Jacob II (King of Scotland)

Jacob II was the son of the King of Scotland, Jacob I and Joan Beaufort . On February 21, 1437, Jacob I was killed by the conspirators, and the six-year-old prince became king of Scotland. The country's parliament entrusted custody of the infant king to his mother, Queen Joan, and appointed Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas , as regent of Scotland.

Immediately after the death of Jacob I, anarchy began in the country: the warring factions of the Scottish barons launched internecine wars, seeking to seize the lands confiscated by the deceased king, or to establish control over the royal administration. The positions of large magnates sharply strengthened, especially the houses of the Douglas and the Lord of the Islands . However, a peculiarity of the period was the unexpected elevation of two small-local noble families - Livingstones and Krayton , seeking power in the country: the infant king was seized by one or the other warring side.

The riots intensified after the death of Earl Douglas in 1439: the post of regent of Scotland remained vacant, there were no forces in the country capable of ending the feuds of the Livingstones and Kraytons. By 1444, the Livingstones, having teamed up with the new Earl of Douglas , established control over the royal administration, eliminating all competitors.

In 1448, hostilities with England resumed. In response to the English invasion of Lothian, Scottish forces captured and destroyed the fortress of Alnik in 1449. On December 31, 1448, the military alliance with France was renewed, the Scottish guard in the service of the French king Charles VII actively participated in the expulsion of the British from Normandy . In 1449, a trade agreement was concluded with Burgundy , according to which Scottish merchants received free trade rights in the Netherlands , which at that time belonged to a Burgundy house. The Scottish-Burgundian rapprochement was consolidated on July 3, 1449 by the marriage of the young King James II and Mary of Geldern , niece of Philip, Duke of Burgundy .

The marriage of Jacob II meant his entry into politics. The first event of the king was the overthrow of the Livingstones: in early 1450, all members of this family were removed from their posts in the administration, their possessions were confiscated, and Robert Livingstone, the treasurer of Scotland, was executed.

When the young king in 1450 took power into his own hands, chaos reigned in the state administration, and the treasury was practically empty after a decade of anarchy in the country. Under the terms of the prenuptial agreement, the king was supposed to provide Queen Maria Geldern with an annual income of a huge amount of 5 thousand pounds. Revenues from the royal domain were clearly not enough. The king’s poverty was strikingly contrasted with the wealth of the largest Scottish tycoon - William Douglas, the 8th Earl of Douglas , whose court was overshadowed by the royal royal in splendor. In 1451, taking advantage of the Douglas pilgrimage to Rome , the royal troops captured the count's possessions. However, the return of William Douglas made James II retreat - the king still did not have sufficient strength to fight the Douglas.

At the beginning of 1452, Jacob invited the Earl of Douglas to negotiations in Sterling , issuing pre-written security guarantees. During dinner on February 22, 1452, enraged by Douglas’s refusal to break the alliance with the MacDonalds , the king killed the count with a knife.

The murder, committed in violation of security guarantees, caused outrage in the country. William Douglas's brother James , the new Earl of Douglas, arrived in Sterling with a large detachment of supporters. Accusing the king of treachery, he announced the severance of vassal relations with the king and burned Sterling. At the same time, rebellions began against the royal power of the allies of the Black Douglas - John MacDonald, Lord of the Islands and Earls of and . However, the uprising developed within the framework of the traditional feudalism of refusing to obey the overlord : Douglas did not take the opportunity to overthrow the monarch. Jacob II, meanwhile, enlisted the support of the Scottish Parliament and organized a military expedition to the Douglas. As a result, by the end of 1452, the king and Earl of Douglas agreed to reconciliation.

In 1455, taking advantage of the fact that the English patron of Douglas, the Duke of York, was ousted from power by the Lancaster and the War of the Scarlet and White Roses began in England , King James II resumed his attack on the Black Douglas house. Royal troops invaded the possession of Earl Douglas, forcing him to flee to England. At the Battle of Arkingolm, the army recruited by Douglas supporters was defeated, Earl of Moray killed. Under pressure from the king, the Scottish Parliament in August 1455 approved the charge of treason against Douglas and his supporters and decided to confiscate their possessions.

The defeat of the Black Douglas became a triumph of royal power in Scotland and the Stuart dynasty. In many ways, this victory was made possible thanks to the personal qualities of King James II himself: an outstanding strategist and commander who actively uses the most modern military means (for example, heavy artillery ), as well as a delicate politician who managed to neutralize Douglas supporters (including Lord of the Islands) with concessions and bribes ) In James II, the personality traits of Robert Bruce and Louis XI were combined.

The defeat of the large aristocracy allowed the king to build a new support for the regime: the massive distribution of titles and lands by Jacob II contributed to the creation of a “new nobility” of representatives of the middle nobility, who received count titles, and more closely associated with the royal authority ( Gordons , Campbell , Sinclair ). Jacob II could also count on the support of parliament, the convocation of which becomes regular at the end of the reign of the king. Important measures were taken through the parliament to strengthen state power in Scotland: the elimination of inheritance posts, the streamlining of the judiciary, the introduction of the principle of the need for parliamentary sanction for the alienation of a significant part of the royal domain , including the most important Scottish castles ( Edinburgh , Sterling , Dumbarton ).

The financial condition of the royal treasury improved significantly after the confiscation of the Black Douglas possessions: the total income of the king from domain and confiscated lands and customs payments reached almost 10 thousand pounds a year. The years of anarchy and civil wars that led to the ruin of many areas of the country, however, did not allow returning to the practice of tax collection: the country continued to live without general taxation. During the reign of Jacob II, the practice of granting land under the terms of " fuy farming " expanded, without feudal obligations, but only under the condition of paying a monetary contribution to the king, which testified to the decomposition of the vassal system.

In 1451, James II founded the second Scottish university in Glasgow with the aim of developing legal education in the country.

The foreign policy of Jacob II as a whole remained within the framework of traditional hostility towards England. The king tried, though unsuccessfully, to create a single anti-English alliance of Scotland, France , Denmark and Castile . Already in 1456, taking advantage of the outbreak of the Scarlet and White Rose war in England, Jacob II undertook a campaign in Northumberland . After the defeat of the Lancaster at the Battle of Northampton in July 1460, the king, maternally ascending to Lancaster, again invaded a large army into English territory and besieged . However, a random fragment of an exploding gun mortally wounded the king, Jacob II died on the spot. Roxborough fell a week later - one of the last Scottish fortresses, which remained in the hands of the British for more than a century, was finally returned to the kingdom.

Wife: from 1449 - Maria Geldern , daughter of Arnold, Duke of Geldern . Their kids:

• Son (born and died May 19, 1450)
• Jacob III (1451-1488), king of Scotland (from 1460 )
• Mary (1453-1488), married since 1467 to Thomas Boyd, 1st Earl of Arran ; since 1474 - after James Hamilton
• Alexander (1454-1485), Duke of Albany
• Margarita (1455 — unknown), married to William, Lord Crichton
• David (1455-1457), Earl of Moray
• John (1459-1479)

• Donaldson, G. Scottish Kings , 1967
• Nicholson, R. Scotland: the Later Middle Ages , 1974