| James III (Stewart) King of Scots was a member of Scottish Nobility. Join: Scotland Project Discuss: Scotland |
Preceded by James II Stewart |
King of Scotland 3 August 1460 - 11 June 1488 |
Succeeded by James IV |
Contents |
James was born on the 10th of July 1451 at Stirling Castle and baptised several months later at St Andrews,[1] the eldest son of James II, King of Scots, and his queen consort, Mary of Guelders.[2][3] At the age of nine he succeeded his father, and was crowned at Kelso Abbey on 10 August 1460.[4][5][3] He was immediately placed under the guardianship of the Queen Mother, Mary of Guelders, who also served for the next three years, if not officially as Regent of Scotland, certainly as a strong leader of the regency council who had the full support of the council.[6][7] Following the queen's death in December 1463, the young king's guardianship was assumed by her old rival, James Kennedy, archbishop of St Andrews.[8] At his death less than two years later (24 May 1465), the archbishop left to his own brother, Gilbert, Lord Kennedy, the responsibility of caring for James.[8] That guardianship came to an abrupt end 9 July 1466 when the Boyd family (led by Robert Lord Boyd and his brother Sir Alexander Boyd, keeper of Edinburgh castle) kidnapped the young king and, in a bloodless coup, assumed control of the government.[8][9]
James III, King of Scots, was married 13 July 1469 at Holyrood to Margaret of Denmark, daughter of Christian I, King of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden; Duke of Schleswig-Holstein; Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst; and Dorothea, Margravine of Brandenburg.[2][10] The groom had turned eighteen three days before his marriage, and his bride was thirteen years of age. Under the terms of the marriage contract 1) Scotland's debt owing on the Western Isles was completely written off; 2) King Christian agreed to pay 60,000 florin (£20,000) for Margaret's dowry, of which 50,000 was to be written off in return for Norway pledging its rights in Orkney to Scotland (as the king was unable to raise the remaining 10,000 florin, that amount was also written off in exchange for Norway pledging its rights in the Shetlands to Scotland); 3) James was to provide the Palace of Linlithgow and the Castle of Doune for Margaret's jointure; and 4) a third of the royal revenue was to be settled on Margaret if she survived her husband.[11]
There were three children from this marriage:
Queen Margaret predeceased her husband on 14 July 1486 at Stirling, and was buried there at Cambuskenneth Abbey.[10][17][18]
James's marriage signaled the end of the regency government. As a married man he was now considered an adult, and fully assumed his position as king of Scots.[19] Determined to settle a long-held grievance, within a matter of months following his marriage the young king managed to have the Boyds convicted of treason for kidnapping himself three years earlier, and saw them sentenced to death with their lands forfeited to the crown.[19][20]
King James ruled for almost nineteen years during a period of time when Scotland's borders (having acquired Orkney and Shetland by his marriage, and still possessing Berwick) were at their most expansive, and during most of that time he was able to maintain peace with England by negotiating both treaties and marriage alliances with the English monarch.[8] This time of relative peace with England, possibly one of the greatest accomplishments of his reign, was also one of the reasons he had so many enemies in Scotland. His critics accused him of being an anglophile and questioned his loyalty to Scottish interests.[8]
Unlike his predecessors, James preferred to conduct all royal business at Edinburgh rather than travel throughout the country to ensure that local courts were administering justice impartially.[8] The effect of isolating himself at Edinburgh, however, was twofold: local feuds were allowed to escalate unchecked; and for many people the king became a remote figure whom most of them never saw and knew little about. [8]This eventually contributed to his loss of support among the common people. At the same time, his support among the nobility was also eroding. James relied heavily on the earls of Argyll, Huntly, and Crawford to maintain peace in the northern regions of Scotland but he was notoriously stingy in rewarding them for their services.[8]
James III was a scholar rather than an athlete, and was interested primarily in mathematics, astrology, and music.[21] He was more comfortable among middle class artists than among the nobles and politicians usually found at court, and often promoted obscure indviduals to positions of high authority much to the dismay of prominent nobles, clergy and officers of state. [22] Cochrane, a young architect who had overseen the construction of the chapel at Stirling Castle and whom James greatly admired, became one of his most important political advisors;[22][23] and William Schevez, the king's personal astrologer, was elevated (amid great controversy) to the archbishopric of St Andrews.[24][25] Feelings finally came to a head in 1482, when a group of earls seized a group of the king's favorites (including Cochrane and William Roger, the king's musician) and hanged them at the bridge into the town of Lauder.[26] The king himself was temporarily imprisoned at Edinburgh Castle.[26]
In terms of popularity, James remained overshadowed by his two younger brothers: Alexander, duke of Albany, who became known as the greatest knight in Europe; and John, earl of Mar, also an excellent athlete, who ran a stud farm and was very well liked.[27][28] His reign was eventually marked by the rebellions of both his brothers, a good number of his nobility, and, at the end, by his own eldest son and heir. [10]
James III, King of Scots, was killed 11 June 1488 during a skirmish with rebel forces at Sauchieburn in Stirlingshire.[8][29] He was buried alongside his queen at Cambuskenneth Abbey at Stirlingshire.[8][2][30]
Acadian heritage connections: James III is 20 degrees from Beyoncé Knowles, 19 degrees from Jean Béliveau, 18 degrees from Madonna Ciccone, 20 degrees from Rhéal Cormier, 20 degrees from Joseph Drouin, 21 degrees from Jack Kerouac, 20 degrees from Anne Murray, 21 degrees from Matt LeBlanc, 19 degrees from Roméo LeBlanc, 19 degrees from Azilda Marchand, 19 degrees from Marie Travers and 20 degrees from Clarence White on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
S > Stewart | K > King of Scots > James (Stewart) King of Scots
Categories: Prisoners in Edinburgh Castle | Battle of Sauchieburn | Scotland, Notables | Scotland, Monarchs | House of Stewart | Dukes of Rothesay | Edward III 5th Gen Descendants | Killed in Action, Scotland | Scotland Project Managed Nobility Profiles | Clan Stewart | Killed in Action, Scotland, Second Rebellion against James III
Jen
Jen, for the Scotland Project
edited by Elsie Gorman
edited by Doug McCallum UE
Many thanks!