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Home , James I of Scotland, James Mor Stewart

KING JAMES I OF

James possessed an “eagerness” in “literary composition and writing,” and his most enduring piece is a love poem he wrote to his bride, “The Kingis Quair.”

“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY

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IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING

1394

Late July: It was probably at this point that James Stewart was born in , the youngest of three sons of Robert III and Annabella Drummond. There, and also at Scone, in his mother’s household, James would spend most of his early childhood.

NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT

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KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

1401

Prince James Stewart was 7 when his mother Annabella Drummond died. SCOTLAND

NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE

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IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

1402

During a truce in the Hundred Years War, English and French soldiers would compete in jousting, battle-ax fighting, and wrestling. Commoners would be competing for prizes, while these knights would compete, in the words of the Duke of Orleans, “for the love of the ladies and the fun of the thing.” There were weight divisions in the wrestling events and aristocrats were squaring off against commoners. In the presence of gentlewomen, they were wrestling fully clothed. A match might go on for hours, since three clean falls were generally required for victory (the modern endurance record, set in 1912 at the Stockholm Olympics, is 11 hours and 40 minutes).

By the time James Stewart had reached 8 years of age –although at the point of his birth he had been the youngest of three sons of Robert III and Annabella Drummond– he had come to be in the line of succession to the throne (his brother Robert Stewart had died in infancy and his other elder brother, David Stewart, , had died in Falkland Castle in the detention of his uncle Robert Stewart, ). He was the only impediment to the transfer of the royal line to the Albany Stewarts. SCOTLAND

LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.

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KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

September: Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany and his close ally Archibald, having been absolved from any involvement in the death of David Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, the Duke of Albany had once again been appointed as King’s Lieutenant. As a reward for his support, Albany had allowed Douglas to resume hostilities with England. At this point their army was defeated by the English at Homildon and numerous prominent nobles and adherents were captured. The captives included Douglas himself, Albany’s son Murdoch, and the earls of Moray, Angus, and Orkney (Orkney would quickly be ransomed). That same year Alexander Leslie, , and Malcolm Drummond, lord of Mar, also died. Between 1402 and 1406 Albany’s numerous interests in the north would be exposed and the duke would reluctantly be forced into an alliance with his brother Alexander Stewart, , and that man’s son, Alexander. SCOTLAND

The Corporation of London began to hold an important autumn fair in Southwark. This was known unofficially as the Southwark Fair, but officially it was the Our Lady Fair because the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin fell on September 8th. It would continue as one of England’s most popular fairs until prostitution, drunkenness, and hooliganism would bring about its closure in 1763 (according to a 1733 painting by William Hogarth, the entertainments offered at Southwark Fair included stage plays, freak shows, acrobatic acts, and prizefighting). HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

1404

December: The royal Stewart lands in the west of Scotland, in Ayrshire and around the Firth of Clyde, were granted to Prince James Stewart in regality, in order to protect them from outside interference and provide the prince with a territorial base should there be need for this.

THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

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KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

1405

Prince James Stewart was under the protection and tutelage of Bishop Henry Wardlaw of St Andrews on the east coast of Scotland.

THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

Winter: Due to growing fears for his safety as heir to the throne of Scotland, plans were being made to send 12-year- old Prince James Stewart to France.

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IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

1406

February (1405, Old Style): Bishop Wardlaw released Prince James Stewart into the care of the earls of Orkney and Fleming, who with a large mounted force proceeded from St Andrews through Fife and ultimately into the hostile Douglas territory of east Lothian. With a company of nobles loyal to his father Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, Robert III clashed with followers of the James Douglas of Balvenie. The Earl of Orkney took Prince James Stewart to a temporary refuge on in the Forth estuary. SCOTLAND

WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF

Mid-March (1405, Old Style): A vessel bound for France, the Maryenknyght out of Danzig, picked up Prince James Stewart at his temporary refuge on Bass Rock in the Forth estuary. SCOTLAND

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KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

March 22, Monday (1405, Old Style): The vessel bound for France that had Prince James Stewart aboard, the Maryenknyght out of Danzig, was taken by English pirates off Flamborough Head. They would deliver their prize teenager to King Henry IV of England. The father, Robert III, was at when he learned of his son’s capture.

