James III of Scotland
James III was King of Scots from 1460 until his death at the Battle of Sauchieburn in 1488. He inherited the throne as a child following the death of his father, King James II, at the siege of Roxburgh Castle. James III's reign began with a minority that lasted almost a decade, during which Scotland was governed by a series of regents and factions who struggled for possession of the young king before his personal rule began in 1469.
James III was an unpopular and ineffective king and was confronted with two major rebellions during his reign. He was much criticised by contemporaries and later chroniclers for his promotion of unrealistic schemes to invade or take possession of Brittany, Guelders and Saintonge at the expense of his regular duties as king. While his reign saw Scotland reach its greatest territorial extent with the acquisition of Orkney and Shetland through his marriage to Margaret of Denmark, James was accused of debasing the coinage, hoarding money, failing to resolve feuds and enforce criminal justice, and pursuing an unpopular policy of alliance with England. His preference for his own "low-born" favourites at court and in government alienated many of his bishops and nobles, as well as members of his own family, leading to tense relationships with his brothers, his wife, and his heir. In 1482, James's brother Alexander, Duke of Albany, attempted to usurp the throne with the aid of an invading English army, which led to the loss of Berwick-upon-Tweed and a coup by a group of nobles which saw the king imprisoned for a time, before being restored to power.
James's reputation as Scotland's first Renaissance monarch has sometimes been exaggerated. The artistic legacy of his reign was slight when compared to that of his two immediate successors and consists of the patronage of painters and musicians, coins that display realistic portraits of the king, the Trinity Altarpiece, and the King's Chapel at Restalrig. James III was killed at the Battle of Sauchieburn, following a rebellion in which his heir was the figurehead of the rebels, and succeeded him as James IV.
Early life
James was the first surviving son born to King James II and his wife, Mary of Guelders, the daughter of Arnold, Duke of Guelders, and a great-niece of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. The exact date and place of James's birth have been a matter of debate. Claims have been made that he was born in May 1452, or on 10 or 20 July 1451. The place of birth was either Stirling Castle or St Andrews Castle, depending on the year. His most recent biographer, Norman Macdougall, argued strongly for late May 1452 at St Andrews. The infant Duke of Rothesay was born during the crisis which had seen his father stab William, Earl of Douglas, to death in Stirling Castle. This murder did not end the power of the Douglases, but created a state of intermittent civil war until James II struck a decisive blow against the Douglases in 1455 at the Battle of Arkinholm, and Parliament declared the extensive Douglas lands forfeit and permanently annexed them to the Crown. James III ascended the throne following the death of his father at the siege of Roxburgh Castle on 3 August 1460, and the new king was brought to Kelso from Edinburgh with his mother. It was not considered possible to have the king journey to Perthshire for a coronation at Scone Abbey, so James III was crowned at Kelso Abbey, a week after James II's death, and two days after the fall of Roxburgh.Early reign
The Queen Regent
During the early years of James III's reign, the government was led by the queen mother, Mary of Guelders, as regent, while James was educated by Archibald Whitelaw, the Secretary of State and a classical scholar who had taught at St Andrews and Cologne. In March 1461, the first parliament of the reign appointed a council of regency consisting of the Bishop of St Andrews, the Bishop of Glasgow, and the earls of Angus, Huntly, Argyll, and Orkney.Mary of Guelders emerged as an astute and capable ruler, pursuing a pragmatic foreign policy during the Wars of the Roses taking place in England. Following the defeat of the Lancastrians by the Yorkists at the Battle of Towton in March 1461, Henry VI of England, Margaret of Anjou, and Edward, Prince of Wales, fled north across the border seeking refuge. They were received by Mary of Guelders and lodged at Linlithgow Palace and the Dominican friary in Edinburgh.
The Lancastrians expected Mary to provide them with Scottish troops to help Henry VI recover the throne, but she had no intention of becoming involved in a war on their behalf. Mary sought to gain as much as she could from the Lancastrian fugitives while opening negotiations with the victorious Yorkists to explore the possibility of a truce. In return for a year's refuge in Scotland and loans that Mary of Guelders granted them, the Lancastrians surrendered Berwick to the Scots in April 1461.
This period also saw disputes between Mary and James Kennedy, Bishop of St Andrews, over who had control over the person of James III and over foreign policy, with the bishop favouring an alliance with the Lancastrians, while Mary initially wanted to continue playing off the warring parties in England against each other before eventually supporting the Yorkists.
