ABSTRACT
When James II was killed at Roxburgh, Scotland had been enjoying several years of firm government. It is in these times that we see the beginnings of Scotland’s participation in the European revival of learning and art that men call the Renaissance. In 1450 Bishop Turnbull of Glasgow, a scholar with a wide following in Scotland and a high reputation in Europe, founded Glasgow University. This put Scotland on a par with England which had two universities (Cambridge and Oxford), and it gave a boost to the spread of learning among an increasingly education-conscious people. The new university was on the edge of the Highlands, in the western half of the country, and it offered education to people of the clans who might care to learn rather than fight or steal cattle. Encouraged by both James II and his father before him, artists and craftsmen played an important role in Scottish life. James I had tried to stop craftsmen forming themselves into guilds or clubs, but he had encouraged them as individuals because he recognized the urge for creative people to express themselves in art forms. There were also interesting developments in secular and religious building. Castles, formerly little more than stone chambers of violence and bloodshed, treachery and despair, began to take on a more comfortable residential character. They started to look like palaces, fortified palaces it is true, but they became splendid homes. Crichton Castle in Mid-Lothian, the principal home of Lord Chancellor Crichton, was greatly extended and ornamented. Caerlaverock, the only concentric castle in Scotland,
was remodelled, the most interesting feature being the remarkable machicolations round the tops of the Murdoch tower and the gatehouse which itself was converted into a residential tower.
