James II, who reigned as king of Scots from 1437 on, was the son of James I and
Joan Beaufort. Nothing is known of his early life, but by his first birthday
his twin and only brother, Alexander, who was also the older twin, had died,
thus making James the heir apparent and Duke of Rothesay. Curiously enough,
James held no other titles while Duke of Rothesay. On 21 February 1437, James I
was assassinated and the six-year-old Duke of Rothesay immediately succeeded
him as James II. In 1449, nineteen-year-old James married
fifteen-year-old Mary of Guelders, daughter of the Duke of Gelderland. She
bore him seven children, six of whom survived into adulthood. Subsequently,
the relations between Flanders and Scotland improved. James's nickname,
Fiery Face, referred to a conspicuous vermilion birthmark on his face which
appears to have been deemed by contemporaries an outward sign of a
fiery temper. James was a politic, and singularly
successful king. He was popular with the commoners, with whom, like most of the
Stewarts, he socialised often, in times of peace and war. His legislation has a
markedly popular character. He does not appear to have inherited his father's
taste for literature, which was "inherited" by at least two of his
sisters; but the foundation of the university of Glasgow during his reign,
by Bishop Turnbull, shows that he encouraged learning; and there are also
traces of his endowments to St. Salvator's, the new college of
Archbishop Kennedy at St Andrews. He possessed much of his father's restless
energy. However, his murder of the Earl of Douglas leaves a stain on his reign.
Early reign James I was assassinated on 21 February
1437. The Queen, although hurt, managed to get to her six-year-old son, who was
now king. On 25 March 1437, the six-year-old was formally crowned King
of Scots at Holyrood Abbey. The Parliament of Scotland revoked
alienations of crown property and prohibited them, without the consent of
the Estates, that is, until James II's eighteenth birthday. He lived along with
his mother and five of his six sisters at Dunbar Castle until 1439.
From 1437 to 1439 the King's first cousin Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of
Douglas, headed the government as lieutenant-general of the realm. After
his death, and with a general lack of high-status earls in Scotland due to
deaths, forfeiture or youth, political power became shared uneasily among
William Crichton, 1st Lord Crichton, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, and Sir
Alexander Livingston of Callendar, who had possession of the young king as the
warden of the stronghold of Stirling Castle. Taking advantage of these
events, Livingston placed Queen Joan and her new husband, Sir John Stewart, under
"house arrest" at Stirling Castle on 3 August 1439. They were released on 4
September only by making a formal agreement to put James in the custody of
the Livingstons, by giving up her dowry for his maintenance, and confessing that
Livingston had acted through zeal for the king's safety.
In 1440, in the King's name, an invitation is said to have been sent to
the young 6th Earl of Douglas and his brother, eleven-year-old David, to visit
the king at Edinburgh Castle in November 1440. They came, and were entertained at
the royal table, from which they were treacherously hurried to their doom,
which took place by beheading in the castle yard of Edinburgh on 24 November.
Three days later Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld, their chief adherent,
shared the same fate. This infamous incident took the name of "the Black
Dinner". Struggles with the Douglases
In 1449 James II reached adulthood, yet in many ways his "active kingship"
differed little from his minority. The Douglases used his coming of age as a
way to throw the Livingstons out of the shared government, as the young king
took revenge for the brief arrest of his mother that had taken place in 1439.
Douglas and Crichton continued to dominate political power, and the king's
ability to rule without them remained arguably limited.
But James did not acquiesce with this situation without argument, and between
1451 and 1455 he struggled to free himself from the power of the Douglases.
Attempts to curb the Douglases' power took place in 1451, during the absence
of the Earl of Douglas from Scotland, and culminated with the murder of Lord
Douglas at Stirling Castle on 22 February 1452.
