The History Of Scotland - Volume 3: From James IV. To Knox And Mary Of Guise E-Book

Andrew Lang

• Herausgeber: Jazzybee Verlag
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Seitenzahl: 289

Beschreibung

This is volume 3, covering the time from James IV. to Knox and Mary of Guise. In many volumes of several thousand combined pages the series "The History of Scotland" deals with something less than two millenniums of Scottish history. Every single volume covers a certain period in an attempt to examine the elements and forces which were imperative to the making of the Scottish people, and to record the more important events of that time.

Leseprobe

The History Of Scotland – Volume 3

From James IV. To Knox And Mary Of Guise

Andrew Lang

Contents:

James IV.

James V. - The Minority.

Beginnings Of The Reformation.

The End Of James V.

The Tragedy Of The Cardinal.

Knox And Mary Of Guise

THE HISTORY OF SCOTLAND – VOLUME 3, Andrew Lang

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9

Germany

ISBN: 9783849604639

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

[email protected]

JAMES IV.

DISLIKED as the murdered king had been by his southern nobles, the Revolution which overthrew him was not popular. He had not, as is said, " alienated all classes of his subjects." The general conscience was revolted by the appearance of a son in arms against his father. But even Sir Andrew Wood, the great sea-captain, while he spoke out boldly to the lords of the new monarch, transferred his allegiance to the son of James III. when the father's death was certain fact. The triumphant party of the prince took care to secure themselves by parliamentary means from any future punishment; and while seizing office and grants of land, and forfeiting the late king's favourite, Ramsay, Earl of Bothwell, they took no extreme and sanguinary revenges. In every one of the long minorities of Stuart kings new noble families were apt to rise on the ruin of old royal favourites. In the beginning of the reign of James IV. the Border houses of Home and Hepburn played the parts of the earlier Crichtons and Boyds. Hepburn, Lord Hailes, a man already notorious, was loaded with offices, and obtained the forfeited earldom of Bothwell, at the cost of Ramsay, the servant of James III. From the wild reiving Hepburn stock later came the notorious Bothwell of Queen Mary's reign, with the crew of Hepburn malefactors, and under the flag of Hepburn the ancestors of John Knox were wont to be arrayed. The Master of Home (the dubious warrior of Flodden) was made Chamberlain, and Hailes was governor of the king's younger brother, the Duke of Ross: places and estates rained on the cadets of both Border families. Argyll was made Chancellor, and the Kers of the Border (Ferniehirst, Cessford, and so on) founded their fortunes. Angus was merely made guardian of the king, and was perhaps dissatisfied.

The spoils of office were distributed even before the coronation, which was held at Scone about June 24-26. An embassy was promptly sent to propitiate Henry VII., and the truce between the countries was renewed though not kept with immaculate strictness on the seas or as regarded the intrigues of the closet. It is singular that two of the late king's detested servants, Ramsay (Bothwell) and Ross of Montgrenan, were among the negotiators. 

James IV. rode the " ayres," presiding at courts of justice throughout the shires, and winning affection by his activity and popular manners. We find notes of his expenses at cards, for hawks, for the corn of two poor women trodden down by his horse; and Tytler would have us believe, though erroneously, for various gifts to "the Lady Margaret," his mistress, the unfortunate daughter of Lord Drummond. James, not yet seventeen, was an energetic and popular prince. He thus escaped, though not without occasional perils, from the unhappy minority common to younger and less amiable princes of his line. His first Parliament (September 1488) already entered on schemes for James's marriage; but these were deferred. Penalties were denounced against traffickers with Rome for benefices: a jealousy of Rome and of her interference was frequently displayed during the reign; but the Pope's absolution was won for the parricidal rebels now in power.

