ABSTRACT

King James IV of Scotland, who was born in 1473, was unusual in that he actually paid his subjects for the privilege of allowing him to act as surgeon or dentist. For example, in 1503 he purchased ‘equipment’ to take out teeth and was himself the patient when he paid the barber 14 shillings to extract one of his teeth. In 1511 it is recorded that James paid compensation to a dental patient ‘because the King pullit furth his teth’ and in the same year, strangest of all, James IV actually operated on one of his own barber-surgeons, extracting two of his teeth.