James IV is one of the biggest personalities to emerge from the historical records of Scotland’s later Middle Ages. Tales from his reign echo through the history and myth of the country. They tell of a man who seemed to love the life of a late-medieval king, and this love seemed to make him good at the job. He was affable, confident and shrewd. He was capable of putting on a great show, often with himself at the centre, such as the chivalric tournaments recently dramatised in Rona Munro’s outstanding play, James IV: Queen of the Fight. These attributes contributed to the domestic political success James enjoyed, allowing him to rule without major resistance from his most powerful subjects. But who were the people around the king, the people who sought access to the king, and mediated such access for others? And how does studying these individuals help us understand how politics worked under James IV? This has been the focus of my research on the court and household of James IV, which has recently culminated in my new book, The Household and Court of James IV of Scotland (2023).
The court and the household
The ‘court’ and the ‘household’ were distinct, yet closely related. The court was the space around the king and the people who occupied it, while the household was the formal structure at the heart of this space and population. It provided a framework which shaped the whole court. The distinction between the two is captured in contemporary poems by William Dunbar and Gavin Douglas, both inhabitants of James IV’s courtly universe. Dunbar’s poem known as ‘Schir, ye haue mony seruitouris’ focuses on a group on the fringes of the court, including the likes of Dunbar himself, as they tussle to bring
