First James

The of Scotland

By Rballoch.

James1 of Scotland
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On 20 February, 1437 King James I of Scotland was assasinated. In memory of this King, I have written a small biography of his life and his reign. This by no means is a full account of the events in the Kings life -- or the events that took place in Scotland at the time, but the major events are covered to give an idea who this man was.

JAMES I of Scotland
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King of Scots (1424--37), born in Dunfermline, Fife, the second son of Robert III. After his elder brother David was murdered at Falkland (1402), allegedly by his uncle, the Duke of Albany, James was sent for safety to France, but was captured by the English, and remained a prisoner for 18 years. Albany meanwhile ruled Scotland as governor until his death in 1420, when his son, Murdoch, assumed the regency,
and the country rapidly fell into disorder.

The Regents
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James Stewart of the Royal house of Stuart spent most of his childhood life in exile as a prisoner of the English. The Scots who ruled in his absence as regents would not pay his high ransom the English demanded for his return to Scotland. Finally, after 18 years in exile, his countrymen agreed to his ransom and James returned to Scotland.

Scotland was in a near state of armed insurrection when James returned. The previous regent, Murdoch, had been a poor and corrupt regent and the clan feuds in the Highlands continued unabated. In the Lowlands and Borders, the Border Barons rode their raids, terrorized the burghs, and pursued the Crowns revenues by theiving the crown taxes for themselves. Less that 4% of revenues were actually reaching Edinburgh when James took over.

Murdoch, the regent soon regretted paying for James's return. "If God gives me but a dog's life," said James when he saw and heard what had befallen his country, "I will make the key keep the castle and the bracken bush keep the cow through all Scotland". In a week after his coronation a parliament at Perth declared that peace would be enforced throughout the realm, and of "any man presume to make war against another he shall suffer the full penalties of the law."

Once released (1424), James dealt ruthlessly with potential rivals to his authority, executing Murdoch and his family.

Within a year, James had broken the power of his cousins the Albany Stewarts and seized their estates. Upon some real or contrived charge of treason, the former regent of Scotland who had let James remain a prisoner in England so long, Murdoch and his two sons, with the aged father-in-law of one of them, were first imprisoned and then taken to the heading-block at Stirling.

There were men who mourned their death, despite all the corruption, believing them friends of the poor and the victims of James's tyranny. The romantic and frequently misguided attachment to the unsuccessful members of the House of Stewart has deep roots in Scotland's history.

James Takes Control of Scotland
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He was 32 when he came back to Scotland, of medium height but large-boned and thickset, quick in his movements like a fox. He was an athlete, rider and wrestler, skilled with bow and spear, and proud of the strength in his broad chest and muscled arms. His darting and inquisitive mind was fascinated by the machinery of war, gunnery in particular, as it intrigued most men of the day. He was also a poet and
muscian, and almost unique in the contradictory powers of tranquil reflection and uncompromising action. Beyond firm government perhaps, the greatest gift he brought to a bleak Scotland was some of the first of its lyrical verse.

Idle as a prisoner, albiet well kept prisoner, in England he had read all he could, and his long poem "The Kingis Quair", inspired by Chaucer's translation of a French allegory, is a soft voice speaking with a love of evocative words.

James was the first of many Stewart kings to act as a patron of the arts, and almost certainly wrote the tender, passionate collection of poems, ("The King's Quire" or book), c.1423--4.

It was not a woeful wretch who came home to Scotland, but the first real king the country had had since the death of Robert Bruce in 1329.

His bride was Joan Beaufort, a niece of English king Henry IV, and a sixth of his ransom had been obligingly remitted as her dowry. It was not only a marriage of dynastic arrangement, and many believe the tender poem referred to above , was about her as he viewed her from his prison tower, and fell in love with as she walked among the court.

From James I, perhaps comes that legendary Stewart charm, more disasterous to Scotland than an Albany's corrupt rule. But, the man who had sighed and written for and about love at a garden window in London, was merciless and resolute on a throne. His concern for law and order, while it was needed to secure his crown, also had roots in a poet's sense of justice, but he did not respond like a poet. When he had exterminated his cousins, he