Insurrections broke out (April 1489), in revenge of James III., under Lennox and Lyle in the west (men who had been out in the affair, and were now charged with the preservation of the peace), under Lord Forbes and the Earl Marischal in the northeast. The king, always warlike, reduced the fortresses of Crookston and Duchal; Argyll, with shifting fortunes, besieged the strong Lennox castle of Dumbarton; and Lennox, preparing to cross the Forth by a ford, was betrayed (says Tytler, who follows Buchanan) by one of Clan Alpin, and routed by the king and Lord Drummond, the father of his future mistress. The revolted nobles were presently pardoned and restored to favour (1489-90). The reader will note the importance which the possession of Dumbarton, perched high on an all but inaccessible rock commanding the Clyde estuary, conferred on the family of Lennox. Dumbarton was the gate by which France entered Scotland in times of danger. We shall see how a later Lennox would have betrayed it to England, and how the death of Darnley, son of that Lennox, was avenged at the taking of the family castle.

Even in the midst of these turmoils there are signs of the European importance to which Scotland now attained. Hitherto her foreign relations had been mainly those of war with England and of alliance with France. But the advances in the navigator's art, and the ambitions of Continental princes, now made Scotland a card worth reckoning in the game of European alliances. The young king was not only warlike, but was intent on organising a navy. His father's friend, Sir Andrew Wood, had overcome some English pirates, or privateers, in a two days' battle in the Firth of Forth. His two ships, the Flower and the Yellow Carvel, were so well found and armed, and so gallantly manned, that they disdained long bowls, and preferred to grapple with and board their enemies. A ship of the Scottish king's had been insulted and chased by English adventurers; but James made it plain that, with such a commander as Sir Andrew Wood, he meant to cause the flag of Scotland to be respected on the seas. Wood's two vessels were lain in wait for, in the Firth, by three under the sturdy English Stephen Bull. All day they fought in sight of land, they drifted into the mouth of Tay, and Sir Andrew (says Pitscottie) was the richer for three prizes. James even crippled his finances by his zeal in shipbuilding, which was the more expensive as the ancient woods of Scotland had already suffered from neglect (as Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini proves), and timber had to be purchased from France. The friendship of a young prince so vigorous was sought by foreign Powers with which Scotland had previously been unconnected. As early as July 27, 1489, while Dumbarton was yet held by the rebels, we find " Snawdon herald " despatched to meet the ambassadors of Spain at Berwick; while in August "contracts between the king and the ambassadors of Spain " are executed. Already in the winter of 1488 there had come envoys from the Duchess of Burgundy, the patroness of Perkin Warbeck, and the inveterate enemy of Henry VII. of England. With Gueldres, with France, with Denmark, James had constant relations; and, as will be seen, he was an important figure in the alliances and intrigues of high European politics. All this was inconvenient from the first to Henry VII., who worked neither by open war nor by reasserting the ancient claim to feudal superiority. He preferred the policy, already ancient, of making private treaties of alliance with the treacherous house of Douglas, while he initiated the Tudor method of bribing private spies and traitors. Few things in Scottish history have been more disguised in popular books than the conduct of the house of Douglas. The comradeship of Bruce and the Good Lord James has thrown a glamour over the later Douglases, men princely in rank, daring in the field, but often bitterly antinational. The partiality of Hume of Godscroft, their sennachie or legendary historian, the romances of Pitscottie, the ignorance or prejudice of Protestant writers like Knox and Buchanan, the poetry of Scott, and the platonic Protestantism of Mr. Froude, have concealed the selfish treachery of the house of Angus. While peace was being consolidated, and the coinage improved at home, the English king was busy weaving plots beyond the Border.

