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190-570: Bothwell Castle is a large medieval castle , sited on a high, steep bank, above a bend in the River Clyde in South Lanarkshire , Scotland . It is located between Bothwell and Uddingston , about 10 miles (16 km) south-east of Glasgow . Construction of the castle was begun in the 13th century by the ancestors of Clan Murray , to guard a strategic crossing point of the Clyde. Bothwell played

380-462: A brief replacement government with his brother Alexander, Duke of Albany, in place as acting lieutenant-general of the realm. He was eventually freed by late September 1482. After having been freed, James was able to regain power by buying off members of Albany's government, such that by December 1482, Albany's government was collapsing. From 1483, he was able to "steadily reduce any remaining support for Albany". In particular, Albany's attempt to claim

570-575: A coup to seize control of the government by gaining possession of the king during his minority. Gilbert Kennedy was then imprisoned in Stirling Castle for a period. The 14-year-old king was forced to declare before Parliament in October that he had not been offended by being taken from Linlithgow, and that it was his intention to appoint Lord Boyd as his governor, to serve until his twenty-first year. The Boyd faction made itself unpopular, especially with

760-410: A court physician, before his rapid promotion as Archdeacon of St Andrews , dean of Dunkeld , and coadjutor of St Andrews , before being appointed as Archbishop of St Andrews . Other unpopular favourites included John Ramsay, 1st Lord Bothwell and Robert Cochrane . In 1479 conflict developed between the king and his two brothers John, Earl of Mar and Alexander, Duke of Albany . The Earl of Mar

950-421: A few families and still others lived on isolated farms spread over the countryside. There were also areas where the pattern was a mix of two or more of those systems. Unlike in the late Roman period, there was no sharp break between the legal status of the free peasant and the aristocrat, and it was possible for a free peasant's family to rise into the aristocracy over several generations through military service to

1140-495: A full-scale invasion led by the Duke of Gloucester, the future Richard III . James's brother Alexander, styled "Alexander IV", was included as part of the invasion party. James, in attempting to lead his subjects against the invasion, was arrested by a group of disaffected nobles at Lauder Bridge in July 1482. It has been suggested that the nobles were already in league with Alexander. The king

1330-499: A guarantee of his intention to carry through with the marriage of the Duke of Rothesay and Cecily of York. Richard, Duke of Gloucester was appointed lieutenant-general , and commissions for the defence of the border were issued in Yorkshire , Cumberland , and Northumberland . But during the summer of 1480, the Earl of Angus carried out a large-scale raid into Northumberland, culminating in

1520-456: A key role in Scotland's Wars of Independence , changing hands several times. The huge cylindrical donjon was built in the 13th century, but before the rest of the castle was completed it was severely damaged in a series of sieges . Rebuilding in the early 15th century enlarged the castle, but it was abandoned by the 18th century. The present ruin is rectangular, with the remains of the donjon to

1710-586: A king to rule over them all. By the late sixth century, this arrangement had been replaced by a permanent monarchy, the Kingdom of the Lombards . The invasions brought new ethnic groups to Europe, although some regions received a larger influx of new peoples than others. In Gaul for instance, the invaders settled much more extensively in the north-east than in the south-west. Slavs settled in Central and Eastern Europe and

1900-413: A lucky escape in 1482, when he easily could have been murdered or executed in an attempt to bring his son to the throne, James did not reform his behaviour during the 1480s. Obsessive attempts to secure alliance with England continued, although they made little sense given the prevailing politics. He continued to favour a group of "familiars" unpopular with the more powerful magnates. He refused to travel for

2090-532: A new mansion nearby, demolishing the castle's north-east tower for its stone. (His house was demolished in 1926 due to mining subsidence in the area). After the death of the 2nd Earl at Sheriffmuir in 1715, the castle reverted to the senior line of the Douglas family, represented by the 1st Duke of Douglas and his heirs. The castle then descended to the Earls of Home . In 1935 the 13th Earl gave Bothwell into state care. It

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2280-555: A period of seventeen years. On 20 February 1472, Parliament brought the negotiations , which had begun with the Treaty of Copenhagen, to an end by annexing and uniting the earldom of Orkney and the lordship of Shetland to the Scottish Crown. In theory, Christian I of Denmark or his successors could still redeem the islands by paying the balance of Queen Margaret's dowry; but in practice, with Christian's continuing financial difficulties and

2470-567: A powerful lord. Roman city life and culture changed greatly in the early Middle Ages. Although Italian cities remained inhabited, they contracted significantly in size. Rome, for instance, shrank from a population of hundreds of thousands to around 30,000 by the end of the 6th century. Roman temples were converted into Christian churches and city walls remained in use. In Northern Europe, cities also shrank, while civic monuments and other public buildings were raided for building materials. The establishment of new kingdoms often meant some growth for

2660-462: A practical skill rather than a sign of elite status. In the 4th century, Jerome (d. 420) dreamed that God rebuked him for spending more time reading Cicero than the Bible . By the 6th century, Gregory of Tours (d. 594) had a similar dream, but instead of being chastised for reading Cicero, he was chastised for learning shorthand . By the late 6th century, the principal means of religious instruction in

2850-467: A small foothold in southern Spain. Justinian's reconquests have been criticised by historians for overextending his realm and setting the stage for the early Muslim conquests , but many of the difficulties faced by Justinian's successors were due not just to over-taxation to pay for his wars but to the essentially civilian nature of the empire, which made raising troops difficult. In the Eastern Empire

3040-697: A treaty which proposed that if Scotland was conquered by Edward, the kingdom would be partitioned, with the lands north of the Firth of Forth to be divided between the Lord of the Isles and the Earl of Douglas , and held from the English crown. The confrontation began in September 1475, when John was accused of a number of offences against the Crown, including treasonable dealings with England and

3230-600: A treaty which provided for an alliance between Scotland and Denmark, and James III's marriage to Margaret , the only daughter of King Christian I of Denmark and Norway . Margaret's dowry was 60,000 Rhenish guilders , 10,000 of which were to be paid before the Scottish embassy left Denmark. However, Christian I was unable to raise more than 2,000 of the promised 10,000 guilders, and in May 1469, Orkney and Shetland were pledged by him, as king of Norway, to James III as security until

3420-414: A truce with Edward IV of England which was intended to (but did not) last for forty-five years, and was to be accompanied by a marriage alliance between James's heir, the infant Duke of Rothesay , and Edward's daughter, Cecily of York , when both of them reached marriageable age. The prospective bride's dowry was 20,000 marks sterling, which would be paid in advance in annual instalment of 2,000 marks over

3610-486: A truce with England and the marriage of his second son, James, Marquess of Ormond , to Catherine of York , the sister-in-law of Henry VII of England . In April 1487 the Pope granted James III an indult which strengthened the power of the Scottish Crown over ecclesiastical appointments, allowing the king and his successors to effectively appoint their own candidates when vacancies occurred in cathedrals and monasteries. Despite

3800-627: Is itself subdivided into the Early , High , and Late Middle Ages . Population decline , counterurbanisation , the collapse of centralized authority, invasions, and mass migrations of tribes , which had begun in Late Antiquity , continued into the Early Middle Ages. The large-scale movements of the Migration Period , including various Germanic peoples , formed new kingdoms in what remained of

3990-649: Is no universally agreed upon end date. Depending on the context, events such as the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, Christopher Columbus 's first voyage to the Americas in 1492, or the Protestant Reformation in 1517 are sometimes used. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period. For Spain, dates commonly used are the death of King Ferdinand II in 1516,

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4180-406: Is now managed by Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument , and was open to the public (with admission charge) until the castle was closed in 2020 due to safety issues. While the castle was never completed to its original design, its design is similar to the strongholds of Coucy , Kildrummy and Dirleton as it has a round keep ( or donjon ). The keep, while currently in ruins,

4370-467: The fyrd , which were led by the local elites. In military technology, one of the main changes was the return of the crossbow , which had been known in Roman times and reappeared as a military weapon during the last part of the Early Middle Ages. Another change was the introduction of the stirrup, which increased the effectiveness of cavalry as shock troops. A technological advance that had implications beyond

4560-690: The Alans , Vandals , and Suevi crossed into Gaul ; over the next three years they spread across Gaul and in 409 crossed the Pyrenees Mountains into modern-day Spain. The Migration Period began, when various peoples, initially largely Germanic peoples , moved across Europe. The Franks , Alemanni , and the Burgundians all ended up in northern Gaul while the Angles , Saxons , and Jutes settled in Britain , and

