On 3 April 1603 King James VI travelled to London to take up the English throne.

James moved his court to Whitehall Palace in London, where they settled around the palace in an area which became known as "Scotland Yard". On his way to London he knighted 300 people, and in the space of four months in England had knighted more people than Queen Elizabeth had in her entire reign. James returned to Scotland only once, in 1617, and he liked to boast that he now ruled his northern kingdom with a stroke of his pen.

On this day in 1926 Andrew Keir, the Scottish film, TV and theatre actor, was born. Keir specialised in playing bluff, sometimes taciturn figures of authority. Keir's films include "Quatermass and the Pit", where he played Professor Quatermass, "The Maggie", "Cleopatra", "Dracula, Prince of Darkness" and "Rob Roy".

Today's recipe: a snappy recipe using in-season seafood. Crab, saffron and leek quiche