King James I of Scotland (1394-1437)
poetry - biography- descendants - biography in spanish
(...)
Worschippe ye that loveris bene this May,
For of your blisse the Kalendis are begonne,
And sing with us, Away, Winter, away!
Cum, Somer, cum, the suete sesoàun and sonne!
Awake for schame! that have your hevynnis wonne,
And Amorously lift up your hedis all,
Thank Lufe that list you to his mercy call!
Worship you that, loving, come (or love well?) this May,
For of your bliss the Kalends are begone (covered),
And sing with us, Away, Winter, away!
Come, Summer, come, the sweet season and sun (sonne)!
Awake for shame! that has your hevynness (sorrow) won (wynne, wanne, gain, defeat),
And amorously lift up your heads all,
Thank love that lists you to his mercy call!
(...)
"O Venus clere! of goddis stellifyit!
To quhom I yelde homage and sacrifise,
Fro this day forth your grace be magnifyit,
That me ressavit have in suich a wise,
To lyve under your law and do servise;
Now help me furth, and for your merci lede
My herte to rest, that dëis nere for drede."
"Oh, Venus clear! from the deities made stars!
To whom I yield homage and sacrifice,
From this day forth your grace be magnified,
That received me has in such a wise
To live under your law and do service;
Now help me forth, and for your mercy lead
My heart to rest, that dies near for dread."
James I Stuart of Scotland, King of Scotland 1406-1424-1437
was born on December 1394, Dunfermline Palace, Fife, Scotland
Acceded on May 2nd 1424, Scone Abbey, Perthshire and died on February
21st 1437, Monastery of the Friars Preachers, Perth (murdered). He
was interred in Perth.
Notes: James was taken prisoner by the English on his voyage from Scotland to France in 1405,
where he had been sent by his father Robert III, to escape from any eventual attack and to study when he was only
twelve years old. James was sent to the Tower of London in honourable captivity, where he remained till the year
1424. In his imprisonment, he enjoyed of a distinguished education, what enabled him to develop
his creativity and become a great poet.
But in the following month of his imprisonment, James' father died- some sad for the guilt of having sent his child to what he thought would be his death, and Scotland was left for eighteen years without monarch.
The young man's admiration for the English monarch's powers and respect with which he had been in contact during his captivity, influenced deeply his future reign.
James was able to return to Scotland in the year 1424 owing to the influences of his English wife Lady Joan Beaufort (born circa 1407, dead on July 15th 1445, Dunbar Castle) from the Plantagenets, daughter of the 1º Count of Somerset and great-grand daughter of Edward III of England, with whom he had married on February 2nd 1424 in Priory Church, St. Mary Overy, Southwark and to a ransom of 40,000 pounds.
Once in his homeland, he eliminated all his possible rivals, descendants of Robert II and took both the goods and lives of all the integrants of the family of Regent Albany, in part guilty of the attempt to keep James far from the throne. His punishments were also available for those offending the Roman Church and the honour and the dignity of any person.
Interested in the problems of his subjects, he ordered wolf hunts and said that everyone not killing the crows and wolf whelps in their domains would be punished with a fine or with the confiscation of the plant where the crow had been found.
Other orders created by him were that- to encourage nationalist feeling, minor local enterprises and Scottish investor and tradesmen- no English goods would be sold within the borders of Scotland, that Englishmen willing to trade in the country should have a special permission and that no gold, silver or young animal should be taken away to other countries.
Among the great list of measures taken for the improvement of popular aims and wealth, he banned the use of furs, jewels and other luxuries by anyone not being a lord, a knight or having a highest title; no peasant was to wear colourful clothing; noone was to play football without being fined and every teenager or man was to shoot at least three arrows in every public event.
He tried to improve the kingdom's wealth and stopped everyday abuses but his long willed peace was never reached: the list of incidents of the challenging nobility was always high... The Lord of the Isles, a nobleman that already controlled the Northern mainland and the Hebrides, seeked Independence, so he faced and defeated James I's army and sacked the lands of Scotish Clans (Clan Cameron, 1431). In other opportunity, Clan Mackay and Clan Sutherland had an encounter in a great battle that, counting with 3000 men, destroyed the Sutherlands (1433).
Finally, in 1437, a group nobles under the leadership of Walter, Earl of Atholl and James' uncle, murdered the king. Late at night they forced into James' room and stabbed him to death at Perth in spite of the attempts of his wife to hide him in a secret passage behind the chamber. That was how James I of Scotland, one of the most peaceful and forceful Scottish kings, passed away: in a disorganised incident that intended to crown James II. His seven-year-old son James II grown into a popular and vigorous king who ruled until 1460, when, while the Castle of Roxburg- still in English hands- was being put under siege, the primitive siege gun James II was inspecting exploded and the king was killed by one of the fragments when he was only 30 years old.
As Winston S. Churchill stated: "Fortune seldom favoured the house of Stuart for very long."
His style of writing was a mixture between the Early Scots dialect and the London English of the period, most
probably acquired during the 18 years he spent in England.
His father was Robert III (John) Stuart of Scotland, King of Scotland (1390-1406), born in the year 1337.
His mother was Annabella Drummond, born circa 1350.
He was father of eight children:
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