Although the sources for the period are vague, it is believed that Kennedy and his supporters mounted a coup in the autumn of 1462 by taking possession of the 10-year-old James III following an armed confrontation with Mary's supporters in Edinburgh. Mary of Guelders died in December 1463, leaving Bishop Kennedy in undisputed control of government.
Kennedys and Boyds
Bishop Kennedy died at St Andrews in May 1465, and his elder brother, Gilbert Kennedy, Lord Kennedy, assumed custody of James III. Lord Kennedy's guardianship lacked the sanction of Parliament, and his advancement of the Kennedy kin, such as the appointment of his half-brother, Patrick Graham, as the new bishop of St Andrews, made his regime increasingly unpopular.In July 1466, James III was seized while hunting at Linlithgow Palace by a large armed group led by Robert, Lord Boyd, and his son, Thomas, and was taken to Edinburgh Castle as the Boyds and their supporters mounted a coup to seize control of the government by gaining possession of the king during his minority. Gilbert Kennedy was then imprisoned in Stirling Castle for a period.
The 14-year-old king was forced to declare before Parliament in October that he had not been offended by being taken from Linlithgow, and that it was his intention to appoint Lord Boyd as his governor, to serve until his twenty-first year. The Boyd faction made itself unpopular, especially with the king, through self-aggrandizement such as the creation of Lord Boyd's son, Thomas, as earl of Arran, and Arran's marriage to the king's 13-year-old sister Mary in 1467, which antagonised the king and considerable sections of the three estates.
The Boyds sought to maintain power by gaining diplomatic success, and in August 1468, an embassy was sent to Denmark to secure a royal marriage. The ambassadors' negotiations resulted in a treaty which provided for an alliance between Scotland and Denmark, and James III's marriage to Margaret, the only daughter of King Christian I of Denmark and Norway. Margaret's dowry was 60,000 Rhenish guilders, 10,000 of which were to be paid before the Scottish embassy left Denmark.
However, Christian I was unable to raise more than 2,000 of the promised 10,000 guilders, and in May 1469, Orkney and Shetland were pledged by him, as king of Norway, to James III as security until the outstanding amount of Margaret's dowry. However, James had no intention of allowing the Danes to redeem their rights in Orkney and Shetland and would quickly acquire full sovereignty over the islands.
The Boyds' misuse of power to enrich themselves with lands and offices had made them many enemies, and in April 1468, there was an attempt by the king's half-uncles, the Earl of Atholl and James Stewart of Auchterhouse, and his younger brother, the Duke of Albany, to seize Edinburgh Castle and free the king from the Boyds.
The impending marriage of the now seventeen-year-old James III signalled an appropriate moment for him to bring his minority to an end, and the king began to plot his revenge against the Boyds in the summer of 1469, while Lord Boyd was on an embassy to the English court, and the earl of Arran was one of the ambassadors in Denmark.
Personal rule
When the fleet bearing Margaret of Denmark and the Scottish ambassadors arrived in Leith, the king's sister, Mary, wife of the Earl of Arran, informed her husband that the king was planning to have him arrested, and the couple fled together to Denmark by sea, and then to Bruges, where they were soon joined by Lord Boyd, who fled there from England. At a Parliament held in November, Lord Boyd, his brother, Sir Alexander, and the Earl of Arran, were all found guilty of treason and their peerages were forfeited. Sir Alexander was condemned to death and beheaded. James III married 13-year-old Margaret of Denmark in July 1469 at Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, in a service overseen by Archibald Crawford, the Abbot of Holyrood. The marriage produced three sons: James, Duke of Rothesay, James, Duke of Ross, and John, Earl of Mar.James III began his personal rule in 1469, yet his exercise of royal power was affected by the fact that he was one of the few Stewart monarchs who had to contend with the problem of an adult, legitimate brother. In 1469, James had two surviving younger brothers, Alexander, Duke of Albany, and John, Earl of Mar, then aged fourteen and about twelve, and three Stewart half-uncles, and each of them would complicate the politics of the reign. From the positive beginnings after his assumption of active control of government in 1469, James III's relationship with Parliament would lead to opposition, criticism, and outright confrontation over his foreign and domestic policies. The failure of the king to listen to the grievances raised by the three estates, or to abide by the concessions he made to them, were significant causes of the two major rebellions in 1482–1483 and 1488.