The new treasonable treaty of Angus and Henry VII. is of November 16, 1491 (?). It exists only in a form mutilated by time or rats. Plain it is, however, that, if hard pressed in Scotland, Angus is to hand over to Henry the important castle of Hermitage, commanding the pass into Scotland through Liddesdale. Angus is to be repaid by lands in England, and his relations with his own king are to be subject to Henry's approval. The traitorous deed is signed by himself and his son George. Meanwhile the unconscious James had been playing " at the cards with the Earl of Angus." That hypocritical traitor did not wholly escape punishment. He, and his party, had justified their rebellion against James III. by the popular pretext that James meant to bring in the English. Angus himself had been guilty of this disloyalty while the third James yet lived. James IV. had scarcely been three years on the throne when, as we see, Angus repeated his crime. But, on December 29, 1491, he was stripped of Hermitage, and, on March 6, 1492, of Liddesdale, which now came into the hands of Bothwell (Hepburn). Angus, however (July 4, 1492), received the lordship of Bothwell, resigned by the earl of that title. He did not cease to be trusted even with public negotiations with England, he, a known betrayer of king and country: so extraordinary were the political conditions of the time. Earlier in this year, 1491, Henry had entered into a shameless arrangement with the late king's favourite, Ramsay, the forfeited Earl of Bothwell. He with Lord Buchan (so he said), uncle of James III., and Sir Thomas Tod, promises to hand over to Henry the bodies of James IV. and his brother, the Duke of York, for the reward of a loan of  £266, 13s. 4d. Tod returned to Scotland, and became Moneyer to the king. Ramsay, received into favour by James, acted later as a spy and informer of Henry's, who, for his part, in 1493, proposed a marriage between James and an English lady of royal extraction. Thus the young king made love, played cards, hunted, hawked, and studied, in the midst of such plots as beset the heroes of historical romance. Whether there was any connection between the Tod-Ramsay plot and the causes which led to Angus's disgrace and his treaty with Henry VII., is matter only for conjecture. It is probable that these underhand schemes of Ramsay escaped the knowledge of Scotland, with which Henry concluded a five years' truce in December 1491: James had domestic difficulties on his hands.

The death of his father was not forgotten, and a belated attempt was made (February 1492) to still "the heavy murmur and voice of the people," by offering a reward for the actual murderers of James III. The reward was never claimed, nor was a search for the late king's treasures more successful.

Ecclesiastical factions were rife in Scotland. Schevez, who had succeeded the much-vexed prelate Graham as archbishop, was found to be too powerful as sole primate. As early as January 1488, James and his Parliament had decided that Glasgow must be an archbishopric, answering to York, as St. Andrews to Canterbury, and Innocent VIII. issued a bull to that effect on January 9, 1491-92. The king had been urgent with Rome to this end, and had dwelt, in his letters, on the goodliness of Glasgow Cathedral. Most readers will remember Andrew Fairservice's account, in 'Rob Roy,' of how this great minster was rescued from the pious violence of the Reformers. The Archbishop of St. Andrews disputed the matter till 1493, when the strife was allayed by a royal threat to stop payment of his rents. The war of clerics broke out later, and furnished a congenial theme for the humour of John Knox. The pall, the style of primate, and the privileges of Legatus Natus, were not granted to Glasgow. The new archbishop (1494) laid information against certain Lollards of Kyle in the wild Whig region of Ayrshire; but, by the tact of James, and the humour of one of the accused, the inquest broke up in laughter. The king thought the whole affair very insignificant. The articles against the Kyle freethinkers were copied by Knox, probably from the Court Books of the Official of Glasgow. The Pope, in Kyle circles, is held to be Antichrist; the consecrated wafer remains mere bread; priests may marry; tithes should not be paid; the Mass profits not souls in Purgatory; relics and images are vain things, such are a few of the heresies. In the summer of 1491, envoys, including Dunbar the poet, were sent to France, and others appear to have visited the Spanish court. The old alliance was renewed, and a secret treaty bound James to attack England if ever she was at war with France. A truce for five years with England was concluded, however, as we have said, on December 21, 1491.

It was not in nature that James should escape trouble with his Celtic subjects. In a Parliament of May 1493, John, Lord of the Isles, who had been dispossessed in 1476, but represented by his bastard, Angus, whom an Irish harper dirked, was forfeited, and reduced to the estate of a pensionary. His nephew, Alastair of Lochalsh, had been endeavouring to recover the earldom of Ross by arms. James (1493) visited the West Highlands, and appears to have conferred charters on Mackintosh, captain of Clan Chattan, Maclean of Lochbuy, Alastair of Lochalsh, of the Isles family, and John of Isla; the two de Insults were knighted, and, from dependents of the Lords of the Isles, became freeholders of the king. James not long after withdrew these charters, whence came new strife. His lenity had no effect, and in April 1494 James fortified Tarbert, which he converted into a strong place of arms. Dunaverty, in South Kintyre, he also seized to the prejudice of John of Islay, grandson of Donald Balloch. Just as James was departing, John of Islay captured the castle, and hung the governor in full sight of the king. James was soon avenged, by the old plan of setting a Celt to catch a Celt. Maclan of Ardnamurchan captured John's sons, who were hanged on the Borough Moor of Edinburgh. In 1495 James again visited the Highlands, where Sleat, Keppoch, Clanranald, Lochiel, and Barra submitted, while Kintail (Mackenzie) and the son of the captain of Clan Chattan were imprisoned. In 1496, chiefs were made answerable for the execution of summonses within their districts, and five chiefs bound themselves over, to Argyll, to keep the peace. James was well advised in visiting the Celts in person, with a crimson and black velvet surcoat over his armour, a hood lined with lambskins, a pair of " breeks of English green," and other splendours adapted to inspire admiration.

