James IScotland

James I (Scotland)., king of Scotland (1391-1437), was the second son of Robert III., on whose death in 1406 he became king. He was, however, a prisoner in England from 1405 till 1424. The kingdom was governed till 1419 by his uncle Robert, first Duke of Albany, to whose machinations the capture of James was probably due; and afterwards, till the return of the king, by Albany's son, the second duke. The latter was put to death for misuse of his power by James, who reconstituted the Scots Parliament, reformed the statute law, and took measures to curb the Highlands and generally to maintain the authority of the law. The result was a conspiracy, headed by Sir James Graham, and the king was murdered in the Black Friars Abbey at Perth. James was both an able ruler and a cultivated man. His poems, The King's Quhair and Christe's Kirk on the Green, were the best produced in Great Britain in the 15th century.