James II of Scotland

James II was king of Scots from 1437 until 1460 and inherited the throne as a child after his father’s assassination. His reign was dominated by the struggle to reduce the power of the Black Douglas family and strengthen royal authority.

James became king as a child after the assassination of his father James I, and his minority was dominated by rivalry among noble factions. As an adult he moved aggressively against the Black Douglases, personally killing William, 8th Earl of Douglas, in 1452 and eventually breaking the family’s political power. James died in 1460 when a cannon exploded during the siege of Roxburgh Castle.

J. R. Tomlin’s A King Imperiled begins with six-year-old James II inheriting the throne after his father’s assassination and becoming the prize in a struggle among armed magnates. A King Empowered follows him towards adulthood as he tests the regents and nobles who have grown powerful during his minority and begins to recover authority for the crown. Nigel Tranter’s Lion’s Whelp treats the same childhood through the rivalry of the Crichtons, Livingstons and Black Douglases, while Black Douglas carries James into the confrontation with a Douglas affinity whose landed and military strength threatens to eclipse the monarchy itself.