James IV
While James was on this expedition, the north erupted into open rebellion led by Alexander Lord Forbes carrying, according to the chroniclers, the ‘Bloody Sark’, the bloodstained shirt of James III. The northern rebels were joined in their treasonous venture by Lords Lennox and Lyle, members of the rebellion against James III but disappointed with the result of the original rebellion. The first response of the royal regime was to try and attract support from noble families and exploit weaknesses and rivalries within the rebel faction. Having gained some support, most notably Bishop Elphinstone and the Constable William Hay of Errol, a great northern magnate, the royalists made a move against the rebels, the action culminating in the siege of Dumbarton which after many months of half-hearted efforts failed. The result of the rebellion was the summons of a parliament in early 1490 to negotiate a settlement.
The parliament of 1490 can be seen as a ‘Great healing act’[1]
as it patched up relations between the king and his rebellious nobility. It was
a diplomatic lesson that would shape the way James IV would rule his kingdom. In
1493, James and his guardians sought to extinguish one of the last remaining
problem areas, the northwest Highlands and the Islands. This campaign would
result in the forfeiture of the Lords of the Isles.
By 1495, at the age of 22 and after a seven year minority, James was in
full control of his kingdom. This can be seen in an address by a Scottish
embassy to the Emperor-elect Maximilian in July of that year when it says:
“(The
King had)’ not… hitherto busied himself with state affairs’, but had now
‘arrived at a becoming age’” [2]
It is interesting
to note that one of his first acts as absolute monarch was to tear up the
English truce that the guardians had sought so hard to gain during his minority
and in 1496 and ’97 launched raids into England in support of Perkin Warbeck,
a pretender to the throne of England and rival of Henry VII. This could almost
be seen as James rebelling against the authority of his senior magnates. It does
also show James asserting himself as king. Foreign policy would dominate much of
James’ reign and much of his foreign policy was very much geared towards the
destruction of England. This was in direct contradiction to the policies of his
father who had desperately sought peace with the ‘auld enemy’. This
anti-English sentiment can be seen in his support of Warbeck, his alliance with
the lord of Tyrconnel in Ulster and his renewal of the Auld alliance with
France. James also attempted an alliance with the German Empire but when
Maximilian threw in his lot with the Pope against the French, negotiations fell
apart. An alliance with the Spanish was attempted involving James marrying a
Spanish princess but in the event there were none available or willing to marry
James. With no continental royalty for James to marry, there was only one other
place to look for a bride, England. In 1502 a treaty was negotiated for
‘perpetual peace’ between the two nations, this would be sealed with the
marriage of James to Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII and sister of the man
who would one day be the ‘ogre’ Henry VIII. However, it was at this time
that the alliance with France was renewed showing James to be covering all
bases.
James
did very well on the financial side of his rule. For the first 9 years of the
reign, annual grants of taxation were given to him by parliament. However, from
1497 onwards, parliament was only called thrice more and would only be asked for
tax twice more. This was because James realised that calling parliament to
demand money meant that the entire nobility were gathered and could object more
strongly. James therefore set about coming up with other schemes to gain money
from his nobles. In 1498, James issued a revocation, retaking all royal lands
granted out since 1488. These grants could then be sold back to the tenants
therefore bringing in more money for the crown. His marriage had brought in £35,000
Scots paid over a 3 year period. James exploited the law that stated that if
there was no one filling the senior position in a church then the revenues went
to the crown by filling the church with his own relatives. In 1512 he taxed the
clergy. Upon his nobility, James inflicted an ancient succession tax i.e. a tax
that had to be paid before a son could succeed his father and 11 earls, 16 lords
and 16 knights were stung by this tax. He also introduced a feu system to
people living on royal lands. This raised rents but they were then fixed. By
1512, the Scottish king had an annual income of £44,500; this was 10 times what
his great grandfather James I brought in.
Perhaps
the most remarkable thing about James’ financial exploits was that the people
accepted them. James was almost unique among the early Stewart kings in that he
was popular and well loved during his own lifetime. This was because he didn’t
alienate any of his nobles by favouring a select few. James was also willing to
dish out justice in person rather than merely delegating. His regular
pilgrimages made him travel around Scotland and so he would be seen and
recognised by the people. In short, James was good at being king.
It
is obvious that James was a far more powerful king than his father James III who
had great difficulty getting parliament to give him any money and was not
trusted to lead the army, but how was this power displayed? The court of James
IV was as lavish as the income of Scotland would allow and indeed his court
often ran at a loss. His court was a centre of culture and science with great
poets such as David Lindsay and William Dunbar. There is also the tale of John
Damiani, a scientist/monk who made a failed attempt to fly from the walls of
Stirling Castle. Ridiculous as this story is, it does show James’ scientific
interest. James held several lavish tournaments during his reign, often
competing and injuring a hand during one bout. James also began expensive
building projects at Linlithgow, Stirling and Holyrood.
However,
James’ real love was military science, in particular, artillery and the navy.
A vast percentage of his income was spent on this reaching the total of £9000
per year for the final three years of his reign. At the centre of his fleet were
three major ships, the smallest, The James, the larger Margaret a
ship comparable in size to Henry VIII’s pride and joy the Mary Rose,
and finally the enormous Great Michael. While the Margaret carried
5 heavy guns and cost £8000, the Michael carried the unheard of total of
27 heavy guns and cost close to £30,000. Quite simply, the Michael was
the largest warship the world had ever known. It was the Dreadnought of
its day and rendered almost all other warships obsolete. The launch of the Michael
in 1511 sparked similar reactions in England that the launch of the Dreadnought
in 1906 did in Germany. It caused Henry to invest similar amounts of money
in building the Henry Grace a Dieu, a warship of similar size.
So
it is apparent that James enjoyed a great increase in power and royal finance.
However no amount of power or money could help him on an overcast Friday
afternoon on September 9th 1513 when, leading from the front as always, James
stumbled to his death on the muddy blood-soaked field of Flodden, quite possibly
the worst defeat ever suffered by a Scottish field army.