led a series of punitive expeditions against the Scots for refusing to agree to the marriage of the infant Queen Mary Stuart to Henry's son. During the raid against Melrose Abbey, the Douglas tombs were desecrated

The belief that the physical remains retain a connection with the person to whom they belonged is a very ancient one. Although the practice of dismembering parts of the body to use as talismans or objects of worship was banned by the Church in 1299, it was not a custom which would die out easily. The earliest instance comes from France and there is evidence that it was very common for the French and English royal families to bury the hearts of their dead separately. In Scotland, there are fewer examples, but one of the most famous is the burial of the heart of Robert the Bruce. The other two are the heart burial of John Balliol by his devoted wife Dervorgilla, Lady of Galloway, and the heart burial of Sir James Douglas, companion to Robert I. Robert and Douglas both died fighting in Spain but their hearts were allegedly rapatriated to Scotland by Sir William Keith. The casket believed to contain Robert the Bruce's heart was originally excavated in 1921 in the Chapter House and subsequently re-buried. The casket was once again brought up during the 1997 excavations to be re-buried once more.

In the chancel are the tombs of Sir William Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale (1300-1353)i James 2nd earl of Douglas (1358-1388), the victor of Otterburn;

In 1545, as a result of the destruction of the Douglas tomb at Melrose, the Earl of Angus with Scott of Buccleugh and Lesley of Rothes defeated and slaughtered the English at Ancrum Moor near Jedburgh.

See also: Abbot Douglas (of Melrose)