James I (late July 1394 – 21 February 1437) was King of Scots from 1406 to 1437. The youngest of three sons, he was born in Dunfermline Abbey to King Robert III and his wife Annabella Drummond. His older brother David, Duke of Rothesay died under suspicious circumstances while being detained by their uncle, Robert, Duke of Albany. His other brother, Robert, died young. Fears for James's safety grew through the winter of 1405/6 and plans were made to send him to France. In February 1406, James was forced to take refuge in the castle of the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth after his escort was attacked by supporters of Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas. He remained there until mid-March, when he boarded a vessel bound for France. On 22 March, English pirates captured the ship and delivered the prince to Henry IV of England. The ailing Robert III died on 4 April, and the 11-year-old James, now the uncrowned King of Scotland, would not regain his freedom for another eighteen years.
James was given a good education at the English Court, where he developed a respect for English methods of governance and for Henry V. The Scottish king, apparently willingly, joined Henry in his military campaign in France during 1420 and 1421. His cousin, Murdoch Stewart, Albany's son, who had been an English prisoner since 1402, was traded for Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland in 1416. James had married Joan Beaufort, daughter of the Earl of Somerset, in February 1424, just before his release in April. The king's re-entry into Scottish affairs was not altogether popular since he had fought on behalf of Henry V in France and at times against Scottish forces. Noble families were now faced with paying increased taxes to cover the ransom repayments, but would also have to provide family hostages as security. James excelled in sports and appreciated literature and music; he also held a strong desire to impose law and order on his subjects, although he applied it selectively at times.
To secure his position, James launched pre-emptive attacks on some of his nobles beginning in 1425 with his close kinsmen, the Albany Stewarts, resulting in the execution of Duke Murdoch and his sons. In 1428, James detained Alexander, Lord of the Isles, while attending a parliament in Inverness. Archibald, 5th Earl of Douglas, was arrested in 1431, followed by George, Earl of March, in 1434. The plight of the ransom hostages held in England was ignored, and the repayment money was diverted into the construction of Linlithgow Palace and other grandiose schemes. In August 1436, James failed in his siege of the English-held Roxburgh Castle and then faced an ineffective attempt by Sir Robert Graham to arrest him at a general council. James was assassinated at Perth on the night of 20/21 February 1437 in a failed coup by his uncle Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl. Queen Joan, although wounded, managed to evade the attackers and reached her son, now King James II, in Edinburgh Castle.
Prince and Steward of Scotland
James was probably born in late July 1394 at Dunfermline Abbey, 27 years after the marriage of his parents, Robert III and Annabella Drummond. It was also at Dunfermline under his mother's care that James would have spent most of his early childhood. The prince was seven years old when his mother died in 1401. A year later, his elder brother David, Duke of Rothesay was probably murdered by their uncle Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, after being held at Albany's Falkland Castle. Prince James, now heir to the throne, was the only impediment to the transfer of the royal line to the Albany Stewarts. In 1402, Albany and his close ally Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas were exonerated of any involvement in Rothesay's death, clearing the way for Albany's re-appointment as the king's lieutenant.
Albany rewarded Douglas for his support by allowing him to resume hostilities in England. The Albany and Douglas affinity received a serious reversal on September 1402 when their large army was defeated by the English at Homildon, and numerous prominent nobles and their followers were captured. These included Douglas himself, Albany's son Murdoch, and the earls of Moray, Angus and Orkney. That same year, as well as the death of Rothesay, Alexander Leslie, Earl of Ross and Malcolm Drummond, lord of Mar had also died. The void created by these events was inevitably filled by lesser men who had not previously been conspicuously politically active. In the years between 1402 and 1406, the northern earldoms of Ross, Moray and Mar were without adult leadership and with Murdoch Stewart, the justiciar for the territory north of the Forth, a prisoner in England, Albany found himself reluctantly having to form an alliance with his brother Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan and Buchan's son, also called Alexander to hold back the ambitions of the Lord of the Isles. Douglas's absence from his power base in the Lothians and the Scottish Marches encouraged King Robert's close allies Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney and Sir David Fleming of Biggar to take full advantage in becoming the principal political force in that region.
In December 1404, the king granted the royal Stewart lands in the west, in Ayrshire and around the Firth of Clyde, to James in regality, protecting them from outside interference and providing the prince with a territorial centre should the need arise. Yet, in 1405 James was under the protection and tutelage of Bishop Henry Wardlaw of St Andrews on the country's east coast. Douglas' animosity was intensifying because of the activities of Orkney and Fleming who continued to expand their involvement in border politics and foreign relations with England. Although a decision to send the young prince to France and out of Albany's reach was taken in the winter of 1405–06, James's departure from Scotland was unplanned. In February 1406, Bishop Wardlaw released James to Orkney and Fleming who, with their large force of Lothian adherents, proceeded into hostile Douglas east Lothian. James's custodians may have been seeking to demonstrate royal approval to further their interests in the Douglas country. This provoked a fierce response from James Douglas of Balvenie and his supporters, who, at a place called Long Hermiston Muir, engaged with and killed Fleming. At the same time, Orkney and James escaped to the comparative safety of the Bass Rock islet in the Firth of Forth. They endured more than a month there before boarding the France-bound Maryenknyght, a ship from Danzig. On 22 March 1406 the ship was seized, in an act of piracy, by an English vessel part-owned by the MP and royal official Hugh Fenn that resulted in James becoming the hostage of King Henry IV of England. Robert III was at Rothesay Castle when he learned of his son's capture, and he died soon after on 4 April 1406 and was buried in the Stewart foundation abbey of Paisley.
James, now the uncrowned King of Scots, began what would become an eighteen‑year captivity, while Albany simultaneously moved from his position as lieutenant to that of governor. Albany took James's lands under his own control, depriving the king of income and any of the regalia of his position and was referred to in records as 'the son of the late king'. The king had a small household of Scots that included Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, Alexander Seaton, the nephew of Sir David Fleming, and Orkney's brother John Sinclair following the earl's return to Scotland. In time, James's household—now paid for by the English—changed from high-ranking individuals to less notable men. Henry IV treated the young James well, providing him with a good education. James was ideally placed to observe Henry's methods of kingship and political control having probably been admitted into the royal household on reaching adulthood. James used personal visits from his nobles coupled with letters to individuals to maintain his visibility in his kingdom. Henry died in 1413 and his son, Henry V, immediately ended James's comparative freedom initially holding him in the Tower of London along with the other Scottish prisoners. One of these prisoners was James's cousin, Murdoch Stewart, Albany's son, who had been captured in 1402 at the Battle of Homildon Hill. Initially held apart, but from 1413 until Murdoch's release in 1415, they were together in the Tower and at Windsor Castle.