The main account of Douglas's murder comes from the Auchinleck Chronicle, a
near contemporary but fragmentary source. According to its account, the
king accused the Earl of forging links with John Macdonald, 11th Earl of Ross,
and Alexander Lindsay, 4th Earl of Crawford. This bond, if it existed,
created a dangerous axis of power of independently-minded men, forming a
major rival to royal authority. When Douglas refused to break the bond with
Ross, James broke into a fit of temper and stabbed Douglas 26 times and threw
his body out of a window. His court officials then joined in the bloodbath,
one allegedly striking out the Earl's brain with an axe.
This murder did not end the power of the Douglases, but rather created a state of
intermittent civil war between 1452 and 1455. The main engagements were at
Brodick, on the Isle of Arran; Inverkip in Renfrew; and the Battle of Arkinholm.
James attempted to seize Douglas lands, but his opponents repeatedly forced him
into humiliating climbdowns, whereby he returned the lands to James Douglas, 9th
Earl of Douglas, and a brief and uneasy peace ensued.
Military campaigns ended indecisively, and some have argued that James stood in
serious danger of being overthrown, or of having to flee the country. But
James's patronage of lands, titles and office to allies of the Douglases saw
their erstwhile allies begin to change sides, most importantly the Earl of
Crawford after the Battle of Brechin, and in May 1455 James struck a decisive
blow against the Douglases, and they were finally defeated at the Battle of
Arkinholm. In the months that followed, the
Parliament of Scotland declared the extensive Douglas lands forfeit and
permanently annexed them to the crown, along with many other lands, finances
and castles. The Earl fled into a long English exile. James finally had the
freedom to govern as he wished, and one can argue that his successors as Kings
of Scots never faced such a powerful challenge to their authority again.
Along with the forfeiture of the Albany Stewarts in the reign of James I, the
destruction of the Black Douglases saw royal power in Scotland take a major
step forward. Energetic rule
Between 1455 and 1460 James II proved to be an active and interventionist king.
Ambitious plans to take Orkney, Shetland and the Isle of Man nonetheless did not
succeed. The king travelled the country and has been argued to have originated
the practice of raising money by giving remissions for serious crimes. It has
also been argued that some of the unpopular policies of James III
originated in the late 1450s. In 1458 an Act of Parliament commanded
the king to modify his behaviour, but one cannot say how his reign would have
developed had he lived longer. James II is the first Scots monarch for
whom a contemporary likeness has survived, in the form of a woodcut
showing his birthmark on the face. Marriage
In 1449, Mary of Guelders was recommended by Philip the Good as a
suitable bride for James. The negotiations began in July 1447, when a
Burgundian envoy came to Scotland, and were concluded by an embassy under
Crichton the chancellor in September 1448. Philip settled sixty thousand
crowns on his kinswoman, and her dower of ten thousand was secured on lands in
Strathearn, Athole, Methven, and Linlithgow. A tournament took place
before James at Stirling, on 25 February 1449, between James, master of Douglas,
another James, brother to the Laird of Lochleven, and two knights of Burgundy,
one of whom, Jacques de Lalain, was the most celebrated knight-errant of the
time. The marriage was celebrated at Holyrood on 3 July 1449. A French
chronicler, Mathieu d'Escouchy, gives a graphic account of the ceremony and the
feasts which followed. Many Flemings in Mary's suite remained in Scotland, and
the relations between Scotland and Flanders, already friendly under James
I, consequently became closer. In Scotland the king's marriage led to
his emancipation from tutelage, and to the downfall of the Livingstons. In the
autumn Sir Alexander and other members of the family were arrested. At a
parliament in Edinburgh on 19 January 1450, Alexander Livingston, a son of Sir
Alexander, and Robert Livingston of Linlithgow were tried and executed on
the Castle Hill. Sir Alexander and his kinsmen were confined in different and
distant castles. A single member of the family escaped the general
proscription—James, the eldest son of Sir Alexander, who, after arrest and
escape to the highlands, was restored in 1454 to the office of chamberlain to
which he had been appointed in the summer of 1449.
