James III is the most enigmatic of the Stewart kings of Scotland. Variously characterised as artistic, peace-loving, morbidly suspicious, treacherous, pious, lecherous and lazy, King James was much criticised by contemporaries and later chroniclers for his failure to do his job in the manner expected of him, and particularly for his reliance on low-born favourites to the exclusion of his 'natural' counsellors, the nobility. Specific complaints included debasement of the coinage, royal hoarding of money, failure to staunch feuds and to enforce criminal justice.Yet James III has also been seen as a major patron of the arts, as Scotland's first Renaissance king, and as the architect of an intelligent and forward-looking foreign policy. In this new study, the author explores all these areas and seeks to explain why King James was challenged by a huge rebellion in 1482, which he narrowly survived, and why he succumbed to a further rising in 1488, which placed his eldest son on the throne as James IV.

Few Scottish historians are better known than T. C. Smout and fewer still more deserving of the high esteem in which they are held. He has made an outstanding contribution to Scottish historical studies both as an academic discipline and as a subject of wide popular appeal. His retirement in 1991 after twelve years as Professor of Scottish History at the University of St Andrews diminished neither his interest not his output. It did, however, provide a fitting opportunity to honour his accomplishments. This collection of ten essays by his friends and colleagues at St Andrews is a measure of his enormous success in promoting Scottish history there and of their respect for his achievements. Ranging widely over the Scottish past – from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, from high politics to popular protest, from shipwrecks to railway mania, form local social studies to the problem of national identity – the essays pay tribute to the depth of Smout''s historical understanding by reflecting the breadth of research that he has done so much to encourage.

James III is the most enigmatic of the Stewart kings of Scotland. Variously characterised as artistic, peace-loving, morbidly suspicious, treacherous, pious, lecherous and lazy, King James was much criticised by contemporaries and later chroniclers for his failure to do his job in the manner expected of him, and particularly for his reliance on low-born favourites to the exclusion of his 'natural' counsellors, the nobility. Specific complaints included debasement of the coinage, royal hoarding of money, failure to staunch feuds and to enforce criminal justice.Yet James III has also been seen as a major patron of the arts, as Scotland's first Renaissance king, and as the architect of an intelligent and forward-looking foreign policy. In this new study, the author explores all these areas and seeks to explain why King James was challenged by a huge rebellion in 1482, which he narrowly survived, and why he succumbed to a further rising in 1488, which placed his eldest son on the throne as James IV.

Few Scottish historians are better known than T. C. Smout and fewer still more deserving of the high esteem in which they are held. He has made an outstanding contribution to Scottish historical studies both as an academic discipline and as a subject of wide popular appeal. His retirement in 1991 after twelve years as Professor of Scottish History at the University of St Andrews diminished neither his interest not his output. It did, however, provide a fitting opportunity to honour his accomplishments. This collection of ten essays by his friends and colleagues at St Andrews is a measure of his enormous success in promoting Scottish history there and of their respect for his achievements. Ranging widely over the Scottish past – from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, from high politics to popular protest, from shipwrecks to railway mania, form local social studies to the problem of national identity – the essays pay tribute to the depth of Smout''s historical understanding by reflecting the breadth of research that he has done so much to encourage.