The Kingis quair

by James I, King of Scots

The Kingis Quair ("The King's Book") is a 15th-century poem attributed to James I of Scotland. It is semi-autobiographical in nature, describing the King's capture by the English in 1406 on his way to France & his subsequent imprisonment by Henry IV of England & his successors, Henry V & Henry VI.

Genres: Poetry

92 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1420

About the author

James I was King of Scots from 1406 until his death in 1437. He was the third son of King Robert III and his queen, Isabella Drummond.

James' elder brother, David, Duke of Rothesay died in suspicious circumstances at Falkland in 1402. Fears for James's safety led Robert to decide to send him to France. James set out in March 1406 but while off the English coast the ship was captured by pirates who delivered him to Henry IV of England. The ailing Robert III died on 4 April and the 12-year-old James, now the uncrowned King of Scots, would not regain his freedom for another 18 years.

James was held at Windsor Castle and the story goes that as a young man he saw from a tower window the beautiful Joan Beaufort walking in the garden below and decided that this was the woman for him. The Kingis Quair (c.1424), a poem attributed to him, is a memorial to this event. James subsequently married Joan Beaufort and she became his queen.

In The Allegory of Love (1936), C.S. Lewis described The Kingis Quair as "the first modern book of love".

Reviews

[Amit Mishra · Rating 4 out of 5]

The central part of the poem is a dream vision in which the king learns about love an fortune. On walking he receives a message carried by a dove foretelling hia fortune in love and eventually weds the lady.

[Eadweard · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Heirefter followis the quair maid be King James of Scotland the first callit the kingis quair and maid quhan his majestee wes in Ingland


Heigh in the hevynnis figure circulere
The rody sterres twynklyng as the fyre,
And, in Aquary, Citherea the clere
Rynsid hir tressis like the goldin wyre
That late tofore in fair and fresche atyre
Through Capricorn heved hir hornis bright,
North northward approchit the mydnyght,

Quhen, as I lay in bed allone waking,
New partit out of slepe a lyte tofore,
Fell me to mynd of many diverse thing,
Of this and that, can I noght say quharfore,
Bot slepe for craft in erth myght I no more,
For quhich as tho coude I no better wyle,
Bot toke a boke to rede apon a quhile,"

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

"And therfore thus I say to this sentence:
Fortune is most and strangest evermore
Quhare leste foreknawing or intelligence
Is in the man; and, sone, of wit or lore
Sen thou art wayke and feble, lo, therfore,
The more thou art in dangere and commune
With hir that clerkis clepen so 'Fortune.'”

[mia :•) · Rating 4 out of 5]

imagine spending 18 years being kidnapped and reading chaucer saves your life

[Joel Van Valin · Rating 3 out of 5]

James 1 of Scotland was en-route to France in 1406 when his ship was captured by pirates, who then sold him to England, where he stayed in captivity of Henry IV for about 18 years. His captivity however was comfortable, and he had time to read Chaucer and Gower and pen his own poem, The King's Quair. The poem is about 200 stanzas in Chaucer's 7-line ABABBCC rhyme scheme, and describes how, after reading Boethius, a drowsy James beheld a fair maiden in the garden from castle window, and fell in love with her at first sight. He then goes into a visionary section where he is magically transported to the star Venus, and asks Aphrodite for guidance in winning his truelove's heart. Minerva (Artemis) and Fortuna are also involved in giving advice. Unfortunately James ends the poem without revealing his further romance with the maiden of the garden, but according to tradition this was Joan Beufort, who he married after being ransomed form capitivty.

If you can read Chaucer in the original English, you should have no trouble with James, as he was a learned aristocrat and writes in the standard "Queen's English" of the time. The book is hard to find in print so I read an online version available from the University of Rochester. You can find it here: http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text....

[Scribh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prison literature should be a genre. This largely-overlooked poem is a marvelous nod to Chaucer, Boethius, and his ilk, written by James I of Scotland (not England), about falling in love with his future wife when he glimpsed her in a garden outside his prison cell in England. His fortunes are a wreck, his kingdom is gone, but God and goddesses apparently have more in store for the young prince, such as a reversal of luck, and the hand of a lady he immediately loves with a pure, passionate devotion. The unique circumstances surrounding his first glimpse of Joan Beaufort might explain why, unlike his father and grandfather, he never took a mistress, and was the father of eight children!

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like your funny words magic man!

[Rebecca Fell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An MA Medieval Literature and the Environment module primary text, I used this as one of the comparative texts to interrogate the male infiltration of the Hortus Conclusus. When I read Shakespeare’s “Two Noble Kinsmen”, I enjoyed the prison and courtly lover narrative framework so, unsurprisingly, I had a whale of a time reading this despite it being in Early Scots (which was a lot more accessible than I thought it would be).