4750-469: The Anglo-Scottish border , in violation of the truce between Scotland and England. Albany fled by sea to Paris , where in September 1479 he was welcomed by King Louis XI , and received royal favour by his marriage to Anne de La Tour d'Auvergne . Since the treaty of October 1474, relations between Scotland and England had remained generally peaceful. Edward IV continued to pay the annual instalments of

4940-521: The Benedictine Rule for Western monasticism during the 6th century, detailing the administrative and spiritual responsibilities of a community of monks led by an abbot . Monks and monasteries had a deep effect on the religious and political life of the Early Middle Ages, in various cases acting as land trusts for powerful families, centres of propaganda and royal support in newly conquered regions, and bases for missions and proselytisation. They were

5130-777: The Bishop of Glasgow , and the earls of Angus , Huntly , Argyll , and Orkney . Mary of Guelders emerged as an astute and capable ruler, pursuing a pragmatic foreign policy during the Wars of the Roses taking place in England . Following the defeat of the Lancastrians by the Yorkists at the Battle of Towton in March 1461, Henry VI of England , Margaret of Anjou , and Edward, Prince of Wales fled north across

5320-575: The Carolingian Empire during the later 8th and early 9th centuries. It covered much of Western Europe but later succumbed to the pressures of internal civil wars combined with external invasions: Vikings from the north, Magyars from the east, and Saracens from the south. During the High Middle Ages, which began after 1000, the population of Europe increased greatly as technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and

5510-557: The Chancellorship , for reasons which remain a mystery, and replacing him with William Elphinstone , the Bishop of Aberdeen . James III sought armed assistance from Henry VII of England and moved north from Edinburgh to Aberdeen in March, probably realising that his position in Edinburgh was becoming precarious, with the Duke of Rothesay and the rebel army nearby, either at Linlithgow or Stirling. The king failed to raise support for

5700-520: The Desert Fathers of Egypt and Syria . Most European monasteries were of the type that focuses on community experience of the spiritual life, called cenobitism , which was pioneered by Pachomius (d. 348) in the 4th century. Monastic ideals spread from Egypt to Western Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries through hagiographical literature such as the Life of Anthony . Benedict of Nursia (d. 547) wrote

5890-739: The Earldom of Bothwell was created for him. Hepburn did not retain Bothwell Castle for long, however, exchanging it with Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus , known as "Bell-the-Cat", in return for Hermitage Castle in Liddesdale. James IV visited Bothwell in 1503 and 1504. Bothwell thus reverted to the Douglases, and descended through the Earls of Angus and Marquesses of Douglas to the Earls of Forfar . Archibald Douglas, 1st Earl of Forfar , began construction of

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6080-568: The Gregorian chant in liturgical music for the churches. An important activity for scholars during this period was the copying, correcting, and dissemination of basic works on religious and secular topics, with the aim of encouraging learning. New works on religious topics and schoolbooks were also produced. Grammarians of the period modified the Latin language, changing it from the Classical Latin of

6270-698: The Macedonian dynasty . Commerce revived and the emperors oversaw the extension of a uniform administration to all the provinces. The military was reorganised, which allowed the emperors John I (r. 969–976) and Basil II (r. 976–1025) to expand the frontiers of the empire on all fronts. The imperial court was the centre of a revival of classical learning, a process known as the Macedonian Renaissance . Writers such as John Geometres ( fl. early 10th century) composed new hymns, poems, and other works. Missionary efforts by both Eastern and Western clergy resulted in

6460-477: The Medieval Warm Period climate change allowed crop yields to increase. Manorialism , the organisation of peasants into villages that owed rent and labour services to the nobles , and feudalism , the political structure whereby knights and lower-status nobles owed military service to their overlords in return for the right to rent from lands and manors , were two of the ways society was organized in

6650-450: The coinage , hoarding money, failing to resolve feuds and enforce criminal justice, and pursuing an unpopular policy of alliance with England . His preference for his own "low-born" favourites at court and in government alienated many of his bishops and nobles, as well as members of his own family, leading to tense relationships with his brothers, his wife, and his heir. In 1482, James's brother, Alexander, Duke of Albany , attempted to usurp

6840-462: The 17th-century German historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods: ancient, medieval, and modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is around 500, with the date of 476 first used by Bruni. Later starting dates are sometimes used in the outer parts of Europe. For Europe as a whole, 1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there

7030-474: The 5th and the 7th centuries, going first to England and Scotland and then on to the continent. Under such monks as Columba (d. 597) and Columbanus (d. 615), they founded monasteries, taught in Latin and Greek, and authored secular and religious works. The Early Middle Ages witnessed the rise of monasticism in the West. The shape of European monasticism was determined by traditions and ideas that originated with

7220-702: The 5th century. The Eastern Empire was marked by closer relations between the political state and Christian Church, with doctrinal matters assuming an importance in Eastern politics that they did not have in Western Europe. Legal developments included the codification of Roman law ; the first effort—the Codex Theodosianus —was completed in 438. Under Emperor Justinian (r. 527–565), another compilation took place—the Corpus Juris Civilis . Justinian also oversaw

7410-616: The 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the Post-classical period of global history . It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery . The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity , the medieval period, and the modern period . The medieval period

7600-665: The 6th and 7th centuries, all of them ruled by the Merovingian dynasty, who were descended from Clovis. The 7th century was a tumultuous period of wars between Austrasia and Neustria. Such warfare was exploited by Pippin (d. 640), the Mayor of the Palace for Austrasia who became the power behind the Austrasian throne. Later members of his family inherited the office, acting as advisers and regents. One of his descendants, Charles Martel (d. 741), won

7790-636: The Arabs. The migrations and invasions of the 4th and 5th centuries disrupted trade networks around the Mediterranean. African goods stopped being imported into Europe, first disappearing from the interior and by the 7th century found only in a few cities such as Rome or Naples . By the end of the 7th century, under the impact of the Muslim conquests , African products were no longer found in Western Europe. The replacement of goods from long-range trade with local products

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7980-526: The Bald received the western Frankish lands, comprising most of modern-day France. Charlemagne's grandsons and great-grandsons divided their kingdoms between their descendants, eventually causing all internal cohesion to be lost. In 987 the Carolingian dynasty was replaced in the western lands, with the crowning of Hugh Capet (r. 987–996) as king. In the eastern lands the dynasty had died out earlier, in 911, with

8170-535: The Balkan Peninsula. The settlement of peoples was accompanied by changes in languages. Latin , the literary language of the Western Roman Empire, was gradually replaced by vernacular languages which evolved from Latin, but were distinct from it, collectively known as Romance languages . These changes from Latin to the new languages took many centuries. Greek remained the language of the Byzantine Empire, but

8360-628: The Battle of Poitiers in 732, halting the advance of Muslim armies across the Pyrenees. Great Britain was divided into small states dominated by the kingdoms of Northumbria , Mercia , Wessex , and East Anglia which descended from the Anglo-Saxon invaders. Smaller kingdoms in present-day Wales and Scotland were still under the control of the native Britons and Picts . Ireland was divided into even smaller political units, usually known as tribal kingdoms, under

8550-509: The Bold , Duke of Burgundy , and Louis XI of France. The embassy would also seek a Burgundian or French marriage for the king's sister, Margaret . In February 1472, James's second continental scheme saw him ask Parliament to fund his plan to lead an army of 6,000 men to assert his tenuous claim to the Duchy of Brittany , which derived from his aunt, Isabella . Parliament granted a tax of £5,000 to fund

8740-512: The Bruce 's victory at Bannockburn in 1314, the castle provided shelter for several English nobles. However, the castle's constable, Sir Walter FitzGilbert , surrendered the castle to the approaching Scots. For this act, he was granted the barony of Cadzow, where his descendants became the powerful Hamilton family . The Scots slighted the castle after its surrender. In 1336 the English returned again, this time under Edward III . The English king had

8930-566: The Byzantine Empire, as the assumption of the imperial title by the Carolingians asserted their equivalence to the Byzantine state. There were several differences between the newly established Carolingian Empire and both the older Western Roman Empire and the concurrent Byzantine Empire. The Frankish lands were rural in character, with only a few small cities. Most of the people were peasants settled on small farms. Little trade existed and much of that

9120-518: The Byzantine Empire, which he sealed with the marriage of his son Otto II (r. 967–983) to Theophanu (d. 991), daughter of an earlier Byzantine Emperor Romanos II (r. 959–963). By the late 10th century Italy had been drawn into the Ottonian sphere after a period of instability; Otto III (r. 996–1002) spent much of his later reign in the kingdom. The western Frankish kingdom was more fragmented, and although kings remained nominally in charge, much of

