CHIEF:  Dr Robin Boyd, MA (Oxon); MB BS; LRCP, MRCS; DCH; AFOM, 8th Baron Kilmarnock

Richard G. Boyd

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James III came to the Scottish throne at the age of eight in 1460.  James II was killed at the siege of Roxburgh castle.  Three nobles made a bargain they were all to profit from. These three men were, Lord Gilbert Kennedy, Lord Robert Fleming,  and  Lord ALEXANDER BOYD.  Kennedy and Boyd were to have possession of the king, and Fleming was in some way to be made rich. As these barons  had  many  powerful friends, they were quite able to carry out their plans.

Shortly after their bargains had been made, there was a great meeting  at  Linlithgow,  at  which the king and his officers were present. Then Boyd and Fleming held a hunting-party, and during  the  hunt they seized the young king and bore him off to Edinburgh castle against his will.  Now that the conspirators  had  the king in their power, they took care to enrich themselves. They pretended, however, to act within the laws.  They  held a  parliament in Edinburgh castle, and Lord Boyd,  the  head of the Boyd family, fell at the king's feet, clasped  his  knees,  and asked him if he had been brought to Edinburgh against his will. What could the poor king say? And  now  for  a  time the Boyds and their friends had it all their own  way  in  the  country. Sir Alexander Boyd was made guardian of the king and  his two brothers, and all the royal fortresses were put into  his  hand.  A great many lands were given to his family, and the Boyds became  almost as powerful as the Douglases had been. But it was Lord Boyd's eldest son, THOMAS BOYD,  who became their greatest man.  This Thomas was one  of the cleverest men then living in Scotland; he was one of  the  best  knights  of the  time, and he knew how to make himself  pleasant  to  everybody. It is no wonder, therefore, that he became  so  great  a  person  in the country.  He was first  made  Earl  of  Arran,  and then he was married to the king's sister*, the princess Mary. But the pride of the Boyd's was soon to have a fall.  They had, of course, made many enemies who envied their wealth and power. The Boyd's were to fall as quickly as they had risen.

King  James  was  now  about  eighteen  years  old,  and  his councillors began to think it was time for him to be married. They found a queen that brought a handsome gift to  Scotland. It will be remembered that, when Alexander III  conquered the Western islands from King Haakon of Norway it was agreed that Scotland  should pay a huge sum of money every year for them. Since  the  time  of  James I  the  money had not been paid, and  now  Christian,  king  of  Norway, who  was also king of Sweden,  began  to  rumble and to say that the money must be paid or the islands given back.

How did James councillors get out of this difficulty?  They sent Thomas Boyd to Christian to propose that his daughter Margaret, who was only  twelve years old, should marry the King of Scots. He was delighted with the proposal.

As he had not enough money to pay his daughter's dowry, he gave  his  feudal rights over the Orkney islands as a pledge. He was unable to find the money, and in 1472, four years after the marriage, the  Orkney and Shetland islands were annexed  to  the Scottish  crown.  So at last all the islands around the Scottish coasts had come to be part of the kingdom of Scotland.

But what has this to do with the family of the Boyds?  We have just  seen  that Thomas Boyd, Earl of Arran, had been sent to Denmark  to  propose the marriage between James and Margaret.  But he was also sent  there a  second time to bring the bride to Scotland.  Now,  while he was away in Denmark, the enemies of the  Boyds  (and  there  were many of them) laid a plot to have him taken prisoner when he returned and then to have him and many others of his  family put to death. However, Arran's wife,  the  princess  Mary,  heard of the plot, and, when the ship arrived at  Leith,  she  went aboard secretly and warned him of  his  danger, and both sailed to Denmark, where he was safe from  his  enemies.  There was two of the Boyds still in their hands,  Arran's  father,  Lord Boyd, and his uncle, Sir Alexander Boyd.  Both were charged with being traitors of the king, and were  condemned  to  death;  but only Alexander was executed, as Lord Boyd escaped to England.  As all their lands were taken from them their greatness lasted only a few years. This  was  another  lesson  to the nobles that in the end the king  was  too strong  for  any of them. Yet the nobles never defied  the  king's  power  so  much  as  they did during the remainder of James's III reign.

*This was the closest the Boyds ever came to the Scottish Royal throne. Thomas Boyd and Mary Stewart had a son James Boyd who was killed by a Hamilton in a duel when only 16 years of age.  This son James Boyd was  nephew to James III and the Hamilton's didn't want a Boyd with royal blood that close to the throne.

NOTE: Use this data as a finding tool, just as you would any other secondary source. When you find the name of an ancestor listed, confirm the facts in original sources.

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