Scottish King: James IV

JAMES IV
James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was the King of Scots from 11 June 1488 to his death. He assumed the throne following the death of his father, James III, after the Battle of Sauchieburn, a rebellion in which the younger James played an indirect role.

Seal of James IV

 He is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended with the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden, where he became the last monarch not only from Scotland, but from all of Great Britain, to be killed in battle.

James was the son of James III and Margaret of Denmark, probably born in Stirling Castle.

As heir apparent to the Scottish crown, he became Duke of Rothesay. In 1474, his father arranged his betrothal to Princess Cecily of England.

His father was not a popular king and faced two major rebellions during his reign. The marriage negotiations and dowry payments led to the invasion of Scotland and capture of Berwick in 1482 by his uncle Alexander, Duke of Albany and Richard, Duke of Gloucester while James remained at Stirling. James III's army rebelled against him and the English army reached Edinburgh.

During the second rebellion, the rebels set up the 15-year-old James as their nominal leader. They fought James III at the Battle of Sauchieburn on 11 June 1488, where the king was killed. The younger James took the throne and was crowned at Scone on 24 June. When he realised the indirect role which he had played in the death of his father, he decided to do penance for his sin. From that date on, he wore a heavy iron chain cilice around his waist, next to the skin, each Lent as penance, adding every year extra ounces.

James IV Billon Penny 1488-1513

James IV quickly proved an effective ruler and a wise king. He defeated another rebellion in 1489, took a direct interest in the administration of justice and finally brought the Lord of the Isles under control in 1493. For a time, he supported Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the English throne, and carried out a brief invasion of England on his behalf in September 1496. Then, in August 1497, James laid siege to Norham Castle, using his grandfather's bombard Mons Meg.

James recognised nonetheless that peace between Scotland and England was in the interest of both countries, and established good diplomatic relations with England, which was at that time emerging from a period of civil war. First he ratified the Treaty of Ayton in February 1498.

Master of James IV of Scotland (Flemish before 1465 about 1541)

Then, in 1502 James signed the Treaty of Perpetual Peace with Henry VII. He also maintained his relations with France. With rumours that James would renew the Auld alliance, in April 1508 Thomas Wolsey was sent to discuss Henry VII's concerns over this. Wolsey found "there was never a man worse welcome into Scotland than I, ... they keep their matters so secret here that the wives in the market know every cause of my coming."

James saw the importance of building a fleet that could provide Scotland with a strong maritime presence. James founded two new dockyards for this purpose and acquired a total of 38 ships for the Royal Scots Navy, including the Margaret, and the carrack Michael or Great Michael.

Henry VII gold coin

The latter, built at great expense at Newhaven and launched in 1511, was 240 feet (73 m) in length, weighed 1,000 tons and was, at that time, the largest ship in the world.

James IV was a true Renaissance prince with an interest in practical and scientific matters. He granted the Incorporation of Surgeons and Barbers of Edinburgh (later the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh) a royal charter in 1506, turned Edinburgh Castle into one of Scotland's foremost gun foundries, and welcomed the establishment of Scotland's first printing press in 1507. He built a part of Falkland Palace, and Great Halls at Stirling and Edinburgh castles, and furnished his palaces with tapestries.

Henry VIII gold coin

James was a patron of the arts, including many literary figures, most notably the Scots makars whose diverse and socially observant works convey a vibrant and memorable picture of cultural life and intellectual concerns of the period. Figures associated with his court include William Dunbar, Walter Kennedy and Gavin Douglas, who made the first complete translation of Virgil's Aeneid in northern Europe. His reign also saw the passing of the makar Robert Henryson. He patronised music at Restalrig using rental money from the King's Wark.

In May 1493 John MacDonald, Lord of the Isles, was forfeited by the Parliament of Scotland. King James himself sailed to Dunstaffnage Castle, where the western chiefs made their submissions to him. John surrendered and was brought back as a prisioner to the royal court, then lived at Paisley Abbey. The Highlands and Islands now fell under direct royal control.

Young Henry VIII

John's grandson Domhnall Dubh (Donald Owre), one of the possible claimants to the Lordship, was peaceable, but the other, his nephew Alexander MacDonald of Lochalsh invaded Ross and was later killed on the island of Oronsay in 1497.

In October 1496 the Royal Council ordered that the clan chiefs in the region would be held responsible by the king for crimes of the islanders. This act for the governance of the region was unworkable, and after the Act of Revocation of 1498 undermined the chiefs' titles to their lands, resistance to Edinburgh rule was strengthened.

James waited at Kilkerran Castle at Campbeltown Loch to regrant the chiefs' charters in the summer of 1498. Few of the chiefs turned up. At first, Archibald Campbell, 2nd Earl of Argyll was set to fill the power vacuum and enforce royal authority, but he met with limited success in a struggle with his brother-in-law, Torquil MacLeod of Lewis. Torquil was ordered to hand over Donald Dubh, heir to the lordship of the Isles, to James IV at Inverness in 1501. James waited, but Torquil never came.