Returning from his Island expedition of the early summer of 1495, James met O'Donnell, chief of Tyrconnell, at Glasgow. They had business in hand of a kind likely to pay back Henry VII. for his dealings with Angus, and his yet undiscovered treachery with Ramsay and Tod. James, in fact, was now in the full imbroglio of the Perkin Warbeck mystery. This historical problem we may never understand, but few things are more improbable than that the persons charged with the slaying of the " Babes in the Tower " allowed one of them, Perkin, to escape. At the same time, to prove the deaths of the Princes was exceedingly awkward for the slayers, and Henry VII. preferred to demonstrate that, whatever the fate of the vanished Prince, Richard, Duke of York, might have been, the claimant backed by James was not he. After that claimant, Perkin Warbeck, fell into Henry's hands, he was compelled to give the account of himself which follows in summary. He was born (so he was made to say) in Tournay, son of John Osbeck and Katherine de Faro, neither of whom was called to corroborate the story, though Charles VIII. offered to send them to England. In 1486, Warbeck, the claimant, went to Portugal, attending on the wife of an English knight of the faction of York. In 1487, according to Mr. Gairdner's reckoning, Perkin took service with a Breton merchant, Pregert Meno, who dealt, among other things, in clothes, or stuff for clothes. Four years are now left unaccounted for, as Mr. Gairdner makes Perkin first appear in Ireland in 1491. But, if we make Perkin take service with Meno in 1487, it is notable that, in November 1488, and in February 1490, we remark certain Scoto-Burgundian transactions, which may be connected with this pretender. An English herald comes with letters from the Duchess of Burgundy to James IV. (November 1488). A herald "comes forth of Ireland and passes to the Duchess of Burgundy" (February 1489-90). However we fix the year of Perkin's arrival in Ireland, he probably began his career as a pretendant in 1490 or 1491. According to his confession, he landed at Cork, where the people, seeing him richly dressed (apparently to advertise his master's wares), declared that he must be one of the Royal House of York. They then fixed on the Duke of York, escaped, somehow, from the Tower, as the most likely character, and taught the claimant English. Did he speak it with an Irish accent? This is the tale which the unhappy claimant, when a prisoner of Henry VII., was made to recite, and it would be better evidence if it were corroborated by the various persons involved in the early part of the story.

