James IV of Scotland
James IV was the King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 to his death. He assumed the throne following the death of his father, King James III, at the Battle of Sauchieburn, a rebellion in which the younger James played an indirect role, he is regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended in a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden. He was the last monarch from the island of Great Britain to be killed in battle. James IV's marriage in 1503 to Margaret Tudor linked the royal houses of England, it led to the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when Elizabeth I died without heirs and James IV's great-grandson James VI succeeded to the English throne as James I. James was the son of Margaret of Denmark, born in Holyrood Abbey; as heir apparent to the Scottish crown, he became Duke of Rothesay. He had two younger brothers and John. In 1474, his father arranged his betrothal to the English princess Cecily of York, daughter of Edward IV of England, his father James III was not a popular king, facing two major rebellions during his reign, alienating many members of his close family his younger brother Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany.
James III's pro-English policy was unpopular, rebounded badly upon him when the marriage negotiations with England broke down over lapsed dowry payments, leading to the invasion of Scotland and capture of Berwick in 1482 by Cecily's uncle 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 imprisoned by his own councillors in the first major crisis of his reign. James IV's mother, Margaret of Denmark, was more popular than his father, though somewhat estranged from her husband she was given responsibility for raising their sons at Stirling Castle, but she died in 1486. Two years a second rebellion broke out, where the rebels set up the 15-year-old Prince James as their nominal leader, they fought James III at the Battle of Sauchieburn on 11 June 1488, where the king was killed, though several sources claimed that Prince James had forbidden any man to harm his father. The younger James was crowned at Scone on 24 June.
However he continued to bear intense guilt for the indirect role which he had played in the death of his father. He decided to do penance for his sin; each Lent, for the rest of his life, he wore a heavy iron chain cilice around his waist, next to the skin. He added extra ounces every year. James IV proved an effective ruler and a wise king, he defeated another rebellion in 1489, took a direct interest in the administration of justice and brought the Lord of the Isles under control in 1493. For a time, he supported Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the English throne, carried out a brief invasion of England on his behalf in September 1496. In August 1497, James laid siege to Norham Castle, using his grandfather's bombard Mons Meg. James recognised nonetheless that peace between Scotland and England was in the interest of both countries, established good diplomatic relations with England, emerging at the time from a period of civil war. First he ratified the Treaty of Ayton in 1497. In 1502 James signed the Treaty of Perpetual Peace with Henry VII.
This treaty was sealed by his marriage to Henry's daughter Margaret Tudor the next year, in an event portrayed as the marriage of The Thrissil and the Rois by the great poet William Dunbar, resident at James' court. James was granted the title of Defender of the Faith in 1507 by the Papal Legate at Holyrood Abbey. James maintained Scotland's traditional good relations with France and this created diplomatic problems with England. For example, when rumours that James would renew the Auld alliance circulated in April 1508, Thomas Wolsey was sent to discuss Henry VII's concerns over this. Wolsey found "there was never a man worse welcome into Scotland than I... they keep their matters so secret here that the wives in the market know every cause of my coming." Nonetheless, Anglo-Scottish relations remained stable until the death of Henry VII in 1509. James saw the importance of building a fleet that could provide Scotland with a strong maritime presence. James founded two new dockyards for this purpose and acquired a total of 38 ships for the Royal Scots Navy, including the Margaret, the carrack Great Michael.
The latter, built at great expense at Newhaven, near Edinburgh and launched in 1511, was 240 feet in length, weighed1,000 tons and was, at that time, the largest ship in the world. James IV was a true Renaissance prince with an interest in scientific matters, he granted the Incorporation of Surgeons and Barbers of Edinburgh a royal charter in 1506, turned Edinburgh Castle into one of Scotland's foremost gun foundries, welcomed the establishment of Scotland's first printing press in 1507. He built a part of Falkland Palace, Great Halls at Stirling and Edinburgh castles, furnished his palaces with tapestries. James was a patron of the arts, including many literary figures, most notably the Scots makars whose diverse and observant works convey a vibrant and memorable picture of cultural life and intellectual concerns of the period. Figures associated with his court include William Dunbar, Walter Kennedy and Gavin Douglas, who made the first complete translation of Virgil's Aeneid in northern Europe.
