Editing James IV of Scotland (section)

=== Finances ===
[[File:Scottish unicorns; reigns of James III and James IV.JPG|thumb|Gold [[Unicorn (coin)|unicorns]] from the reigns of James III (top) and James IV (bottom)]]

From the beginning of his reign, one of James's objectives was to increase the relatively limited Crown income by extracting larger returns from all available sources of revenue. The king had to fund all government expenses out of his own income, which came from the revenue from Crown lands, and from [[burgh]] customs, mails, tolls and duties. The annual revenues of the Crown from these sources remained constant throughout James's reign (around £5–6,000 [[Pound Scots|Scots]]).<ref name="Macdougall, Norman p. 147">Macdougall, Norman, ''James IV'', p. 147.</ref> However, the king only received a small amount of the income from burgh revenues, as the majority of that income was [[Alienation (property law)|alienated]] to provide annuities to reward numerous nobles and Crown servants.<ref name="Macdougall, Norman p. 147" />

Taxation imposed by Parliament offered the king greater opportunities to raise income. Between 1488 and 1497, Parliament voted taxation almost annually to support diplomacy and war, including embassies to the continent, the king's naval expeditions to the western Highlands, and the 1496–97 conflicts with England. However, James soon learned that using taxation extensively as a means of generating revenue was likely to provoke resistance without bringing in the sums required. Following the failure to raise the huge sum of £12,000 Scots from the three estates (clergy, nobility and burghs) in 1502–1504 to fund the sending of a naval expedition and a small army to Denmark, no further taxation was imposed until 1512, and even then the tax which brought in almost £7,000 was only imposed on the clergy.<ref>Macdougall, Norman, ''James IV'', p. 150.</ref>

James's annual income increased remarkably between 1497 and 1513, due to several sources of revenue. In 1497 he received a substantial windfall from the death of Archbishop William Scheves of St Andrews.<ref name=doug151>Macdougall, Norman, ''James IV'', p. 151.</ref> James appointed his younger brother, the [[James Stewart, Duke of Ross|Duke of Ross]], to fill the vacant see of [[Archdiocese of St Andrews|St Andrews]], bringing the highest office of the Scottish church within the royal family, with the appointment generating an annual income of around £2,500 for the Crown from the revenues of the archbishopric.<ref name=doug156>Macdougall, Norman, ''James IV'', p. 156.</ref> Although Bishop Elphinstone protested against this scandalous appointment, it was a shrewd move by the king as it removed any potential dynastic threat which his legitimate younger brother might pose in the future.<ref name="Dawson, Jane p. 53">Dawson, Jane, ''Scotland Re-formed: 1488–1587'', p. 53.</ref> James also appointed Ross as [[abbot]] of [[Abbot of Holyrood|Holyrood]] (1498), [[Abbot of Dunfermline|Dunfermline]] (1500) and [[Abbot of Arbroath|Arbroath]] (1503). These offices, in combination with his appointment to the [[Lord Chancellor of Scotland|chancellorship]] in 1501, gave the Duke of Ross the highest status after the king.<ref name="Dawson, Jane p. 53" /> Following the death of the Duke of Ross in 1504, James IV appointed his eleven-year-old illegitimate son, [[Alexander Stewart (archbishop of St Andrews)|Alexander]], as archbishop, thereby ensuring that the Crown would continue to receive the revenues of St Andrews.<ref name=doug156 />

In 1498, James IV reached the age of twenty-five and was entitled to make a formal [[revocation|act of revocation]] of all grants made by him during his minority. Although James could — in theory — cancel all grants of lands and offices which had been made since his [[Accession day|accession]], the purpose of the revocation was only to assert royal authority by re-granting lands and offices surrendered to the Crown, and raise thousands of pounds in revenue, as their holders paid compensation to the [[Treasurer of Scotland|Treasurer]] to receive confirmation of their holdings.<ref name=doug151 /> The payment of Margaret Tudor's dowry between 1503 and 1505 also brought in a relatively meagre £10,000 sterling.<ref>Macdougall, Norman, ''James IV'', p. 155.</ref> By the end of the reign the Treasurer's annual receipts had increased — due to feudal payments made to the Crown by the holders of land, and judicial fines for criminal offences — from around £4,500 in 1496–1497 to a huge £28,000 by 1512.<ref name=doug165>Macdougall, Norman, ''James IV'', p. 165.</ref> When these receipts are added to income from ecclesiastical properties and the rental income from Crown lands, James IV may have received a total income of around £44,500 by 1513, although by that time there was an annual deficit of around £7,000.<ref name=doug165 />