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Scotland's royal palace where Mary Queen of Scots witnessed murder and began her tragic downfall.

In 1566, a gang of nobles burst into Mary Queen of Scots' private supper room and stabbed her secretary, David Rizzio, 56 times while she watched. Mary was six months pregnant. Her own husband, Lord Darnley, had orchestrated the brutal attack out of jealousy.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse sits at the bottom of Edinburgh's Royal Mile, opposite Edinburgh Castle at the top. It started as an abbey, founded in 1128 by King David I.

According to legend, David was out hunting when he saw a stag with a glowing cross between its antlers. He took it as a sign from God and built an abbey on the spot. "Holy Rood" means "Holy Cross."

Scottish kings preferred the abbey's guesthouse to the drafty castle up the hill. By the 1500s, James IV had built a proper palace next door. His son James V added the tower where Mary would later live, and where Rizzio would die.

Mary Queen of Scots spent six turbulent years here, from 1561 to 1567. She married Lord Darnley in the abbey chapel in 1565. Within a year, he'd helped murder her closest confidant.

Within two years, Darnley himself was dead under mysterious circumstances. Mary then married one of the chief suspects, the Earl of Bothwell. Scottish nobles rebelled and forced her to abdicate, giving up her crown to her one-year-old son.

Mary fled to England hoping her cousin Elizabeth I would help. Bad move. Elizabeth saw Mary as a threat: she was Catholic and had her own claim to the English throne. Elizabeth kept her locked up for 19 years, then had her executed for allegedly plotting assassination.

The palace changed hands repeatedly after Mary. Oliver Cromwell's troops occupied it in the 1650s. Charles II rebuilt the whole thing in French château style in the 1670s but never bothered to visit.

Bonnie Prince Charlie held court here for six weeks during the 1745 Jacobite uprising, even throwing a grand ball after his victory at Prestonpans. George IV showed up in 1822, the first reigning monarch to visit Scotland in nearly 200 years.

Today you can walk through Mary's actual bedchamber and the tiny supper room where Rizzio was killed. A brass plaque marks the spot where his body fell. Staff still point out a dark stain on the floor, said to be his blood that refuses to wash out.

The ruined Holyrood Abbey stands next door, roofless and open to the sky. The palace remains the King's official Scottish residence, so check the schedule before visiting.