THE DOUGLAS WINDOW.
If the feats of arms of the Douglases brought honour to the chivalry of Scotland, their insatiable ambition was a danger to the King and gave rise to the evils of civil war. Earl William’s vast estates—increased by his marriage with the Fair Maid of Galloway—and his descent from King Robert II., led him to consider himself the equal of his sovereign, and tempted him to plot against the throne. James was at this time doing his utmost to make himself master in his own realm. He had already imprisoned Sir Alexander Livingstone and his sons, and had given to Sir William Crichton the keepership of Stirling Castle. The conspiracy of Douglas is a somewhat mysterious affair. His loyalty had been questioned, but in the beginning of 1452 he seems to have been on friendly footing with James. There was, however, a rumour that Earl William had formed a plan of rebellion in conjunction with the Earl of Ross and the Tiger Earl of Crawford. Hoping to persuade his mighty subject to abandon his treasonable designs, James invited him to visit Stirling Castle and sent him a letter of safe-conduct under the privy seal. Douglas accordingly presented himself to his sovereign, and as the interview was marked by mutual goodwill, the Earl was asked to dine and sup with the King on the following day. At their second meeting all went well till after the evening meal, when James ventured to broach the subject of the Ross and Crawford league. Douglas’s obstinate refusal to break the band roused the royal wrath to such a pitch, that, exclaiming, “False traitor, if you will not I shall,” the King twice plunged his knife into Earl William’s body. Sir Patrick Gray, Sir Alexander Boyd, Stewart of Darnley and other courtiers soon dispatched the helpless noble, and having finished the work of butchery, rudely flung the corpse out of the window.
James’s hasty deed was a blunder as well as a crime. He had great provocation, it is true, but even if he had not pledged his word that Douglas should be safe, he had no right to slay him without a fair trial. His act gave excuse to the slaughtered man’s family to rise against their King, and thus he fomented the civil strife which he was so anxious to suppress. After the lapse of several weeks, James, the new Earl—he that had fought in the tournament with the knights of Burgundy—accompanied by his brother, the Earl of Ormond, and by Lord Hamilton, rode to Stirling with six hundred men to defy the King of Scots. After exhibiting in public the letter of safe-conduct and dragging it at a horse’s tail through the principal streets, they showed their open disregard for their sovereign by plundering and burning the town. James’s throne was at this time in considerable danger. Public sympathy was to some extent with the Douglases. A three years’ struggle ensued, in which the King gradually strengthened his position, till the Douglases were crushed in 1455 at the battle of Arkinholm in Eskdale.
Stirling Castle was the birthplace of James II.’s son and successor in 1451. Eight years later the bursting of a cannon killed the father at Roxburgh, so that Scotland had again the misfortune to be under a minor King. Many of James III.’s early days were spent in royal Snowdon, the residence that soon became his favourite dwelling-place. Lindsay of Pitscottie remarks that “he took such pleasure to dwell there that he left all other castles and towns in Scotland, because he thought it most pleasantest dwelling there.” When Margaret of Denmark, in 1469, married James III., she received the castle as a portion of her dower, and within its gates she breathed her last, two years before the death of her husband. It was at Stirling that James entertained his low-born favourites: Cochrane, the architect; Rogers, the musician; Andrews, the astrologer; Hommyl, the tailor; and others. From the towers of the fortress he studied the stars, anxious to know what the future held in store. A King devoted to music, arts and science, but disliking war and manly sports, was not a monarch suited to fifteenth century Scotland. James’s brothers, Albany and Mar, would have made better rulers. It was long, however, before the smouldering discontent in the country burst into the fire of rebellion.