After this defiance, Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly, was granted Torquil's lands. He raised an army in Lochaber and also cleared the tenants of that area, replacing them with his supporters.

Pope Julius II coat of arms

 After the parliament of 1504, a royal fleet sailed north from Ayr to attack the Castle of Cairn-na-Burgh, west of Mull, where, it is thought, Maclean of Duart had Donald Dubh in his keeping.

As progress at the siege was slow, James sent Hans the royal gunner in Robert Barton's ship and then the Earl of Arran with provisions and more artillery.

Cairn-na-Burgh was captured by June 1504 but Donald Dubh remained at liberty. In September 1507, Torquil MacLeod was besieged at Stornoway Castle on Lewis.

Donald Dubh was captured and imprisoned for the rest of his life, and Torquil MacLeod died in exile in 1511.

The Earl of Huntly was richly rewarded for his troubles, a price that James was prepared to pay.

When war broke out between England and France as a result of the Italian Wars, James found himself in a difficult position as an ally by treaty to both France and England. Henry VIII of England invaded France, and James reacted by declaring war on England.

James had already balked at the interdict of his kingdom by Pope Julius II, and he opposed its confirmation by Pope Leo X, so he was not in a good position with the pontiff.

Pope Leo X

 Leo sent a letter to James, threatening him with ecclesiastical censure for breaking peace treaties, on 28 June 1513, and James subsequently was excommunicated by Cardinal Christopher Bainbridge.

James summoned sailors and sent the Scottish navy, including the Great Michael, to join the ships of Louis XII of France, so joining in the war of the League of Cambrai. Hoping to take advantage of Henry's absence at the siege of Thérouanne, he led an invading army southward into Northumbria, only to be killed, with many of his nobles and common soldiers, at the disastrous Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513.

Both English and Scottish accounts of Flodden emphasise the King's determination to fight.

Pope Leo X

 In his otherwise flattering portrayal of James, Pedro de Ayala remarks on James's ability as a military commander, portraying him as brusque and fearless on the battlefield:

He is courageous, even more so than a king should be. I am a good witness of it. I have seen him often undertake most dangerous things in the last wars. On such occasions he does not take the least care of himself.

He is not a good captain, because he begins to fight before he has given his orders. He said to me that his subjects serve him with their persons and goods, in just and unjust quarrels, exactly as he likes, and that therefore he does not think it right to begin any warlike undertaking without being himself the first in danger. His deeds are as good as his words.

A body, thought to be that of James, was recovered from the battlefield and taken to London for burial. James had been excommunicated, and although Henry VIII had obtained a breve from the Pope on 29 November 1513 to have the King buried in consecrated ground at St. Paul's, the embalmed body lay unburied for many years at Sheen Priory in Surrey.

Louis XII coin

The body was lost after the Reformation, which led to the demolition of the priory. John Stow claimed to have seen it, and said the king's head (with red hair) was removed by a glazier and eventually buried at St Michael Wood Street. The church was later demolished and the site redeveloped many times; it is now occupied by a pub. James's bloodstained coat was sent to Henry VIII (then on campaign in France) by his queen, Catherine of Aragon.

Erasmus provided an epitaph for the King in his Adagia. Later, in 1533, he wrote to James V of Scotland pointing out this essay on duty under the adage Spartam nactus es, (You who were born to Sparta shall serve her), on the subject of the Flodden campaign and the death of James and his son Alexander.

Scottish King: James III

JAMES III
James III (10 July 1451/May 1452 – 11 June 1488) was King of Scots from 1460 to 1488. James was an unpopular and ineffective monarch owing to an unwillingness to administer justice fairly, a policy of pursuing alliance with the Kingdom of England, and a disastrous relationship with nearly all his extended family. However, it was through his marriage to Margaret of Denmark that the Orkney and Shetland islands became Scottish.

James III coin

His reputation as the first Renaissance monarch in Scotland has sometimes been exaggerated, based on attacks on him in later chronicles for being more interested in such unmanly pursuits as music than hunting, riding and leading his kingdom into war. In fact, the artistic legacy of his reign is slight, especially when compared to that of his successors, James IV and James V. Such evidence as there is consists of portrait coins produced during his reign that display the king in three-quarter profile wearing an imperial crown, the Trinity Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes, which was probably not commissioned by the king, and an unusual hexagonal chapel at Restalrig near Edinburgh, perhaps inspired by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Undiscovered Scotland, St Andrews Sarcophagus, 7th century 

James was born to James II of Scotland and Mary of Guelders. His exact date and place of birth have been a matter of debate. Claims were made that he was born in May 1452, or 10 or 20 July 1451. The place of birth was either Stirling Castle or the Castle of St Andrews, depending on the year. His most recent biographer, the historian Norman Macdougall, argued strongly for late May 1452 at St Andrews, Fife. He succeeded his father James II on 3 August 1460 and was crowned at Kelso Abbey, Roxburghshire, a week later.

