#scoland

September 4th 1571 saw Matthew Stewart 4th Earl of Lennox and Regent of Scotland shot dead in a raid at Stirling Castle.

I always try and be as accurate as possible with spellings of surnames here, mainly the Stewart/Stuart name, Matthew spent most of his youth in France, at this time the French did not have a "W" in their alphabet, it is around the same era that Mary Queen of Scots changed the spelling to the French version Stuart so some spellings in sources spell it that way, others the old Scottish way. I have chosen to stick with the original spelling forth Matthew as in the case of Matthew it is most commonly used.

So who was he? Mathew had a line back to James II and was a claimant to the throne, or would have been had Mary Queen of Scots been childless, he was also Mary's father in law, his son being the ill fated and much derided Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. When Mary abdicated and went into exile,James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray was made Regent to James VI, Matthew Stewarts grandson, who was an infant at the time, the Queen's supporters in Scotland were not happy with his appointment and assassinated him the year before, Matthew Stewart was then appointed Regent, Matthew had given evidence trying to implicate her in the murder of Darnley four years previously so he too had his enemies amongst Mary's supporters.

He was shot dead next year in a skirmish when the queen's party attacked Stirling. The raid on Stirling on 4 September 1571 was led by the Earl of Huntly, Claude Hamilton, and the lairds of Buccleuch and Ferniehurst. Early reports said he was killed by his own side. William Kirkcaldy of Grange said the shot was fired by the queen's party, and another account names David Bochinant as the assassin.

The pic is a Memorial to Lord Darnley depicting Darnley's son James VI and his parents Matthew and Lady Margaret Douglas. 

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If you couldn’t tell I really LOVE castles. This is Eliean Donan, a 13th century Scottish castle nestled pretty far into the Highlands. We had to go out of the way for this one, but it was worth it. #scotspirit

It's very seldom we get subjects from two posts on the same day being mentioned, today two from the post about The Battle of Baugé turn up on this post, although neither two were directly involved in the battle.

On March 22nd 1406 the 8 year old James I, on his way to the safety of France, was captured by pirates off Flamborough Head, what is now Yorkshire, and delivered, or "sold" to the then King of England, Henry IV.

A wee bit background to this is that James was never meant to be King, he was the third of three sons to Robert III, one of which died in infancy, the eldest, David Stewart, Duke of Rothesay who was at the age of 21, appointed "lieutenant" of the kingdom, partly due to the infirmity of his father and at a time of civil unrest and conflict with England. This didn't go down well with his uncle, Robert, Duke of Albany and in February 1402 Albany arranged for David to be "arrested" and held at Falkland Palace, where he died, apparently of starvation some weeks later. Albany had designs on being King, and although an inquest was held he was absolved of blame, the Duke had more influential friends in the hierarchy than the King.

Oh by the way, King Robert, and his brother Robert Duke Albany, some might have notice have the same christian name, the King was christained John, but chose Robert as his Reginal name due to John being deemed an unlucky name at the time.

Anyway King Robert, under pressure from his brother was fearful for his only remaining son's life, so put him on a ship hor, what he thought would be the safety of France.

Tensions were high in the country, powers struggles galore were going on and none of them seemed to favour the King so it it was arranging for James to be sent away, he was forced onto The Bass Rock for some time,, this being seen as a sanctuary he was safe there and endured more than a month there before boarding the France-bound Maryenknyght, a ship from Danzig. A few days later the pirates boarded the ship and the young Prince was handed over to become the hostage of King Henry IV of England, his father was at Rothesay Castle when he learned of his son's capture, and he died soon after on 4 April 1406.So that left his uncle as everything but the name title of King in Scotland and in no hurry to bring James back home.

Now young James may have been a prisoner but he was educated and held as a person of royalty during, what would become an 18 year-long period. While away Albany seized the King's lands, this deprived ay allies left in Scotland without a means to raise the ransom to bring him home.

And so we come to how King James was used as a pawn against his own countrymen in France. When Henry IV died in 1413 his son Henry V took a harder stance against the Scottish King, he ended his relative freedom and sent him to The Tower of London,but by 1420 The English King loosened the ties and saw that, with Albany sending Scots to support the French in the 100 years war, the Scottish King may have a use. Henry took King James to France and involved him in the war there.

Now there were a loose set of rules used, and still are in way, prisoners were held as such and often swops were arranged after battles, but King James, at the hands of the English had send messengers telling his subjects not to fight against Henry's army, this was at the siege of Melun, a town southeast of Paris, the Scots ignored these pleas and after the English victory the contingent of Scots were hanged for treason against their king. Henry later, back in England Knighted James on St Georges day. The friendship went so far with the neighbouring kings that Henry appointed the Scottish King as joint commander of the siege of Dreux on 18 July 1421 and on 20 August they received the surrender of the garrison. The Scots at Dreux fled and were pursued but escaped.