9310-629: The Christian period as nova (or "new"). Petrarch regarded the post-Roman centuries as " dark " compared to the "light" of classical antiquity . Leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People (1442), with a middle period "between the fall of the Roman Empire and the revival of city life sometime in late eleventh and twelfth centuries". Tripartite periodisation became standard after

9500-422: The Church had widened to the extent that the cultural and religious differences were greater than the similarities. The formal break, known as the East–West Schism , came in 1054, when the papacy and the patriarchy of Constantinople clashed over papal supremacy and excommunicated each other, which led to the division of Christianity into two Churches—the Western branch became the Roman Catholic Church and

9690-499: The Church had become music and art rather than the book. Most intellectual efforts went towards imitating classical scholarship, but some original works were created, along with now-lost oral compositions. The writings of Sidonius Apollinaris (d. 489), Cassiodorus (d. c.  585 ), and Boethius (d. c. 525) were typical of the age. Changes also took place among laymen, as aristocratic culture focused on great feasts held in halls rather than on literary pursuits. Clothing for

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9880-480: The Crown, Kintyre , Knapdale , and the offices of sheriff of Inverness and Nairn were lost, and the Lord of the Isles was reduced to a mere Lord of Parliament . On the day of the forfeiture of the Lord of the Isles, James III had Parliament approve his act of revocation . The king stood at the height of his power, having removed the Boyds, annexed Orkney and Shetland, humbled the Archbishop of St Andrews, agreed to peace and an alliance with England, and forfeited

10070-405: The Crown. James III ascended the throne following the death of his father at the siege of Roxburgh Castle on 3 August 1460, and the new king was brought to Kelso from Edinburgh with his mother. It was not considered possible to have the king journey to Perthshire for a coronation at Scone Abbey , so James III was crowned at Kelso Abbey , a week after James II's death, and two days after

10260-448: The Dnieper River in modern Ukraine to the Adriatic Sea. By 1018, the last Bulgarian nobles had surrendered to the Byzantine Empire. Few large stone buildings were constructed between the Constantinian basilicas of the 4th century and the 8th century, although many smaller ones were built during the 6th and 7th centuries. By the beginning of the 8th century, the Carolingian Empire revived the basilica form of architecture. One feature of

10450-423: The Duke of Albany, to seize Edinburgh Castle and free the king from the Boyds. The impending marriage of the now seventeen-year-old James III signalled an appropriate moment for him to bring his minority to an end, and the king began to plot his revenge against the Boyds in the summer of 1469, while Lord Boyd was on an embassy to the English court, and the earl of Arran was one of the ambassadors in Denmark. When

10640-427: The Duke of Rothesay and Anne de la Pole, Richard's niece. On Laetare Sunday , 5 March 1486, Pope Innocent VIII blessed a Golden Rose and sent it to James III. It was an annual custom to send the rose to a deserving prince. Giacomo Passarelli, Bishop of Imola , brought the rose to Scotland and returned to London to complete the dispensation for the marriage of Henry VII of England . In 1486 and 1487 James proposed

10830-493: The Earl of Arran, were all found guilty of treason and their peerages were forfeited. Sir Alexander was condemned to death and beheaded. James III married 13-year-old Margaret of Denmark in July 1469 at Holyrood Abbey , Edinburgh , in a service overseen by Archibald Crawford, the Abbot of Holyrood . The marriage produced three sons: James, Duke of Rothesay , James, Duke of Ross , and John, Earl of Mar . James III began his personal rule in 1469, yet his exercise of royal power

11020-409: The Earl of Douglas, and besieging Rothesay Castle . When John did not appear for trial before Parliament in December, he was declared forfeit. The earls of Lennox , Argyll , Atholl and Huntly were ordered to pursue John MacDonald and invade his territories. The Lord of the Isles appeared before the king in Edinburgh in July 1476 and the forfeiture was rescinded. The earldom of Ross was annexed to

11210-425: The Earls of Angus and Argyll , and the Home and Hepburn families. James's heir, the fifteen-year-old James, Duke of Rothesay , left Stirling Castle without his father's knowledge on 2 February 1488, marking the beginning of a four-month rebellion against James III. Prince James became, perhaps reluctantly, the figurehead of the rebels, whose aim seems to have been the establishment of a council of regency, with

11400-534: The Early Middle Ages are mostly illuminated manuscripts and carved ivories , originally made for metalwork that has since been melted down. Objects in precious metals were the most prestigious form of art, but almost all are lost except for a few crosses such as the Cross of Lothair , several reliquaries , and finds such as the Anglo-Saxon burial at Sutton Hoo and the hoards of Gourdon from Merovingian France, Guarrazar from Visigothic Spain and Nagyszentmiklós near Byzantine territory. There are survivals from

11590-411: The Eastern Mediterranean and remained a major power. The empire's law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or "Code of Justinian", was rediscovered in Northern Italy in the 11th century. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions. Monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks , under the Carolingian dynasty , briefly established

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11780-455: The Eastern branch the Eastern Orthodox Church . The ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Empire survived the movements and invasions in the west mostly intact, but the papacy was little regarded, and few of the Western bishops looked to the bishop of Rome for religious or political leadership. Many of the popes prior to 750 were more concerned with Byzantine affairs and Eastern theological controversies. The register, or archived copies of

11970-427: The Eastern emperors to pay tribute. They remained a strong power until 796. An additional problem to face the empire came as a result of the involvement of Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602) in Persian politics when he intervened in a succession dispute . This led to a period of peace, but when Maurice was overthrown, the Persians invaded and during the reign of Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) controlled large chunks of

12160-436: The European population remained rural peasants. Many were no longer settled in isolated farms but had gathered into small communities, usually known as manors or villages. These peasants were often subject to noble overlords and owed them rents and other services, in a system known as manorialism . There remained a few free peasants throughout this period and beyond, with more of them in the regions of Southern Europe than in

12350-441: The Frankish King Charles the Simple (r. 898–922) to settle in what became Normandy . The eastern parts of the Frankish kingdoms, especially Germany and Italy, were under continual Magyar assault until the invader's defeat at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955. The breakup of the Abbasid dynasty meant that the Islamic world fragmented into smaller political states, some of which began expanding into Italy and Sicily, as well as over

12540-466: The Franks and Celtic Britons set up small polities. Francia was centred in northern Gaul, and the first king of whom much is known is Childeric I (d. 481). His grave was discovered in 1653 and is remarkable for its grave goods , which included weapons and a large quantity of gold. Under Childeric's son Clovis I (r. 509–511), the founder of the Merovingian dynasty , the Frankish kingdom expanded and converted to Christianity. The Britons, related to

12730-482: The French province of Saintonge , a claim which dated back to the Treaty of Perth-Chinon between James I of Scotland and Charles VII of France when the province was offered to the Scottish king in return for an army of Scottish troops which were never sent. These unrealistic schemes resulted in parliamentary criticism, especially since the king was reluctant to deal with the more mundane business of administering justice at home. Parliament opposed James's plans to leave

12920-425: The German tried to annex all of East Francia. Louis the Pious died in 840, with the empire still in chaos. A three-year civil war followed his death. By the Treaty of Verdun (843), a kingdom between the Rhine and Rhone rivers was created for Lothair to go with his lands in Italy, and his imperial title was recognised. Louis the German was in control of Bavaria and the eastern lands in modern-day Germany. Charles

13110-431: The Great (d. 526) and set up a kingdom marked by its co-operation between the Italians and the Ostrogoths, at least until the last years of Theodoric's reign. The Burgundians settled in Gaul, and after an earlier realm was destroyed by the Huns in 436, formed a new kingdom in the 440s. Between today's Geneva and Lyon , it grew to become the realm of Burgundy in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. Elsewhere in Gaul,

13300-436: The Great Hall and adjacent chapel, with towers at the north-east and south-east corners, and curtain walls connecting to the donjon, enclosing the courtyard. The "Black" Douglases were forfeited in 1455, and their lands returned to the crown. James III granted Bothwell to Lord Crichton , and then to Sir John Ramsay , who were both forfeited in turn. In 1488 Bothwell was granted again to Patrick Hepburn, 2nd Lord Hailes , and

13490-438: The High Middle Ages. This period also saw the collapse of the unified Christian church, with the East-West Schism of 1054 . The Crusades , first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims . Kings became the heads of centralised nation-states , reducing crime and violence but making the ideal of a unified Christendom more distant. Intellectual life

