This pub's called the King James, because it was a location of one of the defining events
in the history of Scotland and the life of James the First. My name is Bruce Fummey
and I'm fae (from) Perth, but whilst Perth's the most important city in my life, at one point
it was also the most important city in the life of Scotland, until events in this pub
on the 21st of February 1437. Now, in those days it was a monastery, but I reckon that the monks
liked a bit of a tipple, but before I tell you about the events of that night, let me tell you what led
up to it as I show you around Perth. Come on! If you're interested in the people, places
and events in Scottish history, then hit the subscribe button at the bottom right, and ring
the notification bell to find out when I publish new videos. In the meantime, let me tell you a story.
King James the First of Scotland was an accomplished musician, played several instruments,
was a published poet, an athletic sportsman, cultured, sophisticated and intelligent. You
know that guy at school who could do everything? Then you went round his house for tea and it turns out
his dad was the King! (Song - 'For the lochs o' the Tay are the jewels in the crown of a Scone coronation and the streams o' the shire coasts a county aye dearest tae me')
The thing is that his dad wasn't that impressive. Robert the Third they called him, at least to his face.
Apparently he was kicked by a horse, and he was never quite the same again.
The thing is, that nobody really respected him. Here in Perth we call this parkland the North Inch.
It was open parkland back at the turn of the 15th Century too. Now one time, because
Robert the Third was too ineffectual to impose his will and to keep order in the Highland clans,
the only way to decide a dispute between two of them was for them each to choose
30 of their best warriors, and to fight to the death here in this park. It was a huge affair,
they built a stand over there for King Robert to watch. It was like Perth's version of Gladiator.
Let's take a walk along the river I want to show you something.
Incidentally, the guy at our school who was the musical, sporty, brainy, bound to be Head Boy
guy was also called James, Jim Malcolm. It's his music that's playing in the background just now,
and I'll leave a link to his YouTube channel in a white tab above and in the description below.
If you like Scottish folk music, he's your man. Now the river runs along the edge of
the North Inch and through the town, and on the other side, upstream is Scone.
Now you might just be able to see Scone Palace in the trees behind me. Across there at Scone is
where Scottish Kings had been inaugurated for centuries. They held parliaments there too,
but because Robert the Third wasn't up to running the country, his brother tended to do that for him. He
was called Robert, Duke of Albany, and he was a bit dodgy. Now if you're worried that King Robert the Third
has a brother who's also called Robert, Then I should probably say that Robert,
Duke of Albany abducted his brother, Robert the Third's son and the heir to the throne, imprisoned
him in his castle at Falkland, 15 miles that way, locked him up and starved him to death,
and that's maybe a wee bit more important detail for you to focus on at this point.
In fact, it's that detail that caused Robert the Third to send his second son James, your brainy schoolmate, to France for safety.
Long story short, he was captured by English pirates and spent 18 years as a hostage in England.
Now, because the shock of his capture killed daddy, Robert the Third, all the time James was hostage in
England, he was the new King of Scots, his elder brother having been murdered by his
uncle, Robert, Duke of Albany, which is what caused James to flee in the first place. Now if you're
not Scottish, you might want to switch on the subtitles and rewind to play that a second time.
Now, during the time James the First was being held by the English, Scotland had to save France
from the English, because of an alliance that we had with the French. That has got to be awkward.
Now this is a hugely important part of Scottish history, and I've got videos that will give you
more background. They're really popular and you should watch them. I'll leave a link at the end.
Now, not only was Scotland making war with England at the very time
that their King was a hostage, but James's uncle Robert, Duke of Albany, the guy that had
run the country in place of James's father, and murdered his brother, you know that one?
Well he didn't seem too keen to pay the ransom for James's release. Funny that, eh?
Eventually James got back to Scotland, with no help from the Albany side of the Stuart family
incidentally, oh apart from his uncle Walter. He helped a bit, but we'll come back to him later.
The Scotland that James came back to, had been run by his uncle Robert and then his cousin, all
during his dad's reign, and then for the 18 years of his own stay in England. The Albany
Stuarts had held the power, the patronage and the authority. Now the Douglases, in the south,
they were also pretty powerful, and the Lord of the Isles was the dominant force in the north.
James had to negotiate these groups. His position was weak,
the royal coffers were bare, and he had a huge ransom to pay. Lucky white heather?
James arrived back in Scotland in April 1424, but before he even held his first parliament at Scone
in May, he'd imprisoned one of his Albany nephews. At that first parliament up the river, he cut off
the jobs and patronage that his Albany cousin had used to secure favours. Then he started to
review lands and titles and reorganise estates, depriving some nobles of revenue, and acquiring
it for himself, but he couldn't go too far. The Albany Stuarts and the Douglases remember?
Then in August, James had a stroke of luck. Remember, the Scots had an army in France
saving the French from English. Well they suffered a terrible defeat. How's that lucky for the King?
James had had to tread carefully, because this army of Scots abroad were led by the Earl of Buchan,
an Albany Stuart, and Archibald, Earl of Douglas, a black Douglas, members of the two most powerful
rival families, and now both were dead. Now James didn't have to worry about leaders of the two
most powerful rival families coming back with an army from France, he could go bananas and he did.
