The Dethe of the Kynge of Scotis

The Dethe of the Kynge of Scotis is a 15th-century chronicle which reports the murder of James I of Scotland and its aftermath, including the execution of his killers.

38690 and 5467) and one from the 17th century (National Library of Scotland Advocates MS 17.1.22, likely a copy of BL Add.

[5] Shirley (ca.1366 – 1456) was a scribe and translator, and possibly a bookseller, who was an important figure in the literary scene of his day.

[7] The Dethe was published in 1797 (by John Pinkerton), in 1818 (anonymously, in an "obscure journal", the Miscellanea Scotica), and in 1837 (by Joseph Stevenson).

Matheson also notes that The Dethe entered into popular culture by way of four important works of history/historical fiction from the 19th and 20th centuries: John Galt's The Spaewife (1823); Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a Grandfather (1828); Dante Gabriel Rossetti's "The King's Tragedy" (in Ballads and Sonnets, 1881); and Nigel Tranter's Lion Let Loose (1967).

[10] While the chronicle covers James I's reign as a king, it focuses on his murder and its aftermath in detail.

Robert Stewart, Master of Atholl and Christopher Chambers are tortured in Edinburgh by being bound on crosses, having their flesh pulled from their bodies with tongs, being dragged by horses, hung up for all to see, decapitated with a rusty axe, and finally quartered.

The executioner is ordered to cut off that hand with the same knife, and then he is drawn through the streets naked and tortured with iron instruments.

He continues to defy his tormentors; they take pity on him and throw him back in jail, while more conspirators are drawn and quartered.

Graham is retrieved from jail and taken to the execution site, where his son is disemboweled and beheaded before his eyes, after which he himself has his heart and then his bowels torn out.

[1] Archibald Duncan thought it was clearly a "sadistic handbill, since it dwells so lovingly on the details of the executions of James's murderers",[14] but Matheson identifies Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, and Henry VI of England as possible recipients of BL Add.

38690, according to Matheson, was likely a member of the Privy Council, and singles out two possibilities, both men who were active participants in the Wars of the Roses.