James V of Scotland

James V had the full intention of upholding the particular clause in the Treaty of Rouen that promised him a French princess as a bride. But the Scottish were aware that all of Francis I’s daughters were either already betrothed for marriage or sickly. So, they began to look for other prospective brides from the summer of 1529. Catherine de' Medici, the Duchess of Urbino, and Mary of Austria, Queen of Hungary, the sister of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, were both in consideration.

In 1533, the French ambassadors in Scotland, Guillaume du Bellay, sieur de Langes, and Etienne de Laigue, sieur de Beauvais, came to know that James was planning to wed Christina of Denmark.

After much diplomacy, the French and the Scots agreed that James V would marry Mary of Bourbon, daughter of the Duke of Vendôme and receive a dowry as if he had married a French royal.

James V was born on April 10, 1512, at Linlithgow Palace in Linlithgowshire, which is present day West Lothian, Scotland. His parents were King James IV of Scotland and Queen Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII, the King of England. James was their only child to survive infancy. He was baptized a day after his birth and was created the Duke of Rothesay and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.

In the circumstances resulting from the Italian Wars, a fresh outbreak of hostilities occurred between France and England. Despite being an ally to both countries, when Henry VIII, the English King at the time, attacked France, James IV responded by declaring war against England and invaded Northumbria. It was a disastrous campaign. At the Battle of Flodden Field on September 9, 1513, the Scottish army was crushed, and James, along with many of his lords, was killed.

Only 17 months old at that time, James V’s coronation took place twelve days later in the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle. His father had named his mother the Regent for their infant son in his will, as long as she stayed a widow. Soon after, she received the support of the Parliament.

The Scottish court was divided into two clear factions at the time. The pro-French party preferred the continuation of the Auld Alliance, with the likes of James Beaton and Archbishop of Glasgow leading their ranks. The queen herself was at the helm of the pro-English party; she even had opposed the war against England in which her husband perished.

Margaret needed an alliance to consolidate her power. She reached out to the powerful House of Douglas, developing a relationship with Archibald Douglas, the restless and ambitious 6th Earl of Angus. They were secretly married on August 6, 1514.

By 1524, Margaret was back in Scotland and with Albany still in France, she led a simple but effective coup d'état with the help of Robert Maxwell to bring the king from Stirling to Edinburgh. The Parliament announced the end of the regency in August, and bestowed upon the king his full regal powers. It was stipulated that he would continue to govern through the lords of Scotland, who would host the king for three months each in rotation.

When the time came for Angus to be the governor of his stepson, he held James virtually a captive for the next three years, ruling in his name. Attempts were made to free the king but they failed. Margaret herself was completely disillusioned with her husband and was having an affair with Henry Stewart, 1st Lord Methven. In 1528, James was finally able to escape from Angus, taking the control of government himself.

As his first act, James V brought the fury of the crown down upon the House of Douglas. The family was sent to exile and he laid siege on Tantallon, their ancestral seat. He even burned Janet Douglas, Angus’ sister, at the stake for witchcraft on July 17, 1537.

He launched major expeditions to the borders in 1529 and 1530 to bring notorious leaders like Johnnie Armstrong to heel. Once that done, he focused on subduing the islands chieftains. Tired of Henry VIII’s support for the Douglas family, James reacted by backing Irish rebels and styling himself as the ‘Lord of Ireland’.

His financial policies were geared towards increasing the crown’s income by strengthening his hold on royal estates and the revenues of justice, customs and feudal rights. With the permission from Pope Clement VII, he extracted money from the Catholic church by taxing ecclesiastical income.

With Margaret Tudor’s passing in October 1541, all possibilities of peace with England came to a drastic end. War was inevitable. The Scots won a significant victory at the Battle of Haddon Rig on August 24, 1542. Despite Henry’s urging, James declined to convert to Protestantism. Furthermore, he expressed his wish to postpone a meeting with Henry on the grounds of his wife being pregnant at the time. Henry refused this condition and attacked.

James and his nobles were on disagreement on whether to invade England. He desperately wanted to do it while they advocated a more cautious approach. The armies met at the Battle of Solway Moss on September 24. It was a catastrophe; hundreds of Scots were either captured or drowned in the River Esk.

The king, defeated and ill with high fever, retreated to Falkland Palace where he would die on December 14, 1542, at the age of 30. He was buried at Holyrood Abby in Edinburgh.