Jackie Cosh

Sometimes, the number of biographies about a person don't bear much resemblance to his importance in history. Case in point: James IV of Scotland. If he hadn't gone and gotten himself killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, the histories of England and Scotland would surely have been very different; it's (barely) possible that there would have been no Union of the Crowns, and even if there had been one, the circumstances would surely have been different.

Yet biographies of James are few and far between, which makes each one important.

Not that this one will add anything to our knowledge. The bibliography has just nineteen items, almost all secondary sources -- the book itself is only about a hundred pages long. There is no original research and not much original insight. If you want a full-scale relatively modern biography, you're probably still going to have to go for Norman MacDougall's James IV. But this is a nice easy read, mostly well-written although there are a few silly errors that a good editor would have caught (it appears to be self-published). If all you need is a quick overview of the life of this under-reported king, this is a good place to start.… (meer)