St. Katherine’s Aisle is positioned on the south side of the church. We recognise it by its stained glass window depicting Pentecost. In this aisle, took place an encounter, which, whether it be fact or fiction, has become legend. It concerns one of our monarchs - and something else.
The monarch was James the Fourth, one of our better kings. Having married Margaret, the daughter of Henry the Seventh of England, hopes were high for peace between the two countries. However, when Henry the Eighth came to the English throne the relationship deteriorated. Then Henry joined a league that was being formed against France. This was serious. Scotland and France had the emotional ties of ‘The Auld Alliance’. Many French craftsmen were working in Scotland. The French queen wrote to James pleading with him to ‘advance three feet’ into England. The position worsened and eventually James, despite the entreaties of his wife, summonsed his army to invade England in the summer of 1513.
Prior to leaving Linlithgow to gather his troops around Edinburgh, James, at evensong, entered the part of the church containing the altar of St. Catherine of Sienna. While at his prayers, there appeared beside him a vision. It took the form of a man clad in a blue gown carrying a staff. Without reverence or salutation the message was conveyed to James that if he proceeded with his plans, tragedy was ahead, he would "Be confoundit and brocht to schame".
So, what was the "Blue Man"? Did James really see a ghost? Or as some have suggested, was it a trick played on him by one of his queen’s friends dressing up, and, in a superstitious age, seeking a way of deterring him from crossing the border. We shall never know. What is certain, is that the Flower of Scotland lost at Flodden cost the country dear. And, as Sir Walter Scott and to-day’s Palace guides remind us:
"Nor England’s fair, nor France’s Queen, Were worth one pearl-drop, bright and sheen, From Margaret’s eyes that fell, His own Queen Margaret, who, on Lithgow’s Bower, All lonely sat, and wept, the weary hour."
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