"Robert Barton's stormy career as privateer, merchant, moneylender, and servant of four kings--Hans I of Denmark, Louis XII of France, James IV and V of Scotland--obliges his biographer to narrate much of Scotland's political and diplomatic history between the 1490s, when Robert appears on the scene with letters of marque, and 1540, the year of his death. The result is an excellent portrait of a chaotic age."--Speculum