Stark Raving Mad Robert III of Scotland
If Britain is known for one thing it is a crazy monarch here and there. One of the first was Robert III of Scotland who lived from 1337 -1406). He was a gentle and shy man who was kicked in the head by a horse when young. He also had two evil and ambition brothers who kept sabotaging him at every turn mostly because there was a dispute about his legitimacy as his son.
On ascension to the throne, the Royal, who had a limp and was very feeble, was already a chronic invalid. He was also chronically depressed and would often suggest to his wife, who he inherited from his father, that his tombstone inscription should read “Here lies the worst of Kings and the most miserable of men.”
Robert III was likely driven mad by the crazy characters around him. One was his Uncle Alexander (the Wolf of Badenoch” who burned down large parts of forest and owned a dungeon filled with icy water in which he tortured people. He also burned down several monasteries and a big cathedral.
Robert III coped well with the weirdos in his life until his own son got mixed up with the daughter of a prominent nobleman. The son, David, had sex with the girl and then withdrew the proposal. A rival for the girl’s hand was Robert of Fife, who was also Robert III’s uncle. He asked for the arrest of David and Robert granted this. In 1402 he ordered his son to be imprisoned in a palace where he starved to death.
A similar mean fate awaited his only surviving eleven year old son James. After a battle with France that seemed to tip him psychologically over the edge, the King left his son on a rocky outcrop in the middle of the Firth of Forth for eighteen years. Finally he was captured and rescued by members of a French ship. When Robert III heard of this he started refusing food and died a few days later on April 4, 1406.
Back then the Kings were all buried at Scone but he had himself buried in a different place in nearby Paisley because this particular ruler of the U.K. did not believe himself to be fit for such an honor.