 1430 - 1460 (29 years) Submit Photo / Document
Has more than 100 ancestors and more than 100 descendants in this family tree.
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| Name |
James Stewart |
| Suffix |
II King of Scots |
| Birth |
16 Oct 1430 |
Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Edinburghshire, Scotland  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
3 Aug 1460 |
Roxburgh, Roxburghshire, Scotland |
| Initiatory (LDS) |
12 Feb 1926 |
LOGAN |
| FamilySearch ID |
G6ML-Z8N |
| Burial |
Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Edinburghshire, Scotland |
| Headstones |
 Submit Headstone Photo |
| Person ID |
I9855 |
mytree |
| Last Modified |
25 Feb 2024 |
| Father |
James Stewart, I King of Scots, b. 25 Jul 1394, Dunfermline, Fifeshire, Scotland d. 21 Feb 1437, Monastry of the Friars Preachers, Perthshire, Scotland (Age 42 years) |
| Mother |
Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scotland, b. Abt 1404, Westminster, Middlesex, England d. 15 Jul 1445, Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland (Age 41 years) |
| Marriage |
2 Feb 1424 |
Saint Mary Overy, Southwark, Surrey, England |
| Family ID |
F2009 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
Mary van Egmont, b. Abt 1434, Grave, Noord-Brabant, Nederland d. 1 Dec 1463, Roxburgh, Roxburghshire, Scotland (Age 29 years) |
| Marriage |
3 Jul 1449 |
Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Edinburghshire, Scotland |
| Children |
| | 1. Son Stewart, b. 19 May 1450, Edinburgh, Edinburghshire, Scotland d. May 1450, Edinburgh, Edinburghshire, Scotland |
| + | 2. James Stewart, III King of Scots, b. 10 Jul 1451, Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland d. 11 Jun 1488, Sauchie Burn, Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland (Age 36 years) |
| + | 3. Mary Stewart, Countess of Arran, b. 13 May 1453, Stirling Castle, Stirlingshire, Scotland d. May 1488, Cadzow, Lanarkshire, Scotland (Age 35 years) |
| | 4. Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, b. Abt 1454, Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland d. 7 Aug 1485, Paris, Paris, Île-de-France, République française (Age 31 years) |
| | 5. David Stewart, Earl of Moray, b. Abt 1455, Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland d. Bef 18 Jul 1457 (Age < 2 years) |
| | 6. Margaret Stewart, b. Abt 1455, Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland |
| | 7. John Prince Of Stewart, Earl of Mar, b. Abt 1456, Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland d. Apr 1479, Canongate, Midlothian, Scotland (Age 23 years) |
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| Family ID |
F5495 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
5 May 2024 |
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| Event Map |
|
 | Birth - 16 Oct 1430 - Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Edinburghshire, Scotland |
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 | Marriage - 3 Jul 1449 - Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Edinburghshire, Scotland |
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 | Death - 3 Aug 1460 - Roxburgh, Roxburghshire, Scotland |
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 | Initiatory (LDS) - 12 Feb 1926 - LOGAN |
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| Burial - - Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Edinburghshire, Scotland |
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| Notes |
- Reign: 1437-60; A regency led by the Douglas family ruled until 1449 , w h en James began to govern by himself. In 1460, at the head of an arm y, h e was killed during the seige of Roxburgh Castle.
James I was assassinated on 21 February 1437. The Queen, although hurt , m anaged to get to her six-year-old son, who was now king. On 25 Marc h 1437 , the six-year-old was formally crowned King of Scots at Holyroo d Abbey . The Parliament of Scotland revoked alienations of crown propert y and pr ohibited them, without the consent of the Estates, that is, unti l James I I's eighteenth birthday.[1] He lived along with his mother an d five of hi s six sisters (Margaret had left for France, where she had m arried the fu ture Louis XI of France) at Dunbar Castle until 1439.[1]
From 1437 to 1439 the King's first cousin Archibald Douglas, 5th Ear l o f Douglas, headed the government as lieutenant-general of the realm . Afte r his death, and with a general lack of high-status earls in Scotl and du e to deaths, forfeiture or youth, political power became shared un easil y among William Crichton, 1st Lord Crichton, Lord Chancellor of Sco tlan d (sometimes in co-operation with the Earl of Avondale), and Sir Ale xande r Livingston of Callendar, who had possession of the young king a s the wa rden of the stronghold of Stirling Castle. Taking advantage of t hese even ts, Livingston placed Queen Joan and her new husband, Sir Joh n Stewart, u nder "house arrest" at Stirling Castle on 3 August 1439. The y were releas ed on 4 September only by making a formal agreement to pu t James in the c ustody of the Livingstons, by giving up her dowry for hi s maintenance, an d confessing that Livingston had acted through zeal fo r the king's safety .[1]
In 1440, in the King's name, an invitation is said to have been sent t o t he young 6th Earl of Douglas and his brother, eleven-year-old David , to v isit the king at Edinburgh Castle in November 1440. They came, an d were e ntertained at the royal table, from which they were treacherousl y hurrie d to their doom, which took place by beheading in the castle yar d of Edin burgh on 24 November. Three days later Malcolm Fleming of Cumbe rnauld, th eir chief adherent, shared the same fate. This infamous incide nt took th e name of "the Black Dinner".
Struggles with the Douglases[edit]
In 1449 James II reached adulthood, yet in many ways his "active kingshi p " differed little from his minority. The Douglases used his coming of a g e as a way to throw the Livingstons out of the shared government, as t h e young king took revenge for the brief arrest of his mother (a mean s t o remove her from political influence) that had taken place in 1439 . Doug las and Crichton continued to dominate political power, and the ki ng's ab ility to rule without them remained arguably limited.
