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Scotland - Late Mediaeval Events
After David's death, Robert II, the first of the Stuart kings, came to throne (1371).
There followed (1390) his ailing son John, who, due to the hatred inspired by the previous King John (Balliol), took the reginal name Robert III.
During Robert III's reign (1390 – 1406), actual power rested largely in the hands of his brother, also named Robert, the Duke of Albany.
In 1396 during this king's reign, the last trial by combat in Europe, the Battle of the Clans took place before the King in Perth.
However problems with England continued.
In 1406, the future James I went to France for safety after the assassination of his elder brother. Unfortunately the English captured him en route and he spent the next 18 years as a prisoner held for ransom.
As a result, after the death of Robert III, regents ruled Scotland: firstly, the Duke of Albany; and later his son, during whose office the country fell into near anarchy.
When Scotland finally paid the ransom in 1424, James returned at the age of 32, with his English bride. He determined to restore justice and the rule of law and to deal with his enemies.
He set about this immediately and ruthlessly, using military measures, reforming the parliamentary and court systems, and killing anyone who threatened his authority, including his cousin Albany.
This resulted in a great improvement in Scottish government over anything preceding it, but the process led to great unpopularity for James and finally to his assassination in 1437.
His son James II (reigned 1437–1460), when he came of age in 1449, continued his father's policy of weakening the great noble families, most notably taking on the great House of Douglas that had come to prominence at the time of the Bruce.
Scotland advanced markedly in educational terms during the fifteenth century with the founding of the University of St Andrews in 1413, the University of Glasgow in 1450 and the University of Aberdeen in 1494, and with the passing of the Education Act (1496).
In 1468 the last great acquisition of Scottish territory occurred when James III married Margaret of Denmark, receiving the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands in payment of her dowry.
After the death of James III (1488), again by assassination, his successor James IV successfully ended the quasi-independent rule of the Lord of the Isles, bringing the Western Isles under effective Royal control for the first time.
In 1503, he married Henry VII's daughter, Margaret Tudor, thus laying the foundation for the 17th century Union of the Crowns.
In 1512 under a treaty extending the Auld Alliance, all nationals of Scotland and France also became nationals of each other's countries, a status not repealed in France until 1903 and which may never have been repealed in Scotland.
However a year later, the Auld Alliance had more disastrous effects when James IV was required to launch an invasion of England to support the French when they were attacked by the English under Henry VIII.
The invasion was stopped decisively at the battle of Flodden Field during which the King, many of his nobles, and over 10,000 troops — The Flowers of the Forest — were killed.
The extent of the disaster impacted throughout Scotland because of the large numbers killed, and once again Scotland's government lay in the hands of regents.
The song The Flooers o' the Forest commemorated this, an echo of the poem Y Gododdin on a similar tragedy in about 600.
When James V finally managed to escape from the clutches of the regents with the aid of his redoubtable mother in 1528, he once again set about subduing the rebellious Highlands, Western and Northern isles, as his father had had to do.
His second marriage, to the French noblewoman Marie de Guise, brought him a daughter, Mary, only days before his death in 1542 shortly after the battle of Solway Moss. Once again Scotland was in the hands of a regent, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran.
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Click here for the Scotland360.com History of Scotland Index page.
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