King James III. wrought many improvements at the castle. The Parliament Hall, which is still in existence, dates from his reign, and was probably designed by Cochrane. A new chapel was built at this time, and the King intended to make it a collegiate church, but its erection to that dignity did not take place till his son had been some years upon the throne. His interest in the welfare of the Chapel Royal was the occasion, though not the main cause of James’s fall. He endeavoured to attach to it the revenues of Coldingham Priory, a religious house in the Merse, in the country of the Homes and Hepburns. Patrick and James Home, however, had already annexed the funds, which they considered were their due, and they determined to resist an encroachment on their rights. The alliance of the Hepburns with the Homes was the beginning of the insurrection that soon spread far and wide, involving among other lords the Earls of Angus and Argyll.
The King at once made preparations for the struggle. Having placed his son, the Duke of Rothesay, in Stirling Castle, under the care of Shaw of Sauchie, he journeyed to the north to raise the subjects whom he knew to be loyally disposed. During the King’s absence the rebels secured the person of the heir-apparent, who was treacherously handed over by the fickle Shaw. James returned south with a large army to meet the insurgents at Blackness, where a skirmish and a subsequent pacification took place. Hostilities, however, broke out afresh. The King was refused admittance to Stirling Castle, and the rebel army was advancing from Falkirk. A battle called Sauchieburn or the Field of Stirling was fought near Bannockburn, on June 11th, 1488, in which the charges of the Border spears eventually drove the King’s Highlanders from the field, and during the flight the unhappy monarch was overtaken and slain. His body was buried near the High Altar in the Abbey of Cambuskenneth, where his Queen Consort, Margaret of Denmark, had not long before been interred. The engagement at Sauchieburn is interesting as being the only occasion in Scottish history in which Highlanders and Borderers were opponents on the field of battle.
The rebel Duke of Rothesay, a lad in his sixteenth year, mounted the throne as King James IV. in his luckless father’s room. Soon after his accession he visited Stirling Castle and there expressed contrition for his part in the late insurrection, but a few months later he gave the keeping of the fortress to the traitor, Shaw of Sauchie. All through his later life, however, James IV. felt remorse for his conduct towards his father, and he often retired from Holyrood to Stirling when fits of depression were upon him.
Yet, subject as he was to sudden changes of mood, James could turn quickly from fasting and praying to the pleasures of society and the excitement of the chase; indeed, his reign was probably the gayest period in Stirling Castle’s history. The King’s genial nature broke through the gloom of remorse and gave mirth and gladness to a brilliant Court. The affairs of state having been transacted, the days were often spent in hawking expeditions, or in tilting matches, in which foreign knights sometimes took part, while the evenings were passed in playing cards and in listening to performances given by the royal minstrels on various musical instruments. James’s expeditions in pursuit of the deer were not confined to the Royal Park. He often set out with a large retinue from Stirling to enjoy his sport in the neighbouring Highlands, and on those occasions tents were taken for the accommodation of the King and his nobles.[26] After one of those excursions, more than three hundred men were paid for having assisted James and his suite in their hunting in the forest of Glenartney.[27]
In 1496 the King’s mistress, Margaret, daughter of John, Lord Drummond, resided for some months in Stirling Castle before being sent to Linlithgow.[28] James seems to have wished to have married this lady, but many of the leading nobles envied the power of the Drummonds, and the King saw what trouble would arise if he were to raise another member of the family to the throne; for David II. and Robert III. had both wedded daughters of that house. In 1502 Margaret and her two sisters fell suddenly ill, and died at Drummond Castle, but whether poison was administered at the instigation of envious nobles or not has never been ascertained. The three sisters were interred in Dunblane Cathedral, where, at the King’s command, masses were said regularly for the welfare of Margaret’s soul.
Great improvements were carried out both within and without the castle during the reign of James IV. The main gateway, much of which is still standing, was erected in the first decade of the sixteenth century. Other buildings were enlarged during the same period, while plasterers, painters, glaziers and wrights were in almost constant employment. Towards the end of the fifteenth century part of the low ground below the castle rock was converted into a garden, which soon was stocked with vines and fruit trees, as well as flowers and vegetables. In the June of 1508 the gardener of Stirling travelled twice to Holyrood with strawberries for the King.