But James did not acquiesce with this situation without argument, and be t ween 1451 and 1455 he struggled to free himself from the power of the D ou glases. Attempts to curb the Douglases' power took place in 1451, duri n g the absence of the Earl of Douglas from Scotland, and culminated wit h t he murder of Lord Douglas at Stirling Castle on 22 February 1452.
The main account of Douglas's murder comes from the Auchinleck Chronicl e , a near contemporary but fragmentary source. According to its account , t he king accused the Earl (probably with justification) of forging lin ks w ith John Macdonald, 11th Earl of Ross (also Lord of the Isles), an d Alexa nder Lindsay, 4th Earl of Crawford. This bond, if it existed, cre ated a d angerous axis of power of independently-minded men, forming a ma jor riva l to royal authority. When Douglas refused to break the bond wit h Ross, J ames broke into a fit of temper and stabbed Douglas 26 times an d threw hi s body out of a window. His court officials (many of whom woul d rise to g reat influence in later years, often in former Douglas lands ) then joine d in the bloodbath, one allegedly striking out the Earl's br ain with an a xe.
This murder did not end the power of the Douglases, but rather creat e d a state of intermittent civil war between 1452 and 1455. The main eng ag ements were at Brodick, on the Isle of Arran; Inverkip in Renfrew; an d th e Battle of Arkinholm. James attempted to seize Douglas lands, but h is op ponents repeatedly forced him into humiliating climbdowns, whereb y he ret urned the lands to James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas, and a bri ef and un easy peace ensued.
Military campaigns ended indecisively, and some have argued that James s t ood in serious danger of being overthrown, or of having to flee the cou nt ry. But James's patronage of lands, titles and office to allies of th e Do uglases saw their erstwhile allies begin to change sides, most impor tantl y the Earl of Crawford after the Battle of Brechin, and in May 145 5 Jame s struck a decisive blow against the Douglases, and they were fina lly def eated at the Battle of Arkinholm.
In the months that followed, the Parliament of Scotland declared the ext e nsive Douglas lands forfeit and permanently annexed them to the crown , al ong with many other lands, finances and castles. The Earl fled int o a lon g English exile. James finally had the freedom to govern as he wi shed, an d one can argue that his successors as Kings of Scots never face d suc h a powerful challenge to their authority again. Along with the for feitur e of the Albany Stewarts in reign of James I, the destruction of t he Blac k Douglases saw royal power in Scotland take a major step forward .[2]
Energetic rule[edit]
Between 1455 and 1460 James II proved to be an active and interventioni s t king. Ambitious plans to take Orkney, Shetland and the Isle of Man no ne theless did not succeed. The king travelled the country and has been a rgu ed to have originated the practice of raising money by giving remissi on s for serious crimes. It has also been argued that some of the unpopul a r policies of James III originated in the late 1450s.[3]
In 1458 an Act of Parliament commanded the king to modify his behaviou r , but one cannot say how his reign would have developed had he lived lo ng er.[4]
James II is the first Scots monarch for whom a contemporary likeness h a s survived, in the form of a woodcut showing his birthmark on the face.
Marriage[edit]
In 1449, Mary of Guelders was recommended by Philip the Good as a suitab l e bride for James. The negotiations began in July 1447, when a Burgundi a n envoy came to Scotland, and were concluded by an embassy under Cricht o n the chancellor in September 1448. Philip settled sixty thousand crow n s on his kinswoman, and her dower of ten thousand was secured on land s i n Strathearn, Athole, Methven, and Linlithgow. A tournament took plac e be fore James at Stirling, on 25 February 1449, between James, master o f Dou glas, another James, brother to the Laird of Lochleven, and two kni ghts o f Burgundy, one of whom, Jacques de Lalain, was the most celebrate d knigh t-errant of the time. The marriage was celebrated at Holyrood o n 3 July 1 449. A French chronicler, Mathieu d'Escouchy, gives a graphi c account o f the ceremony and the feasts which followed. Many Flemings i n Mary's sui te remained in Scotland, and the relations between Scotlan d and Flanders , already friendly under James I, consequently became clos er.[1]
In Scotland the king's marriage led to his emancipation from tutelage, a n d to the downfall of the Livingstones. In the autumn Sir Alexander an d ot her members of the family were arrested. At a parliament in Edinburg h o n 19 January 1450, Alexander Livingstone, a son of Sir Alexander, an d Rob ert Livingstone of Linlithgow were tried and executed on the Castl e Hill . Sir Alexander and his kinsmen were confined in different and dis tant ca stles. A single member of the family escaped the general proscrip tion—Jam es, the eldest son of Sir Alexander, who, after arrest and escap e to th e highlands, was restored in 1454 to the office of chamberlain t o which h e had been appointed in the summer of 1449.[1]
Death[edit]
James II enthusiastically promoted modern artillery, which he used wit h s ome success against the Black Douglases. His ambitions to increase Sc otla nd's standing saw him besiege Roxburgh Castle in 1460, one of the la st Sc ottish castles still held by the English after the Wars of Independ ence.
For this siege, James took a large number of cannons imported from Fland e rs. On 3 August, he was attempting to fire one of these cannons, know n a s "the Lion", when it exploded and killed him. Robert Lindsay of Pits cott ie stated in his history of James's reign that "as the King stood ne a r a piece of artillery, his thigh bone was dug in two with a piece of m is framed gun that brake in shooting, by which he was stricken to the gro un d and died hastily." [5]
The Scots carried on with the siege, led by George Douglas, 4th Earl o f A ngus, and the castle fell a few days later. James's son became king a s Ja mes III and his widow Mary of Guelders acted as regent until her ow n deat h three years later.
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