Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History

Magazine. On the 11th of June 1488, King James III of Scotland was hunted down and slain as he fled the field of battle.

More than 500 years later, the identity of his killer still remains shrouded in uncertainty.

Here in conversation with Spencer Mizzin, the historian Gordon McKelvey explores this most

enduring of royal murder mysteries. How, he asks,

had James made so many enemies? And could the killer even have been his own son?

Hi Gordon, thank you for joining us today. So we're going to explore a 500-year-old royal murder mystery. So, Gordon,

could you start by explaining what we do know about what happened on that day in June 1488?

Can you kind of talk us through the events leading up to James' death? I suppose those two things,

the events that led to his death and what actually we know about what happened on the day

of Sohyburn.

Actually, what happened in the day of Sohyburn, we know a couple of basic facts.

We know there was a battle.

We know that the two sides of the battle. One was led by James as king. The other was led by his 15-year-old son, Prince James, who was effectively the leader of the rebel army, although there was plenty of other people that were probably the real military commanders.

We know at some point in the battle, we don't know how long went on for, but we know at some

point the king decides to leave the field. He ends up at a mill close to Banickburn,

and there someone basically takes a knife and plunges it into him which kills him.

And then after that his son, Prince James, becomes James the fourth.

So we know that but how that happened and who wielded the knife is a bit uncertain.

I suppose James III himself was a very divisive figure in common with a lot of his ancestors in the 15th century.

He became king in 1460 when he was only eight years old, but obviously eight-year-olds

can't actually be king. Other people have to rule in their stead. So he really doesn't start

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