13680-505: The Italian peninsula was conquered by the Ostrogoths . The Eastern Roman Empire, often referred to as the Byzantine Empire after the fall of its western counterpart, had little ability to assert control over the lost western territories. The Byzantine emperors maintained a claim over the territory, but while none of the new kings in the west dared to elevate himself to the position of emperor of

13870-948: The Lancastrians, while Mary initially wanted to continue playing off the warring parties in England against each other, before eventually supporting the Yorkists. Although the sources for the period are vague, it is believed that Kennedy and his supporters mounted a coup in the autumn of 1462 by taking possession of the 10-year-old James III following an armed confrontation with Mary's supporters in Edinburgh . Mary of Guelders died in December 1463, leaving Bishop Kennedy in undisputed control of government. Bishop Kennedy died at St Andrews in May 1465, and his elder brother, Gilbert Kennedy, Lord Kennedy , assumed custody of James III. Lord Kennedy's guardianship lacked

14060-733: The Late Middle Ages and beginning the early modern period . The Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history : classical civilisation or Antiquity , the Middle Ages and the Modern Period . The "Middle Ages" first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or "middle season". In early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum , or "middle age", first recorded in 1604, and media saecula , or "middle centuries", first recorded in 1625. The adjective "medieval" (or sometimes "mediaeval" or "mediæval"), meaning pertaining to

14250-597: The Lombards, which freed the papacy from the fear of Lombard conquest and marked the beginnings of the Papal States . The coronation of Charlemagne as emperor on Christmas Day 800 is regarded as a turning point in medieval history, marking a return of the Western Roman Empire, since the new emperor ruled over much of the area previously controlled by the Western emperors. It also marks a change in Charlemagne's relationship with

14440-633: The Lord of the Isles. His authority now extended from the Northern Isles to Berwick-upon-Tweed, and across the Lordship of the Isles. James III's pursuit of unpopular and arbitrary policies saw increasing opposition in Parliament, with the most criticism directed towards the king's failure to go out on Justice Ayres , his making money from granting remissions for serious crimes, and his frequent recourse to taxation. Complaints from Parliament that royal justice

14630-405: The Mediterranean, pottery remained prevalent and appears to have been traded over medium-range networks, not just produced locally. The various Germanic states in the west all had coinages that imitated existing Roman and Byzantine forms. Gold continued to be minted until the end of the 7th century in 693-94 when it was replaced by silver in the Merovingian kingdom. The basic Frankish silver coin

14820-411: The Middle Ages, derives from medium aevum . Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the " Six Ages " or the " Four Empires ", and considered their time to be the last before the end of the world. When referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being "modern". In the 1330s, the Italian humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua (or "ancient") and to

15010-809: The Middle East than Europe, losing control of sections of the Muslim lands. Umayyad descendants took over the Iberian Peninsula, the Aghlabids controlled North Africa, and the Tulunids became rulers of Egypt. By the middle of the 8th century, new trading patterns were emerging in the Mediterranean; trade between the Franks and the Arabs replaced the old Roman economy . Franks traded timber, furs, swords and slaves in return for silks and other fabrics, spices, and precious metals from

15200-516: The Prince as its figurehead and the king in protective custody. The rebels claimed that they had removed Prince James from Stirling to protect him from his vindictive father, who had surrounded himself with wicked Anglophile counsellors. Like the Prince, many of the rebels also feared for their safety if James III continued to rule. The king made more enemies among his nobles by dismissing the Earl of Argyll from

15390-751: The Pyrenees into the southern parts of the Frankish kingdoms. Efforts by local kings to fight the invaders led to the formation of new political entities. In Anglo-Saxon England , King Alfred the Great (r. 871–899) came to an agreement with the Viking invaders in the late 9th century, resulting in Danish settlements in Northumbria, Mercia, and parts of East Anglia. By the middle of the 10th century, Alfred's successors had conquered Northumbria, and restored English control over most of

15580-656: The Rhine and eastwards, leaving Charles West Francia with the empire to the west of the Rhineland and the Alps. Louis the German (d. 876), the middle child, who had been rebellious to the last, was allowed to keep Bavaria under the suzerainty of his elder brother. The division was disputed. Pepin II of Aquitaine (d. after 864), the emperor's grandson, rebelled in a contest for Aquitaine , while Louis

15770-612: The Roman Empire into a more flexible form to fit the needs of the Church and government. By the reign of Charlemagne, the language had so diverged from the classical Latin that it was later called Medieval Latin . Charlemagne planned to continue the Frankish tradition of dividing his kingdom between all his heirs, but was unable to do so as only one son, Louis the Pious (r. 814–840), was still alive by 813. Just before Charlemagne died in 814, he crowned Louis as his successor. Louis's reign of 26 years

15960-492: The Romans and the invaders are often similar, and tribal items were often modelled on Roman objects. Much of the scholarly and written culture of the new kingdoms was also based on Roman intellectual traditions. An important difference was the gradual loss of tax revenue by the new polities. Many of the new political entities no longer supported their armies through taxes, instead relying on granting them land or rents. This meant there

16150-618: The Vandals went on to cross the strait of Gibraltar after which they conquered the province of Africa . In the 430s the Huns began invading the empire; their king Attila (r. 434–453) led invasions into the Balkans in 442 and 447, Gaul in 451, and Italy in 452. The Hunnic threat remained until Attila's death in 453, when the Hunnic confederation he led fell apart. These invasions by the tribes completely changed

16340-455: The West were not uniform; some areas had greatly fragmented landholding patterns, but in other areas large contiguous blocks of land were the norm. These differences allowed for a wide variety of peasant societies, some dominated by aristocratic landholders and others having a great deal of autonomy. Land settlement also varied greatly. Some peasants lived in large settlements that numbered as many as 700 inhabitants. Others lived in small groups of

16530-611: The Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire —came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate , an Islamic empire, after conquest by Muhammad's successors . Although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire, Rome's direct continuation, survived in

16720-556: The acceptance of figurative monumental sculpture in Christian art , and by the end of the period near life-sized figures such as the Gero Cross were common in important churches. During the later Roman Empire, the principal military developments were attempts to create an effective cavalry force as well as the continued development of highly specialised types of troops. The creation of heavily armoured cataphract -type soldiers as cavalry

16910-417: The basilica is the use of a transept , or the "arms" of a cross-shaped building that are perpendicular to the long nave . Other new features of religious architecture include the crossing tower and a monumental entrance to the church , usually at the west end of the building. Carolingian art was produced for a small group of figures around the court, and the monasteries and churches they supported. It

17100-492: The battle of succession for Guelders between James's grandfather, Arnold, Duke of Guelders , and his son Adolf , provided the king with another continental scheme. The deposition of Arnold by his son in 1465, and his reinstatement at the hands of Charles the Bold in 1471, had left Arnold wishing to alter the succession to prevent the duchy falling to either his son or the Duke of Burgundy, and in 1472 he asked James or one of his brothers to travel to Guelders and take possession of

17290-530: The border seeking refuge. They were received by Mary of Guelders and lodged at Linlithgow Palace and the Dominican friary in Edinburgh . The Lancastrians expected Mary to provide them with Scottish troops to help Henry VI recover the throne, but she had no intention of becoming involved in a war on their behalf. Mary sought to gain as much as she could from the Lancastrian fugitives while opening negotiations with

17480-597: The burning of Bamburgh Castle . By October, James III had written to Louis XI of France asking for guns and artillerymen to repulse further attacks. The spring and autumn of 1481 saw English ships raid the Forth , attacking Blackness Castle and harassing shipping. There does not seem to have been a land-based invasion of Scotland, but there were three raids into England by a Scottish army in that year. Edward IV had made invasion preparations and began to travel north, but went no further than Nottingham . In 1482, Edward IV launched

17670-411: The castle repaired, and again made it his headquarters in Scotland. The following year, however, Sir Andrew Murray , great-nephew of Sir William and the rightful owner of Bothwell, recaptured the stronghold, again using siege engines. Following his victory he slighted the castle once more, pulling down the west side of the donjon and tumbling it into the Clyde, in order that it could not be reoccupied by

17860-409: The castle walls using a rope made of bedsheets has some circumstantial corroborating evidence. This was Albany's final incursion, after which he returned to France where accounts claim he was killed in a joust. James III, meanwhile, returned to his policies for the 1470s, above all of alliance with England. In August 1484 James III proposed a truce and alliance with Richard III and a marriage between

