History of Europe

The assassination of King James I of Scotland

Scotland 1390. The king with the name of Robert III John Stewart ascends the throne of the country, a nice and kind man, but who lacks any aptitude to direct the destinies of Scotland and protect it from attempts by the English to regain dominance over their neighbors to the north. Roberto himself recognizes that he lacks the necessary virtues to carry out the tasks of his position with dignity.

For this reason, the royal council decided in 1399 to appoint as its lieutenant his young and thriving eldest son David, who showed very different aptitudes from those of his father and whom the council he intends for him to become the king's steadfast right-hand man until it is his turn to inherit the crown, all the while supporting Roberto to carry a burden that is too heavy for his shoulders.

However, King Robert has a wide kinship as his father Robert II had twenty-one children, both legitimate and natural. Among such numerous progeny, two formidable brothers of the king stand out, Robert Duke of Albany and Alexander "the Wolf of Badenoch", who have taken advantage of the monarch's inability to exercise power with an iron hand and without any type of brake, the first in the southern part of the country and the second in the north. Both see the decision to associate their nephew David to the throne as a threat to their situation and act quickly. The Duke of Albany orders the capture of young David and has him transferred as his prisoner to Falkland Castle, where he places him in a lonely, bleak cell and leaves him there to starve to death. Albany has since ruled as Regent of Scotland.

In 1406, shortly before he died, Robert III decided to try to save his second son James, who was twelve years old at the time, from the same fate suffered by his first-born son, and decided to send the young man into exile in France and thus prevent him from falling into the hands of the Duke of Albany. However, James is captured by the English at Flamborough Head and taken prisoner.

The English ask for a ransom for his release, but his uncle the Duke of Abany refuses to pay it. James remains a captive in England for eighteen years and takes advantage of his stay at the English court to fully instruct himself in all the arts and knowledge necessary to occupy the throne of his country, while planning his revenge against his brother's murderers and usurpers of the throne. throne of the country.

The Duke of Albany dies in 1420, but it is not until four years later that the ransom imposed by the English is paid. James returns to Scotland and takes possession of the throne as his father's legitimate heir and with the name of James I. The Duke of Albany had died four years earlier, but James has the main members of his family arrested and executed, as well as various nobles whom he considers a threat to his reign.

Although he is a skilled warrior and archer and a capable king because of his training in England, his marriage to the Englishwoman Joan Beaufort, his policy of constant tax collections and limitation of hunting and fishing rights is not very popular with his subjects. His decision to modify the legislation to strengthen the royal power against that of the main barons of the kingdom and to send into exile some chiefs of the Highland clans does not exactly help to endear him to the nobles. Q>

The climate of discontent gives wings to the rebellious nobility that even questions their right to the throne; the numerous offspring fathered by his grandfather Robert II means that there is no lack of candidates who claim to have more right to wear the crown than James I.

It takes until 1437 for discontent and rebellion against the king to break out into the open. On February 21, 1437, while James and his family are staying at the Franciscan monastery in Perth, an assault force is directed to the place; They have been sent by one of the many brothers of his father, Walter, Earl of Atholl, and are led by Robert Graham, a person who has reason to hate the King for having been banished in his day.

It is no coincidence that his chamberlain is among the king's entourage in Perth and it is also no coincidence that this position is held by someone close to the monarch, specifically his cousin Robert Stewart. But it is also no coincidence that this Robert Stewart is precisely the son of Earl Atholl, the brains behind the plot. Robert opens the gates of the monastery to the raiders and the men led by Graham proceed to the king's chambers.

When Jacobo hears the sound of footsteps he quickly understands what is happening; he tries to escape through a passageway arranged in his room, but it turns out that a few days before he himself had ordered that his entrance be sealed because the balls with which he and his entourage were playing escaped through it. The assailants enter the king's chambers and as a result of the attack James receives twenty-eight stab wounds that end his life. Their work completed, the killers escape from the crime scene

Queen Joan Beaufort is also injured, but she survives and does not rest until all the participants in the assassination are captured, tortured and executed. The dead king is succeeded by his six-year-old son, James II, and thus begins a very convulsive period in the history of Scotland, in which the following monarchs accede to the throne as minors, die young and generally in a violent manner... but that's another story.

Fonts| Richard Cavendish &Pip Leahy Kings &Queens. The story of Britain´s monarchs from Pre-roman times to today.

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