During his childhood, the government was led by three successive factions, first the King's mother, Mary of Guelders (1460–1463) (who briefly secured the return of the burgh of Berwick to Scotland), then James Kennedy, Bishop of St Andrews, and Gilbert, Lord Kennedy (1463–1466), then Robert, Lord Boyd (1466–1469).

Margaret of Denmark

The Boyd faction made itself unpopular, especially with the king, through self-aggrandisement. Lord Boyd's son Thomas was made Earl of Arran and married to the king's sister Mary. However, the family successfully negotiated the king's marriage to Margaret of Denmark, daughter of

Christian I of Denmark in 1469 as a part of ending the annual fee owed to Norway for the Western Isles (agreed in the Treaty of Perth in 1266), and receiving Orkney and Shetland (theoretically only as a temporary measure to cover Margaret's dowry).

When James permanently annexed the islands to the crown in 1472, Scotland reached its greatest ever territorial extent. James married Margaret of Denmark in July 1469 at Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh.

Christian I of Denmark gave the Orkney and Shetland Islands to Scotland in lieu of a dowry. The marriage produced three sons: James IV of Scotland, James Stewart, Duke of Ross and John Stewart, Earl of Mar. Conflict broke out between James and the Boyd family following the marriage to Princess Mary. Robert and Thomas Boyd (with Princess Mary) were out of the country involved in diplomacy when their regime was overthrown. Mary's marriage was later declared void in 1473. The family of Sir Alexander Boyd was executed by James in 1469.

James became powerful enough to attempt to manage the Lord of the Isles who ruled over the Western Isles and Highlands of Scotland in 1475. The treaty made by the Lords with England at Ardtornish in 1462 was used as evidence of their usurpation of royal power. John of Islay, Earl of Ross, Lord of the Isles was censured for making his son Angus his lieutenant and for besieging Rothesay Castle in the Isle of Bute. John, Lord of the Isles was ordered to appear for trial in Edinburgh on 1 December and when he did not attend, he was declared forfeit.

Edward IV

The Earls of Lennox, Argyll, Atholl and Huntly were ordered to put the forfeiture in practice. John, Lord of the Isles, came to Edinburgh in July 1476 and the forfeiture was rescinded, but he resigned to the crown the Earldom of Ross, lands in Kintyre and Knapdale, and the offices of Sheriff of Inverness and Nairn. James then made John a Lord of Parliament as Lord of the Isles. In April 1478 Parliament required John to answer for his assistance to rebels who held Castle Sween against the crown. In December John received confirmation of his 1476 charters.

James's policies during the 1470s revolved primarily around ambitious continental schemes for territorial expansion and alliance with England. Between 1471 and 1473 he suggested annexations or invasions of Brittany, Saintonge and Guelders.

Edward IV & Richard III

 These unrealistic aims resulted in parliamentary criticism, especially since the king was reluctant to deal with the more humdrum business of administering justice at home.

In 1474 a marriage alliance was agreed to with Edward IV of England by which the future James IV of Scotland was to marry Princess Cecily of York, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville.

It might have been a sensible move for Scotland, but it went against the traditional enmity of the two countries dating back to the reign of Robert I and the Wars of Independence, not to mention the vested interests of the border nobility. The alliance, therefore (and the taxes raised to pay for the marriage) was at least one of the reasons why the king was unpopular by 1479.

Also during the 1470s conflict developed between the king and his two brothers, Alexander, Duke of Albany, and John, Earl of Mar.

Elizabeth Woodville

Mar died suspiciously in Edinburgh in 1480 and his estates were forfeited, possibly given to a royal favourite, Robert Cochrane. Albany fled to France in 1479, accused of treason and breaking the alliance with England.

But by 1479 the alliance was collapsing and war with England existed on an intermittent level in 1480–1482. In 1482 Edward IV launched a full-scale invasion led by the Duke of Gloucester, the future Richard III, including the Duke of Albany, styled "Alexander IV", as part of the invasion party.

James, in attempting to lead his subjects against the invasion, was arrested by a group of disaffected nobles at Lauder Bridge in July 1482. It has been suggested that the nobles were already in league with Albany.

The king was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle and a new regime, led by "lieutenant-general" Albany, became established during the autumn of 1482. Meanwhile, the English army, unable to take Edinburgh Castle, ran out of money and returned to England, having taken Berwick-upon-Tweed for the last time. While James remained imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, and as a result of that was politically sidelined in 1482-83, his two half-uncles (including Andrew Stewart) managed to form a new government.

He was eventually freed by late September 1482. After having been freed, James was able to regain power by buying off members of Albany's government, such that by December 1482 Albany's government was collapsing.

Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, mother of Edward IV and Richard III.

 From 1483, he was able to "steadily reduce any remaining support for Albany". In particular his attempt to claim the vacant earldom of Mar led to the intervention of the powerful George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly, on the king's side.