SCOTLAND HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

April 4, Sunday (Old Style): Robert III, the father of Prince James Stewart, died (the body would be interred in the Stewart foundation abbey of Paisley). The death of the father of course made the son, currently a captive of King Henry IV of England at the and then at Windsor Palace, even more valuable as a hostage/asset. In the English court he would be subjected to a good education, while in Scotland, which would be in his absence more and more under the control of Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, he would soon be being referred to merely as “the son of the late king.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

1416

Prince James Stewart’s cousin Murdoch Stewart, who had been being held by the English since 1402, was in this year traded for Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland. SCOTLAND

CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT

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IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

1420

It would have been in about this year that was born.

During this year and the following one Prince James Stewart of Scotland, a hostage/asset of King , was allowed to serve in the English army against the French (his presence was politically useful as many Scots were fighting on the Dauphinist side).

The Treaty of Troyes was concluded between King Henry V of England, King Charles VI of France, and Philip, Duke of Burgundy. This treaty stipulated that Henry would be “regent” over France and would unite his arms to those of Charles and Philip in order to subdue the adherents of the pretended dauphin. Henry and the Princess Catherine of France would wed and although Charles would be allowed retain the title and dignity and appearances of King of France to his death, Henry as regent would at once be in full control over the actual administration of the French government. At his death Charles would be succeeded not by Charles’s heirs but by Henry and/or Henry’s heirs, so that while retaining their several usages, customs, and privileges the two nations of France and England should forever be united under one monarch. By this arrangement all the princes, peers, vassals, and communities of France were to pay Henry V of England present obedience as regent and swear allegiance to him as their future monarch. HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.

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IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

November 17, Sunday (Old Style): Following an English success at the siege of a town on the Seine River southeast of Paris, Melun, 20 Scots who had been serving with the French who had lain down their arms and surrendered found themselves being hanged for treason against their legitimate ruler, Prince James Stewart of Scotland — because as they found out too late for them, the guy was serving with the English (they should have been using their binoculars?). HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

1421

February 23, Sunday (1420, Old Style): King Henry V of England had gained several victories over French armies that had been refusing to acknowledge the reality of the English victory at Agincourt and the treaty of Troyes under which the heirs to the English throne would upon the death of King Charles VI inherit the throne of France as well, disinheriting the Dauphin, Charles VII. After his return from the battlefields of France to England, Prince James Stewart of Scotland sat in the honored position to the Queen’s immediate left at the coronation banquet of Catherine.

March: As a show of strength, King Henry V of England began a circuit of the important towns in England.

April 23, Wednesday (Old Style): On St George’s day, King Henry V of England knighted Prince James Stewart of Scotland.

July: King Henry V of England and Prince James Stewart of Scotland were back in France, campaigning to make Henry the king of France.

July 18, Friday (Old Style): King Henry V of England appointed the Duke of Bedford and Prince James Stewart of Scotland as the joint commanders of the siege of Dreux.

August 20, Wednesday (Old Style): The Duke of Bedford and Prince James Stewart of Scotland received the surrender of the garrison of Dreux. HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

1422

August 31, Monday (Old Style): King Henry V of England died of dysentery in France.

As a consequence of this royal death, Prince James Stewart of Scotland would be for the 4th time shut up in the Tower of London.

September: Prince James Stewart of Scotland escorted the funeral retinue of King Henry V of England back to England. The infant Henry VI’s ruling council would be inclined to release their Scottish captive. HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

1423

February (1422, Old Style): Prince James Stewart of Scotland got married with Lady Joan Beaufort, daughter of the Earl of Somerset, a cousin of King Henry VI and a niece of Thomas, Duke of Exeter and Henry, Bishop of HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

Winchester, and this very much improved his relationship with the .

Toward the end of his captivity James had written for Lady Joan a long poem, “The Kingis Quair.” The poem would be would be discovered by William Tytler in 1783, among manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Its seven-line stanza scheme would become known as “rime royal.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

Spring/Summer: When the ruling council for the infant monarch Henry VI of England attempted to resolve the issue of their long-term captivity of Prince James Stewart, rightful heir to the throne of Scotland — they discovered that the Scots were happy with things as they stood, indeed they were inclined to remain under the Albany Stewarts and their adherents.

August: A general council of the Scots agreed to send an embassy to England to negotiate the release of their kidnapped Prince James Stewart. SCOTLAND HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

1424

March 28, Tuesday (Old Style): By this point Murdoch Stewart had succeeded his father Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany to the dukedom and the governorship of Scotland. The Scots agreed at Durham to a ransom treaty with England, involving a payment of 60,000 marks (less a dowry remittance of 10,000 marks). To this document Prince James Stewart of Scotland affixed his own seal. Some £26,000 would be raised through taxation (although only £12,000 of this would actually make its way to England).