By March 2, 1492, we find James receiving letters from Ireland," from King Edward's son " that is, the claimant. After adventures, treacheries, and intrigues over which we cannot linger, James, returning from the Isles in 1495, met O'Donnell as we saw, while Henry at the same time proposed a match between the Scottish king and his own daughter, Margaret. James was not thus to be won. His real object was to recover Berwick, by aid of Perkin. The claimant was welcomed at Stirling on November 20, 1495. He was introduced to the nobles, a pension of  £1200 a-year was settled on him, and, in January 1496, he received the hand of James's cousin, Lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntly, now practically " Cock of the North " in place of the old forfeited Earls of Ross. If a Tournay burgess lad, and walking tailor's advertisement, like Perkin, could so delude princes and peers, he must have been remarkably subtle. James not only rejected for his beaux yeux a daughter of England, but put aside a Spanish offer of marriage, made (not very honestly) to prevent him from attacking England, and so leaving the hands of France free in Italy, as against the forces of the Pope and Spain. The Spanish diversion was seen through, for James got possession of the ambassador's private instructions, which were far from being candid and satisfactory. However, he temporised, and sent the Archbishop of Glasgow to Spain. Meanwhile the claimant, Perkin, received royal treatment. The affair of Spain was prosecuted, in July 1496, by Don Pedro de Ayala, who came to win James over from the party of France. This gentleman has left a most pleasing portrait of the king's person, piety, learning, headlong courage, and devotion to the sex. His instructions were to amuse James with the hope of a Spanish marriage, and to work for peace with England. But, in fact, there was no daughter of Spain for Scotland; Katherine, the Infanta, was to be betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales, and later wedded to his brother, Henry VIII. , and finally sacrificed to the gospel light that dawned in Boleyn's eyes. Ayala's mission was not yet rewarded by peace. James, after a visit to his favourite St. Duthac's shrine in Tain, (now a bald and bleak shell of masonry, beside the sea), made ready for war. He would attack Henry VII., who, on September 2, vainly offered to the Scottish king his daughter's hand. Artillery and ammunition-carts were repaired: the woods of Melrose were cut for timber, tents and gilded vanes were constructed, the claimant's banner was wrought in red and blue taffeta, embroidered with his white rose, the badge of York. Meanwhile Ramsay, late Earl of Bothwell, kept Henry well informed. He cocused Buchan, the king's great-uncle, and the Duke of Ross, the king's younger brother, of sharing with Murray in his perfidy. James's war was said by Ramsay to be "contrary to the barons' will, and that of all his whole people." The spy had been with Perkin and a messenger from Carlisle, in the king's closet. Ramsay announces James's march to the frontier as fixed for September 15, 1476. He hopes James will be punished for " ye crouell consent of ye mourdir of his fadyr," Ramsay's patron and preserver in the slaughter of Lauder Bridge. He spies, you see, out of loyalty to a murdered king. A gentleman spy has usually such virtuous motives to palliate his treason. Perkin, Ramsay avers, is to surrender Berwick to Scotland if he is successful. Concrescault (a Scot by descent) has arrived at St. Andrews, out of France. Perkin has been snubbed by a Flemish skipper, of whom he asked news of " his aunt of Burgundy." King James must coin his plate; his artillery is poor, and so are his chances. Ramsay was not detected by James, was rewarded with lands, and died prosperous in 1513. His example of treason was largely followed, in later years, by the Angus faction.

The expedition planned by James against England set out, but the White Rose was as coldly welcomed by Northern England as it was to be in 1745. Perkin withdrew sadly to Scotland, while James idly harried Northumberland. In October he was at home again. In March 1497, while Border raids were frequent, Spanish despatches show that James was weary of his ambiguous guest. Perkin had behaved, in the September raid of 1496, with what we may consider clemency and good taste. James thought otherwise. His army was harrying the English Border in the cruel old fashion. Perkin remonstrated; he could not bear to see his subjects robbed and misused. This was not the way to win their hearts. James took ill "this ridiculous mercy and foolish compassion," say the English chroniclers. But he would not give up Perkin, and a state of war with England, in the early part of 1497, was indicated by Border raids. Early in July 1497, Perkin, with his wife and Robert Barton (one of James's famous sea-captains), sailed from Ayr, on an expedition of dubious object. Probably James expected Perkin to land and create a diversion in rebellious Cornwall: in any case certain negotiations with England were dropped, and, late in July, James began a great raid with his siege-train of artillery. He in vain beleaguered Norham Castle, and retired on the news of the approach of Surrey with a large army. Surrey instantly crossed the Border and besieged Ayton Castle in the Merse. James now sent letters to raise the country for the relief of Ayton, whither he proceeded in person, but all ended peacefully, and strangely. On or about August 19, James met the English Governor of Berwick at Dunbar, and, on August 21, letters were sent to inform the country of " the scaling [retreat] of the Englishmen." Articles of a seven years' truce were next signed at Ayton Kirk on September 30, Don Pedro de Ayala taking the blessed part of the peace-maker. The whole of this business (the meeting with the Governor of Dunbar, the withdrawal of the English from Ayton, and the making of truce) has almost a collusive air. Was Perkin, after all, left by his ally, James, to his fate? Probably his fate was, by September 30, already known, and James merely made peace when he found that his ally's cause was lost. For, after misty adventures in Ireland and Cornwall, Perkin, who had left Ayr in July, was a fugitive from his own army, at Taunton, by September 21. Thus James might honourably lay down arms on September 30. The truce was next prolonged till a year after the death of either contracting party (February 10, 1498).

