James III of Scotland

James III became king of Scots as a child in 1460 and ruled until 1488. He pursued peace with England, acquired Orkney and Shetland through marriage to Margaret of Denmark and showed interests in art, music and centralised monarchy.

Many nobles resented his favourites and policies, and repeated rebellions weakened the crown. In 1488 forces supporting his son defeated him at Sauchieburn, and James was killed while fleeing the battlefield. James III of Scotland was born in Stirling Castle and died in Stirling.

In Nigel Tranter’s Chain of Destiny, after the defeat and death of James III following the Battle of Sauchieburn in 1488, his fifteen-year-old son is crowned James IV of Scotland. In Nigel Tranter’s The Admiral, the king recognises that Scotland cannot remain secure without ships of its own and entrusts Wood with captured vessels that become the nucleus of a royal fleet. Wood’s successes against English privateers earn him lands, rank and the office by which history remembers him, but they also provoke Henry VII’s government into sending stronger opponents north. James III of Scotland is treated fictionally in Dorothy Dunnett’s The Unicorn Hunt, Dorothy Dunnett’s To Lie with Lions, Dorothy Dunnett’s Gemini, Nigel Tranter’s Lord in Waiting, and Nigel Tranter’s Price of a Princess.