April 5, Wednesday (Old Style): Prince James Stewart of Scotland and his consort Joan Beaufort, accompanied by an escort of English and Scottish nobles, met Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany at and were handed the governor’s seal of office. Since he had fought on behalf of King Henry V of England, at times against Scottish forces in France, and since his ransom had been raised through taxation, he was not all that popular among the people.

May 13, Saturday (Old Style): Walter Stewart, a son of Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany, had been openly hostile to his father because he wanted the earldom of Lenno for himself rather than it passing to his younger brother Alexander Stewart, and had disagreed with his father’s acquiescence to the return of the kidnapped Prince James Stewart to Scotland. Prince James knew how to deal with stuff like that: he packed off Walter under guard to an imprisonment on the Bass Rock.

May 21, Sunday (Old Style): The ransomed prince James Stewart had returned to a Scotland that was in the grip of a severe economic recession. This had its impact on the coronation scene that went down at Scone on this day. Upon his coronation, King James I immediately knighted 18 members of his nobility, inclusive of this Alexander Stewart. Needing to substantially improve the crown’s cut of the customs proceeds, he revoked grants that had been made to the earls of Douglas and Mar from out of the customs income. During this year an enquiry ordered by the king into the dispersal of crown estates since the reign of King Robert I exposed legal defects in a number of transactions, and the earldoms of Mar, March, and Strathearn, together with the Black Douglas lordships of Selkirk and Wigtown, were considered to be of problematic legitimacy.

August 17, Thursday (Old Style): The Duke of Bedford, the English Regent in France, gained a great victory over Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany’s brother John Stewart, 2d Earl of Buchan, and Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas, who were leading a large Scottish contingent in France in the Dauphinist cause, against the English. This Scottish contingent was routed at a battle at Verneuil in Normandy, and both these Scottish nobles were among the 4,000 Scots corpses that littered the battlefield. This would weaken in Scotland the influence of the Duke of Albany and of Douglas’s heir Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas, and strengthen the position of King James I. HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

October 12, Thursday (Old Style): King James I of Scotland and Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas met at Melrose Abbey, ostensibly to appoint John Fogo, a monk there, to the abbacy.

December: Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany’s main ally Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar cut a deal with King James I of Scotland. Gosh, kidnapped prince, at long last, welcome home! Hugs and kisses all around. HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

1425

A fire had consumed , damaging the royal fortress just 15 miles to the west of Edinburgh. From this point until the end of his reign, King James I of Scotland would be diverting about a tenth of his royal tax receipts to the building of as a place fit for a monarch such as he. SCOTLAND

March 21, Wednesday (1424, Old Style): At an acrimonious sitting of the Scottish parliament King James I of Scotland had Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany arrested on charges of treason, along with his wife Isabella of Lennox and his son Alasdair. He already had the duke’s son Walter in prison. The duke’s youngest son , known as James the Fat, made his escape into Lennox and led the men of Lennox and Argyll in an open rebellion against the crown (fleeing eventually to Antrim, Ireland). SCOTLAND

May 18, Friday (Old Style): Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany, and his sons Alasdair and Walter, along with Duncan, , were tried at Castle by an assize of seven earls and fourteen lesser nobles. SCOTLAND

May 24, Wednesday (Old Style): Walter Stewart was condemned for treason. SCOTLAND HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

May 25, Friday (Old Style): Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany, and his son Alasdair Stewart, along with Duncan, Earl of Lennox, were condemned for treason. They would immediately be beheaded in front of , after which Isabella of Lennox would be held for eight years at . King James I of Scotland was in sole possession of the three forfeited earldoms of Fife, Menteith, and Lennox. HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

1427

The earldom of Strathearn was forfeited to King James I of Scotland. SCOTLAND HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

1428

King James I of Scotland detained Alexander of , Earl of Ross and , while he was attending a parliament in . SCOTLAND

July: To finance an expedition to the Highlands against the semi-autonomous Lord of the Isles, King James I of Scotland convened a general council at Perth. The assembly was reluctant but with the support of the Earls of Mar and Atholl, the monarch informed the assembly: I shall go and see whether they have fulfilled the required service; I shall go I say and I will not return while they default. I will chain them so that they are unable to stand and lie beneath my feet. SCOTLAND HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