In January 1483 Albany fled to his estates at Dunbar. The death of his patron, Edward IV, on 9 April, left Albany in a weak position. Following the Lochmaben, he was forced to flee back to England, where was condemned, and he never engaged James III again.

Following this, he moved to Scotland again, but was caught and imprisoned in the same castle where James had been incarcerated. However, he managed to escape from the castle after killing his guard and moving down by using a rope made of bedsheets. In 1483, he sailed back for France, however, he was killed there in Paris (1485) in a duel with the duke of Orléans, by a splinter from his lance. Certainly his right-hand man, James Liddale of Halkerston, was arrested and executed around that time. At the Battle of Bosworth in August 1485 Albany's last remaining support, Richard III, perished.

On 5 March 1486 Pope Innocent VIII blessed a Golden Rose and sent it James III. It was an annual custom to send the rose to a deserving prince.

COUNTY DURHAM: The two ends of the St Mary chancel arch are anchored by the heads of Edward IV (1442 -1483 (41)) and below) his brother Richard III.

Giacomo Passarelli, Bishop of Imola, brought the rose to Scotland, and returned to London to complete the dispensation for the marriage of Henry VII of England. Despite a lucky escape in 1482, when he easily could have been murdered or executed in an attempt to bring his son to the throne, James did not reform his behaviour during the 1480s.

Obsessive attempts to secure alliance with England continued, although they made little sense given the prevailing politics.

COUNTY DURHAM: The two ends of the St Mary chancel arch are anchored by the heads
of Richard III, and (above)  his brother Edward IV.

He continued to favour a group of "familiars" unpopular with the more powerful magnates. He refused to travel for the implementation of justice and remained invariably resident in Edinburgh. He was also estranged from his wife, Margaret of Denmark, who lived in Stirling, and increasingly his eldest son.


He favoured his second son instead. In January 1488, in Parliament, James tried to gain supporters by making his second son Duke of Ross and four Lairds full Lords of Parliament.

These allies were John Drummond of Cargill, made Lord Drummond; Robert Crichton of Sanquhar, made Lord Sanquhar; John Hay of Yester, made Lord Hay of Yester; and the Knight William Ruthven, made Lord Ruthven. But opposition to James was led by the Earls of Angus and Argyll, and the Home and Hepburn families. James's eldest son and heir, the future James IV, was delivered into the hands of the rebels by Schaw of Sauchie on 2 February 1488. The Prince became the figurehead of the opposition party, perhaps reluctantly, or perhaps provoked by the favouritism given to his younger brother.

Matters came to a head on 11 June 1488, when the king faced the army raised by the disaffected nobles and many former councillors near Stirling, at the Battle of Sauchieburn, and was defeated and killed. It is unknown whether James III was killed in the battle or while fleeing. He is buried at Cambuskenneth Abbey. Accounts of 16th-century chroniclers such as Adam Abell, Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, John Leslie and George Buchanan alleged that the king was assassinated near Bannockburn, soon after the battle, at Milltown,

Scottish King: James II

JAMES II
James II (Middle Scots: Iames Stewart; 16 October 1430 – 3 August 1460), who reigned as king of Scots from 1437 on, was the son of James I and Joan Beaufort.

James II

 Nothing is known of his early life, but by his first birthday his twin and only brother, Alexander, who was also the older twin, had died, thus making James the heir apparent and Duke of Rothesay.

On 21 February 1437, James I was assassinated and the six-year-old Duke of Rothesay immediately succeeded him as James II.

In 1449, nineteen-year-old James married fifteen-year-old Mary of Guelders, daughter of the Duke of Gelderland. She bore him seven children, six of whom survived into adulthood.

Subsequently, the relations between Flanders and Scotland improved. James's nickname, Fiery Face, referred to a conspicuous vermilion birthmark on his face which appears to have been deemed by contemporaries an outward sign of a fiery temper.

James was a politic, and singularly successful king. He was popular with the commoners, with whom, like most of the Stewarts, he socialised often, in times of peace and war. His legislation has a markedly popular character.

He does not appear to have inherited his father's taste for literature, which was "inherited" by at least two of his sisters; but the foundation of the University of Glasgow during his reign, by Bishop Turnbull, shows that he encouraged learning; and there are also traces of his endowments to St. Salvator's, the new college of Archbishop Kennedy at St Andrews. He possessed much of his father's restless energy.

However, his murder of the Earl of Douglas leaves a stain on his reign. James I was assassinated on 21 February 1437. The Queen, although hurt, managed to get to her six-year-old son, who was now king. On 25 March 1437, the six-year-old was formally crowned King of Scots at Holyrood Abbey. The Parliament of Scotland revoked alienation of crown property and prohibited them, without the consent of the Estates, that is, until James II's eighteenth birthday.