His reign saw the passing of the makar Robert Henryson. He patronised music at Restalrig using rental money from t
David II of Scotland
David II was King of Scots for over 41 years, from 1329 until his death in 1371. He was the last male of the House of Bruce. Although David spent long periods in exile or captivity, he managed to resist English attempts to annex his kingdom, left the monarchy in a strong position. David II was the elder and only surviving son of Robert I of Scotland and his second wife, Elizabeth de Burgh, he was born on 5 March 1324 at Fife. His mother died in 1327. In accordance with the Treaty of Northampton's terms, on 17 July 1328, when he was 4, David was married to 7 year old Joan of the Tower, at Berwick-upon-Tweed, she was the daughter of Edward II of Isabella of France. They had no issue. David became King of Scots upon the death of his father on 7 June 1329, aged 5 years, 3 months, 3 days. David and his wife were crowned at Scone on 24 November 1331. During David's minority, Sir Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray was appointed Guardian of Scotland by the Act of Settlement of 1318. After Moray's death, on 20 July 1332, he was replaced by Donald, Earl of Mar, elected by an assembly of the magnates of Scotland at Perth, 2 August 1332.
Only ten days Mar fell at the Battle of Dupplin Moor. Sir Andrew Murray of Bothwell, married to Christian, the sister of King Robert I, was chosen as the new Guardian, he was taken prisoner by the English at Roxburgh in April 1333 and was thence replaced as Guardian by Archibald Douglas, who fell at Halidon Hill that July. Meanwhile, on 24 September 1332, following the Scots' defeat at Dupplin, Edward Balliol, a protégé of Edward III of England, a pretender to the throne of Scotland, was crowned by the English and his Scots adherents. By December, Balliol was forced to flee to England, although he returned the following year as part of an invasion force led by the English king. Following the English victory at the Battle of Halidon Hill in July 1333, David and his wife were sent for safety into France, reaching Boulogne on 14 May 1334, they were received graciously by King Philip VI. Little is known about the life of the Scottish king in France, except that Château Gaillard was given to him for a residence, that he was present at the bloodless meeting of the English and French armies in October 1339 at Vironfosse, now known as Buironfosse, in the Arrondissement of Vervins.
By 1341, David's representatives had once again obtained the upper hand in Scotland. David was able to return to his kingdom, landing at Inverbervie in Kincardineshire on 2 June 1341, he took the reins of government into his own hands, at the age of 17. In 1346, under the terms of the Auld Alliance, David invaded England in the interests of the French, who were at war with the English in Normandy. After initial success at Hexham, David was wounded, his army soundly defeated at the Battle of Neville's Cross on 17 October 1346. David was captured and taken prisoner by Sir John de Coupland, who imprisoned him in the Tower of London. David was transferred to Windsor Castle in Berkshire upon the return of Edward III from France; the depiction of David being presented to King Edward III in the play The Reign of King Edward the Third is fictitious. David and his household were moved to Odiham Castle in Hampshire, his imprisonment was not reputed to be a rigorous one, although he remained captive in England for eleven years.
On 3 October 1357, after several protracted negotiations with the Scots' regency council, a treaty was signed at Berwick-upon-Tweed under which Scotland's nobility agreed to pay 100,000 marks, at the rate of 10,000 marks per year, as a ransom for their king. This was ratified by the Scottish Parliament at Scone on 6 November 1357. David returned at once to Scotland. After six years, owing to the poverty of the kingdom, it was found impossible to raise the ransom installment of 1363. David made for London and sought to get rid of the liability by offering to bequeath Scotland to Edward III, or one of his sons, in return for a cancellation of the ransom. David did this with the full awareness. In 1364, the Scottish parliament indignantly rejected a proposal to make Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the next king. Over the next few years, David strung out secret negotiations with Edward III, which appeased the matter, his wife, Queen Joan, died 7 September 1362 at Hertford Castle, most a victim of the Black Death.
He remarried, about 20 February 1364, Margaret Drummond, widow of Sir John Logie, daughter of Sir Malcolm Drummond. He divorced her about 20 March 1370, they had no children. Margaret, travelled to Avignon, made a successful appeal to the Pope Urban V to reverse the sentence of divorce, pronounced against her in Scotland, she was still alive in January 1375. From 1364, David governed with vigour, dealing with recalcitrant nobles, a wider baronial revolt. David continued to pursue the goal of a final peace with England. At the time of his death, the Scottish monarchy was stronger, the kingdom and the royal finances more prosperous than might have seemed possible. David II died unexpectedly, at the height of his power, in Edinburgh Castle on 22 February 1371, he was buried in Holyrood Abbey. The funeral was overseen by Abbot Thomas. At the time of his death, he was planning to marry his mistress, Agnes Dunbar, the niece of Agnes Randolph, known as "Black Agnes of Dunbar", he left no children and was succeeded by his nephew, Robert II, the son of David's half-sister Marjorie Bruce.
He was the last male of the House of Bruce. David II has been depicted in historical novels, they include Poictiers.
