In the sixteenth century as in the previous century the Scottish kings were again called James though there was a break in the middle for Mary, Queen of Scots. The first Stewart king of the sixteenth century was James V.

                                         James V (1513-1542)

James V succeeded to the throne on the death of his father James IV at the battle of Flodden in 1513. He greatly increased royal revenues and gained large dowries from his two marriages to Madeline, the daughter of the King of France then after her early death to Mary of Guise, the sister of the powerful Duke of Guise. James V was also able to exploit the papacy’s fears over him becoming a Protestant by gaining access to church finances. This large volume of money was used on large-scale building projects particularly at Holyrood Palace , Stirling castle and his favourite residence at Falkland Palace. However, like his grandfather James III, he got on very badly with the nobility, preferring to back the ordinary members of the kingdom. James V also fell out badly with King Henry VIII of England and in 1542 open war broke out between them. After initial success a Scottish army was routed at the Battle of Solway Moss. James V died at Falkland Palace in December 1542 being succeeded by his daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots.

 

                                      Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1567)

Considered by many historians to be the most famous of the Stewart monarchs, Mary, Queen of Scots was six days old when her father James V died and she inherited the throne. This was a troubled time for Scotland and for the next few years it was governed by regents. First by James Hamilton, the Earl of Arran and then later by the queen’s mother Mary of Guise. To escape from frequent English invasions Mary was sent to France for safety. Subsequently marrying the future King Francis II she briefly became Queen of France in 1559 until his death the following year. Mary chose to return to Scotland in 1561 but by that time it had become Protestant while Mary herself remained Catholic. For the first few years of her time in Scotland Mary managed to steer a middle course, accepting the Protestant settlement and keeping the existing Scottish governors including her illegitimate half-brother, James, Earl of Moray. Things began to go wrong with her marriage to Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley in 1565, though a son was born to Mary the following year. However, the marriage continued to deteriorate and in 1567 Darnley was found murdered in the garden of his house in Edinburgh which had just been destroyed by a gunpowder explosion. In April of the same year Mary married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was held responsible for Darnley’s death. This led to an uprising which led to Mary being imprisoned in Loch Leven castle where she was forced to abdicate in favour of her son. She subsequently escaped from the castle and fled to England. There she was imprisoned and being accused of treason was finally beheaded in 1587 by Elizabeth I, Queen of England.

 

                                         King James VI (1567-1625)

King James VI succeeded to the Scottish throne on the abdication of his mother Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567. Regents ruled for the infant James until he finally managed to gain control of the kingdom in 1583. James VI conducted a long series of campaigns against the Presbyterian Church of Scotland including what became known as the Black Acts but withdrew from a full-scale confrontation before a full crisis erupted as later occurred in the late 1630’s. In 1589 James married Anne, the daughter of Frederick II, King of Denmark/Norway in Oslo receiving a large dowry for the marriage. In 1603 he inherited England after the death of Queen Elizabeth I and where he was styled James I. Once in England he ended the long war with Spain but refused to end the repression of Catholics which subsequently led to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 which King James survived but which led to further repression in its wake. James returned once to Scotland in 1617 in order to push through further anti-Presbyterian measures but this turned out to be a futile exercise. James died in March 1625 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.