18050-407: The city of Byzantium as the newly renamed eastern capital, Constantinople . Diocletian's reforms strengthened the governmental bureaucracy, reformed taxation, and strengthened the army, which bought the empire time but did not resolve the problems it was facing: excessive taxation, a declining birthrate, and pressures on its frontiers, among others. Civil war between rival emperors became common in

18240-577: The conquest of North Africa sundered maritime connections between those areas. Increasingly, the Byzantine Church differed in language, practices, and liturgy from the Western Church. The Eastern Church used Greek instead of the Western Latin. Theological and political differences emerged, and by the early and middle 8th century issues such as iconoclasm , clerical marriage , and state control of

18430-713: The construction of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and the reconquest of North Africa from the Vandals and Italy from the Ostrogoths, under Belisarius (d. 565). The conquest of Italy was not complete, as a deadly outbreak of plague in 542 led to the rest of Justinian's reign concentrating on defensive measures rather than further conquests. At the Emperor's death, the Byzantines had control of most of Italy , North Africa, and

18620-543: The control of kings. There were perhaps as many as 150 local kings in Ireland, of varying importance. The Carolingian dynasty , as the successors to Charles Martel are known, officially took control of the kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria in a coup of 753 led by Pippin III (r. 752–768). A contemporary chronicle claims that Pippin sought, and gained, authority for this coup from Pope Stephen II (pope 752–757). Pippin's takeover

18810-616: The conversion of the Moravians , Bulgars , Bohemians , Poles , Magyars, and Slavic inhabitants of the Kievan Rus' . These conversions contributed to the founding of political states in the lands of those peoples—the states of Moravia , Bulgaria , Bohemia , Poland , Hungary, and the Kievan Rus'. Bulgaria, which was founded around 680, at its height reached from Budapest to the Black Sea and from

19000-404: The country and, in refusing to condone the king's requests, also attempted to persuade the king to turn to the administration of justice. The king's failure to take an active and personal role in the same, and his use of remissions and respites as a source of money, would prove one of the most frequently occurring themes in Parliament for the rest of the reign. In October 1474, James III concluded

19190-564: The daughter of Arnold, Duke of Guelders , and a great-niece of Philip the Good , Duke of Burgundy . The exact date and place of James's birth have been a matter of debate. Claims have been made that he was born in May 1452, or on 10 or 20 July 1451. The place of birth was either Stirling Castle , or St Andrews Castle (the seat of the Bishop of St Andrews ), depending on the year. His most recent biographer, Norman Macdougall , argued strongly for late May 1452 at St Andrews. The infant Duke of Rothesay

19380-736: The death of Louis the Child , and the selection of the unrelated Conrad I (r. 911–918) as king. The breakup of the Carolingian Empire was accompanied by invasions, migrations, and raids by external foes. The Atlantic and northern shores were harassed by the Vikings , who also raided the British Isles and settled there as well as in Iceland. In 911, the Viking chieftain Rollo (d. c. 931) received permission from

19570-401: The death of Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1504, or the conquest of Granada in 1492. Historians from Romance-speaking countries tend to divide the Middle Ages into two parts: an earlier "High" and later "Low" period. English-speaking historians, following their German counterparts, generally subdivide the Middle Ages into three intervals: "Early", "High", and "Late". In the 19th century,

19760-423: The death of his father, King James II , at the siege of Roxburgh Castle . James III's reign began with a minority that lasted almost a decade, during which Scotland was governed by a series of regents and factions who struggled for possession of the young king before his personal rule began in 1469. James III was an unpopular and ineffective king and was confronted with two major rebellions during his reign. He

19950-409: The dignity of Duke of Ross . Coming after the king's negotiations in 1486 and 1487 for a marriage alliance for his second son, it was clearly designed to enhance his status and make him a more attractive prospect as a bridegroom, and only furthered the perception amongst the king's opponents that he was favouring his second son at the expense of the heir to the throne. But opposition to James was led by

20140-561: The disorder, was killed fighting the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople on 9 August 378. In addition to the threat from such tribal confederacies in the north, internal divisions within the empire, especially within the Christian Church, caused problems. In 400, the Visigoths invaded the Western Roman Empire and, although briefly forced back from Italy, in 410 sacked the city of Rome . In 406

20330-504: The dowry for his daughter's future marriage to James III's heir, and both kingdoms avoided any significant breaches of the truce. In 1478 James proposed strengthening the alliance with England still further by offering his sister Margaret as a bride for Edward IV's brother-in-law, Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers . Soon afterwards, however, the truce began to break down, with several instances of Scottish cross-border raiding and pillaging. In 1480 Edward IV sent an envoy to Edinburgh with what

20520-459: The duchy. Duke Arnold died in February 1473, and with him, any serious likelihood of putting his succession plans into effect, but James III was undaunted and sent an ambassador to Charles the Bold to press his claim. James also sent ambassadors to France offering military aid to Louis XI against England in return for a pension of 60,000 crowns a year and to reassert the claim James's father had made to

20710-442: The early Carolingian period, with a growing dominance of elite heavy cavalry. The use of militia-type levies of the free population declined over the Carolingian period. Although much of the Carolingian armies were mounted, a large proportion during the early period appear to have been mounted infantry , rather than true cavalry. One exception was Anglo-Saxon England, where the armies were still composed of regional levies, known as

20900-523: The elites was richly embellished with jewels and gold. Lords and kings supported entourages of fighters who formed the backbone of the military forces. Family ties within the elites were important, as were the virtues of loyalty, courage, and honour. These ties led to the prevalence of the feud in aristocratic society, examples of which included those related by Gregory of Tours that took place in Merovingian Gaul. Most feuds seem to have ended quickly with

21090-570: The emergence of Islam in Arabia during the lifetime of Muhammad (d. 632). After his death, Islamic forces conquered much of the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia, starting with Syria in 634–635, continuing with Persia between 637 and 642, reaching Egypt in 640–641, North Africa in the later seventh century, and the Iberian Peninsula in 711. By 714, Islamic forces controlled much of

21280-403: The empire than tax-payers. The Emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305) split the empire into separately administered eastern and western halves in 286; the empire was not considered divided by its inhabitants or rulers, as legal and administrative promulgations in one division were considered valid in the other. In 330, after a period of civil war, Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) refounded

21470-560: The empire to Christianity , a gradual process that lasted from the 2nd to the 5th centuries. In 376, the Goths , fleeing from the Huns , received permission from Emperor Valens (r. 364–378) to settle in the Roman province of Thracia in the Balkans . The settlement did not go smoothly, and when Roman officials mishandled the situation, the Goths began to raid and plunder. Valens, attempting to put down

21660-447: The empire, including Egypt, Syria, and Anatolia until Heraclius' successful counterattack. In 628 the empire secured a peace treaty and recovered all of its lost territories. In Western Europe, some of the older Roman elite families died out while others became more involved with ecclesiastical than secular affairs. Values attached to Latin scholarship and education mostly disappeared, and while literacy remained important, it became

21850-479: The empire. Such movements were aided by the refusal of the Western Roman elites to support the army or pay the taxes that would have allowed the military to suppress the migration. The emperors of the 5th century were often controlled by military strongmen such as Stilicho (d. 408), Aetius (d. 454), Aspar (d. 471), Ricimer (d. 472), or Gundobad (d. 516), who were partly or fully of non-Roman background. When

22040-495: The enemy. The castle remained derelict until the 1360s. In 1362, Joan Moray of Bothwell, heiress of the Morays, married Archibald Douglas , nicknamed "the Grim" and later to be Lord of Galloway and Earl of Douglas . Douglas commenced rebuilding Bothwell, repairing the donjon and completing the walls. The work was continued by his son, Archibald , the 4th Earl. By 1424 they had constructed

22230-454: The entire Middle Ages were often referred to as the " Dark Ages ", but with the adoption of these subdivisions, use of this term was restricted to the Early Middle Ages, at least among historians. The Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent during the 2nd century AD; the following two centuries witnessed the slow decline of Roman control over its outlying territories. Economic issues, including inflation, and external pressure on

22420-464: The fall of Roxburgh. During the early years of James III's reign, the government was led by the queen mother , Mary of Guelders, as regent , while James was educated by Archibald Whitelaw, the Secretary of State and a classical scholar who had taught at St Andrews and Cologne . In March 1461 the first parliament of the reign appointed a council of regency consisting of the Bishop of St Andrews ,