Bawbee
A bawbee was a Scottish halfpenny. The word means a debased copper coin, valued at six pence Scots, issued from the reign of James V of Scotland to the reign of William II of Scotland, they were hammered until 1677. The bawbee was introduced by James V in 1538, valued at sixpence; these carry his'I5' monogram flanking a crowned thistle, a large saltire on the reverse with a central crown. There was smaller half bawbee and quarter bawbee. Around the year 1544 his widow Mary of Guise minted bawbees at Stirling Castle, with the'MR' cipher, the cross potent with crosslets of Lorraine on the reverse; the first bawbees of Mary, Queen of Scots issued by the mint at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh carried the cinquefoil emblems of Regent Arran. The issue of King Charles II was a coin of copper with the famed reverse inscription Nemo me impune lacessit, although the last word on these coins was spelled "Lacesset"; this motto is still in use today on the edge of the circulating Scottish one Pound Sterling coins.
The motto is around a crowned thistle followed by the date. This coin was valued at half an English penny, it was metaphorically used for a fortune by Sir Alexander Boswell, the son of the more famous James Boswell, the biographer of Dr. Johnson, it occurs in the song of Jennie’s Bawbee Sir Alexander took the hint of his song from a much older one: Brewer's lists "Jenny's Bawbee" as meaning a "marriage portion". The term "bawbee" continued to mean a halfpenny when England and Scotland shared a common coinage after 1707, as can be seen in the poem Lament for Ancient Edinburgh by James Ballantine published in 1856; the word was still current in the 20th century and continues to be used to refer to Bawbee Baps or cakes in Aberdeen. A popular song, The Crookit Bawbee, was recorded by The Alexander Brothers and Kenneth McKellar amongst others, the tune remains a staple for Scottish country dance band music; the song has a rich suitor asking why his "bright gowd" and "hame... in bonnie Glenshee" are being turned down, the lady referring to a laddie when she was a young "bairnie", her heart "Was gi'en him lang-syne, for this crookit bawbee."
The rich suitor turns out to be the laddie returned to his love. The bawbee is referred to in the popular Scots song Coulter's Candy: The tale is that the people of Kirkmahoe were so poor, they could not afford to put any meat into their broth. A'cute cobbler invested all his money in buying four sheep-shanks, when a neighbour wanted to make mutton broth, for the payment of one halfpenny the cobbler would "plump" one of the sheep-shanks into the boiling water, give it a "wallop" or whisk round, he wrapped it in a cabbage-leaf and took it home. This was called a gustin bone, was supposed to give a rich "gust" to the broth; the cobbler found his gustin bone profitable. According to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, The word "bawbee" is derived from the Laird of Sillebawby, a mint-master; that there was such a laird is quite certain from the Treasurer's account, September 7th, 1541, "In argento receptis a Jacobo Atzinsone, et Alexandro Orok de Sillebawby respective." This Master of the Mint, appointed by James V, was responsible for the introduction of a silver coin valued at six three, pennies Scots, named after his estate.
Sillebawby was a farm in the parish of Burntisland in Fife, a moorland portion of the farm of Balbie. Its name takes various forms throughout its recorded history: Sybbable, Selybawbey are some early examples; the examples Silverbabie, Silver-baby and Silverbarton may have arisen from a nickname marking the connection to the silver coin. Brewer's gives an alternative etymology, states its origin from "French, bas billon,", but this is a kind of speculative folk-etymology. Bodle Plack Pound Scots Scottish coinage Nicholas. Scottish Coins: A History of Small Change in Scotland. NMS Publishing ISBN 1-901663-02-7 MacKay, Charles. A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Bawbee at Brewers Phrase and Fable
Penny Scots
Penny was used in Scottish parlance for money generally. Meanwhile, penny-wheep was poor beer. My riches a’s my penny-fee, And I maun guide it canny, O; the older Scottish Gaelic word for penny was peighinn. The modern form is sgillinn shilling, which reflects the fact that at the Union with England in 1707, the exchange rate was fixed at twelve Pounds Scots to one Pound Sterling so one shilling Scots exchanged for one English penny. Scottish coinage Pennyland Bawbee Bodle Plack Pound Scots Black saxpence MacKay, Charles – A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch
Mints of Scotland
There were a number of mints in Scotland, for the production of the Scottish coinage. The most important mint was in the capital, active from the reign of David I, was the last to close, in the 19th century. Carlisle was the first Scottish mint in 1136. According to Bateson, David I began to mint coins after capturing the city. Mints at Bamburgh and Corbridge in Northumberland, under the control of David's son Henry, Earl of Northumberland returned to English control. Under Alexander III there were 16 mints. In the reign of James IV, the sole mint was located at Edinburgh. After this time, the only other active mint was at Stirling, where bawbees, or halfpennies, were minted under Queen Mary. Minting ceased in Scotland in 1709 when the Edinburgh Mint produced its last batch of coins at the end of the 1707–1710 Scottish recoinage, although it retained its permanent officials for a further hundred years, until 1814; the mint was abolished in 1817 and sold in 1830. The title of'Governor of the Mint of Scotland', which passed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer under the Coinage Act 1870, was abolished with the passing of the Coinage Act 1971.