Mary of Guelders, wife of James II 

He lived along with his mother and five of his six sisters (Margaret had left for France, where she had married the future Louis XI of France) at Dunbar Castle until 1439.

From 1437 to 1439 the King's first cousin Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas, headed the government as lieutenant-general of the realm.

After his death, and with a general lack of high-status earls in Scotland due to deaths, forfeiture or youth, political power became shared uneasily among William Crichton, 1st Lord Crichton, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (sometimes in co-operation with the Earl of Avondale), and Sir Alexander Livingston of Callendar, who had possession of the young king as the warden of the stronghold of Stirling Castle.

Taking advantage of these events, Livingston placed Queen Joan and her new husband, Sir John Stewart, under "house arrest" at Stirling Castle on 3 August 1439.

They were released on 4 September only by making a formal agreement to put James in the custody of the Livingstons, by giving up her dowry for his maintenance, and confessing that Livingston had acted through zeal for the king's safety. In 1440, in the King's name, an invitation is said to have been sent to the young 6th Earl of Douglas and his brother, eleven-year-old David, to visit the king at Edinburgh Castle in November 1440.

They came, and were entertained at the royal table, from which they were treacherously hurried to their doom, which took place by beheading in the castle yard of Edinburgh on 24 November.

St Bride's Church, Douglas (Scotland) - effigy of Archibald, 5th earl of Douglas

 Three days later Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld, their chief adherent, shared the same fate. This infamous incident took the name of "the Black Dinner". In 1449 James II reached adulthood, yet in many ways his "active kingship" differed little from his minority. The Douglases used his coming of age as a way to throw the Livingstons out of the shared government, as the young king took revenge for the brief arrest of his mother (a means to remove her from political influence) that had taken place in 1439. Douglas and Crichton continued to dominate political power, and the king's ability to rule without them remained arguably limited.

But James did not acquiesce with this situation without argument, and between 1451 and 1455 he struggled to free himself from the power of the Douglases. Attempts to curb the Douglases' power took place in 1451, during the absence of the Earl of Douglas from Scotland, and culminated with the murder of Lord Douglas at Stirling Castle on 22 February 1452.

James II of Scotland, second coinage class II groat (without annulets at neck), Edinburgh mint, mm crown, Spink 5233.

 The main account of Douglas's murder comes from the Auchinleck Chronicle, a near contemporary but fragmentary source. According to its account, the king accused the Earl (probably with justification) of forging links with John Macdonald, 11th Earl of Ross (also Lord of the Isles), and Alexander Lindsay, 4th Earl of Crawford.

This bond, if it existed, created a dangerous axis of power of independently-minded men, forming a major rival to royal authority. When Douglas refused to break the bond with Ross, James broke into a fit of temper and stabbed Douglas 26 times and threw his body out of a window.

Wedding of James I to Joan Beaufort

His court officials (many of whom would rise to great influence in later years, often in former Douglas lands) then joined in the bloodbath, one allegedly striking out the Earl's brain with an axe.

This murder did not end the power of the Douglases, but rather created a state of intermittent civil war between 1452 and 1455. The main engagements were at Brodick, on the Isle of Arran; Inverkip in Renfrew; and the Battle of Arkinholm. James attempted to seize Douglas lands, but his opponents repeatedly forced him into humiliating climbdowns, whereby he returned the lands to James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas, and a brief and uneasy peace ensued.

Military campaigns ended indecisively, and some have argued that James stood in serious danger of being overthrown, or of having to flee the country. But James's patronage of lands, titles and office to allies of the Douglases saw their erstwhile allies begin to change sides, most importantly the Earl of Crawford after the Battle of Brechin, and in May 1455 James struck a decisive blow against the Douglases, and they were finally defeated at the Battle of Arkinholm.

In the months that followed, the Parliament of Scotland declared the extensive Douglas lands forfeit and permanently annexed them to the crown, along with many other lands, finances and castles.

Jacques de Lalain,

The Earl fled into a long English exile.

James finally had the freedom to govern as he wished, and one can argue that his successors as Kings of Scots never faced such a powerful challenge to their authority again. Along with the forfeiture of the Albany Stewarts in the reign of James I, the destruction of the Black Douglases saw royal power in Scotland take a major step forward.

Negotiations for a marriage to Mary of Guelders began in July 1447, when a Burgundian envoy came to Scotland, and were concluded by an embassy under Crichton the chancellor in September 1448. Philip settled sixty thousand crowns on his kinswoman, and her dower of ten thousand was secured on lands in Strathearn, Athole, Methven, and Linlithgow. A tournament took place before James at Stirling, on 25 February 1449, between James, master of Douglas, another James, brother to the Laird of Lochleven, and two knights of Burgundy, one of whom, Jacques de Lalain, was the most celebrated knight-errant of the time.

The marriage was celebrated at Holyrood on 3 July 1449. A French chronicler, Mathieu d'Escouchy, gives a graphic account of the ceremony and the feasts which followed.

