Parergon

This book could not be more eagerly anticipated: Ken Emond's St Andrews PhD thesis, on which it is based, has been a valued resource since its submission in 1988. At the core of the thesis was the consultation and, on occasion, correction, of primary sources. That remains so in The Minority of James V, supplemented by note of post-1988 work of other historians: Michael Brown's James I (Cannongate Academic, 1994) and Amy Blakeway's Regency in Sixteenth-Century Scotland (The Boydell Press, 2015), for instance, appear briefly in footnotes; more substantively, Keith Brown and others' Records of the Parliaments of Scotland (Scottish Parliament and University of St Andrews, 2007–19), replaces the less accurate edition of the Acts.

The introduction sets out a useful broad characterization of the main events and lists six minority periods: 'English interest under the Queen Mother, Margaret Tudor (1513–14); the French interest under the Duke of Albany (1515–17); the rivalry of the Hamilton and Douglas families (1517–21); the European interest (to 1524); the Scots in control of their own destiny (from 1524), and the Douglas family domination (1525–28)' (p. 1). Six chapters fill in this framework, supported by another on the sources, a Conclusion, and full Bibliography and Index.

Each chapter is subdivided into short sections. These avoid the less signposted density of the thesis, and assist those seeking specific information. Chapter 1, for example, starts with 'Reaction to Flodden' (the battle in which James IV, among [End Page 211] many, was killed, and after which the minority of his son began). The minority is ably introduced: both Scotland's internal response—the rapid assembling of new officers of state; the immediate arrangements for the seventeen-month-old king—and its external policy, especially concerning France and England, are examined. The leadership of the widowed queen, Margaret Tudor, appointed regent in her husband's will, is shown to have been challenged almost from the first.

Emond's source use is impressive; he recognizes, for example, the seeds for the later enmity between the Home family and Albany (pp. 28–29), later developing this in the account of the Homes' execution in late 1516 (pp. 38–39, 48–55, 66–69). Only rarely (see p. 22) does Emond fall back on Lindsay of Pitscottie's not always reliable Historie, the authority of which, on another occasion (p. 48) he questions.

Such a detailed, multifaceted study provides many opportunities to trace the political involvements of individuals, including James Hamilton, Earl of Arran (see, especially, Chapters 3 and 4); and Gavin Douglas, provost of St Giles, later bishop of Dunkeld. The latter, mentioned particularly in Chapter 1 (p. 33), Chapter 2 (pp. 42–45) and Chapter 4 (pp. 140–46), was the uncle of Archibald Douglas, and Margaret's supporter, thus often Albany's opponent. To those who know Douglas better as the first to translate Virgil's Aeneid into any form of English, the details throughout of his ambitions and sometimes crucial actions in the political sphere are of immense interest (despite the absence of reference to Priscilla Bawcutt's publications, such as her article on Douglas's letters 1515 to 1522, in Janet Hadley Williams, Stewart Style, 1513–1542 (Tuckwell Press, 1996)).

One of the most striking portraits gradually assembled in The Minority is that of John Stewart, Duke of Albany. Emond is sure-footed in the assessment of the governor's decisions and strategies, especially on military matters and finances while in Scotland (1515–17, 1521–22, and 1523–24). He is less attentive to Albany's diplomacy in France in the periods between those visits, yet, as Elizabeth Bonner's 2004 ODNB article (unreferenced by Emond) reveals, he remained involved on Scotland's behalf. Perhaps understandably, given the project's size, Emond also provides little about Albany's life apart from, and before, his arrival in...