The Black Dinner of 1440 – we’re actually going back in time a little bit to the 14th century and we’re going to Scotland. We’re going to Edinburgh and we’re going to talk about the Black Dinner. No, it was not a dinner that was overcooked. It was the black dinner because there was murder, most foul that happened.
Let’s go back to Edinburgh Castle. On a moonless night, this imposing fortress stands silent witness to one of Scotland’s most chilling tales – the Black Dinner of 1440. So we have a land, Scotland, that was rife with noble rivalries and a young king who was ensnared in the web of his guardian’s ambitions.
The Black Dinner is not just a feast gone foul, but a harrowing symbol of the deadly games played for the Scottish crown. The Scottish throne fell upon the shoulders of a young boy, James II. He was barely six years old at the time, following a brutal assassination of his father, James I.
The young king’s realm was a kingdom of shadows where the glow of the royal crown did little to illuminate the dark corners of intrigue and ambition that filled the halls of power. The early reign of James II was marked not by the wisdom of a seasoned monarch, but by the turbulent tides of a regency.
The kingdom, in the absence of a strong hand, became a chessboard for the nobility, each seeking to advance their pawns closer to the young king, their ultimate prize. Among these nobles, we have the Douglas clan. We would hear more about them during the Tudor period with Margaret Douglas. They are a towering oak in the forest of Scottish aristocracy.
Archibald Douglas dies the 5th Earl of Douglas and his young son, William assumes the earldom. The balance of power seemed to tip ever so slightly, yet significantly. The Douglases with their vast lands and fierce warriors were not merely players in the game of thrones. They were a force that could tilt the board entirely.
But such power was viewed with wary eyes. The rise of the Douglas Earls, especially the young William, now the 6th Earl of Douglas, was a clarion call to those who feared the shadow of their greatness cast over Scotland. The stage was set, not for a battle of swords, but for a more insidious conflict, one that would unfold under the guise of a royal feast within the stone embrace of Edinburgh Castle.
So it’s the end of November 1440, a seemingly benign invitation was extended to the young Earl of Douglas, William and his brother David. They were invited to Edinburgh Castle, not as foes, but as guests to break bread with the ten-year-old King James II. To the unsuspecting eye, this was a gesture of goodwill by the regents, symbolizing a rare moment of unity and camaraderie amidst the prevailing turbulence of Scottish nobility.
The brothers enter the Great Hall. The warmth of the hearth and the clinking of the goblets might have momentarily dulled the edges of political rivalry. Yet amidst the laughter and the toasts, a shadow loomed, a harbinger of the doom that was to unfold.
Someone put a black bull’s head, which was an ancient Scottish emblem of death, on the table. This turned into sinister silence. The ominous symbol heralded a grim fate awaiting the Douglas brothers. The Douglas brothers were seized and there was suddenly a mock trial just outside the dining room where they were eating.
The charges were treason and the jury was made up of their executioners. Outside, under the cold gaze of the moon, William and David Douglas were led to the scaffold. Beside them, the young king, his royal mantle weighing heavily on his small shoulders, pleaded for the lives of his guests. But the axes fell, breaking not just bodies, but also the fragile thread of royal authority.
The Black Dinner was not merely the end of two young lives, but also stark pivot in the tenuous dance of power within the Scottish court. The immediate aftermath saw a shift in balance as those behind the dark banquet solidified their grip over the young James II, and by extension, the kingdom.
The Douglas clan, though momentarily weakened, remained a towering figure in the Scottish political landscape. Their resolve hardened by the blood of their fallen. The young James II was left to navigate a realm where the crown on his head did not equate to power in his hands.
The echoes of the Black Dinner reverberated through the corridors of Scottish history, serving as a grim reminder of the lengths to which men would go to clutch at the reins of power. The macabre theatrics of the Black Dinner have transcended centuries, inspiring narratives that resonate with audiences even today, most notably in the infamous Red Wedding from George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, a scene that left a global audience in shock.
So this was 45 years before the Princes in the Tower, and they were another set of young brothers who were too close to power, and people were afraid of them and wanted them to get away. Only situation here was the king actually didn’t want to kill them, but it was his regency who did.
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast,  one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.