Under James IV. the prosperity of Scotland, and the " young adventurousness " (as the spy, Ramsay, said) of her king, brought the country into the tide of European politics. As in Aesop's fable, she swam, like a pot of clay, among pots of bronze. But James's luck and astuteness had now carried him through the adventure of Perkin Warbeck with honour safe, and without heavy material loss. He next settled the Highland question, as far as it ever was settled till after Culloden. The Lords of the Isles had been dangerous, chiefly by their ancestral hold of the mainland, in Knapdale and Kintyre, with their occasional tenure of the great earldom of Ross. We have seen how James deprived the Lord of the Isles of these realms (1493). We have remarked that, in 1496, the chiefs were made responsible for peace within their bounds. But, in 1496 and 1497, James's preoccupation with Perkin gave Alastair of Lochalsh, nephew of John of the Isles, his opportunity to revive the ancient insular lordship, and to renew the attacks on Ross. Defeated there by Mackenzies and Munroes, he was slain by Maclan of Ardnamurchan in the isle of Oransay. This Maclan, of the blood of Clan Donald, had already been useful, and had been making a spirited bid for the office of " public policeman," usually held by the Campbells. In 1497 and 1498, James had leisure to visit the Isles in person. He revoked certain recently granted charters: he made the Earl of Argyll (Campbell) Lieutenant of the Isles, and gave large grants of lands, in Lochaber, to that rising house, the Seton-Gordons of Huntly. Henceforth these half-Lowland houses of Argyll and Huntly were to be, in great part, responsible for the police of the North, the ancient Celtic princes being overthrown. But the process of pacification was feeble for about three centuries, being complicated with notorious acts of injustice on the part of the "policemen." As late as 1724, the old feud rankled, the Duke of Gordon was bearded by his Badenoch tenants, his fishing-nets were cut, agrarian outrages prevailed, his factor, Glenbucket, was attacked, Clan Chattan was ready for war; James VIII., from his exile, pacified the Celts. Argyll, too, had ever an ill subject in Lochiel.

All these things were to be; but now, under James IV., the heather was on fire, and Donald Dubh (the child of Angus Og, so strangely kidnapped by Atholl for Argyll, long ago) was at the burning. A son of Angus of the Isles and of Argyll's daughter, his legitimacy was contested. Argyll had kept him in Inchconnel Castle, but he was released by the Glenco men, and protected by Macleod (1501). This chief was ordered to give up Donald, and was forfeited for his refusal. In brief, the Isles clung to their rightful heir, while Appin, Maclan,' Huntly, and Argyll vainly tried to extinguish the flame, establish " true men " in the Rough Bounds, and expel " broken men." Lochiel and Maclean of Dowart were tampered with, to little result. Macleans and Camerons were fighting for the lands of Lochiel, and, in 1503, Donald Dubh ravaged Huntly's property in Badenoch, and wreaked vengeance on Clan Chattan, being supported by Dowart, Lochiel, and Macleod. A mutilated document seems to imply that the Celts were seeking aid from England and Ireland. Attempts were made, on the part of James IV., to cause " the Law to come to Moidart " and Knoydart, and other remote districts, by dint of courts at Dingwall and Tarbert, Inverness, Perth, and Rothesay. Not till 1506 was the Island confederacy broken. Mackay got the Macleods' lands of Assynt, the Mackays being generally serviceable to central authority down to 1745. Donald Dubh was made prisoner, but escaped forty years later, and fell to his old works. Clan Chattan and the Stuarts of Appin, as being loyal to James, had much to suffer from Camerons and Macleans. Both remained true to the Stuarts (with one deplorable exception) till Lochiel and Clan Chattan, in turn, were fatally loyal to the same family, two hundred and fifty years later. From 1506, till Flodden, the Highlands were comparatively quiet; Huntly, as Sheriff of Inverness, Ross, and the Northern Isles, Argyll, with the same powers in the south, Appin, Mackay, and Maclan having, on the whole, the better of the quarrel with Clan Donald, Clan Gillian, Macleod, and the Camerons. It is curious to observe the secular character and recurring features of Celtic turbulence, usually exhibiting itself, on the whole, under these Island lords, the ancestors of Keppoch, Glengarry, and Clanranald. The enduring cause of this restlessness was the State's want of money, and the absence of a standing army. A few fortresses at important points and passes, held by royal officers, and manned by men duly paid, would at any time have settled the Highland question. But, having neither money enough nor a standing army, the Stuart kings were wont to purchase powerful chiefs like Maclan, or half-Lowland nobles like Huntly and Argyll, to keep the clans in order. These nobles annexed lands; dispossessed the holders; had to " thole their feud," and so the circle of wrongs and revenges revolved. James had done a good deal to pacify the clans, and the Celts, under Lennox and Argyll, were to fight for him at Flodden, instead of aiding England, as was their wont. But Flodden was not their day.

