James I of Scotland Assassinated

February 21, 1437

The poet-king of Scotland, trapped in a sewer beneath the Perth Blackfriars, was stabbed twenty-eight times by Walter Stewart's men. His queen, Joan Beaufort, wounded defending him, later hunted his killers to their graves. Scotland's crown would now pass through a sequence of minorities and regicides for a century. His eighteen years as an English prisoner and attempts to curb noble power had made him dangerous enemies among the magnates.