Stuart dynasty

114 TEE STUART DYNASTY.
thirteenth year was capable of understanding, and,
directing the Council to make no peace with England,
sailed on May 19, 1524, for France, whence he
never more returned.
It may be imagined that with the regency vacant,
intrigue became rampant in Scotland. Angus, an
exile in France, was adopted by Henry VIII. and
Wolsey as a tool whereby to gain supremacy in the
councils of Scotland ; and after many evil discords,
during which the Queen mother conducted the King
to Holyrood and declared him capable of exercising
the royal functions,* the poor boy fell into the hands
of Angus and the Douglas faction, so that from
October 1525 to the summer of 1528 James V. was
subjected to this evil tutelage. Like his father
James IV., seduced into wild courses by dominant
nobles, the young King was indulged in the exercise
of baser passions by his captors, and a naturally fine
character was in a great degree ruined in order that
the Douglas factioii might perpetuate their infamous
sway. But even their thus pandering to evil did not
prevent the youth from writhing under a captivity
which seemed as hopeless as inexorable when his own
mother concurred therein. For the widowed Queen
Margaret, after her divorce from Angus, had married
the young Henry Stewart, brother of Lord Evandale,
who, surrendering Edinburgh Castle, made common
cause with the triumphant house of Douglas.
The most important demonstration made by the
* This occurred in 1524, and is known historically as the "erection of
the King."