Stuart dynasty

THE CHURCH AT BAT. 131
who ever governed Scotland, and would never have
consented to levy forces in his own name and then
stand aside in the hour of danger, had not physical
weakness forced him so to do.
Retiring to Falkland Palace in Fife, when ad-
mittedly suffering from fever, James, so to speak,
slept his life away, arousing himself hut slightly
when told that Mary of Guise had given birth to a
daughter. Upon hearing this he is said to have
murmured the words, " It came with a lass, and it
will go with a lass," meaning that as the dynasty was
created by means of a marriage with Marjory Bruce,
so would it then end by the birth of Mary Stuart.
Little happened in this reign to advance the
Scots morally. Although the fact that they were
not yet prepared for the Reformation and its liber-
ating influences can scarcely be charged against the
King, whom Scott regards as a good economist, who
encouraged science and the fine arts, it is certain
that he, like his father James IV., had been tainted
by the lax morality of those clerics whose advice
he sought, and whose habits he copied. A care-
less disregard of the marriage tie increased the dif-
ficulties of his unfortunate successor, for one lady at
least, who had received the attentions of James V.,
but who held no position at Court, considered that
she ought to wear the crown. M. Edm. Bapst (see
Spectator, Sept. 14, 1889) says that James V. asked
the Pope to dissolve Margaret Erskine's marriage
with Douglas of Loch 1 even, and give her a dispensa-
tion to marry himself (the King).
k 2