page_title: James II of Scotland
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: James II of Scotland / Death
caption_attribution_description: English: Castles old and new. High on its earthworks on a narrow isthmus between the Tweed and Teviot rivers, Roxburgh Castle (foreground) had strong claims in medieval times to impregnability. Not so! The castle changed hands between the Scots and English no fewer than 10 times in the border wars of the 15th and 16th centuries. Now only a few walls remain of this sometime seat of the Scottish king David 1. Across the Tweed lies elegant, Georgian, Floors Castle, seat of the Innes Kers, Dukes of Roxburghe.
context_page_description: James II was a member of the House of Stewart who reigned as King of Scotland from 1437 until his death.
context_section_description: James II enthusiastically promoted modern artillery, which he used with some success against the Black Douglases.  His ambitions to increase Scotland's standing saw him besiege Roxburgh Castle in 1460, one of the last Scottish castles still held by the English after the Wars of Independence.
  For this siege, James took a large number of cannons imported from Flanders. On 3 August, he was standing near one of these cannons, known as "the Lion", when it exploded and killed him. Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie stated in his history of James's reign that "as the King stood near a piece of artillery, his thigh bone was dug in two with a piece of misframed gun that brake in shooting, by which he was stricken to the ground and died hastily."
  The Scots carried on with the siege, led by George Douglas, 4th earl of Angus, and the castle fell a few days later. Once the castle was captured James's widow, Mary of Guelders, ordered its destruction. James's son became king as James III and Mary acted as regent until her own death three years later.
caption: James II died outside the walls of Roxburgh Castle when one of his bombards exploded.
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