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IMC 2026: Sessions

Session 1741: The Lives and Times of the Kings of Scots

Thursday 9 July 2026, 14:15-15:45

Organiser:Morvern French, Historic Environment Scotland
Moderator/Chair:Alastair MacDonald, School of Divinity, History & Philosophy, University of Aberdeen
Paper 1741-a'Sa is our tyme unstable here'?: The Ages of Man and King in Late Medieval Scotland
(Language: English)
Lucinda Dean, Centre for History, University of the Highlands & Islands
Index terms: Gender Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Other
Paper 1741-bJames IV of Scotland: 'A Good Historian'
(Language: English)
Morvern French, Historic Environment Scotland
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Art History - Decorative Arts, Historiography - Medieval, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1741-cRemembering Margaret Drummond and Her Relationship to James IV
(Language: English)
Mairi Cowan, Department of Historical Studies, University of Toronto, Mississauga
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Sexuality, Women's Studies
Abstract

Late medieval Scotland and its kings offer rich evidence for the understanding of time, life stages, and the longue durée of history and myth making. Looking both backwards, into the earlier medieval past, and forwards, to the rethinking of received historical fact, this session will situate the kings of Scots and their lived experiences within historic concepts of age, gender and sexuality, and self-fashioning. Lucy Dean will investigate literary explorations of age and what they can tell us about fifteenth- and sixteenth-century kings navigating through and out of their minorities. Morvern French will consider how James IV looked back in time to reinforce his authority in his present, utilising material culture to do so. Finally, Mairi Cowan will re-examine James's relationship with Margaret Drummond and how, over centuries, it developed in the popular imagination.