Scottish royal tapestry collection
The Scottish royal tapestry collection was a group of tapestry hangings assembled to decorate the palaces of sixteenth-century kings and queens of Scotland. None appear to have survived.
Scene from The Hunt of the Unicorn. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Henry VIII seated beneath a tapestry cloth of state
Recreation of the Unicorn Tapestries for Stirling Castle
The gatehouse at Holyrood Palace was converted into tapestry workshop in 1537
James V was King of Scotland from 9 September 1513 until his death in 1542. He was crowned on 21 September 1513 at the age of seventeen months. James was the son of King James IV and Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England. During his childhood Scotland was governed by regents, firstly by his mother until she remarried, and then by his first cousin once removed, John Stewart, Duke of Albany. James's personal rule began in 1528 when he finally escaped the custody of his stepfather, Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. His first action was to exile Angus and confiscate the lands of the Douglases.
Portrait by Corneille de Lyon, c. 1536
John Stewart, Duke of Albany James V's regent from 1515 to 1524
Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, James V's step-father
The four European orders of chivalry to which James V belonged — Garter, Thistle, Golden Fleece and St Michael — on the outer gate he built at his birthplace, Linlithgow Palace
