James III (1451-1488) was king of Scotland from 1460 to 1488. His reign marked perhaps the weakest point of the Scottish monarchy.

James III came to the throne suddenly in 1460, when his father, James II, was killed by the back-firing of a siege gun. The queen mother, Mary of Gueldres, tended to favor the Yorkist side in the English dynastic stuggles (often called the Wars of the Roses), but her influence was contested by that of James Kennedy, Bishop of St. Andrews, who favored the Lancastrian cause and arranged that King Henry VI of England and his queen flee to Scotland after their disastrous loss at Towton in 1461. This meant that Edward IV, the new English (Yorkist) king, would regard the monarchy of the young James as something to be overthrown if possible. For the moment, however, a truce was made with England.

The regency proceeded well enough until the...