King James I
King James I - King of Scotland
James I (1394 - 1437, king from 1406) was the son of Robert II and Annabella Drummond. For James I, as for all his successors down to James VI (James I of England), the first task was to set aside the encroachments on royal authority that were the consequence of his own minority. This problem was particularly severe as James was kidnapped at sea by the English at the time of his accession, when he was 11, and was not allowed to return to Scotland until 1424 . He brought back from England his bride Joan Beaufort, and official relations with England were friendly for the rest of his reign. On his return James quickly outlined a programme that was to determine the pattern of Scottish life and affairs into the 16th century. He used Parliament to aid the Crown in imposing a more uniform administration of law. In 1425 he engineered the destruction of Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany and regent during the minority, and used this opportunity to dispossess other factious earls. By 1429 the King had obtained the submission of Alexander, Lord of the Isles. trong government permitted Lowland Scotland to develop encouragingly, but James had many enemies and his achievement was brought into jeopardy by his own murder in 1437, an act that had the approval of his uncle, the Earl of Atholl.
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