Matheson Collection > Clan Donald > Volume 1

224 THE CLAN DONALD.
deal with at home and in France had hitherto
proved a barrier against active interposition in the
affau^s of Scotland, and the Wars of the Eoses had
particularly absorbed all the energies of the House
of York. In the year to which we have come,
however, the two events already referred to, the
accession of Edward IV. to the English throne
and the death of James II. of Scotland, seemed
to shed a gleam of hope on the broken fortunes
of the exiled Earl. Edward lent his countenance
to the Douglas scheme all the more readily because
the Scottish Court had afforded an asylum to his
opponent, Henry of Lancaster, whose defeat at
Taunton had driven him to Scotland, while it
placed Edward on the English throne. Various
schemes were devised in Scotland for the restora-
tion of the exiled English monarch, all of which
proved futile. To counteract these and divert the
Scottish rulers from their object and neutralise
their efforts, Edward lent a willing hand to Douglas
in his desperate scheme. The King of Scotland was
a child, and past experience had taught that a
Scottish regency, accompanied as it often was by
faction and conspiracy, would afford scope for the
execution of such a scheme as Douglas might devise
for his restoration to the honours which he had
forfeited.
The time had evidently come when the old league
with the Macdonald Family might be revived in a
bolder spirit and with more ample scope. In these
circumstances we are not surprised to find that a
few weeks after the King's death the fu-st overtures
are made to the Earl of Hoss for tlie formation of
an offensive and defensive league with England.