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James II became king in 1437 after the murder of his father. His minority years saw a great deal of bloodshed as rival factions attempted to control Scotland through the young king. His reign would be characterised by his struggles to break the power of a leading clan and assert his own control over Scotland.
 
Immediately after the death of his father, James´ mother, Queen Joan, organised the murder of the rival branch of the Stewarts who had murdered her husband. The violence that marked the start of his reign did not stop there.
 
The rival Douglases had become so powerful that by the early fifteenth century they were seen as a threat to the stability of the nation. In 1440 the young William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas and his brother were invited to dine with the ten year-old King James II of Scotland. The dinner was organised by Sir William Crichton of Clan Crichton. Known as the Black Dinner, a black bull´s head, the symbol of death, was brought in. After the dinner the Douglas chiefs were dragged out to Castle Hill, given a mock trial and beheaded. The Douglases then laid siege to Edinburgh Castle. Crichton perceiving the danger surrendered the castle to the King. he was raised to the title of Lord Crichton. It is still unclear exactly who else was ultimately responsible, though it is thought Crichton, Livingstone and Buchan are likely candidates
 
Despite the murders, the Douglases came to dominate the Scottish court, filling the major offices and posts of government with their family and supporters. When James finally assumed the role of governing Scotland by himself in 1449 he found that the Douglas clan had a stranglehold on power that they would not give up lightly.
 
James spent much of his reign attempting to break the Douglases. Typically for his reign, this involved murder in an evening that would echo the Black Dinner some nine years earlier.
 
Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin used this dinner as inspiration for his bloody and shocking Red Wedding in his best selling Storm of Swords book and in the popular TV series. "No matter how much I make up, there´s stuff in history that´s just as bad, or worse," Martin said.