Adam de Cardonnel. Numismata Scotiæ Or, A Series of the Scottish Coinage, from the Reign of William the Lion to the Union. George Nicol, Edinburgh. Donald Bateson. Scottish Coins. Shire Publications Ltd. Bucks, 1987, ISBN 0-85263-847-7 James Mackay – John Mussel: Coin Price Guide to British coins, Token Publishing Ltd, Devon Ian Halley Stewart; the Scottish Coinage, Spink & Son, London, 1955
Charles II of England
Charles II was king of England and Ireland. He was king of Scotland from 1649 until his deposition in 1651, king of England and Ireland from the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 until his death. Charles II's father, Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. Although the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II king on 5 February 1649, England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth, the country was a de facto republic, led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, Charles fled to mainland Europe. Cromwell became virtual dictator of England and Ireland. Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands. A political crisis that followed the death of Cromwell in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy, Charles was invited to return to Britain. On 29 May 1660, his 30th birthday, he was received in London to public acclaim.
After 1660, all legal documents were dated as if he had succeeded his father as king in 1649. Charles's English parliament enacted laws known as the Clarendon Code, designed to shore up the position of the re-established Church of England. Charles acquiesced to the Clarendon Code though he favoured a policy of religious tolerance; the major foreign policy issue of his early reign was the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1670, he entered into the Treaty of Dover, an alliance with his first cousin King Louis XIV of France. Louis agreed to aid him in the Third Anglo-Dutch War and pay him a pension, Charles secretly promised to convert to Catholicism at an unspecified future date. Charles attempted to introduce religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters with his 1672 Royal Declaration of Indulgence, but the English Parliament forced him to withdraw it. In 1679, Titus Oates's revelations of a supposed Popish Plot sparked the Exclusion Crisis when it was revealed that Charles's brother and heir, Duke of York, was a Catholic.
The crisis saw the birth of anti-exclusion Tory parties. Charles sided with the Tories, following the discovery of the Rye House Plot to murder Charles and James in 1683, some Whig leaders were executed or forced into exile. Charles dissolved the English Parliament in 1681, ruled alone until his death on 6 February 1685, he was received into the Catholic Church on his deathbed. Charles was one of the most popular and beloved kings of England, known as the Merry Monarch, in reference to both the liveliness and hedonism of his court and the general relief at the return to normality after over a decade of rule by Cromwell and the Puritans. Charles's wife, Catherine of Braganza, bore no live children, but Charles acknowledged at least twelve illegitimate children by various mistresses, he was succeeded by his brother James. Charles II was born at St James's Palace on 29 May 1630, his parents were Charles I, who ruled the three kingdoms of England and Ireland, Henrietta Maria, the sister of the French king Louis XIII.
Charles was their second child. Their first son died within a day. England and Ireland were predominantly Anglican and Catholic. Charles was baptised in the Chapel Royal, on 27 June, by the Anglican Bishop of London, William Laud, he was brought up in the care of the Protestant Countess of Dorset, though his godparents included his maternal uncle Louis XIII and his maternal grandmother, Marie de' Medici, the Dowager Queen of France, both of whom were Catholics. At birth, Charles automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, along with several other associated titles. At or around his eighth birthday, he was designated Prince of Wales, though he was never formally invested. During the 1640s, when Charles was still young, his father fought Parliamentary and Puritan forces in the English Civil War. Charles accompanied his father during the Battle of Edgehill and, at the age of fourteen, participated in the campaigns of 1645, when he was made titular commander of the English forces in the West Country.
By spring 1646, his father was losing the war, Charles left England due to fears for his safety. Setting off from Falmouth after staying at Pendennis Castle, he went first to the Isles of Scilly to Jersey, to France, where his mother was living in exile and his first cousin, eight-year-old Louis XIV, was king. Charles I surrendered into captivity in May 1646. In 1648, during the Second English Civil War, Charles moved to The Hague, where his sister Mary and his brother-in-law William II, Prince of Orange, seemed more to provide substantial aid to the royalist cause than his mother's French relations. However, the royalist fleet that came under Charles's control was not used to any advantage, did not reach Scotland in time to join up with the royalist Engager army of the Duke of Hamilton before it was defeated at the Battle of Preston by the Parliamentarians. At The Hague, Charles had a brief affair with Lucy Walter, who falsely claimed that they had secretly married, her son, James Crofts, was one of Charles's many illegitimate children who became prominent in British society.
