King James V
King James V - King of Scotland
James V (1512 - 1542, king from 1513) His father was killed at Flodden and he himself died of grief after the total defeat of his army 30 years later at the battle of Solway Firth. Though he twice married French princesses, James V was not, like his father, intent upon war with England. He also kept Scotland free of Reformation, which had the effect of tightening his hold upon the Church.Henry VIII was glad of relief from Border warfare during the 1530s, and James employed this freedom from external affairs to harry his opponents in Scotland, especially the Douglasses.
John Knox's judgement on James V that 'he was called of some a good poor man's king: of others he was termed murderer of the nobility' is appropriate comment also on his four predecessors. The Stewarts lost more than their English counterparts through intermittent Border warfare, but at home they were engaged on a very similar work of protecting public authority in an age of indiscipline and violence. But one reason why they never achieved any sense of dynastic security was that all five came to the throne as minors, and James V's daughter Mary, ill-fated Queen of Scots, beat all previous records in this respect by becoming Queen when six days old. FUrthermore of these five kings two were murdered and two killed in battle, while it was to be the fate of Mary (and of her grandson) to be executed.
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