Every attempt to elucidate events in the Celtic region obliges us to break away from the chronological sequence of occurrences in Scotland. To return to these central affairs, when the long truce had once been negotiated at Ayton (September 30, 1497), after Perkin ceased to trouble, the pacific Henry VII. reverted to his old scheme of a royal marriage. Seldom has a father offered the hand of a daughter so sedulously to a reluctant lord, as Henry offered the hand of his daughter Margaret to James IV. From July 1499 to January 1502, the negotiations lingered on, and the treaty was not settled till January 24, 1502. Henry, with his wonted avarice, made but a poor settlement on his daughter, and family quarrels on this head embittered the strife which led to Flodden. More than a year passed before Margaret, a girl of fifteen, in selfishness and capricious passion a genuine Tudor, was married to James at Holyrood on August 8, 1503. The most permanent result of the rejoicings was Dunbar's poem of "The Thistle and the Rose." Already James III. had used embroideries of " thrissilis and a unicorne," and the thistle, Burns's " symbol dear," may be older than its recorded recognition.

This marriage, with its accompanying treaties for perpetual peace, mutual aid, and order on the Marches, brought not peace but a sword. The secret bond with France, negotiated by Bothwell and the Bishop of Glasgow (1491), lay in abeyance, but was more potent for ill than the English marriage was for good. The new queen's earliest letters show her litigiously anxious and jealous about her private wealth. Margaret Tudor, as truly as her granddaughter, Mary Stuart, was " that daughter of debate, who discord still doth sow," but, for some eight years, matters passed peaceably enough between the two kingdoms. To this end nothing was more necessary than quiet on the Borders, which James did his best to secure. The Borderers of Eskdale were outlawed, and, in 1504, James entered that country in state and splendour, combining sport with severity. Courts were held at Dumfries, Canonbie, and Lochmaben, and ropes for hanging thieves are reckoned among the expenses of the raid of Eskdale. The birth of a prince, on February 10, 1506, and his death within the year, may seem to mark the turn in James's prosperous fortunes.

Now, too, the politics of Europe began to draw him into matters of more consequence than the claims of Perkin Warbeck. In 1507 Pope Julius II. sent an embassy, for the purpose of bringing James into the League formed to check French aggressions in Italy. James accepted a consecrated hat and sword from the Pontiff, but would not desert France. An English envoy, apparently Wolsey, was sent in March 1508 to anticipate the arrival of a French ambassador, a Scot by descent, Stewart of Aubigny. D'Aubigny arrived, and was welcomed with tournaments, and a poem by Dunbar. He died in the land of his fathers, but his visit increased James's tendency to side with France. Wolsey's mission dealt with these events. The Earl of Arran and his brother, Sir Patrick Hamilton, had made a journey to the Court of France, and were returning through England without safeconducts, when they were arrested. They declined to take an oath of peace as regarded England. James defended their conduct, but agreed to delay entering into a fresh league with France, in hopes of securing the liberation of his subjects and kinsmen. They were detained, however, and another grievance arose out of a Border fray, in which a Ker, Warden of the Middle Marches, was slain by a Heron. The murderer had accomplices, Starhead and Lilburn: Heron and Starhead escaped, and James, taking up the feud for Ker, vainly demanded their arrest.