Despite his son's diplomatic efforts to save him, King Charles I was beheaded in January 1649, England became a republic. On 5 February, the Covenanter Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II "King of Great Britain and Ireland" at the Mercat Cross, but refused to allow him to enter Scotland unless he accepted the imposition of Presbyterianism throughout Britain and Ireland; when negotiations with the Scot
James VI and I
James VI and I was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death in 1625. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, a great-great-grandson of Henry VII, King of England and Lord of Ireland, positioning him to accede to all three thrones. James succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother was compelled to abdicate in his favour. Four different regents governed during his minority, which ended in 1578, though he did not gain full control of his government until 1583. In 1603, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who died childless, he continued to reign in all three kingdoms for 22 years, a period known after him as the Jacobean era, until his death in 1625 at the age of 58.
After the Union of the Crowns, he based himself in England from 1603, only returning to Scotland once in 1617, styled himself "King of Great Britain and Ireland". He was a major advocate of a single parliament for Scotland. In his reign, the Plantation of Ulster and British colonisation of the Americas began. At 57 years and 246 days, James's reign in Scotland was longer than those of any of his predecessors, he achieved most of his aims in Scotland but faced great difficulties in England, including the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and repeated conflicts with the English Parliament. Under James, the "Golden Age" of Elizabethan literature and drama continued, with writers such as William Shakespeare, John Donne, Ben Jonson, Sir Francis Bacon contributing to a flourishing literary culture. James himself was a talented scholar, the author of works such as Daemonologie, The True Law of Free Monarchies, Basilikon Doron, he sponsored the translation of the Bible into English that would be named after him: the Authorised King James Version.
Sir Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed "the wisest fool in Christendom", an epithet associated with his character since. Since the latter half of the 20th century, historians have tended to revise James's reputation and treat him as a serious and thoughtful monarch, he was committed to a peace policy, tried to avoid involvement in religious wars the Thirty Years' War that devastated much of Central Europe. He tried but failed to prevent the rise of hawkish elements in the English Parliament who wanted war with Spain. James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Both Mary and Darnley were great-grandchildren of Henry VII of England through Margaret Tudor, the older sister of Henry VIII. Mary's rule over Scotland was insecure, she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion by Protestant noblemen. During Mary's and Darnley's difficult marriage, Darnley secretly allied himself with the rebels and conspired in the murder of the Queen's private secretary, David Rizzio, just three months before James's birth.
James was born on 19 June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle, as the eldest son and heir apparent of the monarch automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. He was baptised "Charles James" or "James Charles" on 17 December 1566 in a Catholic ceremony held at Stirling Castle, his godparents were Charles IX of France, Elizabeth I of England, Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy. Mary refused to let the Archbishop of St Andrews, whom she referred to as "a pocky priest", spit in the child's mouth, as was the custom; the subsequent entertainment, devised by Frenchman Bastian Pagez, featured men dressed as satyrs and sporting tails, to which the English guests took offence, thinking the satyrs "done against them". James's father, was murdered on 10 February 1567 at Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh in revenge for the killing of Rizzio. James inherited his father's titles of Duke of Earl of Ross. Mary was unpopular, her marriage on 15 May 1567 to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, suspected of murdering Darnley, heightened widespread bad feeling towards her.
In June 1567, Protestant rebels imprisoned her in Loch Leven Castle. She was forced to abdicate on 24 July 1567 in favour of the infant James and to appoint her illegitimate half-brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, as regent; the care of James was entrusted to the Earl and Countess of Mar, "to be conserved and upbrought" in the security of Stirling Castle. James was anointed King of Scots at the age of thirteen months at the Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling, by Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, on 29 July 1567; the sermon at the coronation was preached by John Knox. In accordance with the religious beliefs of most of the Scottish ruling class, James was brought up as a member of the Protestant Church of Scotland, the Kirk; the Privy Council selected George Buchanan, Peter Young, Adam Erskine, David Erskine as James's preceptors or tutors. As the young king's senior tutor, Buchanan subjected James to regular beatings but instilled in him a lifelong passion for literature and learning. Buchanan sought to turn James into a God-fearing, Protestant king who accepted the limitations of monarchy, as outlined in his treatise De Jure Regni apud Scotos.
In 1568, Mary escaped from her i
