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JAMES I (1394–1437) king of Scotland James I
was born in Dunfermline in late July 1394 to Robert III
(d. 1406) and Annabella Drummond (d. 1401) during
a time of political confl ict. Captured en route to France,
James was in English custody from age 12 to 30 in a
number of places, including the TOWER OF LONDON,
Nottingham Castle, and Windsor Castle. James was
educated in the households of English kings Henry IV
and Henry V, even serving in France with English
armies from 1420 to 1422.
James married Joan Beaufort (d. 1445), the second
cousin of Henry VI, in February 1424 and returned to
Scotland in April of that year. He was immediately
compelled to face two major opponents: his uncle,
Robert Stewart, and Alexander MacDonald, Lord of the
Isles. He eventually defeated both.
In foreign policy, James I kept up the French alli-
ance against England but also worked out a fi ve-year
truce with the English in 1431. Domestically, James
carried out taxation in the English style, causing the
Scottish nobles to bristle at his attempts to centralize
power. Fighting with the English broke out in the
spring of 1436, and James suffered defeat at Roxburgh
as many of his nobles deserted him. Rebels captured
and assassinated James I on February 21, 1437, at
Perth. His son, James II, was six at the time.
James I endures as a literary fi gure. He is author of
The KINGIS QUAIR, a DREAM VISION written during his cap-
tivity, as well as a number of SONNETs and other poems.
He is often classifi ed with the SCOTTISH CHAUCERIANS.

FURTHER READING

Balfour-Melville, E. M. W. James I, King of Scots: 1406–1437.

London: Metheun, 1936.

Brown, Michael. James I. Edinburgh: Canongate Academic,

1994.

Duncan, A. A. M. James I, King of Scots: 1424–1437.

Glasgow: University of Glasgow Press, 1984.

Mark DiCicco

JAMES VI/I (1566–1625) king of Scotland [as

James VI] and England [as James I] The fi rst mon-

arch of England from the House of Stuart, and the fi rst

to unite the crowns of the three kingdoms (England,

Ireland, and Scotland), James Stuart was born in June

1566 to MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. Following his mother’s

forced abdication, the 13-month-old “cradle king” was

crowned sovereign and baptized in July 1567. James

ruled Scotland as James VI from 1567 on, and England

and Ireland as James I beginning in 1603, following

the death of England’s queen ELIZABETH I.

James married Anne of Denmark by proxy in 1589,

and between 1594 and 1607, they had seven children,

three of whom survived to adulthood. Throughout his

reign, James maintained a querulous relationship with

Parliament, as he was a fi rm adherent to the divine

right of kingship, believing the monarch to be a direct

extension of God on earth.

An educated and learned man, James authored sev-

eral works on a wide variety of subjects: The Essays of a

Prentice in the Divine Art of Poesy (1584) addresses

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