James IV

This study examines all aspects of James IV's reign. It explains his popularity and his successful kingship, and assesses reasons for the disastrous end to the reign when the king and a large proportion of the Scottish nobility were eliminated in a single afternoon at Flodden. James IV is the best-known of all the late-medieval Scottish rulers. Praised by his contemporaries, he combined the qualities of medieval monarch with a wide interest in the arts and sciences, while acutely conscious of the need to enhance the prestige of his dynasty throughout Europe.