On this day in history - 17th August

On 17th August 1451, Sir James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn was executed at sea. Maybe

He was the 2nd husband of the Queen Dowager, Joan Beaufort, widow of King James I. He was a close ally of the Black Douglases and plotted the overthrow of the boy-king's (James II) guardian, the powerful Sir Alexander Livingston of Callendar. The latter imprisoned the Queen-Dowager in Stirling Castle and threw Sir James Stewart into the castle-pit dungeon. They were later freed. Being a handsome, graceful young man, he was selected by Joanna, Dowager of King James I as her second husband. The Queen and he being with the 3rd and 3rd and 4th degrees of consanguinity and affinity, they received a papal dispensation.
It is said the even though he had a safe conduct to visit England, he was captured at sea by a Flemish ship with eight score Englishmen and put to death.  However, after Joan’s death, the Black Knight probably did take their three sons and went to England. There is some evidence that he was alive and acting as an ambassador for his stepson James II in 1454.  Perhaps this was just a cover story?

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Births

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Births on this day

Deaths

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Deaths on this day

Events

1643: Scotland offers to support the Parliamentary side in the Civil War in return for the acceptance by the English of a "Solemn League and Covenant", in effect exporting Presbyterianism to them. Military aspects are settled quickly and the English Parliament later accepts the religious aspects of the Covenant.
1648: Oliver Cromwell heavily defeats the Scots at Preston, leading to a return to power in Edinburgh of the radical Covenanters of the Kirk Party under the Marquis of Argyll.
1871: The death in London of Patrick Nasmyth, the celebrated landscape painter.

Events on this day