James IV was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauchieburn, following a rebellion in which the younger James was the figurehead of the rebels. James IV is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs. He was responsible for a major expansion of the Scottish royal navy, which included the founding of two royal dockyards and the acquisition or construction of 38 ships, including the Michael, the largest warship of its time.
Margaret Tudor was Queen of Scotland from 1503 until 1513 by marriage to King James IV. She then served as regent of Scotland during her son's minority, and fought to extend her regency. Margaret was the eldest daughter and second child of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the elder sister of King Henry VIII of England. By her line, the House of Stuart eventually acceded to the throne of England and Ireland, in addition to Scotland.
The ruins of Linlithgow Palace are located in the town of Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland, 15 miles (24 km) west of Edinburgh. The palace was one of the principal residences of the monarchs of Scotland in the 15th and 16th centuries. Although maintained after Scotland's monarchs left for England in 1603, the palace was little used, and was burned out in 1746. It is now a visitor attraction in the care of Historic Environment Scotland.
Margaret Drummond was a daughter of John Drummond, 1st Lord Drummond, and a mistress of King James IV of Scotland.
The Forresters are an ancient and noble clan of the Scottish Lowlands.
Alexander Elphinstone, 1st Lord Elphinstone was a Scottish peer. He was the son of Sir John Elphinstone of that ilk and of Pittendreich.
The Scottish royal tapestry collection was a group of tapestry hangings assembled to decorate the palaces of sixteenth-century kings and queens of Scotland. None appear to have survived.
Don Pedro de Ayala also Pedro López Ayala was a 16th-century Spanish diplomat employed by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile at the courts of James IV of Scotland and Henry VII of England. His mission to Scotland was concerned with the King's marriage and the international crisis caused by the pretender Perkin Warbeck. In his later career he supported Catherine of Aragon in England but was involved in a decade of rivalry with the resident Spanish ambassador in London. Ayala was a Papal prothonotary, Archdeacon of London, and Bishop of the Canary Islands.
Robert Lundie or Lundy of Balgonie, was a Scottish knight, Master of the Royal Artillery, and Lord High Treasurer of Scotland.
The Comptroller of Scotland was a post in the pre-Union government of Scotland.
The Royal Court of Scotland was the administrative, political and artistic centre of the Kingdom of Scotland. It emerged in the tenth century and continued until it ceased to function when James VI inherited the throne of England in 1603. For most of the medieval era, the king had no "capital" as such. The Pictish centre of Forteviot was the chief royal seat of the early Gaelic Kingdom of Alba that became the Kingdom of Scotland. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Scone was a centre for royal business. Edinburgh only began to emerge as the capital in the reign of James III but his successors undertook occasional royal progress to a part of the kingdom. Little is known about the structure of the Scottish royal court in the period before the reign of David I when it began to take on a distinctly feudal character, with the major offices of the Steward, Chamberlain, Constable, Marischal and Lord Chancellor. By the early modern era the court consisted of leading nobles, office holders, ambassadors and supplicants who surrounded the king or queen. The Chancellor was now effectively the first minister of the kingdom and from the mid-sixteenth century he was the leading figure of the Privy Council.
Court music in Scotland is all music associated with the Royal Court of Scotland, between its origins in the tenth century, until its effective dissolution in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the Union of Crowns 1603 and Acts of Union 1707.
Ellen or Elen More was an African servant at the Scottish royal court. She probably arrived in Scotland in the company of a Portuguese man with imported animals. There are records of clothing and gifts given to her, although her roles and status are unclear. Some recent scholarship suggests she was enslaved, and her arrival in Scotland can be linked indirectly with the slave trade. She is associated with a racist poem by William Dunbar, and may have performed in Edinburgh as the "Black Lady" at royal tournaments in 1507 and 1508.
Alexander Forrester of Garden was a Scottish landowner. He was the son of David Forrester of Torwood and Garden and Elizabeth Sandilands, daughter of James Sandilands of Slamannan.
Andrew Aytoun, was a Scottish soldier and engineer, and captain of Stirling Castle.
John Mosman was an apothecary at the Scottish court.
Elizabeth Barlay or Barlow was an English lady in waiting to Margaret Tudor the wife of James IV of Scotland.
Records survive of the expenses made to feed the Scottish royal household in the sixteenth century, and the remains of royal kitchens can be seen in the ruins of palaces and castles. Archaeologists can recover evidence of diet from deposits including waste from meals and food preparation.
Mungo Graham of Rathernis was a Scottish landowner and courtier.
James Redheuch, Redeheuch, Reidheugh, Riddoch, or Reddoch was a Scottish courtier.
