JAMES III. king of Scotland, succeeded his father, in 1460, in the 7th year of his age. The most striking feature in the character of this prince, unjustly represented as tyrannical by several historians, was his fondness for the fine arts, and for those who excelled in them, on whom he bestowed more of his company, confidence, and favour, than became a king in his circumstances. This excited in his fierce and haughty nobles dislike and contempt of their sovereign, and indignation against the objects of his favour; which produced the most pernicious consequences, and ended in a rebellion that proved fatal to James, who was slain in 1488, aged 36.