22610-524: The fleet bearing Margaret of Denmark and the Scottish ambassadors arrived in Leith , the king's sister, Mary, wife of the Earl of Arran, informed her husband that the king was planning to have him arrested, and the couple fled together to Denmark by sea, and then to Bruges , where they were soon joined by Lord Boyd, who fled there from England. At a Parliament held in November, Lord Boyd, his brother, Sir Alexander, and

22800-613: The frontiers combined to create the Crisis of the Third Century , with emperors coming to the throne only to be rapidly replaced by new usurpers. Military expenses increased steadily during the 3rd century, mainly in response to the war with the Sasanian Empire , which revived in the middle of the 3rd century. The army doubled in size, and cavalry and smaller units replaced the Roman legion as

22990-666: The high altar of Cambuskenneth Abbey . His son and successor, James IV, attended the ceremony and in atonement for his involvement in his father's death, from 1496 appointed a chaplain to sing for the salvation of their souls; records of this continued until the Scottish Reformation . The remains of James and Margaret were re-interred under a new stone monument at Queen Victoria 's expense in 1865. James married Margaret of Denmark at Holyrood Abbey , Edinburgh, in July 1469. They had three children: James III has been depicted in plays, historical novels and short stories. They include

23180-447: The imperial officials called missi dominici , who served as roving inspectors and troubleshooters. Charlemagne's court in Aachen was the centre of the cultural revival sometimes referred to as the " Carolingian Renaissance ". Literacy increased, as did development in the arts, architecture and jurisprudence, as well as liturgical and scriptural studies. The English monk Alcuin (d. 804)

23370-437: The implementation of justice and remained invariably resident in Edinburgh. He was also estranged from his wife, Margaret of Denmark , who lived at Stirling Castle with her sons. In January 1488, James III used a meeting of Parliament to publicly reward those who had been loyal to him in the past and tried to gain supporters by creating four new Lords of Parliament . He also raised his second son, James, Marquess of Ormond , to

23560-429: The king "happened to be slain" as a result of his own poor decisions. In effect, it argued, the king killed himself, a convenient conclusion for the new regime to reach. Yet Norman Macdougall's modern biography notes the indictment of John Ross of Montgrenan at the same parliament alleged the king left the field on Ross's advice and was then killed by unknown vile persons. James III was buried beside his queen in front of

23750-573: The king and James's unpopularity by 1479. James III turned to unfinished business from his father's reign in 1475: the destruction of John MacDonald , Lord of the Isles and Earl of Ross . The greatest lord in Gaelic Scotland , John ruled over sprawling territories in the Hebrides , the western Highlands and the north-east. In 1462 John had agreed to the Treaty of Westminster with Edward IV of England,

23940-399: The king fled to Stirling, but was thrown from his horse and fainted near Milton mill, where he was cared for by the miller and his wife. As the retreat of the royal forces to Stirling was taking place, the king came to and called for a priest to make his confession. A priest (possibly a servant of Lord Gray, one of the rebel lords) who was passing by asked where the king was and, on being led to

24130-415: The king of the united Austrasia and Neustria. Charles, more often known as Charles the Great or Charlemagne , embarked upon a programme of systematic expansion in 774 that unified a large portion of Europe, eventually controlling modern-day France, northern Italy, and Saxony . In the wars that lasted beyond 800, he rewarded allies with war booty and command over parcels of land. In 774, Charlemagne conquered

24320-474: The king, stabbed him to death. George Buchanan says that James fell from his horse whilst fleeing to one of his ships, stationed in the Forth, rather than to Stirling. He took refuge in some mills but being overtaken, he was slain there, with a few attendants. There is no evidence available to corroborate any of the sixteenth century allegations of cowardly behaviour, and the subsequent parliamentary account stated only

24510-496: The king, through self-aggrandizement such as the creation of Lord Boyd's son, Thomas , as earl of Arran , and Arran's marriage to the king's 13-year-old sister, Mary in 1467, which antagonised the king and considerable sections of the three estates . The Boyds sought to maintain power by gaining diplomatic success, and in August 1468 an embassy was sent to Denmark to secure a royal marriage. The ambassadors' negotiations resulted in

24700-661: The large brooches in fibula or penannular form that were a key piece of personal adornment for elites, including the Irish Tara Brooch . Highly decorated books were mostly Gospel Books and these have survived in larger numbers , including the Insular Book of Kells , the Book of Lindisfarne , and the imperial Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram , which is one of the few to retain its " treasure binding " of gold encrusted with jewels. Charlemagne's court seems to have been responsible for

24890-415: The letters, of Pope Gregory the Great (pope 590–604) survived, and of those more than 850 letters, the vast majority were concerned with affairs in Italy or Constantinople. The only part of Western Europe where the papacy had influence was Britain, where Gregory had sent the Gregorian mission in 597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Irish missionaries were most active in Western Europe between

25080-417: The line of Western emperors ceased, many of the kings who replaced them were from the same background. Intermarriage between the new kings and the Roman elites was common. This led to a fusion of Roman culture with the customs of the invading tribes, including the popular assemblies that allowed free male tribal members more say in political matters than was common in the Roman state. Material artefacts left by

25270-472: The long-exiled 9th Earl of Douglas. Following the Battle of Lochmaben , he was forced to flee back to England a second time. His titles and estates were forfeited to the crown. Following this, recent research has suggested he may have returned again to Scotland in 1485 but was caught and imprisoned in the same castle where James had been incarcerated. Chronicler Adam Abell's account of Albany escaping from Edinburgh castle after killing his guard and climbing down

25460-517: The main and sometimes only outposts of education and literacy in a region. Many of the surviving manuscripts of the Latin classics were copied in monasteries in the Early Middle Ages. Monks were also the authors of new works, including history, theology, and other subjects, written by authors such as Bede (d. 735), a native of northern England who wrote in the late 7th and early 8th centuries. The Frankish kingdom in northern Gaul split into kingdoms called Austrasia , Neustria , and Burgundy during

25650-410: The main tactical unit. The need for revenue led to increased taxes and a decline in numbers of the curial , or landowning, class, and decreasing numbers of them willing to shoulder the burdens of holding office in their native towns. More bureaucrats were needed in the central administration to deal with the needs of the army, which led to complaints from civilians that there were more tax-collectors in

25840-399: The mid 12th century. The lands passed to his descendants including his daughter who had married William de Moravia son of William son of Freskin, who was deceased by 1226 circa. Then by 1252 the barony became the property of their son Walter de Moravia, or Walter of Moray He began construction of the castle, but by the start of the Wars of Scottish Independence in 1296, only the main donjon,

26030-401: The middle of the 4th century, diverting soldiers from the empire's frontier forces and allowing invaders to encroach. For much of the 4th century, Roman society stabilised in a new form that differed from the earlier classical period , with a widening gulf between the rich and poor, and a decline in the vitality of the smaller towns. Another change was the Christianisation , or conversion of

26220-436: The migrations of the Slavs added Slavic languages to Eastern Europe. As Western Europe witnessed the formation of new kingdoms, the Eastern Roman Empire remained intact and experienced an economic revival that lasted into the early 7th century. There were fewer invasions of the eastern section of the empire; most occurred in the Balkans. Peace with the Sasanian Empire , the traditional enemy of Rome, lasted throughout most of

26410-464: The military was the horseshoe , which allowed horses to be used in rocky terrain. The High Middle Ages was a period of tremendous expansion of population . The estimated population of Europe grew from 35 to 80 million between 1000 and 1347, although the exact causes remain unclear: improved agricultural techniques, the decline of slaveholding, a more clement climate and the lack of invasion have all been suggested. As much as 90 per cent of

26600-429: The natives of Britannia  – modern-day Great Britain – settled in what is now Brittany . Other monarchies were established by the Visigothic Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula , the Suebi in northwestern Iberia, and the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa . In the sixth century, the Lombards settled in Northern Italy , replacing the Ostrogothic kingdom with a grouping of duchies that occasionally selected

26790-399: The north. The practice of assarting , or bringing new lands into production by offering incentives to the peasants who settled them, also contributed to the expansion of population. James III of Scotland James III (10 July 1451/May 1452 – 11 June 1488) was King of Scots from 1460 until his death at the Battle of Sauchieburn in 1488. He inherited the throne as a child following

26980-457: The outstanding amount of Margaret's dowry. However, James had no intention of allowing the Danes to redeem their rights in Orkney and Shetland, and would quickly acquire full sovereignty over the islands. The Boyds' misuse of power to enrich themselves with lands and offices had made them many enemies, and in April 1468 there was an attempt by the king's half-uncles, the Earl of Atholl and James Stewart of Auchterhouse , and his younger brother,