Joan Beaufort

 Many Flemings in Mary's suite remained in Scotland, and the relations between Scotland and Flanders, already friendly under James I, consequently became closer. In Scotland the king's marriage led to his emancipation from tutelage, and to the downfall of the Livingstons.

In the autumn Sir Alexander and other members of the family were arrested. At a parliament in Edinburgh on 19 January 1450, Alexander Livingston, a son of Sir Alexander, and Robert Livingston of Linlithgow were tried and executed on the Castle Hill.

Sir Alexander and his kinsmen were confined in different and distant castles. A single member of the family escaped the general proscription—James, the eldest son of Sir Alexander, who, after arrest and escape to the highlands, was restored in 1454 to the office of chamberlain to which he had been appointed in the summer of 1449.

James II enthusiastically promoted modern artillery, which he used with some success against the Black Douglases. His ambitions to increase Scotland's standing saw him besiege Roxburgh Castle in 1460, one of the last Scottish castles still held by the English after the Wars of Independence. For this siege, James took a large number of cannons imported from Flanders. On 3 August, he was standing near one of these cannons, known as "the Lion", when it exploded and killed him.

Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie stated in his history of James's reign that "as the King stood near a piece of artillery, his thigh bone was dug in two with a piece of misframed gun that brake in shooting, by which he was stricken to the ground and died hastily." The Scots carried on with the siege, led by George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus, and the castle fell a few days later. Once the castle was captured James' widow, Mary of Guelders, ordered its destruction. James's son became king as James III and Mary acted as regent until her own death three years later.

Scottish King: James I

JAMES I
James I (late July 1394 – 21 February 1437), King of Scotland from 1406, was the son of King Robert III and Annabella Drummond. He was the last of three sons.

Wedding of James I to Joan Beaufort

By the time he was eight, both of his elder brothers were dead—Robert had died in infancy but David, Duke of Rothesay died suspiciously in Falkland Castle while being detained by his uncle, Robert, Duke of Albany.

Although parliament exonerated Albany, fears for James's safety grew during the winter of 1405–1406 and plans were made to send him to France.

In February 1406, James was accompanying nobles close to his father when they clashed with supporters of Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas, forcing the prince to take refuge in the castle of the Bass Rock, a small islet in the Firth of Forth.

He remained there until mid-March, when he boarded a vessel bound for France, but on 22 March while off the English coast, pirates captured the ship and delivered James to Henry IV of England. Two weeks later, on 4 April the ailing Robert III died, and the 12-year-old uncrowned King of Scots began his 18-year detention.

James was given a good education at the English Court, where he developed respect for English methods of governance and for Henry V to the extent that he served in the English army against the French during 1420–1421.

The Scottish King's cousin, Murdoch Stewart, Albany's son, a captive in England since 1402, was traded for Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland in 1416.

Annabella Drummond & Robert III

Eight more years passed before James was ransomed, by which time Murdoch had succeeded his father to the dukedom and the governorship of Scotland.

James married Joan Beaufort, daughter of the Earl of Somerset in February 1424 shortly before his release in April when they journeyed to Scotland.

This was not altogether a popular re-entry to Scottish affairs, since James had fought on behalf of Henry V and at times against Scottish forces in France.

Noble families would now not only have to pay increased taxes to cover the £40,000 ransom repayments but would also have to provide hostages as security. Despite this, James held qualities that were admired.

The contemporary Scotichronicon by Walter Bower described James as excelling at sport and appreciative of literature and music.

Unlike his father and grandfather he did not take mistresses, but had many children by his consort, Queen Joan. The King had a strong desire to impose law and order on his subjects, but applied it selectively at times.

To bolster his authority and secure the position of the crown, James launched pre-emptive attacks on some of his nobles beginning in 1425 with his close kinsmen the Albany Stewarts resulting in the execution of Duke Murdoch and his sons. In 1428 James detained Alexander, Lord of the Isles, while attending a parliament in Inverness. Archibald, 5th Earl of Douglas, was arrested in 1431, followed by George, Earl of March, in 1434.

Joan Beaufort

 The plight of the ransom hostages held in England was ignored and the repayment money was diverted into the construction of Linlithgow Palace and other grandiose schemes.

In August 1436, James failed humiliatingly in his siege of the English-held Roxburgh Castle and then faced an ineffective attempt by Sir Robert Graham to arrest him at a general council.

James was murdered at Perth on the night of 20/21 February 1437 in a failed coup by his uncle and former ally Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl. Queen Joan, although wounded, managed to evade the attackers and was eventually reunited with her son James II in Edinburgh Castle.

James, now the uncrowned King of Scots, began what proved to be his 18-year period as a hostage while at the same time Albany transitioned from his position of lieutenant to that of governor.

Albany took James's lands under his own control depriving the king of income and any of the regalia of his position and was referred to in records as 'the son of the late king'. The king had a small household of Scots that included Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, Alexander Seaton, the nephew of Sir David Fleming, and Orkney's brother John Sinclair following the earl's return to Scotland.

