Andrew Mansioun


Andrew Mansioun, or Mentioun or Manschone, was a French artist who worked at the court of James V, King of Scots. He was the master carpenter of the Scottish artillery for Mary, Queen of Scots and James VI of Scotland.

Works

Andrew is recorded carving decorative wood-work, engraving metal and making moulds for cast-iron decorations and gun-founding. He may have worked on the surviving 34 'Stirling Head' oak medallion portraits c.1540 at Stirling Castle with John Drummond of Milnab. His projects included; the fittings of the royal suite on the yacht Unicorn; an engraved brass for the tomb of David Beaton's parents at Markinch in 1541; and a carved lion and a Latin inscription for the tomb of James V in 1542. He made a cradle for Prince James, the short-lived son of James V and Mary of Guise, and a bed for Regent Arran. Andrew made moulds for use in the gun-foundry at Edinburgh Castle, for placing the royal arms and ciphers on cannon barrels, and also engraved ciphers and dates on the guns. He was appointed a gunner in the Scottish artillery on 3 August 1543 with a monthly salary of £3.

Stirling Heads

The Stirling Heads, the portrait roundels made for the ceiling of the King's Presence chamber at Stirling Castle in 1540, were carved from oak grown in forests in Poland. They were originally painted and traces of blue-grey paint made with indigo which depicted the steel armour of some figures were identified by conservators. Some similar carvings, in stone, can be seen on the facades of Falkland Palace. The subjects depicted may relate to the ancestry of the Stewart kings, classical mythology, and Bible stories. For the restoration of the palace at Stirling in 2010, a new set of medallions were carved by John Donaldson, and they were painted by a team lead by John Nevin and Graciela Ainsworth. During the examination and conservation of the Stirling Heads a drawing made by one of carvers was discovered on the reverse of one medallion, depicting a baluster flanked by mermaids holdings masks, a typical renaissance design. This drawing may have been the work of Andrew Mansioun.

Making and decorating cannon

The Treasurer's accounts detail Andrew Mansioun's work engraving the royal cannon in March 1542 in these words;
Gevin to Andres Mensioun for graving of the Kingis grace armes with unicornis, thrissillis, and flour de lyces upoune the samin piece, and graving of the dait of yere upoune the mouth thairof, and upoun..., sindry utheris pieces sett in task by Johnne Drummond to him, £13-6s-8d.

Four Scottish falconets with 'IRS' royal ciphers were captured by the English at the battle of Solway Moss, and another was recovered from Castle Semple Loch and is now in the collection of Glasgow Museums.

St Giles' Kirk

Andrew Mansioun also worked for Edinburgh town with an annual retainer of 10 merks. He made stools for St Giles Cathedral and in 1554 he completed the quire stalls and a new door to the quire. During this work Mansioun had a team of three carpenters working for him, described as his servants, and the town employed two labourers, Home and Hainslie, to fetch and carry for him.

Edinburgh tolbooth and the fortress on Inchkeith

The gunner's expertise with ropes lifting cannon was also used by the town council. On 22 February 1555, Andrew and two Flemish colleagues from the royal artillery met the town's master wrights to discuss how the new timberwork of Tolbooth belfy and steeple would be hauled into position. The following Monday the work began, and in the next week the framework of the belfy, called a "brandrauth" was raised by 28 men "by force at once." Later that year, Mansioun was based on the island of Inchkeith where he was in charge of horses and winches during the building of a fortress designed by Lorenzo Pomarelli for Mary of Guise.
On 28 December 1561, Mary, Queen of Scots made him 'Master Wrycht and Gunnare ordinare' for life. For this, Andrew had a monthly salary of £8-6s-8d. In August 1579, on his death, the position was given to his son Francis.
On the basis of the commission for Cardinal Beaton at Markinch, the historian David McRoberts raised the possibility that Mansioun was responsible for carved oak "Beaton panels" now in the National Museum of Scotland, which carry the Cardinal's heraldry.

Life and family

Little is known of Andrew's origins, but the Scottish exchequer records consistently describe him as French. As one of the royal gunners, Andrew was hurt defending Edinburgh Castle from the English invasion of 1544 that opened the war of the Rough Wooing. One of his own cannon had backfired, and in June 1544 he was given 44 shillings to pay for treatment to his hand. Later, his salary or pension was increased to compensate him for his hand's lameness.
Andrew stayed in Edinburgh, where he had his own workshop, and the terms of his pension or retainer of 10 marks in 1544 mention his sons. He joined the Edinburgh incorporation of masons, wrights, glaziers, and painters. From September 1555 he was one of four master craftsmen who judged the assay pieces of tables or dressers made by carpenters who wanted to become free masters of the craft.
Several descendants continued as carpenters. Francis, who took his place at Edinburgh Castle in 1579, was probably the eldest son. Francis Mansioun was the official of the trade organisation in Edinburgh as 'Deacon of the Wrights' in 1595, and as such he was asked to comment on the repair of St Giles Cathedral. Francis made an oak pulpit for the Kirk of Falkland in August 1602. Joshua and Isaac Mansioun, probably siblings, were also Deacons of the Wrights in Edinburgh, and John Mansioun married to Barbara Kello was also a wright in Edinburgh in 1603.
James Rokno, the son of Mansioun's Flemish colleague Tibault Rokno, also stayed in Edinburgh and became a gunner of the royal artillery. In 1589 he was the gunner on the James, the ship that took James VI to Norway to meet his bride Anne of Denmark.