1400 Dalhousie Castle withstands a six month siege by King Henry IV of England. The death of Sir Alexander Ramsay at Homildon Hill mentioned in Shakespeare’s Henry IV (Part 1). 

His son, also named ALEXANDER (which seems to have been a favourite name in the family). He was one of the barons who were sent to England in 1423, to escort James I. to Scotland on his return from his long captivity, and was knighted at the coronation of that monarch the following year. Sir Alexander Ramsay was one of the principal leaders of the Scottish forces, which defeated an English army at Piperden, in 1435.

Circa 1450 Castle Drum Tower and Well added to the existing present L shaped inner keep structure.

William, third Lord of Crichton, having engaged in the conspiracy of the Duke of Albany against James in 1483, sustained a siege in his castle at the hands of the royal forces but succeeded in escaping to England. His lands and castle were forfeited and were granted by the King to his favourite, Sir John Ramsay, one of the few of the royal minions who had escaped the slaughter at Lauder Brig in 1481.

Sir John was created Lord Bothwell and made Treasurer of Scotland, but he was involved in the ruin of the King’s adherents after Sauchieburn [1488] and died ‘an obscure and traitorous spy’ in the pay of England. The estate and castle of Crichton, thus for the second time forfeited, were granted by James IV to Patrick Hepburn, Lord Hailes, who at the same time was created Earl Bothwell.

Circa 1500 Origin of the Grey Lady, an apparition of a Lady Catherine, a mistress of one of the Ramsay lairds of this period. A vengeful wife had her locked up in one of the Castle turrets, where she perished. Her apparition has been seen on the stairs and in the dungeons, including other reported manifestations of the rustling of her gown and unexplained noises’

1513 The Great Great Grandson of Sir Alexander Ramsay slain at the Battle of Flodden against the English.

1563 Mary Queen of Scots stayed at the castle on her way to Roslin.

The fine estate of Foulden, in Berwickshire, which had been nearly three hundred years in the family, passed away from them at the death of George Ramsay, who seems to have been deficient in the family characteristic of firm adherence to the cause which they espoused; for, though he signed the Bond of Association in 1567 for the defence of the infant sovereign, James VI., on the escape of Queen Mary from Lochleven Castle, he joined her party, and pledged himself at Hamilton, in 1568, to support her cause. His grandson,

1600 .John Ramsay, one of Nicolas’s great-grandsons, killed the Earl of Gowrie and his brother, Alexander Ruthven, who were apparently attempting to kidnap the king in what became known as the Gowrie Conspiracy. John was created Earl of Holderness and Viscount Haddington by a grateful king.

The Gowrie affair, at Perth, had its origins long before 1600, when the Lord Ruthven involved in the murder of Rizzio and mastermind of the Ruthven Raid when James, as a boy, was kidnapped and imprisoned in Ruthven Castle or Huntingtower became Lord Treasurer and was created Earl of Gowrie. James, who was not of a forgiving nature, never forgave Gowrie, and in due course brought him to his death by execution but not before he had managed to borrow £85,000 from the Treasurer. Gowrie had two sons John and Sandy Ruthven. John, who succeeded as earl, probably wisely distanced himself from his peculiar monarch and went overseas to Padua where, a studious and able young man, he distinguished himself by becoming Rector of that famous university by the age of twenty one. But less wisely, for some reason, he came home in 1599 to claim his inherit which was very great. He was also indiscreet enough to remind the King that he owed him £85,000 plus interest.

James devised his own involved way of dealing with this situation. On a hunting trip at his beloved Falkland, he announced that Sandy Ruthven, the brother, had informed him that they had apprehended a strange dark man with a pot of gold, and stories of more, and confined him in a room of Gowrie House, Perth; and that he, the King, was going to ride there right away to interview this intriguing character. Despite the astonishment of Ludovick of Lennox, Mar and the rest, James promptly set off on this lengthy ride of fully twenty miles. He was always a keen horseman, of course, however poor a walker. The bewildered courtiers followed on.

Just what was at the bottom of this unlikely story has never been explained. The King and his party duly arrived at Gowrie House, the Ruthven town lodging they were hereditary provosts of Perth. There, notably, hospitality had not been prepared for the visitors, and while something was being produced at short notice, James and his current young man, or page, John Ramsay, went to an upper room of the house with the Earl and his brother. And from a window thereof, presently, the King's agitated voice came down to his courtiers in the garden with pathetic cries of treason, treason and that he was being murdered. Needless to say there was a concerted rush up the winding turnpike stairs to the chamber, where they found the door locked and shouting coming from within. Sir Thomas Erskine, Mar his cousin, Lennox and the rest at last broke in. And there they found the monarch blood spattered indeed but not with his own blood. Both Ruthven’s lay on the floor, both unarmed but stabbed to death by young Ramsay, dagger in hand. All rushed to comfort the endangered King, who babbled of another man, a right savage and terrible man, presumably he of the pot of gold but of him there was no sign. At any rate, the unharmed sovereign now got down on his knees, as must all others, to lead in prayers of thankfulness for his deliverance, amidst great excitement.

The excitement soon spread outside and before long a mob of Perth citizens were surrounding Gowrie House, in threatening fashion for young Gowrie was popular shouting, 'Come down thou son of Signor Davie come down!' The King, in fact, had to make an undignified escape through the garden and a private door on to the bank of Tay.

Whatever was behind this scarcely believable happening, it all fell out very conveniently for most,. If not for the Ruthven’s. The £85,000 debt could be written off; the great Ruthven estates were forfeited, partly to the crown and partly to Sir Thomas Erskine, who was suspected of having contrived the whole affair, and who was created Lord Erskine of Dirleton, Viscount Fentoun and then Earl of Kellie; and the page Ramsay was knighted.

The man with the pot of gold was never heard of more.

So much for the divine right of kings, one of James’s most cherished theories. Three years later he went to practice it on the unprepared English.