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James I (1406 - 1437) |
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James was born at Dunfermline Monastery on the 25th July
1384, the second son of Robert III and Annabella. He was sent
to France in 1406 for his safety after his elder brother,
David Duke of Rothesay, was murdered. James didn't made it
to France, he was captured by pirates off Flamborough Head
and handed over to Henry IV as a prisoner. James now began
18 years imprisonment in England, and after his father died
the Duke of Albany became the Regent of Scotland.
During his time in London, where he was held in the Tower
of London, he was well-educated and became interested in music.
In 1419 he was in France with Henry V when Albany sent a contingent
to fight for the Dauphin, Henry ordered James to make the
Scots surrender and when James refused it seems he was not
punished. The Duke of Albany died and it seems clear that
he did not put much effort into securing James' release. His
son Murdoch succeeded him as Regent as was so incompetent
that the people of Scotland demanded the release of James.
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Portrait of James I |
Fresco by Pinturicchio showing
James I and Aeneas Sylvius |
Under the terms of The Treaty
of London James was released, but 21 hostages were sent south
to act as surety on the £40,000 ransom demanded.
In 1424 James married Lady Joan Beaufort
(a collection of songs known as The Kingis Quair are
said to be praising her beauty in certain passages) and in
the same year he was finally back in Scotland to be crowned
at Scone.
James immediately fell upon all who had failed to secure
his release, Murdoch and his two sons along with the Earl
of Lennox were beheaded at Stirling. In 1428 he summoned the
Highland chiefs to Inverness and temporarily arrested Alexander,
Lord of the Isles. Also in 1428 he renewed the 'Auld Alliance'
with France and his daughter, Margaret, married the Dauphin.
Throughout his kingship it seems that James was not interested
in popularity, he alienated the nobles with his totalitarian
regime, and irritated the church with demands to check the
export of bullion. In the end he was murdered by Sir Robert
Graham in the royal lodging of the Blackfriars at Perth. |
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History Books on James I:
| Author |
Title |
Published |
Price |
Order
Now From: |
| Brown, M. |
The Stewart Dynasty in Scotland - James I (2nd
ed) |
2000 |
£16.99
or
$26.95 |
Amazon.co.uk
or
Amazon.com |
| A new edition of this first full-length biography of
James I for over 50 years examines his creation of a new
more powerful monarchy after a period of weak and delegated
rule. His methods were often violent in removing his rivals
and glamorous in promoting his court; methods that would
be copied by his descendents. An excellent survey of a
king who changed his country and left a long legacy. |
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History Books on this time period:
| Author |
Title |
Published |
Price |
Order
Now From: |
| Brown, Michael |
The Black Douglases: War and Lordship in Medieval
Scotland, 1300-1455 |
1998 |
£16.99 |
Amazon.co.uk |
During the century and a half of their power the Black
Douglases earned fame as Scotland's champions in the front
line of war against England. On their shields they bore
the bloody heart of Robert Bruce, the symbol of their
claim to be the physical protectors of the hero-king's
legacy. But others saw the power of these lords and earls
of Douglas in a different light. To their critics the
Douglases were a force for disorder in the kingdom, lawless,
arrogant and violent, whose power rested on coercion and
whose defiance of kings and guardians ultimately provoked
James II into slaying the Douglas
earl with his own hand.
The Black Douglases
examines aristocratic power and status and its place in
Scottish political society through the greatest and most
notorious magnate dynasty of late medieval Scotland. Michael
Brown analyses the rise and fall of the family as the
dominant magnates of the south, from the deeds of Good
Sir James Douglas in the service of Bruce to the violent
destruction of the Douglas earls in the 1450's. Alongside
this study of the accumulationand loss of power by one
great noble house, The Black Douglases includes
a series of thematic examinations of the nature of aristocratic
power. In particular these emphasise the link between
warfare and political power in southern Scotland during
the fourteenth century. For the Black Douglases, war was
not just a patriotic duty but the means to power and fame
in Scotland and across Europe. |
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| Grant, A. |
Independence & Nationhood:
Scotland 1306-1469 |
1991 |
£9.95
or
$20.00 |
Amazon.co.uk
or
Amazon.com |
Under Robert Bruce and his successors, Scotland's independence
from England was maintained and its sense of nationhood
developed. Alexander Grant shows how this had a profound
effect upon domestic as well as foreign affairs, and how
it led to the evolution of a distinctive Scottish government,
nobility, Church and economy. At the same time he puts
Scottish history into the international context of the
100 Years War, the economic and demographic upheaval caused
by the bubonic plague, and the Christianity of the pre-reformation
era.
Challenging traditional assumptions of general late-medieval
decline, Independence and Nationhood demonstrates
how the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were a crucially
important period of change and growth for Scotland. |
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| Nicholson, R. |
The Edinburgh History of
Scotland: Vol 2 The Later Middle Ages |
1974 |
£16.99 |
Amazon.co.uk |
The four-volume Edinburgh History of Scotland
is the most important project in Scottish historical writing
for more than half a century; each volume is written by
an expert on the period who brings to his work the direct
acquaintance with original sources on which authoritative
historical writing can alone be based.
This, the second volume, covers the period from the close
of the 13th century to the Battle of Flodden. It presents
a sophisticated analysis of the facts and a comprehensive
description of all the varied and intricate aspects of
Scottish Medieval life. Although the book is detailed
enough to serve as a work of reference, the historical
development of the emergence of, possibly, the first self-conscious
nation of Europe into what was perhaps the first 'new
monarchy' of Europe may here be read as a continuous narrative
of events. Professor Nicholson presents a precise picture
of the economy, society and politics of medieval Scotland. |
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