Page "Stirling Castle" Paragraph 11

Under the early Stewart kings Robert II ( reigned 1371 – 1390 ) and Robert III ( reigned 1390 – 1406 ), the earliest surviving parts of the castle were built.

Robert Stewart, Earl of Menteith, Regent of Scotland as brother of Robert III, undertook works on the north and south gates.

The present north gate is built on these foundations of the 1380s, the earliest surviving masonry in the castle.

In 1424, Stirling Castle was part of the jointure ( marriage settlement ) given to James I's wife Joan Beaufort, establishing a tradition which later monarchs continued.

After James ' murder in 1437, Joan took shelter here with her son, the young James II.

Fifteen years later, in 1452, it was at Stirling Castle that James stabbed and killed William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas, when the latter refused to end a potentially treasonous alliance with the John of Islay, Earl of Ross and the Alexander Lindsay, 4th Earl of Crawford.

James III ( reigned 1460 – 1488 ) was born here, and later undertook works to the gardens and the chapel royal.

The manufacture of artillery in the castle is recorded in 1475.

James ' wife, Margaret of Denmark, died in Stirling Castle in 1486, and two years later James himself died at the Battle of Sauchieburn, fought over almost the same ground as the Battle of Bannockburn, just to the south of the castle.