August 24, Tuesday (Old Style): The Gaelic kindreds in the north and west had been summoned to a sitting of parliament in Inverness. About 50 nobles were taken into custody, including Alexander, 3d Lord of the Isles and his mother, Mary, Countess of Ross. Some would be executed but most, with the exception of Alexander and his mother, would quickly be released. During Alexander’s captivity King James I of Scotland would attempt to split . Alexander’s uncle John Mór would be killed during an attempt at arrest, after he rejected an offer by an agent of the king to take the clan leadership. Hoping to secure Alexander, 3d Lord of the Isles’s loyalty, James ordered his release. SCOTLAND

October: After setbacks on the battlefield, King Charles VII of France had sent an embassy led by Renault of Chartres, Archbishop of Rheims to Scotland to persuade King James I to renew their — the terms were to include the marriage of the princess Margaret to Louis the Dauphin of France and a gift of the county of Saintonge to the Scottish crown. James, with the intended marriage of his daughter into the French royal family and the possession of French lands, was indeed sitting pretty. He initiated diplomatic contacts with Aragon, Austria, Castile, Denmark, Milan, Naples, and the Vatican. However, no new Scottish army would ever materialize, and no marriage of James’s eldest daughter with the French king’s son Louis would ever be consummated. HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

1429

King James I of Scotland discontinued ransom payments to England in favor of using the remainder of the taxation in the purchase of cannon and luxury goods from Flanders. HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

The would be both the zenith and the nadir of the Earl of . In this year John Dunbar, was murdered. He had married Marjorie, daughter of King Robert II, and they had had two sons: Thomas the husband of the heiress of Frendraught and James who would become 4th Earl of Moray and would be the last of that male line. He had also had a 2nd marriage before his murder, and this 2nd marriage had produced a son, Sir Alexander of Westfield, who would become the 1st Baron of Mochrum and would be the ancestor of the hereditary Sheriffs of Moray. SCOTLAND DUNBAR FAMILY

June 21, Tuesday (Old Style): In a battle at Lochaber, Alexander, 3d Lord of the Isles, suffering the defection of Clan Chattan (the MacKintoshes) and , was heavily defeated. Alexander escaped, presumably to Islay, but King James I of Scotland continued his assault. SCOTLAND

July: The forces of King James I of Scotland seized Dingwall Castle in Edinburgh, and Urquhart Castle overlooking Loch Ness. The king sent an army reinforced with artillery toward the Hebrides. SCOTLAND

August 27, Saturday (Old Style): Alexander, 3d Lord of the Isles realized that his position was hopeless and came to near Edinburgh, where he made a total submission to King James I of Scotland. Responsibility for the keeping of the peace in the north and west was assigned to Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar. SCOTLAND HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

1430

When King Henry VI of England’s ruling council had released James I, King of Scots from his kidnap in 1424, it had been hoping that the Scottish monarch whom they had so carefully reared would be compliant — that this guy would be more English than Scottish and would keep the peace between the kingdoms, and terminate Scottish support for France. By this point their mistake was clear. The only real points of issue between England and Scotland, however, were the continuance of ransom payments, and the renewal of a truce that was due to expire in this year (basically their argument was, we did you wrong and you will never get through paying for it). HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

October 16, Monday (Old Style): In Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, twin boys were born to Joan Beaufort and James I, King of Scots. The first infant to make its appearance, Alexander Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, would live long enough to receive a knighthood, but would die during infancy. The second infant to make its appearance, James, known as “Fiery Face” due to a conspicuous vermillion birthmark, would inherit the throne of Scotland while still at the age of six. HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

1431

King James I of Scotland, who knew a thing or two about detention, detained Archibald, Earl of Douglas.

September: King James I of Scotland had arrested two of his nephews, John Kennedy of Carrick and Archibald, Earl of Douglas. The Highlanders rose again and defeated Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar’s army at Inverlochy and Angus Moray’s army near Tongue in Caithness. SCOTLAND

September 29, Saturday (Old Style): King James I acted to reduce the unrest in the north of Scotland by freeing Douglas, with this release being in all likelihood conditional on a promise of support at the resumption of the Perth parliament.