27170-408: The patronage of painters and musicians, coins that display realistic portraits of the king, the Trinity Altarpiece , and the King's Chapel at Restalrig . James III was killed at the Battle of Sauchieburn, following a rebellion in which his heir was the figurehead of the rebels, and succeeded him as James IV . James was the first surviving son born to King James II and his wife, Mary of Guelders ,

27360-478: The payment of some sort of compensation . Women took part in aristocratic society mainly in their roles as wives and mothers of men, with the role of mother of a ruler being especially prominent in Merovingian Gaul. In Anglo-Saxon society the lack of many child rulers meant a lesser role for women as queen mothers, but this was compensated for by the increased role played by abbesses of monasteries. Only in Italy does it appear that women were always considered under

27550-467: The peninsula in a region they called Al-Andalus . The Islamic conquests reached their peak in the mid-eighth century. The defeat of Muslim forces at the Battle of Tours in 732 led to the reconquest of southern France by the Franks, but the main reason for the halt of Islamic growth in Europe was the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate and its replacement by the Abbasid Caliphate . The Abbasids moved their capital to Baghdad and were more concerned with

27740-408: The political and demographic nature of what had been the Western Roman Empire. By the end of the 5th century the western section of the empire was divided into smaller political units, ruled by the tribes that had invaded in the early part of the century. The deposition of the last emperor of the west, Romulus Augustulus , in 476 has traditionally marked the end of the Western Roman Empire. By 493

27930-532: The political power devolved to the local lords. Missionary efforts to Scandinavia during the 9th and 10th centuries helped strengthen the growth of kingdoms such as Sweden , Denmark , and Norway , which gained power and territory. Some kings converted to Christianity, although not all by 1000. Scandinavians also expanded and colonised throughout Europe. Besides the settlements in Ireland, England, and Normandy, further settlement took place in what became Russia and Iceland . Swedish traders and raiders ranged down

28120-418: The politics of the reign. From the positive beginnings after his assumption of active control of government in 1469, James III's relationship with Parliament would lead to opposition, criticism, and outright confrontation over his foreign and domestic policies. The failure of the king to listen to the grievances raised by the three estates, or to abide by the concessions he made to them, were significant causes of

28310-404: The prison tower, and the short connecting curtain wall were completed. Foundations of the remainder were probably in place, and would have been defended by a wooden palisade . The forces of King Edward I of England invaded Scotland at the start of the war, and seized Bothwell. The castle was at this time held by Walter's son, William Moray of Bothwell . The English garrison holding the castle

28500-419: The protection and control of a male relative. Peasant society is much less documented than the nobility. Most of the surviving information available to historians comes from archaeology ; few detailed written records documenting peasant life remain from before the 9th century. Most of the descriptions of the lower classes come from either law codes or writers from the upper classes. Landholding patterns in

28690-423: The rest of his reign, although he also sought a marriage alliance with Mary of Burgundy for his brother Albany in 1477, and renewed the Franco-Scottish alliance with Charles VIII of France in 1484. However, the peace policy was unpopular in Scotland and went against the traditional enmity between the two kingdoms. Opposition was particularly associated with Albany and was one of the causes of his estrangement from

28880-442: The rift between James and Albany were the latter's opposition to the Anglo-Scottish alliance, his being responsible for serious violations of the truce, and his abuse of his position and challenge to royal authority by the ruthless enforcement of justice in the Marches . In May 1479, Albany was accused of treason for arming and provisioning Dunbar Castle against the king, assisting known rebels and deliberately causing trouble on

29070-470: The rivers of the Russian steppe, and even attempted to seize Constantinople in 860 and 907 . Christian Spain, initially driven into a small section of the peninsula in the north, expanded slowly south during the 9th and 10th centuries, establishing the kingdoms of Asturias and León . In Eastern Europe, Byzantium revived its fortunes under Emperor Basil I (r. 867–886) and his successors Leo VI (r. 886–912) and Constantine VII (r. 913–959), members of

29260-438: The royal cause in the north-east and then made the mistake of agreeing to negotiate a settlement with the rebels, before promptly breaking his word and, on the advice of his half-uncle the Earl of Buchan , marching south from Aberdeen to settle the rebellion by force, which lost him the support of several more nobles. Following an inconclusive skirmish between the royal and rebel forces at Blackness Castle , James III retreated to

29450-425: The safety of Edinburgh Castle, where he rewarded his supporters and attempted to gain new ones by distributing cash, jewels and land. Matters came to a head in June 1488 when James III left Edinburgh Castle and led his army towards Stirling. The royal and rebel armies joined battle south of Stirling on 11 June 1488 at the Battle of Sauchieburn , on what contemporaries described as the "field of Stirling". James III

29640-431: The sanction of Parliament, and his advancement of the Kennedy kin, such as the appointment of his half-brother, Patrick Graham , as the new bishop of St Andrews, made his regime increasingly unpopular. In July 1466, James III was seized while hunting at Linlithgow Palace by a large armed group led by Robert, Lord Boyd and his son, Thomas , and was taken to Edinburgh Castle as the Boyds and their supporters mounted

29830-412: The sending of this army to the continent as part of a Franco-Scottish invasion against Francis II, Duke of Brittany , though protests by the clergy about the king leading an army abroad while he had no issue to succeed him eventually led to James abandoning his plans for an invasion of Brittany. That same year James also acted as an intermediary in negotiations between Denmark and France. In April 1473,

30020-449: The slow infiltration of the Balkans by the Slavs added a further difficulty for Justinian's successors. It began gradually, but by the late 540s Slavic tribes were in Thrace and Illyrium , and had defeated an imperial army near Adrianople in 551. In the 560s the Avars began to expand from their base on the north bank of the Danube ; by the end of the 6th-century, they were the dominant power in Central Europe and routinely able to force

30210-430: The southern part of Great Britain. In northern Britain, Kenneth MacAlpin (d. c. 860) united the Picts and the Scots into the Kingdom of Alba . In the early 10th century, the Ottonian dynasty had established itself in Germany , and was engaged in driving back the Magyars. Its efforts culminated in the coronation in 962 of Otto I (r. 936–973) as Holy Roman Emperor . In 972, he secured recognition of his title by

30400-492: The strong control the Scottish Crown exercised over Orkney and Shetland, this was highly unlikely. This Anglo-Scottish treaty, the first alliance between the two kingdoms in the fifteenth century, preserved the peace between Scotland and England and provided James III with a substantial financial gain. By 1479, he had amassed 8,000 marks in English dowry payments – roughly the equivalent of his annual income from regular sources. James would continue to press for English alliances for

30590-416: The throne with the aid of an invading English army , which led to the loss of Berwick-upon-Tweed and a coup by a group of nobles which saw the king imprisoned for a time, before being restored to power. James's reputation as Scotland's first Renaissance monarch has sometimes been exaggerated. The artistic legacy of his reign was slight when compared to that of his two immediate successors, and consists of

30780-447: The towns chosen as capitals. Although there had been Jewish communities in many Roman cities , the Jews suffered periods of persecution after the conversion of the empire to Christianity. Officially they were tolerated, if subject to conversion efforts, and at times were even encouraged to settle in new areas. Religious beliefs in the Eastern Roman Empire and Iran were in flux during the late sixth and early seventh centuries. Judaism

30970-463: The two major rebellions in 1482–1483 and 1488. James's policies during the early 1470s revolved primarily around ambitious continental schemes to emphasize the prestige of the king and the Stewart dynasty, expand the territory under James's rule, and agree to an alliance with England. The main business of the parliament James III called in 1471 was the granting of a tax to fund an embassy to the continent to allow him to act as arbitrator between Charles

31160-418: The vacant earldom of Mar led to the intervention of the powerful George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly , on the king's side. In January 1483, Albany fled to his estates at Dunbar . The death of his patron, Edward IV, on 9 April left Albany in an untenable position and he fled to England, letting an English garrison into his stronghold of Dunbar Castle . A year later he return for another attempted invasion with

31350-426: The victorious Yorkists to explore the possibility of a truce. In return for a year's refuge in Scotland and loans that Mary of Guelders granted them, the Lancastrians surrendered Berwick to the Scots in April 1461. This period also saw disputes between Mary and James Kennedy , Bishop of St Andrews over who had control over the person of James III, and over foreign policy, with the bishop favouring an alliance with

