The King's Gallery was converted from existing buildings at the western entrance to the palace and was opened in 2002 to exhibit works of art from the Royal Collection.

King Charles III spends one week in residence at Holyrood at the beginning of summer, where he carries out a range of official engagements and ceremonies.

[12] The English armies of the Earl of Hertford sacked Edinburgh and caused extensive damage to the palace and the abbey in 1544 and 1547 during the War of the Rough Wooing.

[19] During the subsequent Marian civil war, on 25 July 1571, William Kirkcaldy of Grange bombarded the king's men garrisoned inside the palace with cannon positioned in the Black Friar Yard, near the Pleasance.

The palace was refurbished by William MacDowall with a new north gallery painted by Walter Binning, and an apartment for the king's favourite, Esmé Stewart.

[22] The coronation of James's queen, Anne of Denmark, took place in Holyrood Abbey in 1590, at which time the royal household at the palace numbered around 600 persons.

[23] The palace was not however secure enough to prevent the king and queen being surprised in their lodgings during two raids in December 1591 and July 1593 by Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, a nobleman implicated by the North Berwick Witch Trials.

With James's accession to the English throne and his move south to reside in London, the palace was no longer the seat of a permanent royal court.

[26] Repairs were put in hand to allow use of the palace by the Earl of Lauderdale, the Secretary of State, and a full survey was carried out in 1663 by John Mylne.

Apart from Holyrood and Windsor Castle, Charles II failed to complete any of his palace modernisation schemes, largely due to lack of money.

[26][27] Following the failure of proposals for political union with England in 1669, the Council wanted to emphasise Edinburgh's position as a royal capital and seat of government.

[26][27] As Lord High Commissioner from 1669 to 1678, John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale was vicegerent in Scotland and, as the principal occupant of the new palace, he closely supervised the building operations.

Craftsmen employed included the Dutch carpenters Alexander Eizat and Jan van Santvoort, and their compatriot Jacob de Wet who painted several ceilings.

In January 1746, following their defeat by the Jacobite army at the Battle of Falkirk Muir, the government troops of Henry Hawley who were billeted in the palace damaged the royal portraits in the Gallery.

[32] The potential of the palace as a tourist attraction was already being recognised, with the Duke of Hamilton allowing paying guests to view Mary, Queen of Scots´ apartments in James V's Tower.

[34] Following the French Revolution, George III allowed the Comte d'Artois, the exiled younger brother of Louis XVI of France, to live at the palace.

Although he was lodged at Dalkeith Palace, the king held a levée at Holyrood, received addresses, and was shown the historic apartments of Mary, Queen of Scots.

[39] Although Edward VII visited briefly in 1903, it was George V who transformed Holyrood into a modern palace, with the installation of central heating, electric lighting, the modernisation of the kitchens, and the addition of new bathrooms and a lift.

[46] In its role as the official residence of the monarch in Scotland, Holyrood has hosted a number of foreign visitors and dignitaries, including kings Olav V and Harald V of Norway, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Mikhail Gorbachev, François Mitterrand, Helmut Kohl, Nelson Mandela, Vladimir Putin, Mary McAleese, Pope Benedict XVI, and Justin Trudeau.

[57] In April 2016 the Royal Collection Trust announced it was to fund a £10m project to redevelop the outside space at Holyrood, including the abbey, grounds and forecourt.

The project was completed at the end of 2018 in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland, and included the restoration of the Abbey Strand buildings which now house a learning centre.

The towers are linked by a recessed two-storey front, with the central principal entrance framed by giant Doric columns and surmounted by the carved Royal arms of Scotland.

General repairs were completed by the architect Robert Reid between 1824 and 1834 that included the partial rebuilding of the south-west corner tower and refacing of the entire south front in ashlar to match that of the east.

For the internal quadrangle, Bruce designed a colonnaded piazza of nine arches on the north, south and east facades with pilasters, again from the three classical orders, to indicate the importance of the three main floors.

The ceiling is decorated in the corners with cherubs and eagles bearing the cipher of Charles II and the Honours of Scotland, while the long central panels feature heraldic lions and unicorns.

[68] Charles III uses the Morning Drawing Room to give private audiences to the First Minister, the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, and other visiting dignitaries.

The King's Bedchamber, at the centre of the east façade, has the finest of the 17th-century plaster ceilings, augmented by paintings of Hercules by Jacob de Wet II.

[70] The Great Gallery, at 150 feet (45 m) in length, is the largest room in the palace and connects the King's Closet on the east side with the Queen's Lobby in James V's Tower to the west.

[72] The Dutch painter Jacob de Wet was commissioned by Charles II to paint the portraits, illustrating both real and legendary monarchs, from Fergus I to James VII.

The portraits were completed between 1684 and 1686, and celebrate the royal bloodline of Scotland which the Scots upheld for its continuity and antiquity as an important part of their national identity in the seventeenth century.