The first Scottish monarch not to be crowned at Scone, James II's coronation took place at Holyrood Abbey in March 1437.

[2] By his first birthday, his only brother, his older twin, Alexander, had died, thus leaving James as heir apparent with the title Duke of Rothesay.

He does not appear to have inherited his father's taste for literature, which was shared by at least two of his sisters; but the foundation of the University of Glasgow during his reign by Bishop Turnbull shows that he encouraged learning; there are also traces of his endowments to St. Salvator's, the new college of Archbishop Kennedy at St Andrews.

The Parliament of Scotland revoked alienations of crown property and prohibited them, without the consent of the Estates, that is, until James II's eighteenth birthday.

[9] In July 1439, his mother married James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorne, after obtaining a papal dispensation for both consanguinity and affinity.

After his death, and with a general lack of prominent earls in Scotland due to deaths, forfeiture or youth, political power became shared uneasily among William Crichton, 1st Lord Crichton, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (sometimes in co-operation with the Earl of Avondale), and Sir Alexander Livingston of Callendar, who had possession of the young king as the warden of the stronghold of Stirling Castle.

Taking advantage of these events, Livingston placed Queen Joan and her new husband, Sir James Stewart, under "house arrest" at Stirling Castle on 3 August 1439.

[11] They were treacherously hurried to their doom, which took place by beheading in the castle yard of Edinburgh on 24 November, with the 10-year-old king pleading for their lives.

This bond, if it existed, created a dangerous axis of power of independently minded men, forming a major rival to royal authority.

His court officials (many of whom would rise to great influence in later years, often in former Douglas lands) then joined in the bloodbath, one allegedly striking out the earl's brain with an axe.

Military campaigns ended indecisively, and some have argued that James stood in serious danger of being overthrown, or of having to flee the country.

But James's patronage of lands, titles and office to allies of the Douglases saw their erstwhile allies begin to change sides, most importantly the Earl of Crawford after the Battle of Brechin, and in May 1455, James struck a decisive blow against the Douglases, and they were finally defeated at the Battle of Arkinholm.

James finally had the freedom to govern as he wished, and one can argue that his successors as kings of Scots never faced such a powerful challenge to their authority again.

Along with the forfeiture of the Albany Stewarts in the reign of James I, the destruction of the Black Douglases saw royal power in Scotland take a major step forward.

[16] James II is the first Scots monarch for whom a contemporary likeness has survived, in the form of a woodcut showing his birthmark on the face.

[17] Negotiations for a marriage to Mary of Guelders began in July 1447, when a Burgundian envoy came to Scotland and was concluded by an embassy under Crichton the chancellor in September 1448.