31540-514: The west, Byzantine control of most of the Western Empire could not be sustained; the reconquest of the Mediterranean periphery and the Italian Peninsula ( Gothic War ) in the reign of Justinian (r. 527–565) was the sole, and temporary, exception. The political structure of Western Europe changed with the end of the united Roman Empire. Although the movements of peoples during this period are usually described as "invasions", they were not just military expeditions but migrations of entire peoples into

31730-419: The west, and the later Great Hall to the east. The courtyard is enclosed by long curtain walls , with round towers at the south-east and south-west corners. The castle was described by Scottish archaeologist William Douglas Simpson as one of the "foremost secular structures of the Middle Ages in Scotland". King David I granted the barony of Bothwell to David Olifard (or Olifant), Justiciar of Lothian , in

31920-438: Was a trend throughout the old Roman lands that happened in the Early Middle Ages. This was especially marked in the lands that did not lie on the Mediterranean, such as northern Gaul or Britain. Non-local goods appearing in the archaeological record are usually luxury goods. In the northern parts of Europe, not only were the trade networks local, but the goods carried were simple, with little pottery or other complex products. Around

32110-406: Was affected by the fact that he was one of the few Stewart monarchs who had to contend with the problem of an adult, legitimate brother. In 1469 James had two surviving younger brothers, Alexander, Duke of Albany and John, Earl of Mar , then aged fourteen and about twelve, and three Stewart half-uncles (the earls of Atholl and Buchan , and the Bishop of Moray ), and each of them would complicate

32300-402: Was an active proselytising faith, and at least one Arab political leader converted to it. In addition Jewish theologians wrote polemics defending their religion against Christian and Islamic influences. Christianity had active missions competing with the Persians' Zoroastrianism in seeking converts, especially among residents of the Arabian Peninsula . All these strands came together with

32490-438: Was an important feature of the 5th-century Roman military. The various invading tribes had differing emphases on types of soldiers—ranging from the primarily infantry Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain to the Vandals and Visigoths who had a high proportion of cavalry in their armies. During the early invasion period, the stirrup had not been introduced into warfare, which limited the usefulness of cavalry as shock troops because it

32680-400: Was besieged by the Scots for 14 months in 1298—1299, and eventually capitulated. Edward I returned in 1301, capturing the castle once more with a force of 6800 men, and specially constructed siege engines . Bothwell became the headquarters of Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke , Edward's appointed Warden of Scotland, and remained in English hands for several years. Following Robert

32870-408: Was born during the crisis which had seen his father stab William, Earl of Douglas to death in Stirling Castle . This murder did not end the power of the Douglases , but created a state of intermittent civil war until James II struck a decisive blow against the Douglases in 1455 at the Battle of Arkinholm and Parliament declared the extensive Douglas lands forfeit and permanently annexed them to

33060-420: Was dominated by efforts to regain the dignity and classicism of imperial Roman and Byzantine art , but was also influenced by the Insular art of the British Isles. Insular art integrated the energy of Irish Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Germanic styles of ornament with Mediterranean forms such as the book, and established many characteristics of art for the rest of the medieval period. Surviving religious works from

33250-453: Was essentially a declaration of war , informing James that the English king intended to wage war against the Scots unless his demands were met: that the Scots make reparations for breaches of the truce; that James return Berwick, Roxburgh and Coldingham to English dominion; and that James do homage to Edward for the Scottish Crown. However, Edward was prepared to maintain the peace if James would surrender Berwick and hand over his son and heir as

33440-403: Was imprisoned at Craigmillar Castle for unspecified reasons, and died there in mysterious circumstances. The reasons behind James III's assault on Albany have been difficult to understand. Albany had helped James to power in 1469, and was an effective Warden of the Marches , having resisted an incursion by Richard, Duke of Gloucester in 1474. It has been suggested that the most likely causes of

33630-470: Was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle and a new regime, led by "lieutenant-general" Alexander, became established during the autumn of 1482. Meanwhile, the English army, unable to take Edinburgh Castle , ran out of money and returned to England, having taken Berwick-upon-Tweed for the last time. Whilst imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, James was politically sidelined from July 1482 to early 1483, and his two half-uncles (including Andrew Stewart ) managed to form

33820-408: Was invited to Aachen and brought the education available in the monasteries of Northumbria. Charlemagne's chancery —or writing office—made use of a new script today known as Carolingian minuscule , allowing a common writing style that advanced communication across much of Europe. Charlemagne sponsored changes in church liturgy , imposing the Roman form of church service on his domains, as well as

34010-460: Was killed at some stage during the course of the battle, although the circumstances of the king's death are unclear, and it took some time to establish with certainty that the king had been killed. The 16th century chroniclers Adam Abell and John Lesley alleged that James III was slain in Milton mill on the Bannock Burn . Each new account added unflattering, but probably invented, details. Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie , writing in 1576, states that

34200-434: Was less need for large tax revenues and so the taxation systems decayed. Warfare was common between and within the kingdoms. Slavery declined as the supply weakened, and society became more rural. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, new peoples and individuals filled the political void left by Roman centralised government. The Ostrogoths , a Gothic tribe, settled in Roman Italy in the late fifth century under Theoderic

34390-436: Was marked by scholasticism , a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities . The theology of Thomas Aquinas , the paintings of Giotto , the poetry of Dante and Chaucer , the travels of Marco Polo , and the Gothic architecture of cathedrals such as Chartres are among the outstanding achievements toward the end of this period and into the Late Middle Ages. The Late Middle Ages

34580-470: Was marked by difficulties and calamities including famine, plague, and war, which significantly diminished the population of Europe; between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death killed about a third of Europeans. Controversy, heresy , and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the interstate conflict, civil strife, and peasant revolts that occurred in the kingdoms. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding

34770-439: Was marked by numerous divisions of the empire among his sons and, after 829, civil wars between various alliances of father and sons over the control of various parts of the empire. Eventually, Louis recognised his eldest son Lothair I (d. 855) as emperor and gave him Italy. Louis divided the rest of the empire between Lothair and Charles the Bald (d. 877), his youngest son. Lothair took East Francia , comprising both banks of

34960-410: Was much criticised by contemporaries and later chroniclers for his promotion of unrealistic schemes to invade or take possession of Brittany , Guelders and Saintonge at the expense of his regular duties as king. While his reign saw Scotland reach its greatest territorial extent with the acquisition of Orkney and Shetland through his marriage to Margaret of Denmark , James was accused of debasing

35150-443: Was not being actively administered by the king in person occurred throughout his reign, partly due to his practice of delegating responsibility to appointed justices and allowing Ayres to be held without his presence. James III's "low-born" favourites at court and in government began to alienate many of his bishops and nobles. The most high-profile royal favourites was William Scheves , who began his career in royal service in 1471 as

35340-496: Was not possible to put the full force of the horse and rider behind blows struck by the rider. The greatest change in military affairs during the invasion period was the adoption of the Hunnic composite bow in place of the earlier, and weaker, Scythian composite bow. Another development was the increasing use of longswords and the progressive replacement of scale armour by mail armour and lamellar armour . The importance of infantry and light cavalry began to decline during

35530-453: Was originally 82 feet (25 m) high and 62 feet (19 m) in diameter with walls which were 15 feet (4.6 m) thick. Thick walls and a powerful gatehouse were later added to the structure and the castle was considered "one of the most important military strongholds in Scotland". The castle features in The Scottish Chiefs . Medieval In the history of Europe , the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from

35720-442: Was reinforced with propaganda that portrayed the Merovingians as inept or cruel rulers, exalted the accomplishments of Charles Martel, and circulated stories of the family's great piety. At the time of his death in 768, Pippin left his kingdom in the hands of his two sons, Charles (r. 768–814) and Carloman (r. 768–771). When Carloman died of natural causes, Charles blocked the succession of Carloman's young son and installed himself as

35910-417: Was the denarius or denier , while the Anglo-Saxon version was called a penny . From these areas, the denier or penny spread throughout Europe from 700 to 1000 AD. Copper or bronze coins were not struck, nor were gold except in Southern Europe. No silver coins denominated in multiple units were minted. Christianity was a major unifying factor between Eastern and Western Europe before the Arab conquests, but

36100-409: Was with the British Isles and Scandinavia, in contrast to the older Roman Empire with its trading networks centred on the Mediterranean. The empire was administered by an itinerant court that travelled with the emperor, as well as approximately 300 imperial officials called counts , who administered the counties the empire had been divided into. Clergy and local bishops served as officials, as well as

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