Norman Macdougall était un historien écossais réputé pour ses analyses approfondies de la politique de la couronne écossaise. Son œuvre dissèque méticuleusement la vie des rois écossais et le réseau complexe de manœuvres politiques qui ont façonné l'histoire de la nation. L'érudition de Macdougall offre des explorations éclairantes sur les dynamiques complexes de pouvoir et d'influence durant des époques cruciales de l'histoire écossaise.
James III is the most enigmatic of the Stewart kings of Scotland. This study explains why King James was challenged by a huge rebellion in 1482, which he narrowly survived, and why he succumbed to a further rising in 1488, which placed his eldest son on the throne as James IV.
James IV is the best-known of all the late medieval Scottish rulers. This study examines almost all aspects of James IV's sovereignty, explains his successful kingship, and assesses the reasons for the disastrous end to the reign when the king and a large population of the Scottish nobility were eliminated in a single afternoon in 1513 at Flodden.