Reign of King Robert III of Scotland

Historical Context Note

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.3: Scottish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), J. Derrick McClure (University of Aberdeen), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Domains

Changes of government, elections and reigns

Dates

Date of occurrence 1390-1406

Places

Scotland (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Christened John Stewart, Robert III was the elder son of Robert II of Scotland. His sixteen-year reign was beset by challenges, primarily from his younger and more ambitious brother, Robert. In their father's last years, Robert had been appointed Guardian of Scotland. However, the law of inheritance brought John to the throne, where he took on the name 'Robert III' since 'King John' was thought to evoke the disastrous reign of John Balliol. Suffering from bad health, he was forced to hand over power to his eldest son, David Stewart, 1st Duke of Rothsay in 1398, but David soon came under pressure from his uncle Robert, now Duke of Albany. David was imprisoned in St Andrew's Castle, and died there, probably on Albany's orders. By the time of Robert III's death in 1406, Albany had also…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

178 words

Save this article