This article originally appeared in the January 1992 issue of Scottish Field magazine. A fuller account of the reign of James II is contained in one of Tranteržs later novels, The Lion's Whelp and his earlier novel, Black Douglas. The reign of his father was dealt with in Lion Let Loose. The reign of his son, James III is dealt with in Price of a Princess and Lord in Waiting.

      JUST suppose that James the Second, King of Scots, had not happened to stand so close to the cannon which exploded in 1460 -- how different might have been some portion of our nation's story?

     James, son of James the First and father of James the Third was fourth of the Stewart line. He was a strong and almost ruthless monarch, as testified to by the fact that he personally stabbed to death the eighth Earl of Douglas at Stirling Castle, when he was twenty-two; I have not heard of any other king doing the like.

      He was known as James Fiery-Face, because of a facial birthmark; but his fiery nature was not confined to his features. For instance, he advocated and offered to lead a grand crusade of all Christendom against the infidel Ottoman Empire; he built up the first major Scottish naval fleet; and went so far as to claim the throne of England -- his mother, Queen Joan Beaufort, being of the English royal house. I mention this to emphasise the sort of man he was.

      In August 1460, and aged only twenty-nine, he was determined to drive the invading English out of the last stronghold they occupied in Scotland, the royal castle of Roxburgh, near to the borderline. And there James, 'mair curious nor becam him or the majestie of ane king', as the chronicler puts it, was involved enough in the action to assist with one of the cannon bombarding the castle. It exploded instead of duly firing its cannonball, and the monarch was struck by a fragment and killed. Oddly, there was a prophesy extant, probably one of Thomas the Rhymer's, that a dead man would win Roxburgh Castle.

     The fiery James left five children by his queen, Mary of Gueldres, three sons and two daughters. It was to Scotland's added sorrow that the, son, who succeeded to the throne, was the opposite of his father -- a weakling, markedly superstitious and fearful, and made a disastrous monarch.

      His reign was a series of failures, troubles and set-backs for the nation, wherein we lost Berwick-on-Tweed for good (it was Scotland's principal port); civil war broke out, with his brother, the Duke of Albany, seeking to replace him; Scotland's first Metropolitan and Archbishop of St. Andrews was imprisoned, wrongly accused and died shamefully; the nobility, driven to distraction, refused to support him, and hanged James's 'lo-born favourites' over Lauder Bridge, the famed 'Belling the Cat' incident, and finally rose in armed fury against him and at the Battle of Sauchieburn, with his young son (James the Fourth) ranged against him, he fled the field alone, his horse threw him at Bannock Burn, and he died.

      If his father had not been so fascinated by the new artillery and stood so near at Roxburgh, none of this catalogue of woes would have happened. Other troubles no doubt there would have been, with so vehement a man as James the Second; but Scotland's story would have contained a very different chapter.