James I of Scotland

July 25, 1394 is the date ascribed to James I's birth by rampantscotland.com.  James was born in Dunfermline to King Robert III and Anabella Drummond.  James was indirectly impacted by circumstances that Walter Scott employed in his "The Fair Maid of Perth".   James' older brother David was the Duke of Rothesay, who Scott has trying to abduct the maid Catherine Glover.  Rothesay himself later falls afoul of his uncle Robert Stewart, the Duke of Albany, who kills him in hiscastle.  In real life, Rothesay died in Albany's Falkland Castle.

In the novel and in real life, Albany was exonerated by parliament of involvement in Rothesay's death, but James' life was nonetheless considered endangered, and he was sent to France for his safety.  He made it as far as Bass Rock in the Forth where he spent several months in hiding, then tried to sail to France, only to be captured and turned over to King Henry VI of England.  James was detained in England for the next 18 years, before ransom was paid, and James freed.

From "The Fair Maid of Perth": 'Far different had been the fate of the misguided heir of Scotland from that which was publicly given out in the town of Falkland. His ambitious uncle had determined on his death, as the means of removing the first and most formidable barrier betwixt his own family and the throne. James, the younger son of the King, was a mere boy, who might at more leisure be easily set aside. Ramorny's views of aggrandisement, and the resentment which he had latterly entertained against his masters made him a willing agent in young Rothsay's destruction. Dwining's love of gold, and his native malignity of disposition, rendered him equally forward. It had been resolved, with the most calculating cruelty, that all means which might leave behind marks of violence were to be carefully avoided, and the extinction of life suffered to take place of itself by privation of every kind acting upon a frail and impaired constitution. The Prince of Scotland was not to be murdered, as Ramorny had expressed himself on another occasion, he was only to cease to exist. Rothsay's bedchamber in the Tower of Falkland was well adapted for the execution of such a horrible project. A small, narrow staircase, scarce known to exist, opened from thence by a trapdoor to the subterranean dungeons of the castle, through a passage by which the feudal lord was wont to visit, in private and in disguise, the inhabitants of those miserable regions. By this staircase the villains conveyed the insensible Prince to the lowest dungeon of the castle, so deep in the bowels of the earth, that no cries or groans, it was supposed, could possibly be heard, while the strength of its door and fastenings must for a long time have defied force, even if the entrance could have been discovered. Bonthron, who had been saved from the gallows for the purpose, was the willing agent of Ramorny's unparalleled cruelty to his misled and betrayed patron....'

James III of Scotland

One of the most unpopular of Scottish monarchs, James III was born on July 10, 1451 or 52.  His reign is marked by efforts to expand Scottish territory, by injustice, and by infighting amongst his family.  Perhaps his most significant contribution to Scotland was the acquisition, through his marriage to Margaret of Denmark of Orkney and the Shetlands. 

James quarreled often, including with his brothers, Alexander Stewart, the Duke of Albany, and John Stewart, the Earl of Mar.  Scott treats these episodes, which serve to illustrate James' sense of justice as well, in his "History of Scotland".  It ended poorly for Mar:

...The king, on his part, resorted to diviners and soothsayers to know his own future fate; and the answer (probably dictated by the favourite Cochrane) was, that he should fall by the means of his nearest of kin. The unhappy monarch, with a self-contradiction, one of the many implied in superstition, imagined that his brothers were the relations indicated by the oracle; and also imagined that his knowledge of their intentions might enable him to alter the supposed doom of fate.


Albany and Mar were suddenly arrested, as the king's suspicions grew darker and more dangerous; and while the duke was confined in the castle of Edinburgh, Mar was committed to that of Craigmillar. Conscious, probably, that the king possessed matter which might afford a pretext to take his life, Albany resolved on his escape. He communicated his scheme to a faithful attendant, by whose assistance he intoxicated, or, as some accounts say, murdered the captain of the guard, and then attempted to descend from the battlements of the castle by a rope. His attendant made the essay first; but the rope being too short, he fell, and broke his thigh-bone. The duke, warned by this accident, lengthened the rope with the sheets from his bed, and made the perilous descent in safety. He transported his faithful attendant on his back to a place of security, then was received on board a vessel which lay in the roads of Leith, and set sail for France, where he met a hospitable reception, and was maintained by the bounty of Louis XI.


Enraged at the escape of the elder of his captives, it would seem that James was determined to make secure of Mar, who remained. There occur no records to show that the unfortunate prince was subjected to any public trial; nor can it be known, save by conjecture, how far James III. was accessary to the perpetration of his murder, which was said to be executed by bleeding the prisoner to death in a bath. Several persons were at the same time condemned and executed for acts of witchcraft, charged as having been practised, at Mar's instance, against the life of the king...