I have written about golf before. I have played golf, occasionally winning a prize here and there, since I was about five years old. I gave it up soon after leaving university, and took the game up again when I retired. Many golf clubs have royal in their name: Royal Saint Georges, Royal Lytham, the Royal and Ancient, to name but a few.
I have reached the point in The Favourite Murder, the fifth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, when Marie de Medici receives the news that Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, has died of typhoid. He was to marry Henrietta, Marie’s daughter and sister of King Louis XIII. Henry Frederick was quite a keen golfer. His great-grandfather, was King James IV of Scotland, father of Mary Queen of Scots, and the first royal golfer that we know of. He was also the last king to be killed in battle in Britain. He died at Flodden Field near Branxton in Northumberland in 1513, defeated by an English army commanded by Thomas Howard 2nd Duke of Norfolk, styled Earl of Surrey.
After the battle, King James’s corpse was taken to the Carthusian monastery of Sheen in Surrey. Some time after Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, the exact location of the royal golf champion became unknown. There are reports of Elizabethan workmen playing football with his skull. In 2013 a plaque was laid at the 14th tee of Royal Mid Surrey Golf Club to mark the possible location of his body. The club celebrated the occasion with a match between its English and Scottish members. Hopefully no blood was shed.
Whilst the Independant considered it ironic, since his grandfather King James II of Scotland had banned golf in 1457 for being dangerous and a nuisance, I think it’s a fine resting place for the first royal golf proponent. I asked ChatGBT to paint King James IV of Scotland playing golf to illustrate this post. King James was flexible, I’ll give him that. Even as a child I never swung so hard that my upper body ended up at 180 degrees to my lower body. Lord help us if AI does take over!