Editing James II of Scotland (section)

== Marriage ==
[[File:MaryofGuelders.jpg|thumb|upright|A portrait of Mary of Guelders]]

Negotiations for a marriage to [[Mary of Guelders]] began in July 1447, when a [[Duchy of Burgundy|Burgundian]] envoy came to Scotland and was concluded by an embassy under Crichton the chancellor in September 1448. Her great-uncle, [[Philip the Good|Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy]], settled sixty thousand crowns on his kinswoman, and her dower of ten thousand was secured on lands in [[Strathearn]], [[Atholl]], [[Methven, Perth and Kinross|Methven]] and [[Linlithgow]]. A tournament took place before James at Stirling, on 25 February 1449, between James, master of Douglas, another James, brother to the Laird of Lochleven, and two knights of Burgundy, one of whom, [[Jacques de Lalaing]] was the most celebrated knight-errant of the time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fradenburg |first=Louise Olga |url=https://archive.org/details/citymarriagetour0000frad |title=City, marriage, tournament : arts of rule in late medieval Scotland |date=1991 |publisher=Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-299-12950-7 |pages=173}}</ref> The marriage was celebrated at Holyrood on 3 July 1449. A French chronicler, [[Mathieu d'Escouchy]] gives a graphic account of the ceremony and the feasts which followed. Many [[Flemings]] in Mary's suite remained in Scotland, and the relations between Scotland and [[Flanders]], already friendly under James I, consequently became closer.{{sfn|Mackay|1892|p=137}}

In Scotland, the king's marriage led to his emancipation from tutelage, and to the downfall of the Livingstons. In the autumn Sir Alexander and other members of the family were arrested. At a parliament in Edinburgh on 19 January 1450, Alexander Livingston, a son of Sir Alexander, and Robert Livingston of Linlithgow were tried and executed on Castle Hill. Sir Alexander and his kinsmen were confined in different and distant castles. A single member of the family escaped the general proscription — James, the eldest son of Sir Alexander, who, after arrest and escape to the highlands, was restored in 1454 to the office of chamberlain to which he had been appointed in the summer of 1449.{{sfn|Mackay|1892|p=137}}