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The news of the capture of his son was the final straw for Robert III. He died on 4 April 1406 and was laid to rest in the Abbey of Paisley. He supplied his own epitaph: ‘Here lies the worst of kings and the most wretched man in the whole realm.’
When confirmed as governor in June 1406, Albany was in his mid-60s. Scotland was a kingless kingdom – James had never been crowned, although he was still referred to as ‘our king’. Although undoubtedly a king in all but name, Albany didn’t have it all his own way.
Serious opposition remained from the lord of the Isles, Donald, who confronted Albany with a force of 10,000 clansmen at the Battle of Harlaw, near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, in July 1411. The cause of the hostilities was the attempt by Albany to secure the earldom of Ross for his second son, John, in spite of the fact that MacDonald had a better claim on the title. The battle was known as ‘Red’ Harlaw, due to the savagery with which it was fought. Although the battle was indecisive, the Stewarts claimed a victory because MacDonald withdrew from the field. Within a year, Albany had recaptured Ross and forced Donald to surrender.
Given his position in Scotland, Albany, who relished the trappings of power, was not in any hurry to secure the release of his nephew James from the English king, now Henry V – something he and his family were not forgiven for. He died in 1420 at more than 80 years old, and was buried at Dunfermline. Who says crime doesn’t pay?
Albany’s son Murdoch succeeded him as 2nd duke of Albany. He was responsible for negotiating the release of James from English custody in 1423 for a ransom of £40,000 to be paid over six years.
The Reign of James I
During his captivity in England, James was treated more as a guest than a prisoner. He received an education in the arts of kingship and formed a close bond with Henry V, who had come to the throne of England in 1413.
The presence of the uncrowned Scottish king at the side of the English king was of immense propaganda value during England’s wars in 1420 with France. The success of the English in these struggles saw James rise in English society. He was allowed to attend the coronation of Queen Catherine in February 1421as an honoured guest; the next month, he was knighted on St George’s Day.
James backed Henry’s ambition to become king of France and was joint commander with the duke of Bedford at the successful siege of Dreux in July 1421. When Henry died of dysentery at the age of 35, James was part of the escort, taking the English king’s body back to London.
The icing on the cake was the marriage between James and Joan Beaufort, the niece of Henry IV, on 12 February 1424. They had eight children together, including the future James III. No bastards this time – how very un-Stewart-like! At his coronation at Scone, when James received the allegiance of his nobles, he had them swear their allegiance to Joan as well, as if she was a co-monarch.
The fall of the Albany Stewarts
While under the tutelage (some might say ‘spell’) of Henry V, James learnt a great about the business of governing a kingdom. His arrival back in Scotland signalled a shift away from the weak, laissez-faire government of the first two Stewart kings. Instead, he introduced a much more vigorous monarchy in which the rights and privileges of the crown were ruthlessly enforced. Bad news for the Albany Stewarts!
Despite the fact that from 1413 until Murdoch’s release in 1415 they were together in the Tower of London and at Windsor Castle, James never forgave Murdoch for the part his family played in the death of his brother, duke of Rothesay, and for dragging his heels in negotiating James’s release from captivity. In 1425, James had the leading Albany Stewarts, including Murdoch and two of his sons, as well as the 80-year-old earl of Le
In retrospect, the conviction was made easier because Murdoch’s youngest son, James the Fat, in retaliation, led a rebellion with the men of Le
The early Renaissance prince
Not only had James learned the act of governance in England, but he returned a gifted writer, poet and musician. His
The Kingis Quair,
a semi-autobiographical piece, is considered one of the finest works of medieval Scottish literature and shows the influence of Geoffrey Chaucer. He also began the building of Linlithgow as an unfortified residence, something that later Stewarts would add to (see Chapter 9).
The Church also came under closer royal control. James appointed his own men to important
bishoprics
(dioceses) such as Dunblane and Glasgow. At his say-so, in 1425 the Scottish Parliament instructed clergy to say prayers for the monarch and his family. A year later, fines were introduced for those clerics failing in this duty.
