William Hepburn - The Household and Court of James IV of Scotland, 1488-1513

The Household and Court of James IV of Scotland 14881513

SCOTTISH HISTORICAL REVIEW MONOGRAPH SERIES

SCOTTISH HISTORICAL REVIEW MONOGRAPH SECOND SERIES

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The Scottish Historical Review Monograph Second Series aims to promote major works of scholarly research covering any aspect or period of Scottish History. The series seeks, in particular, to support the work of early-career scholars active in the discipline. Its volumes are selected in partnership with the Trustees of the Scottish Historical Review.

Proposals or queries may be sent directly to the series editor at the address given below; all submissions will receive prompt attention before being sent to expert readers.

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Details of volumes in the first series are available from Edinburgh University Press.

Previous volumes in the second series:

1. The Scots in Australia, 17881938, Benjamin Wilkie (2017)

2. Ghosts in Enlightenment Scotland, Martha McGill (2018)

3. Illegitimacy in Medieval Scotland, 11001500, Susan Marshall (2021)

The Household and Court of James IV of Scotland 14881513

William Hepburn

THE BOYDELL PRESS

William Hepburn 2023

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation

no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,

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without the prior permission of the copyright owner

The right of William Hepburn to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

First published 2023

The Boydell Press, Woodbridge

ISBN 978-1-78327-690-5 hardback

ISBN 978-1-80010-927-8 ePub

The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd

PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK

and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.

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Cover image: sterreicische Nationalbibliothek Wien, Cod. 1897, folio 14v., digital.onb.ac.at/Austrian National Library

Acknowledgments

T his book was researched and written while I was based at the University of Glasgow and then the University of Aberdeen, and I owe a debt of gratitude to colleagues and friends at both universities. I am privileged to have worked with Dauvit Broun, whose perceptive and generous nature benefited me enormously at crucial moments in my research, and Graeme Small, who inspired my interest in this area of history through his honours special subject, helped me throughout my postgraduate degrees and continues to be a valued mentor and colleague. I thank him for reading draft chapters of this book.

At Aberdeen, Jackson Armstrong has shown great collegiality in helping me develop the book in its latter stages and accommodating my work on the book alongside my other work at Aberdeen. More broadly, academic and administrative staff at Glasgow and Aberdeen have helped me in a multitude of ways which, even if not directly connected to the book, have given me the space, opportunity and inspiration to write it. Special mention here must go to my friend and colleague Claire Hawes for our ongoing scholarly dialogue in offices, pubs and Microsoft Teams calls. I also thank the staff of the libraries and archives I have used for helping me access the historical sources without which the book would not exist, particularly the staff of the National Records of Scotland. Thanks also to Steve Boardman, Caroline Palmer and Elizabeth McDonald for their generous advice and patience during the publication process. All these people have helped me write this book, but any errors or shortcomings in the final text are entirely my own responsibility.

Outside of academia, I have received warm encouragement from my friends and family. My siblings, Emma and Henry, along with my siblings-in-law Leona and Stuart as well as my nieces Ruby, Evie and Rosa and my nephew Fraser, have supported me during my work and offered welcome breaks from it. My parents, Elizabeth and Henry, have helped me more than anyone, giving me the encouragement to develop my interests in whatever direction they took me and the support to see my work through. Lastly, Marie-Louise has been my closest companion since we were students together at Glasgow, making my scholarship better and my life more fun. I dedicate this book to her.

Notes on Names and Monetary Values

P lace names and surnames have been standardised and, where possible, modernised in accordance with G.F. Black, The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History (New York, 1946) and the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, Francis H. Grooms (ed.), (Edinburgh, 1901)

All sums of money are in pounds Scots. A merk is equal to two-thirds of a pound. Pounds, shillings and pence are rendered in the following format: 13 6s 4d.

List of Abbreviations

TA Accounts of The Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, IIV, Thomas Dickson and James Balfour Paul (eds) (Edinburgh, 18771902)

ER The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, XXIII, George Burnett (ed.) (Edinburgh, 188791) pp. 3719

RPS The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, K.M. Brown et al. (eds) (St Andrews, 200713)

RMS The Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, II, James Balfour Paul (ed.) (Edinburgh, 1882)

RSS The Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, I.M. Livingstone (ed.) (Edinburgh, 1908)

Introduction: Court and Household in Scotland

In time I exist, and of time I speak, said Augustine: and added, What time is I know not. In a like spirit of perplexity I may say that in the court I exist and of the court I speak, and what the court is, God knows, I know not. I do know however that the court is not time; but temporal it is, changeable and various, space-bound and wandering, never continuing in one state. When I leave it, I know it perfectly: when I come back to it I find nothing or but little of what I left there: I am become a stranger to it, and it to me. The court is the same, its members are changed. I shall perhaps be within the bounds of truth if I describe it in the terms which Porphyry uses to define a genus and call it a number of objects bearing a certain relation to one principle. We courtiers are assuredly a number, and an infinite one, and all striving to please one individual. But to-day we are one number, to-morrow we shall be a different one: yet the court is not changed; it remains always the same. It is a hundred-handed giant, who if he be all maimed, is yet all the same, and still hundred-handed; a hydra of many heads