October 15, Monday (Old Style): A parliament called at Perth by King James I of Scotland sat to seek funding for further conflict with the Lordship. SCOTLAND

October 22, Monday (Old Style): The Scottish Parliament at Perth was in no mood to please King James I of Scotland — he was allowed funds for his Highland campaign but parliament retained full control over the tax levy. The king was backed into a corner and “forgave the offence of each earl, namely Douglas and Ross [i.e. Alexander].” SCOTLAND HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

1434

King James I of Scotland detained George, . He ignored the plight of additional Scottish ransom hostages held in England, diverting their ransom money into the construction of his Linlithgow Palace and other kingly expense items. HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

1435

English talks with France broke down, precipitating an alliance between Burgundy and France and a request from France for Scottish involvement in the war on the continent, and for the fulfillment of the promised marriage of Princess Margaret to the Dauphin of France.

The earldom of Mar reverted to the crown of Scotland upon the earl’s death without heir, along with the lordships of Garioch and Badenoch.

This was the year of the death of Columba Dunbar, Bishop of Moray, whose effigy is still to be seen in the ruins of . King James I of Scotland had come to regard the Earl of March as too much of a threat to his sovereignty, due to the holder’s too-familiar dealings with the English. In this year the king declared all lands and titles pertaining to this prominent clan to be forfeit. The Dunbars, who had been among the possessors, had become the dispossessed. DUNBAR FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

1436

Spring: The Princess Margaret sailed from Scotland, on her way to an intended marriage with the Dauphin of France.

May: The truce between Scotland and England expired, and King James I of Scotland’s perspective in regard to the Anglo/French conflict changed following a realignment of the combatants.

August: King James I of Scotland laid siege to the English enclave of . When the militant prelates of York and Durham, together with the Earl of Northumberland, took their forces into the marches to relieve the besieged fortress, the Scots army was forced into a retreat with the loss of its artillery. HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

October: King James I of Scotland called a general council to finance further hostilities through higher taxation. The council’s speaker Sir Robert Graham attempted to arrest the king, resulting in that knight’s imprisonment followed by banishment. HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

1437

February 20, Wednesday night (1436, Old Style): King James I of Scotland was lodging at the Blackfriars monastery on the outskirts of Perth accompanied by his queen but separated from most of their servants. The king’s cousin Sir Robert Stewart, heir to his grandfather Walter, Earl of Atholl, was chamberlain of the royal household and used his privileged position to allow a small band led by Sir Robert Graham to enter the building. James was alerted by servants and attempted to escape by way of a sewer tunnel, only to find that its exit had three days before been blocked off (he had been playing ball in the courtyard and had complained when his ball repeatedly rolled into the hole, so the monks had stopped up the hole). THE YOU-TUBE VERSION

Although wounded and half undressed, Queen Joan managed to escape and sent a directive ahead to Edinburgh for the new monarch, James II, to be shielded from any widening of the conspiracy. When she joined her son, she ordered that the boy king’s custodian, the pro-Atholl John Spens, be removed from his post and replaced by the trusted John Balfour. SCOTLAND HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

March 25, Monday (Old Style): The regicide of King James I of Scotland had gone down so suddenly that there had been a period of disorder but on this day the surviving son, “Fiery Face” with his conspicuous vermillion birthmark, had the crown of Scotland placed firmly upon his 6-year-old head in Holyrood Abbey, becoming Henry II, King of Scots.

Early May: The main regicides of King James I of Scotland, Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl, Strathearn and Caithness, his grandson Robert Stewart, Master of Atholl, and Sir Robert Graham (who had personally finished off the trapped and wounded king as he pleaded for an opportunity to make a confession), having been captured as they fled through the Highlands, were gruesomely executed at Stirling along with one of the king’s private chamberlains. Walter insisted that he had taken no part in the regicide although his grandson had informed him of their plans beforehand. During the old man’s 1st day of torture they put him in a cart with a crane, and hoisted him up and dropped him repeatedly, to stretch his joints, after which he was “crowned with a diadem of burning iron” with an inscription “King of all Traitors” and displayed in a pillory. During his 2d day they bound him to a hurdle and dragged him along the high street of Edinburgh (some say he was also on this 2d day blinded, and tortured with red-hot iron pincers). It was only during his 3d and final day of torture that he was gutted alive and his entrails burned before his face, before they tore out his heart and burned that, and beheaded and quartered the corpse for display around the realm. They tore, chunk by chunk, with pincers, the flesh from the bodies of Robert Stewart, and the chamberlain. Graham was constantly protesting his right to kill the despot, and while he still lived they had him watch his son being killed. HDT WHAT? INDEX

KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM

... Yitte dowte I nott but theat yee schulle see the daye and tyme that ye schulle pray for my sowle, for the grete good that I have done to yow, and to all this reume of Scotteland, that I have thus slayne and deliverde yow of so crewell a tyrant...... Yet I do not doubt but that you shall see the day and time that you shall pray for my soul, for the great good that I have done to you, and to all in this realm of Scotland, that I have thus slain and delivered you of so cruel a tyrant... — Sir Robert Graham HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

1783

Toward the end of his 15th-Century captivity in England, Prince James Stewart of Scotland had written a long poem for Lady Joan Beaufort, “The Kingis Quair.” In this year William Tytler discovered the poem among manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. Its 7-line stanza scheme would become known as “rime royal.”