The king also had a more cosmopolitan outlook than his predecessors, perhaps as a result of his English upbringing and his time in France. Unlike the two Roberts, who had married their daughters off to the leading nobility of Scotland, James looked farther afield for marriage partners among Europe’s elite. His 12-year-old daughter, Margaret, was betrothed to the dauphin of France in 1436, which drew him into the orbit of French influence (see ‘The French co
James was building a cult of the monarchy, but it was costly, and the means to achieve it created a great deal of resentment.
Money, money, money
Marriages cost money. A dowry was expected – the greater the catch, the bigger the down payment. Inevitably, taxes had to be raised to finance James’s ambitious foreign policy.
At the first meeting of the Scottish Parliament after his coronation, James persuaded it to introduce a general tax to pay for his ransom. Within a year, he had raised £26,000, but only half of that went to the English – he spent the rest supporting his lifestyle, including refurbishing Linlithgow.
To raise income, James reclaimed customs revenues that had, in the past, been used to provide pensions and a
The lord of the Isles
The governorship of Albany had failed to deal with the threat posed by the lord of the Isles to internal stability in spite of the bloody Battle of Harlaw. James was determined to bring the lord of Isles to heel.
In August 1429, James summoned the clan chiefs in the north and west to a sitting of Parliament in Inverness. As each of the 50 or so chiefs appeared before the king, they were seized and thrown into a dungeon, including Alexander, 3rd Lord of the Isles and his mother, Mary, Countess of Ross. Three of the chiefs were hanged, but the remainder, with the exception of Alexander and his mother, were quickly released.
When James and his Parliament left Inverness, Alexander sacked the town. The king immediately retaliated and confronted him at Lochaber, where he demanded that Alexander pay homage to him in Edinburgh. Wearing only a shirt and drawers and holding his claymore by the blade, the lord of the Isles knelt before the high altar at Holyrood and offered the king his weapon – a humiliating experience for someone who considered himself the monarch of the Highlands.
But the problem was never resolved. You could argue that James’s humiliation of Alexander only intensified Alexander’s desire for revenge. In September 1431, the Islesmen rose again and won two important victories over the king’s men. The earl of Mar’s army was beaten at Inverlochy, Inverness-shire, as was Angus Moray in a fierce battle near Tongue, Caithness. These defeats seriously dented the reputation of the king and his credibility as a warrior king.
The French co
The marriage of Princess Margaret to the French dauphin brought Scotland into the sphere of French influence, something that James had tried to avoid – he preferred a neutral stance between France and England. However, the collapse of talks between these two rivals led to an alliance between France and Burgundy against England. As part of the marriage agreement, the French insisted that Scotland become involved and invade England. In the spring of 1436, Margaret left for France, and in August that year, James led a large army to lay siege to the English-held Roxburgh Castle. But the siege had to be abandoned after two months – another blow to his already bruised reputation.
James called another general council in October 1436 to raise taxes to advance the war against the English. But this time, he was met with a severe rebuff and an unprecedented attempt by Sir Robert Graham, a servant to the king’s uncle, Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl, to arrest him. The knight was imprisoned and finally banished from Scotland. But the king failed to see the bigger picture. He interpreted Graham’s action as a random, one-off event by a disgruntled loose ca
To kill a king
In part, James’s difficulties can be traced back to his grandfather Robert II’s siring of so many illegitimate children by his mistress, Elizabeth Mure, of which his father Robert III was one. Although the couple married in 1348 in an attempt to legitimise their offspring, a section of the Scottish nobility never came to terms with this and saw the children of Robert II’s second marriage to Euphemia as the rightful heirs to the throne.
In part, the problems can also be put down to James’s reign of terror and intimidation of rivals. James didn’t set out to tame his lawless nobles; he set out to a
On 24 February 1437, James was murdered in his bedroom in the Dominican friary at Perth. The king’s cousin Sir Robert Stewart was chamberlain of the royal household and part of the conspiracy cooked up by his father and the king’s uncle, Walter, Earl of Atholl. Walter was also the son of Euphemia. Sir Robert used his privileged position to allow a small band of assassins, led by Sir Robert Graham, to enter the building. James’s servants alerted him to the danger, and he tried to escape via a sewer, but it was blocked. Trapped, with nowhere to go, the king was brutally murdered.