King James I ruled Scotland for 13 years in the 15th Century, after spending nearly 20 years as a hostage of English kings.

James was born on July 25, 1394, at Dunfermline Palace. His father was the reigning monarch, King Robert III, and his mother was Annabella Drummond. James was the royal couple's third son. Their first son, Robert, died when he was very young. Their second son, David, came along in 1378.

The king, whose birth name was John but whose reigning name was Robert, was prone to illness for much of his life. He lost his power to his brother, Robert, Earl of Fife not once but twice.

In 1405, King Robert III became convinced that his brother had it in for his remaining son and so had young James spirited away to France. Robert of Fife, learning of the plan, sent a force to intercept the escaping heir apparent. James and a few of his supporters escaped to Bass Rock, in the Firth of Forth, where they survived for a month until a ship from France arrived. English pirates intercepted the ship and handed the young king-to-be over to England's King Henry IV. James spent 18 years as the king's prisoner. Hearing of his remaining son's misfortune, Robert the king became despondent and refused to eat. He died not long afterward, on April 4, 1406. Because James was not there to succeed his father, the Scottish Parliament cemented Robert of Fife's status as Regent of Scotland.

James, meanwhile, was not so much a hated prisoner as an honored guest. King Henry IV ensured that the young boy got a good education, studying law, philosophy, and theology. That king died in 1413, and his successor, Henry V, continued his father's policy regarding James of Scotland. James wrote poems titled "The Kingis Quair" (The King's Book) and "Good Counsel" about his time as a captive at the English court. And in fact, James accompanied Henry V to France and fought in the Hundred Years War. Henry named James a commander for the attack on Dreux, which surrendered after a monthlong siege.

James was the captive of a third king when Henry V died in 1422 in France and was succeeded by his infant son, who became Henry VI. James was part of the escort that brought the Henry's body back to England.

James also met his future wife during his time at the English court. He and Joan Beaufort hit it off right away; and in 1423, James's family began negotiating in earnest with King Henry VI's regency council to get James released. The treaty that sealed the deal was approved on December 4. Scotland agreed to pay a ransom of 60,000 marks (which was a lot of money, especially in those days) and send 21 hostages to effectively take James's place. James later agreed to a seven-year truce with England.

James and Joan were married on Feb. 2, 1424, at the Church of Saint Mary Overy in London. The royal couple went north and were crowned at Scone Abbey on May 21. Their first child, Margaret, was born near the end of the year. They had eight children in all.

Ruling the realm in James's absence had been the Duke of Albany, who had tried his best not to alienate the Scottish people, so much so that he did not collect any taxes from them. The royal treasury was rather empty when James returned. Albany had died by that time, and his son Murdoch was the one doing the ruling. James had Murdoch, his two sons, and his father-in-law arrested, tried for treason, and executed.

James set about trying to raise funds to outfit him and his wife in the lavish lifestyle to which they had been accustomed while living at the English court. The Scottish Parliament agreed to one period of taxation but refused to approve any regular tax collection, and James resorted to other means to bring in money, such as seizing the estates of nobles, including Malise Graham, one of the 21 hostages sent to England. James furthered the negative opinion of many of his subjects by taking a certain amount of the new revenues and putting it in his own pocket. (One of the things that he spent the money on was Linlithgow palace.)

In 1428, James renewed the Auld Alliance, the mutual defense pact with France that dated to 1295. To seal that deal, James sent his oldest daughter, Margaret, to be the wife of the Dauphin Louis. James also married two other daughters off to other nobles, Isabella to Francis, Duke of Brittany and Eleanor to Sigismund, Duke of Austria.

The Highlands were used to ruling themselves, paying nominal fealty to the crown. When James tried to assert his authority there, the dispute came to blows. James, at the head of an army, marched north and set about arresting and executing a handful of resistant clan chiefs. This furthered resentment of the king, certainly in the Highlands but also elsewhere.

James had found enough money to buy some fancy artillery, and he took that and a bunch of soldiers to the English-held castle at Roxburgh in 1436 and settled in for a siege. The campaign went nowhere near the plan, and James and his army had to flee, so quickly that they left the artillery behind.

Sir Robert Graham, the uncle of Malise the hostage sent to England and the landowner whose assets James had seized, took the speakership of Parliament and right away issued orders for James's arrest. That attempt failed, and James ordered Graham banished. However, Graham was not the only powerful person that James had alienated. One of those not at all enamored of the king was his own uncle Walter, the Earl of Atholl. In 1437, the king and his family were celebrating Christmas at the Blackfriars monastery in Perth. They stayed there for a handful of weeks.

On February 20, Graham returned from banishment, gathered a group of attackers, and fell on James in his wife's personal chambers. The king, wearing a nightgown and slippers, was defenseless against his attackers, who stabbed him 16 times and then fled. In desperation, James ripped out a floorboard and tried to escape through the sewers, forgetting that he had ordered them blocked just a few days before. The queen was injured in the attack as well but escaped, with her son James. The queen hired a team of pursuers, who caught all of those who had helped kill the king and had them tortured and executed. The heir apparent, all of 6 years old, was crowned King James II at Holyrood Abbey on March 25, 1437.