US independence was recognized in the Treaty of Paris. READ THE FULL TEXT

The “Peace of 1783” with England, signed by Benjamin Franklin, gave the new national government in North America a chance to settle scores at home. Among other punishments for disloyalty (loyalty), the mansion and estate of Colonel Elisha Jones outside Weston, Massachusetts, at which the Reverend Asa Dunbar and his wife Mary Jones Dunbar, the Colonel’s daughter, had been residing in 1775 and 1776, was confiscated HDT WHAT? INDEX

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by representatives of the new American government. Suddenly they belonged to someone else. DUNBAR FAMILY

(Oh, well, you didn’t want David Henry to grow up a poor little rich kid, now did you!)

Here are a bunch of American loyalists, leaving everything behind and fleeing to Canada (think of the helicopters taking off from the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon, crowded with panicked refugees — it was that sort of situation):

Early in the year Asa Dunbar was admitted to practice law in New Hampshire, and when Elijah Dunbar graduated from Dartmouth College later on during this year he came to study law in the Keene office of his Uncle Asa before beginning to practice law in Keene, New Hampshire and Claremont. At that time Asa, Simeon Olcott, Benjamin West (neither the famous painter nor the Rhode Island almanac-maker), and Daniel Newcomb were the only lawyers in Cheshire County.

January 23, Saturday, 1858: … Mrs. William Monroe told Sophia last evening that she remembered her (Sophia’s) grandfather very well, that he was taller than Father, and used to ride out to their house–she was a Stone and lived where she and her husband did afterward, now Darius Merriam’s–when they made cheeses, to drink the whey, being in consumption. She said that she remembered Grandmother too, Jennie Burns, how she came to the schoolroom (in Middle Street (?), Boston) once, leading her little daughter Elizabeth, the latter so small that she could not tell her name distinctly, but spoke thick and lispingly,– “Elizabeth Orrock Thoreau.”1 JEAN THOREAU JANE “JENNIE” BURNS THOREAU

One should not forbear to mention that it would not have taken much to be “taller than Father” John Thoreau, who was a remarkably short man, and that thus this passage in the journal in no way implied that Jean Thoreau had been tall. 1. Vide February 7th. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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February 7, 1858: …Aunt Louisa Dunbar has talked with Mrs. Monroe, and I can correct or add to my account. She says that she was then only three or four years old, and that she went to school somewhere in Boston, with Aunt Elizabeth and one other child, to a woman named Turner, who kept a spinning-wheel a-going while she taught these three little children. She remembers that one sat on a lignum-vitæ mortar, turned bottom upward, another on a box, and the third on a stool; and then she repeated the story of Jennie Burns bringing her little daughter to the school, as before. … JANE “JENNIE” BURNS THOREAU

February 8, 1858: …Mrs. Monroe says that her mother, Mrs. Stone, respected my grandfather Thoreau very much, because he was a religious man. She remembers his calling one day and inquiring where blue vervain grew, which he wanted to make a syrup for his cough; and she, a girl, happening to know, ran and gathered some. …

JEAN THOREAU HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1841

December 8, Wednesday: Henry Thoreau checked out, from Harvard Library, THE PARADISE OF DAINTY DEVICES, REPRINTED FROM THE EDITIONS OF 1576, 1580, & 1600. AND ENGLAND’S HELICON, FROM THE EDITIONS OF 1600 & 1614. WITH INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL, BY SIR EGERTON BRYDGES, K.J. (London: Printed by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, for Robert Triphook, 37, St. James’s Street. 1812). ENGLAND’S HELICON

Thoreau would copy a couple of poems by Edmund Mary Bolton (E.B.) into his 1st Commonplace Book: A PASTORALL ODE TO AN HONOURABLE FRIEND. As to the blooming prime, Bleake Winter being fled, From compasse of the clime, Where Nature lay as dead, The riuers dull’d with time, The greene leaues withered. Fresh Zephyri (the westeren brethren) be : So th’ honour of your favouor is to me. For as the plaines reuiue, And put on youthfull greene: As plants begin to thriue, That disattir’d had beene ; And arbours now aliue, In former pompe are seene. So if my Spring had any flowers before : Your breath Fauonius hath encreast the store. Finis. E.B.