Death James II enthusiastically promoted
modern artillery, which he used with some success against the Black
Douglases. His ambitions to increase Scotland's standing saw him besiege
Roxburgh Castle in 1460, one of the last Scottish castles still held by the
English after the Wars of Independence. For this siege, James took a large
number of cannons imported from Flanders. On 3 August, he was attempting
to fire one of these cannons, known as "the Lion", when it exploded and killed
him. Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie stated in his history of James's reign that "as
the King stood near a piece of artillery, his thigh bone was dug in two
with a piece of misframed gun that brake in shooting, by which he was stricken to
the ground and died hastily." The Scots carried on with the siege, led
by George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus, and the castle fell a few days later.
Once the castle was captured James' widow, Mary of Guelders, ordered its
destruction. James's son became king as James III and Mary acted as regent until
her own death three years later. Issue
James married Mary of Guelders at Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, on 3 July
1449. They had seven children: An unnamed son.
James III of Scotland Mary Stewart, Countess of Arran
Alexander Stewart, 1st Duke of Albany David Stewart, Earl of Moray
John Stewart, 1st Earl of Mar and Garioch
Princess Margaret Stewart of Scotland By his unknown mistress, James also left
one illegitimate son: John Stewart, Lord of Sticks
Fictional portrayals James II has been depicted in plays,
historical novels and short stories. They include:
The Captain of the Guard by James Grant. The novel covers events from 1440 to
1452. Mostly covering the conflict of James II with the Earls of Douglas. Part
of the action takes place far from Scotland, at the court of Arnold, Duke
of Guelders, father-in-law to the King. Two Penniless Princesses by Charlotte
Mary Yonge. James II is a secondary character. The main characters are his
sisters Eleanor, Mary, and Joan "Jean". The novel covers their travels to
foreign courts, including those of young Henry VI of England and René of Anjou.
The Black Douglas by Samuel Rutherford Crockett and its sequel Maid Margaret.
The two novels cover events from 1439 to 1460, including most of the reign of
James II. His conflict with the Earls of Douglas is prominently featured.
Including James II stabbing William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas to death
and James' own death due to a bursting cannon at the siege of Roxburgh. Among
the other historical figures depicted are William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas
and his brother David, Margaret Douglas, Fair Maid of Galloway, Sir Alexander
Livingston of Callendar, William Crichton, 1st Lord Crichton, Charles VII
of France and his Dauphin but English events are only "slightly touched".
James II: Day of The Innocents by Rona Munro. A co-production between the
National Theatre of Scotland, Edinburgh International Festival and the National
Theatre of Great Britain. The James Plays – James I, James II and James III
– are a trio of history plays by Rona Munro. Each play stands alone as a
vision of a country tussling with its past and future. This play focuses on
the early life of James II, the developing relationships with the
Douglas family and the eventual death of Lord Douglas.
Black Douglas by Nigel Tranter, covers events up to the killing of the 8th Earl
of Douglas, is sympathetic to the Earl and unsympathetic to James II.
Niccolò Rising by Dorothy Dunnett mentions his intrigues and wars as part
of the international milieu of the time, especially as they impact Flanders, the
scene of the novel. Appears as a background character in the
children's fantasy novel In the Keep of Time by Margaret J. Anderson. His
nickname and the birthmark which inspired it are both described, and one
of the main characters witnesses the Battle of Roxburgh Castle and the
explosion of "the Lion" that kills him. Ancestry
References Sources
Colvin, H. M.; Brown, R. A., "The Royal Castles 1066–1485", The History of the
King's Works. Volume II: The Middle Ages, London: Her Majesty's Stationery
Office McAndrew, Bruce A., Scotland's Historic
Heraldry, Boydell & Brewer, ISBN 9781843832614
Nield, Jonathan, A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales, Ayer
Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8337-2509-7 Mike Salter. Discovering Scottish
Castles. Shire Publications Ltd. ISBN 0-85263-749-7.
Further reading 'The Auchinleck Chronicle', printed in
McGladdery, James II, Appendix 2, pp 160–73.
M. Brown, The Black Douglases. C. McGladdery, James II.
R Tanner, The Late Medieval Scottish Parliament: Politics and the Three
Estates, 1424-1488.