James IV of Scotland
James IV was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauchieburn, following a rebellion in which the younger James was the figurehead of the rebels. James IV is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland. He was responsible for a major expansion of the Scottish royal navy, which included the founding of two royal dockyards and the acquisition or construction of 38 ships, including the Great Michael, the largest warship of its time.
James was a patron of the arts and took an active interest in the law, literature and science. With his patronage the printing press came to Scotland, the University of Aberdeen and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh were founded, and he commissioned the building of the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Falkland Palace. The Education Act 1496 passed by the Parliament of Scotland introduced compulsory schooling. During James's twenty-five-year reign, royal income doubled, the Crown exercised firm control over the Scottish church, and by 1493 had overcome the last independent Lord of the Isles. Relations with England improved with the Treaty of Perpetual Peace in 1502 and James's marriage to Margaret Tudor in 1503, which led to the Union of the Crowns in 1603.
The long period of domestic peace after 1497 allowed James to focus more on foreign policy, which included the sending of several of his warships to aid his uncle, John of Denmark, in his conflict with Sweden; amicable relations with the Pope, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Louis XII of France; and James's aspiration to lead a European naval crusade against the Ottoman Empire. James was granted the title of Protector and Defender of the Christian Faith in 1507 by Pope Julius II.
When Henry VIII of England invaded France in 1513 as part of the Holy League, James chose the Auld Alliance with the French over the "Perpetual Peace" with the English, and led a large army across the border into England. James and many of his nobles were killed at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513, fighting against the English forces of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's wife and regent. James was the last monarch in Great Britain to be killed in battle and was succeeded by his son James V.
Early life
Born on 17 March 1473 at Stirling Castle, James was the eldest son of King James III and Margaret of Denmark. As heir apparent to the Scottish crown, he became Duke of Rothesay at birth. James probably spent most of his infancy and youth at Stirling Castle in the care of his mother, along with his two younger brothers, James and John. In 1478, Queen Margaret was officially entrusted with the custody and education of the Duke of Rothesay. Not much is known about James's early life, but it is known that he received a good education from Archibald Whitelaw, the humanist scholar and secretary of state, and the theologian John Ireland, under the direction of his mother. In addition to Scots, James became fluent in Latin and Spanish, also learned French, German, Flemish and Italian, and was the last Scottish monarch known to have spoken Gaelic. The surviving exchequer records show that Prince James was taken from Stirling to visit Edinburgh in the summers of 1474 and 1479, and that his nurse in the 1470s was Agnes Turing, the wife of an Edinburgh burgess.In October 1474, James III agreed a peace treaty with Edward IV of England, the foundation of which was to be a marriage between Prince James and Edward's daughter, Cecily of York, when they both reached marriageable age. The treaty marked the beginning of James III's pursuit of friendship with England, a policy which was unpopular in Scotland. This policy would see further prospective English brides proposed for his son: Anne de la Pole in 1484 and an unspecified daughter of Edward IV in 1487. James III was an unpopular king: he faced two major rebellions during his reign, and alienated members of his close family, especially his younger brother, Alexander, Duke of Albany. James III's unpopular pro-English policy rebounded badly upon him when the peace with England broke down in 1480. This led to the invasion of Scotland and capture of Berwick in 1482 by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in the company of the Duke of Albany. When James III attempted to lead his army against the invasion, his army rebelled against him and he was briefly imprisoned by his own councillors. During James III's imprisonment, Albany visited Queen Margaret and Rothesay at Stirling Castle to discuss the crisis with them.
For the nine-year-old heir to the throne, the crisis of 1482 had shattered the calm of his youthful existence at Stirling. Following the death of Margaret of Denmark in July 1486, Rothesay may have viewed the king's deliberate promotion of his second son — the 1486 and 1487 proposals to marry him to one of the younger daughters of Edward IV of England, and the conferring on him of the dukedom of Ross in January 1488 — with apprehension. There is no explanation of why James III seemed to be favouring his second son over his heir, although it has been suggested that James III's suspicion and distrust of his heir arose from Rothesay's meeting with the Duke of Albany during the 1482 crisis.