THE SHEPHEARD’S SONG: A CAROLL OR HIMNE FOR CHRISTMAS. Sweet Musicke, sweeter farre Then any song is sweet : Sweet Musicke, heauenly rare, Mine eares, (O peeres) doth greete Yon gentle flocks, whose fleeces, pearl’d with dewe, Resemble heauen, whom golden drops make bright : Listen, O listen, now, O not to you Our pipes make sport to shorten wearie night. But voyces most diuine, Make blissfull harmonie : Voyces that seeme to shine, For what else cleares the skie ? Tunes can we heare, but not the singers see, The tunes diuine, and so the singers be.

Loe, how the firmament Within an azure fold, The flock of starres hath pent, That we might them behold. Yet from their beames proceedeth not this light, Nor can their christals such reflection giue. What then doth make the element so bright ? HDT WHAT? INDEX

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The heauens are come downe vpon earth to liue. But harken to the song, Glory to glories King : And peace all men among, These queristers doe sing. Angels they are, as also (Shepheards) hee, Whom in our feare we doe admire to see. Let not amazement blinde Your soules, (said he) annoy : To you and all mankinde, My message bringeth ioy. For loe the world’s great Shepheard now is borne, A blessed babe, an infant full of power : After long night, vp-risen is the morne, Renowning Bethlem in the Sauiour. Sprung is the perfect day, By prophets seene a farre : Sprung is the mirthfull May, Which Winter cannot marre. In Dauid’s citie doth this sunne appeare : Clouded in flesh, yet Shepheards sit we here. Finis. E.B.

He would also copy an a cappella song for five voices from 1588 by William Byrd (circa 1540-July 4, 1623), into his 1st Commonplace Book: THE HEARD-MAN’S HAPPIE LIFE. What pleasure haue great Princes, More daintie to their choice; Then Heard-men wilde, who carelesse In quiet life reioyce ? And fortune’s fate not fearing, Sing sweet in Sommer morning. Their dealings plaine and rightfull, Are voyd of all deceit: They neuer know how spightful, It is to kneele and waite, On fauourite presumptuous, Whose pride is vaine and sumptuous. All day their flocks each tendeth. At night they take their rest: More quiet then who sendeth His ship into the east; Where gold and pearle are plentie, But getting very daintie. For lawyers and their pleading, They ’steeme it not a straw: They thinke that honest meaning, Is of itselfe a law ; Where conscience iudgeth plainely, They spend no money vainley.

Oh happy who thus liueth, Not caring much for gold : With cloathing which suffiseth, Too keepe him from the cold. Though poore and plaine his diet, Yet merrie it is and quiet. Finis. Out of M. Bird’s set Songs. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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He would also copy a couple of poems by William Hunnis into his 1st Commonplace Book: Wodenfrides Song in Praise of Amargana. The sunne the season in each thing Revives new pleasures, the sweet Spring Hath put to flight the Winter keene, To glad our Lovely Sommer Queene. The pathes where Amargana treads With flowrie tap’stries Flora spreads, And Nature clothes the ground in greene, To glad our lovely Sommer Queene. The groaves put on their rich aray, With Hawthorne bloomes imbroydered gay, And sweet perfum’d with Eglantine, To glad our lovely Sommer Queene. The silent River stayes his course Whilst playing on the christall sourse The silver scaled fish are seene, To glad our lovely Sommer Queene. The Woode at her faire sight reioyces The little birds with their lowd voyces In consort on the bryers beene, To glad our lovely Sommer Queene. The fleecie Flockes doo scud and skip The Wood-Nimphs, fawnes and Satires trip, And daunce the Mirtle trees betweene, To glad our lovely Sommer Queene. Great Pan (our God), for her deere sake This feast and meeting bids us make Of Sheepheards, Lads, and Lasses sheene, To glad our lovely Sheepheards Queene. And every Swaine his chaunce doth proue To winne faire Amargana’s love, In sporting strifes quite voide of spleene, To glad our lovely Sommer Queene. All happines let Heaven her lend. And all the Graces her attend Thus bid we pray the muses nine. Long live our lovely Sommer Queene. Finis. W.H.