By March the 20th, 1425 less than a year after he'd arrived back in Scotland, he'd imprisoned
the Albany Stuarts, apart from his uncle Walter that helped him gain release.
He'd reduced the power of the Douglases, and he diverted lands and revenues to himself,
check .... mate!
By the 20th of May, a year almost to the day
since that first parliament, he'd figuratively and literally decapitated the Albany Stuarts, now he could relax.
The River Tay here is like a bridge between Highlands and Lowlands, and Perth here's the brow of
it at the main crossing point. With his work done in the Lowlands, James turned
to the Highlands. He summoned John, Lord of the Isles, and northern clan Chiefs to a meeting of
a parliament in Inverness. When they got there, he imprisoned them. Now some were later released,
some were taken to imprisonment in the Lowlands, and some were hung.
This is St John's Kirk. The original building would have been here in the 11th Century. It's
what gave Perth its old name of St John's Toon (Town). Macbeth probably worshipped in the original one.
They started rebuilding it around the middle of the 15th Century, just after James, but James
had his own plans for the Scottish Church. He created new laws about what churchman could and
couldn't do and to stamp his authority, he ordered a Carthusian Monastery to be built here in Perth,
which would be a model for the rest of the country. It was the only Carthusian Monastery in Scotland.
They say that it was the most magnificent building, built just outside the city walls. Sadly,
when John Knox kicked off the Scottish Reformation in this church in 1559, the Carthusian Monastery
was destroyed by the mob. Anyway, with a tight grip at home, on church, nobility and personal income,
James now needed to deal with foreign affairs, and in 1428 he renewed the alliance with France, with
a treaty signed, of course here in Perth. His daughter would marry the King of France, and
the mutual defence pact would continue. Now it took seven years, and a convenient realignment
of forces in the continent, before James acted on that mutual defence treaty, and besieged
Roxburgh Castle. Oh, it all ended in a humiliating retreat as English forces approached. He also though had
humiliating military setbacks with the Lord of the Isles, remember who he'd brutalized earlier?
Now, a bit like his descendant, Charles the First, 200 years later, in October 1436, James
wanted parliament to give him more money for military spending, but the parliament said
no and one guy, Sir Robert Graham, even tried to arrest the King. Oh he's got a hard neck. I wonder
if that's where that phrase came fae (from)? Anyway, Graham got away with just jail and then exile.
The thing is that Sir Robert Graham had several gripes with King James, to do with disinheritance
and landed gentry type stuff. Worse still, so did Walter Stuart, Earl of Athol, remember uncle Walter,
the one member of the Albany Stuarts that James hadn't hacked off? Well now he had.
James had been up to his old tricks again, controlling estates and grasping revenue.
Four months after the aborted arrest fiasco, there was a general council
meeting on the 4th of February here in Perth, after which James decided
to take a well-earned rest back at the pub where we started, the Blackfriars Monastery.
Now during his relaxation he'd been playing tennis, not Andy Murray tennis,
old style Three Musketeers tennis. The point is he kept losing his balls. Don't even think about it!
He'd had the gratings blocked across the sewers, to make sure that they couldn't
drop down and he wouldn't lose his balls in a toilet.
Stop it! What he didn't realise, was what was going on in the background.
A scheme had been hatched by uncle Walter, Sir Robert Graham and all the other nobles, retainers,
and loyalists to the Albany Stuarts, who felt cheated by the last 13 years of James's personal rule.
The plan would be affected by Walter's son, James's nephew, who was the King's Chamberlain and so had
access to James's chambers. He would let in a gang of up to 30 disaffected Albany adherents, who saw
James's heavy-handed approach as a threat, but his retreat in the face of Highlanders and English
as a weakness, a combination that meant his death would be a little mourned.
So they'd murder him! Now the story goes that his nephew, the Chamberlain, let the band of murderers
in. James sees the danger, he tells one of the Queen's Ladies in Waiting, Catherine Douglas,
to bar the door as he jumps down the latrine pit to escape through the sewers, but Catherine Douglas
realises she can't bolt the door to the assailants, because the sneaky nephew, Chamberlain's thought
of that and he's removed the door's crossbar. Catherine puts her own arm through the brackets
in place of the wooden bar. Now needless to say, that's not enough, and the assailants crashed
through the door, splintering her arm in the process. Seeing the empty room and the open latrine pit, they
jumped down to chase James through the sewer, but James, who was ahead of them had a problem.
He'd ordered the sewers to be blocked up remember, so that he wouldn't lose his tennis balls.
Now he was trapped with no way out. He turns to face his assailants, he stoutly defends himself,
but he's hugely outnumbered. He's stabbed again and again and again. James the First,
musician, poet, sportsman, intellectual, European rebirth sophisticating King, died on the 21st of
February 1437 in a sewer in Perth. What a shitty way to go. Now we're not quite finished. This behind
me was the site of James's magnificent Carthusian Monastery where he was buried, but with these
events, the importance of Perth as a centre of royal power and influence declined and we've now lost
all trace of James or his magnificent monastery that stood here. Now remember if you want to
understand why Scottish armies were in France and how it relates to this story, then there's a link
coming up on the screen and a video here. In the meantime, tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.
(Song - 'You'll spend your life fearing the death that you'll never die')