James was the eldest son of King James III of Scots and his queen, Margaret of Denmark. He began his political life in a rebellion against his father at the age of fifteen. The rebellion was successful. King James was killed at Sauchieburn and the young prince was crowned at Scone a few days afterwards as James IV. It is fairly obvious that he had been a mere tool of the ambitious nobles and that he always repented the share he had had in his father's death. He was evidently a young man of precocious talents, an excellent linguist, speaking, among other languages, Gaelic, and writing excellent Latin. He was also devoted to the arts and letters. He was, moreover, an energetic administrator, a great builder of ships, a favourer of commerce and of the rising Scottish burghs. We find him constantly on the move even to the remotest parts of his kingdom and he did much, by his energetic presidence of the judicial eyres of his kingdom, to bring both the wilder feudal nobles of the border and the chieftains of the Islands under Royal control. The institution of a central Court of Justice in Edinburgh in 1504 was his work, as was also the introduction of the regular system of tenure of lands by feu. His devotion to the science of artillery may have been as much due to his eager interest in experiments as to his warlike designs, but he was forever casting big guns and making gunpowder. He was also a most ostentatiously devout servant of the Church and made yearly pilgrimages to distant holy places in Scotland. He even talked of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

At James' Royal Court, foreign influences of every kind pulled him now this way, now that, and Scotland became the focus of a diplomatic struggle in which England, France and Spain played the leading parts. James was distinctly ahead of his age, and of the traditions of his people, in wishing to keep the peace with England, but no Scottish King could at that time safely or honourably abandon the alliance with France. James kept, for some time at his Court, the English pretender Perkin Warbeck, whose tale he seems really to have believed. He gave him a lady of Royal blood as a wife and undertook small warlike movements on his behalf. Perkin, however, was not a warlike person and, on one occasion, showed some disposition to cowardice. This may have disgusted the King of Scots, who was probably glad when his guest went off to Ireland in 1497. James thereon concluded the Treaty of Ayton with King Henry VII of England and agreed to marry that monarch's eldest daughter, Margaret, who, in 1503 at the age of fourteen, crossed the border as Queen of Scots. It is said that, upon this occasion, the Order of the Thistle was instituted. Peace and amity continued between England and Scotland until the death of King Henry and the more northerly country made great strides in prosperity. The Queen's brother, King Henry VIII of England, who was espoused to the Pope's cause against the French King in 1511, speedily put an end to this condition of peace; and it needed little persuasion on the part of King Louis XII of France to throw James back upon the older traditional policy of Scotland. He prepared for a great invasion of England and took, with him to the border in 1513, the whole force of Scotland. He was able to take Norham and cross the River Tweed, but was entirely outgeneralled by the prudent Earl of Surrey. King James was defeated and slain at the Battle of Flodden on 9th September 1513. James's private life was stained by flagrant immorality and he left many illegitimate children; but his zeal for good government and his patriotism are indubitable.