The Great Hall at Edinburgh Castle was completed in 1511 as the nation’s chief place of ceremony and state assembly. It was commissioned by James IV, but he had little opportunity to enjoy it. He was killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, fighting the forces of Henry VIII of England. The Great Hall’s greatest state occasion was a banquet in honor of Charles I, the night before his coronation as King of Scots in June 1633. In 1650, Oliver Cromwell invaded Scotland and took over the castle. Determined to wipe out any trace of royalty, he had the Great Hall converted into a barracks and horse stable. It was not restored until the 1880s during the reign of Queen Victoria. Most of the present decoration dates from that period. However, the hammer-beam roof survives from James IV’s time and is one of only two medieval roofs left in Scotland. The carved stone corbels supporting the hammerbeams are the oldest Renaissance decoration in the British Isles.