Another of the same. Happy sheepheards sit and see, with joy The peerelesse wight; For whose sake Pan keepes from ye annoy And gives delight. Blessing this pleasant spring Her praises must I sing. List you Swaines, list to me; The whiles your Flocks feeding be. First her brow a beauteous globe I deeme And golden haire; And her cheeke Auroraes roabe dooth seeme HDT WHAT? INDEX

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But farre more faire, Her eyes like starres are bright And dazle with their light. Rubies her lips to see, But to tast, nectar they be. Orient pearles her teeth, her smile dooth linke the graces three; Her white necke dooth eyes beguile to thinke it Iuorie. Alas, her Lilly hand How it dooth me commaund? Softer silke none can be And whiter milk none can see. Circe’s wand is not so straite as is Her body small; But two pillers beare the waight of this Maiestick Hall. Those be I you assure Of Alabaster pure Polish’d fine in each part Ne’re Nature yet shewed like Art. How shall I her pretty tread expresse when she dooth walke? Scarse she dooth the Primerose head depresse or tender stalke Of blew-veined Violets Whereon her foote she sets. Vertuous she is, for we find In bodye faire, beauteous minde. Live faire Amargana still extold In all my rime; Hand want Art when I want will, t’unfold her worth divine. But now my Muse dooth rest, Dispaire clos’d in my brest, Of the valour I sing; Weake faith that no hope dooth bring. Finis. W.H.

He also checked out the two volumes of Robert Jamieson’s POPULAR BALLADS AND SONGS, FROM TRADITIONAL MANUSCRIPTS AND SCARCE EDITIONS; WITH TRANSLATIONS OF SIMILAR PIECES FROM THE ANCIENT DANISH LANGUAGE, AND A FEW ORIGINALS BY THE EDITOR. (2 Volumes; Edinburgh: A. Constable and co.; [etc. etc.], 1806), and put his notes on this reading in his “Miscellaneous Extracts, 1836-1840” notebook now on file at the Pierpont Morgan Library under accession number MA594. JAMIESON’S BALLADS I JAMIESON’S BALLADS II HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Thoreau also checked out THE WORKS OF JAMES I, KING OF SCOTLAND (Perth, 1786). SCOTLAND HDT WHAT? INDEX

IACOBVS.I.D.GRATIA.REX.SCOTORVM KING JAMES I OF SCOTLAND

Thoreau was consulting a edition of this treatise formed upon Tytler’s edition and printed in Perth in 1786 by Robert Morison, junior, for R. Morison and son, and sold by G.G.J. and J. Robinson, London, an edition which contained in addition to the original materials some Scottish poems ascribed to him: “The Kingis quair; a poem,” “Peblis to the Play,” “Christis Kirk on the grene,” “The gaberiungioman,” and “The jolie beggar.” Prefixed was a portrait of the King, by Beugo, from the original in the Keilberg Gallery.

Unfortunately, neither the original of this nor its 1786 recapitulation have as yet been electronically captured. All that I am able to show you, electronically, is THE WORKS OF JAMES THE FIRST, KING OF SCOTLAND, TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, A HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL DISSERTATION ON HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS. ALSO, SOME BRIEF REMARKS ON THE INTIMATE CONNEXION OF THE SCOTS LANGUAGE WITH THE OTHER NORTHERN DIALECTS. AND ADISSERTATION ON SCOTTISH MUSIC; THE WHOLE ACCOMPANIED WITH NOTES, HISTORICAL, CRITICAL, AND EXPLANATORY. ... (Perth: Printed by Crerar and Son. For G. Clark, Aberdeen. 1827). How similar this edition is to the one that Thoreau consulted, I cannot say. WORKS OF JAMES THE FIRST

He also checked out A SELECTION FROM THE POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS CAREW (Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme; By John Evans ... and sold by Thomas Fry & Co. ..., Bristol, 1810).

THOMAS CAREW’S POEMS Thoreau would copy some of these poems, such as Richard Barnfield’s “The Unknown Shepheard’s Complaint,” into his 1st Commonplace Book. RICHARD BARNFIELD HDT WHAT? INDEX

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“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2015. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at .

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

Prepared: February 28, 2015

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Iacobvs.I.D.Gratia.Rex.Scotorvm HDT WHAT? INDEX

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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with . Arrgh.