In time, James's household—now paid for by the English—changed from high ranking individuals to less notable men.

Henry V, while Prince of Wales, presenting Thomas Hoccleve's, Regement of Princes to the Duke of Norfolk, British Library, 1411–13 AD.

Henry IV treated the young James well, providing him with a good education. James was ideally placed to observe Henry's methods of kingship and political control having probably been admitted into the royal household on reaching adulthood.

James used personal visits from his nobles coupled with letters to individuals to maintain his visibility in his kingdom. Henry died in 1413 and his son, Henry V, immediately ended James's comparative freedom initially holding him in the Tower of London along with the other Scottish prisoners.

James I a prisoner in love (Tower of London)

 One of these prisoners was James's cousin, Murdoch Stewart, Albany's son, who had been captured in 1402 at the Battle of Homildon Hill. Initially held apart but from 1413 until Murdoch's release in 1415 they were together in the Tower and at Windsor Castle.

By 1420, James's standing at Henry V's court improved greatly; he ceased to be regarded as a hostage and more of a guest.[25] James's value to Henry became apparent in 1420 when he accompanied the English king to France where his presence was used against the Scots fighting on the Dauphinist side. Following the English success at the siege of Melun, a town southeast of Paris, the contingent of Scots were hanged for treason against their king. James attended Catherine of Valois's coronation on 23 February 1421 and was honoured by sitting immediately on the queen's left at the coronation banquet.

In March, Henry began a circuit of the important towns in England as a show of strength and it was during this tour that James was knighted on Saint George's day.

Henry VI & Margaret of Anjou

 By July, the two kings were back campaigning in France where James, evidently approving of Henry's methods of kingship, seemed content to endorse the English king's desire for the French crown.

Henry appointed the Duke of Bedford and James as the joint commanders of the siege of Dreux on 18 July 1421 and on 20 August they received the surrender of the garrison. Henry died of dysentery on 31 August 1422 and in September James was part of the escort taking the English king's body back to London. The regency council of the infant King Henry VI was inclined to have James released as soon as possible. In the early months of 1423 their attempts to resolve the issue met with little response from the Scots, clearly influenced by the Albany Stewarts and adherents.

Archibald, Earl of Douglas was an astute and adaptable power in Southern Scotland whose influence even eclipsed that of the Albany Stewarts. Despite his complicity in James's brother's death in Albany's castle in 1402 Douglas was still able to engage with the king. From 1421, Douglas had been in regular contact with James and they formed an alliance that was to prove pivotal in 1423.

Although Douglas was the pre-eminent Scottish magnate his position in the borders and Lothians was jeopardised—not only did he have to forcibly retake Edinburgh Castle from his own designated warden but was very likely under threat from the earls of Angus and March.

Henry Beaufort, Cardinal Bishop of Winchester.

 In return for James's endorsement of Douglas's position in the kingdom, the earl was able to deliver his affinity in the cause of the king's home-coming.

Also, the relationship between Murdoch—now Duke of Albany following his father's death in 1420—and his own appointee Bishop William Lauder seemed to be under strain perhaps evidence of an influential grouping at odds with Murdoch's stance.

Pressure from these advocates for the king almost certainly compelled Murdoch to agree to a general council in August 1423 when it was agreed that a mission should be sent to England to negotiate James's release.

James's relationship with the House of Lancaster changed in February 1423 when he married Joan Beaufort, a cousin of Henry VI and the niece of Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter, and Henry, Bishop of Winchester. A ransom treaty of £40,000 sterling (less a dowry remittance of 10,000 marks) was agreed at Durham on 28 March 1424 to which James attached his own seal. The king and queen escorted by English and Scottish nobles reached Melrose Abbey on 5 April and were met by Albany who relinquished his governor's seal of office.

James asserted his authority not only over the nobility but also upon the Church and lamented that King David I's benevolence towards the Church proved costly to his successors and that he was 'a sair sanct to the croun'.

James I a prisoner in love (Tower of London)

James also considered that the monastic institutions in particular needed improvement and that they should return to being strictly ordered communities.

Part of James's solution was to create an assembly of overseeing abbots and followed this up by establishing a Carthusian priory at Perth to provide other religious houses with an example of internal conduct.

He also sought to influence Church attitudes to his policies by having his own clerics appointed to the bishoprics of Dunblane, Dunkeld, Glasgow and Moray.

In March 1425, James's parliament directed that all bishops must instruct their clerics to offer up prayers for the king and his family; a year later, parliament toughened up this edict insisting that the prayers be given at every mass under sanction of a fine and severe rebuke. This same parliament legislated that every person in Scotland should 'be governed under the king's laws and statutes of this realm only'. From this, laws were enacted in 1426 to restrict the actions of prelates whether it was to regulate their need to travel to the Roman Curia or their ability to purchase additional ecclesiastical positions while there.

