House of the Lion: A Blood Soaked Throne

Mindful of the fate of his eldest son, in 1406 Robert attempts to smuggle his younger son James out of the country by sea. But calamity strikes and young James (who is 12) gets stuck on the Bass Rock for several miserable months before boarding a ship which is then hijacked by English pirates. Nae luck! The Prince of Scotland is handed over as a prisoner to Henry IV and, shortly afterwards, Robert...

Correction: In this episode it was incorrect to say Elgin Cathedral wasn’t repaired after the fire of 1390. It was in fact restored and enlarged over the following centuries. The ruins that remain are of that rebuilt cathedral. While David II is holding on to the throne but failing to sire an heir, his nephew Robert Stewart (whom he can’t stand, remember) is doing almost the exact opposite. He may...

Susan Morrison and Len Pennie discover that, when retaining the Scottish throne, the bedroom is just as important as the battlefield...

Talk about accelerated development. Robert the Bruce's son David is already a married ‘man’ at four (his wife was a positively elderly seven-year-old), then at 5, after his father's death, he becomes a king. He's barely old enough to look after a hamster. Before you know it, the Balliols sniff an opportunity and are back. They crown their heir at Scone as Edward I, King of Scots. The nearly-depose...

Four executions, two life imprisonments and a corpse on trial for murder. Susan Morrison and Len Pennie discover that taking the Scottish throne is a brutal and bloody business.

Since the 13th Century, the banner of the Scottish royal house has been a lion. From then until the Union of the Crowns in 1603, four different dynasties engaged in a seemingly endless struggle to claim the banner and the throne. We start with the first big dynastic struggle for the banner of the lion between the ‘Margaretsons’ and the ‘MacWilliams’. Both families descend from Malcom (Canmore) III...

Susan Morrison and Len Pennie explore what it takes to be King in medieval Scotland, where ruthlessness and brutality were qualities at the top of the job description.