The Scots kingdom of Alba in 1011 incorporates Roxburgh in the southeast, recently a part of the virtually independent Anglo-Saxon earldom and former kingdom of Northumbria.

…Roxburgh, and …

…Henry sends an army to occupy part of Scotland, with its five strongest castles: Roxburgh, …

The force Edward has gathered is impressive: over two thousand men-at-arms (armored cavalry) and twelve thousand infantry receiving wages, though, after the manner of medieval armies there would have been many more serving without pay either as a statement of personal independence, forgiveness of debts to the crown, criminal pardons or just for adventure, including a huge force of Welshmen armed with the longbow.

James II of Scotland has since 1455 proved to be an active and interventionist king.

Ambitious plans to take Orkney, Shetland and the Isle of Man have not succeeded.

The king has traveled the country, and has been argued to have originated the practice of raising money by giving remissions for serious crimes, and that some of the unpopular policies of James III originated in the late 1450s.

An Act of Parliament in 1458  had commanded the king to modify his behavior, but one cannot say how his reign would have developed had he lived longer.

James enthusiastically promotes modern artillery, which he has used with some success against the Black Douglases.

His ambitions to increase Scotland's standing in 1460 see him besiege Roxburgh Castle, one of the last Scottish castles still held by the English after the Wars of Independence.

One of his cannon explodes on August 3, killing the King.

The Scots carry on with the siege and take the castle.

His eight-year-old son succeeds him as James III, under the regency of the his mother, Mary of Gueldres.