Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

REFORMATION.] SCOT
was Henry’s Continental policy which in the end provoked
the war. The struggle in Italy between Louis XII. and
Pope Julius II. gave him an opportunity, and he allied him¬
self with the latter and invaded France. He attempted
before leaving England to secure peace with Scotland by
promising to redress its grievances. But James had re¬
newed the old alliance with France, and the only answer
given to the first embassy in 1512 was an offer to mediate
between France and England. In 1513 the message was,
that if Henry passed to France war would not be declared
without a herald being sent. The French queen (Anne of
Brittany) had given James a ring with a substantial sub¬
sidy, and he had already made up his mind for war. Like
Henry, he longed to win his spurs. Henry went to France
in June, and soon after his arrival at the camp at Terouanne,
the Scottish Lord Lyon brought the threatened declaration
of war (11th August 1513). The grounds stated were the
seizure of Scotsmen on the borders, the refusal of Margaret’s
legacy, and the death of Barton. No time was lost by
James in carrying the declaration into effect; but the war
was disliked by the nation. The earl of Arran, sent with
the fleet to aid the French, sailed instead, in defiance of
orders, to Carrickfergus. James himself called out the
whole land force contrary to the advice of his council,
mustering at the Boroughmuir 100,000 men according to
English accounts—probably exaggerated, but doubtless as
large an army as had been seen in Scotland. Crossing
the border, he took Norham, Wark, and Ford. At the
. last of these castles the wife of Heron, the proprietor,
then a prisoner in Scotland, beguiled James by her beauty,
causing him to waste several days and betraying his
movements to the enemy. In the conduct of the battle
Flodden. (9th September 1513) which followed he committed almost
every fault a general could commit,—neglecting to engage
when the enemy were crossing the Till, allowing himself to
be outflanked by Surrey, who got between him and the
Scottish border, abandoning his strong position on the hill
of Flodden, and finally exposing his own person on foot in
the centre of the fight. Some Scottish writers claim that
the battle was a divided success and that the total number
of English killed was greater; but Hall, an exact chronicler,
says 12,000 Scots fell and only 1500 English, as appeared
from the book of wages when the soldiers were paid.
What made Flodden so great a disaster was the quality
of the Scottish loss. The king himself, his son, the arch¬
bishop of St Andrews, two bishops, two abbots, twelve
earls, and fourteen lords, besides many knights and gentle¬
men, were left on the field. There was scarcely a noble
family which did not mourn some of its members.
Surrey did not follow up his victory by invading Scot¬
land, since his object was gained: the diversion by the Scots
in favour of France was at an end. Scotland was again
left with an infant king, scarcely more than a year old.
Charac- The character of James IV. was on the surface. An
James IV exce^en^ observer, the Spanish ambassador Ayala, notes
' his good looks and agreeable manners, his knowledge of
languages and history, his respect for the service of the
church and its priests, his liberality and courage, “ even
more than a king should have, not taking the least care of
himself,” his bad generalship, “ beginning to fight before he
had given his orders,” and his wise statesmanship, deciding
nothing without counsel, but acting according to his own
judgment, which was generally right.
Scottish The reign of James fell within the era of the revival
learnin& and Scotland, though late, came within the
epoch8 circle °f the intellectual which preceded the religious refor¬
mation. It was common for Scottish scholars to complete
their education and sometimes to remain teaching in the
universities of France. One of these, Elphinstone, bishop
of Aberdeen, who founded its university, brought another,
LAND 497
Hector Boece, the historian, to be first principal of King’s 1512-1516.
College, Aberdeen. James himself engaged Erasmus as
tutor to his son, the future archbishop. Two other Scotsmen
passed to Paris in the beginning of the next reign, John
Major and his pupil Buchanan, who brought back less of
the critical but more of the Reforming spirit. These and
other learned men neglected a reform as essential as any,—
the use of the mother-tongue in their writings, and the
neglect has lessened their fame; blit it had its exponents
in Dunbar, Henryson, Sir David Lyndsay, and Gavin
Douglas. The printing press also found its way to Edin¬
burgh, and Chepman and Myllar published their first broad¬
sheets with works of Dunbar, Douglas, and the remains of
the older poetry (see p. 540 sq. below).
7. The Reformation, its Antecedents and Consequences.— James V.
James Y. (1513-42), scarcely eighteen months old when he
succeeded, was at once crowned at Scone, where a par¬
liament met, chiefly attended by the clergy. The queen
dowager was appointed regent,—a secret message, however,
being sent to John, duke of Albany, to come from France
and assume the regency. The son of the exiled brother of
James III., Albany had by his marriage to his cousin, the
heiress of De la Tour d’Auvergne, become a great noble in
France, where he held the office of high admiral, and neither
he nor the French king, Louis XII., was willing that he
should quit France. The Sieur de la Bastie came as his
representative. The precipitate marriage of the queen,
four months after the birth of a posthumous child, to the
young earl of Angus, and a dispute as to the see of St
Andrews, to which Margaret appointed Gavin Douglas the
poet, her husband’s kinsman, although Hepburn the prior
had been chosen by the chapter, led the Scottish, estates to
renew their request that Albany should come to Scotland.
He arrived at Dumbarton on 18th May 1515 and was at
once appointed regent. The queen refused to give up her Regency
son, but Albany besieged Stirling and forced her to sur-of
render. Her new husband fled to France, and MargaretAll3any'
first to Dacre, warden of the marches, and then to her
brother’s court, where she was joined by Angus. At
Harbottle in Northumberland, on her journey south, she
bore a daughter, Margaret Douglas, afterwards Lady
Lennox, Darnley’s mother. Henry VIII. asked the Scottish
parliament to remove Albany from the regency, but was
met with a decided refusal; for, though a party of nobles,
especially the border barons Lord Hume, the chamberlain,
and his brother, were opposed to him, he was supported
by the nation. The young duke of Ross, Margaret’s
younger son, having died suddenly, Albany procured a
declaration from parliament that Ross’s elder half-brother
was illegitimate and himself next heir to the crown.
Hume and his brother were seized and executed at
Edinburgh (26th October 1516). These events aroused
suspicion that Albany aimed at the crown; but the suspicion
appears to have been unfounded. His tastes were French;
hence he quickly tired of trying to govern Scotland, and
in autumn obtained with difficulty leave of absence for four
months. Before leaving he put Dumbarton, Dunbar, and
Inchgarvie (in the Forth) in charge of French garrisons
under De la Bastie, who held the post of warden of the
marches; but an interim regency was appointed. Margaret
now returned to Scotland ; but she was not permitted to
take part in the government. Shortly after his arrival in
France Albany negotiated the treaty of Rouen (20th
August) by which an alliance between France and Scotland
was agreed on against England, and a promise given that
the Scottish king should marry a daughter of Francis I.,
or if that failed another French princess. In September
De la Bastie was murdered near Dunbar by Hume of
Wedderburn with the connivance of Dacre. The perpe¬
trators were forfeited, but never brought to justice, although
XXL — 63