On 2 February 1488, Rothesay departed from Stirling Castle, without the king's knowledge. This defection saw the start of another major rebellion against James III, led by the earls of Angus and Argyll, and the Home and Hepburn families. Pitscottie claimed that the prince defected as he had heard that his father was approaching Stirling with a large army to imprison him. The prince became the figurehead of the rebels, who claimed that they had removed him from Stirling to protect him from his vindictive father, who had surrounded himself with wicked Anglophile counsellors. Like Rothesay, many of the rebels also feared for their safety if James III continued to rule. Matters came to a head on 11 June 1488, when the royal and rebel armies fought outside Stirling at the Battle of Sauchieburn. The royal army was defeated and James III was killed during the battle, though several later sources claimed that Rothesay had forbidden any man to harm his father. James IV bore intense guilt for the indirect role which he had played in the death of his father. He decided to do penance for his sin, constantly wearing an iron belt around his waist, next to the skin, to which he added weight every year throughout his life.
Early reign
The victorious rebels moved swiftly to consolidate their power, and on 12 June, only a day after Sauchieburn, the new king issued his first charter. Edinburgh and Stirling castles were secured, as were the late king's money and jewels, and the rebel leaders were rewarded with offices of state and posts in the royal household. James IV's coronation took place on 24 June 1488 at Scone Abbey. The Archbishop of St Andrews, William Scheves, a favourite of James III, did not officiate during the coronation ceremony, with the new king being instead crowned by Robert Blackadder, Bishop of Glasgow. A few days later, James IV attended the burial of his father at Cambuskenneth Abbey, a scene later portrayed in James IV's book of hours. The new king also hosted his maternal great-uncle, Gerhard VI, Count of Oldenburg, who arrived at Leith with a Danish fleet in August, and remained in Scotland until the following year.James IV quickly proved to be a wise and effective ruler, and entrusted the running of his government to Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell, Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus, and William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen. He defeated a major rebellion led by the Master of Huntly, the Earl of Lennox and Lord Lyle in 1489, laying siege to Crookston, Duchal and Dumbarton castles, and defeating a rebel army at Gartloaning in Stirlingshire. James also took a direct interest in the administration of justice, brought the feud between the Murrays and the Drummonds in Strathearn to an end, and went out on justice ayres across the kingdom throughout his reign. A tax of £5,000 was granted by the Parliament of Scotland to fund an embassy to France and Spain to search for a foreign bride for the king. Pope Innocent VIII conferred the Golden Rose on James in 1491, and the alliance with France was renewed in 1492. Treaties were also made with Denmark and Spain, and truces were negotiated with Henry VII of England in 1493 and 1494. In 1494 James received the Sceptre of Scotland as a papal gift from Pope Alexander VI. James IV met with Hugh Roe O'Donnell, King of Tyrconnell in June 1495 in Glasgow. O'Donnell was the most powerful northern Irish magnate and a committed enemy of Henry VII's government in Ireland, and the Scottish and Irish kings made a defensive alliance. They also discussed Perkin Warbeck, the pretender to the English throne, who O'Donnell had been a supporter of for years.
File:Twizel Castle - geograph.org.uk - 139240.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Twizell Castle on the River Till in Northumberland was destroyed by the Scottish army in 1496.
James IV received Warbeck in Scotland in November 1495. The attraction of Warbeck to James lay in the recognition of Warbeck's claim to the English throne by Maximilian, King of the Romans, Ferdinand II and Isabella I of Spain, Philip, Duke of Burgundy, and Margaret of York. Embracing Warbeck's cause would give James IV international leverage to seek European alliances, and threatening Henry VII with Warbeck would surely produce a much more attractive offer of alliance from the English king. As Ferdinand and Isabella were negotiating an alliance with Henry VII, James knew that Spain would help him in his struggles with England in order to prevent the situation escalating into war with France. Spanish ambassadors arrived in Edinburgh, and later Pedro de Ayala was established as a resident ambassador during the crisis.
In September 1496, James IV invaded England alongside Warbeck, destroying Tillmouth, Duddo, Branxton and Howtel towers, and Twizell Castle and Heaton Castle. However, the army quickly retreated when resources were expended, and hoped-for support for Perkin Warbeck in Northumberland failed to materialise. The Scottish army left on 25 September 1496 when an English army commanded by Lord Neville approached from Newcastle. When news of this invasion reached Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, on 21 October 1496, he wrote to his ambassador in Spain, to request the Spanish monarchs make peace between England and Scotland. The peace mission was entrusted to the Spanish ambassador in Scotland, Pedro de Ayala. Later, wishing to be rid of Warbeck, James IV provided a ship called the Cuckoo and a hired crew under a Breton captain, Guy Foulcart. Horses were hired for 30 of Perkin's companions to ride to the ship at Ayr on 5 July 1497, where Perkin sailed to Ireland. In August 1497, James invaded England once more and laid siege to Norham Castle with a huge artillery train, including Mons Meg, a huge medieval bombard or cannon.