Volume 3

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death of so many Homes, who fell on that afflictive field, confutes sufficiently
the calumny of ill-informed history. The valour which was displayed by the
king and his nobles on that disastrous day, is not more honourable than the
resolute firmness wherewith " the amazing news " were received by the Scottish
people.
Margaret, the youthful widow of James IV., became regent during the in-
fancy of their son James V. At the convention of Stirling on the 19th of
September 1513, Lord Home, the Chamberlain, was present when the corona-
tion of the king was directed, and he was appointed one of the queen's council
when her authority was recognised (r). He was again present in the conven-
tion of Perth in October 1513, when he was declared one of the queen's
standing counsellors (s). Dacre, the English warden, caused his marauders
to ravage Lord Home's estates, and the Lord Chamberlain, in his turn, pur-
sued the invaders with inferior forces into Teviotdale, whence he obliged the
spoilers to retreat (t). Lord Home soon after obtained from the convention
of Perth, that the heirs of those on the borders, who might be killed in
defending the kingdom, should be freed from the payment of relief for their
wardship or marriage (u). This immunity thenceforth settled into a general
practice, as it was so often necessary to incite the enmity of the borderers and
to urge their perseverance. Such was Lord Home's personal influence on the
public councils, that he was appointed, in March 1513-14, the chief justice on
the southern side of the dividing Forth (x). Meantime an event occurred
which was attended with lasting consequences. On the 26th of April 1514
appeared before the Scottish parliament two ambassadors from Louis the
(r) Parl. Rec., 525.
(s) Ib., 529. The Lord Chamberlain took upon him on that occasion "the rule of the Merse, and
to preserve it from all reifs, slaughters, and other attempts ; and he engaged to convene the headsmen
of Teviotdale, Liddesdale, Eskdale, Ewesdale, and Annandale, in order to induce them to undertake
the good rule of those frontier districts." Id. Lord Home, and the Earl of Angus, the son of him,
who will be always remembered for his misdeeds at Lauderbridge, were at that epoch the most in-
fluential men of Southern Scotland.
(t) Dacre's Orig. Letter of the 13th of November, 1513.
(u) Parl. Rec., 536. This ordinance was passed at the request of the warden and the border chiefs,
in imitation of a similar act which was made at Twizelhaugh, in Northumberland, before the battle
of Flodden. Id. Fast castle, Lord Home's chief fortlet, was directed on the 10th of January,
1513-14, "to be provided with men, artillery, and victual." Ib., 539-40; and it soon became the
scene of much struggle.
(x) Orig. Letter, Dacre to Henry VIII.    Calig., b. iii., 25.