In James's parliament of July 1427, it is evident that statute being enacted had the purpose of reducing the powers of the church jurisdiction.On 25 July 1431, the general council of the Church convened in Basel but its initial full meeting did not take place until 14 December by which time Pope Eugenius and the council were in complete disagreement.

Pope Eugenius IV: Restitutional medal
by Girolamo Paladino on
Pope Eugene IV (1431-1447),
the reverse featuring the scales of justice
and the motto REDDE CVIQUE SVVM
("to each his own!"), HMB inv. 2016.6.

It was the council and not the pope who requested that James send representatives of the Scottish church and it is known that two delegates—Abbot Thomas Livingston of Dundrenanan and John de Winchester, canon of Moray and a servant of the king—were in attendance in November and December 1432.

In 1433 James, this time in response to a summons by the pope, appointed two bishops, two abbots and four dignatories to attend the council.

Twenty–eight Scottish ecclesiasts attended at intervals from 1434 to 1437 but the majority of the higher ranking churchmen sent proxy attendees but Bishops John Cameron of Glasgow and John de Crannach of Brechin attended in person as did Abbot Patrick Wotherspoon of Holyrood.

Even in the midst of the Basel general council, Pope Eugenius instructed his legate, Bishop Antonio Altan of Urbino, to meet with James to raise the issue of the king's controversial anti-barratry laws of 1426.

The Bishop of Urbino arrived in Scotland in December 1436 and apparently a reconciliation between James and the papal legate had taken place by the middle of February 1437 but the events of 21 February when James was assassinated prevented the legate from completing his commission.

Walter Stewart was the youngest of Robert II's sons and the only one not to have been provided with an earldom during his father's lifetime.

Robert II coin

Walter's brother, David, earl of Strathearn and Caithness had died before 5 March 1389 when his daughter Euphemia was first recorded as countess of Strathearn. Walter, now ward to his niece, administered Strathearn for the next decade and a half during which time he aided his brother Robert, Earl of Fife and Guardian of Scotland by enforcing law and order upon another brother Alexander, lord of Badenoch—he again supported Robert (now Duke of Albany) against their nephew, David, Duke of Rothesay in 1402.

Albany most likely engineered the marriage of Euphemia to one of his affinity, Patrick Graham and by doing so ended Walter's involvement in Strathearn. Duke Robert, possibly to make up for the loss of the fruits of Strathearn, made Walter earl of Atholl and Lord of Methven. In 1413, Graham was killed in a quarrel with his own principal servant in the earldom, John Drummond.

Robert III coin

The Drummond kindred were close to Atholl and the earl's renewed involvement in Strathearn as ward to Graham's son despite strong opposition from Albany hint at Atholl's possible party to the murder.

The bad blood now existing between Albany and Atholl led James on his return to Scotland in 1424 to ally himself with Earl Walter, his uncle. Atholl participated at the assize that sat over the 24/25 May 1425 that tried and found the prominent members of the Albany Stewarts guilty of rebellion—their executions followed swiftly.

James granted Atholl the positions of Sheriff of Perth and Justicier and also the earldom of Strathearn but this, significantly, in life-rent only—acts that confirmed Earl Walter's policing remit given by Albany and his already effective grip on Strathearn.

David II coin

Atholl's elder son, David had been one of the hostages sent to England as a condition of James's release and had died there in 1434—his younger son, Alan died in the king's service at the Battle of Inverlochy in 1431. David's son Robert was now Atholl's heir and both were now in line to the throne after the young Prince James.

James continued to show favour to Atholl and appointed his grandson Robert as his personal chamberlain but by 1437, after a series of setbacks at the hands of James, the earl and Robert probably viewed the king's actions as a prelude to further acquisitions at Atholl's expense.

Geoffrey Sherard, High Sheriff of Rutland
1468, 1480 and 1484

Atholl's hold on the rich earldom of Strathearn was weak and both he and Robert would have realised that after the earl's death Strathearn would have reverted to the crown.

This meant that Robert's holdings would have been the relatively impoverished earldoms of Caithness and Atholl and amounted to no more than what was in the Earl Walter's possession in the years between 1406 and 1416.

The retreat from Roxburgh exposed the king to questions regarding his control over his subjects, his military competence and his diplomatic abilities yet he remained determined to continue with the war against England.

Just two months after the Roxburgh fiasco, James called a general council in October 1436 to finance further hostilities through more taxation. The estates firmly resisted this and their opposition was articulated by their speaker Sir Robert Graham, a former Albany attendant but now a servant of Atholl.

The council then witnessed an unsuccessful attempt by Graham to arrest the king resulting in the knight's imprisonment followed by banishment but James did not see Graham's actions as part of any extended threat. In January 1437, Atholl received yet another rebuff in his own heartlands when James overturned the chapter of Dunkeld Cathedral whose nominee was replaced by the king's nephew and firm supporter, James Kennedy.