Stuart dynasty

12 The Stuart Dynasty.
no less than four sons and six daughters, the latter married
to men of influence in the realm. There was, however,
another family by his second wife, Euphemia "Ross, two sons
and four daughters, the assumed claims of which branch of
the Stuarts were destined more than once in future times
to threaten commotion and incite to civil war. They
seem to have known nothing of the Pope's dispensation,
which is first mentioned in literature by A. Stuart, in his
' Genealogical History of the Stewarts.'
The reign opened by the traditional connection between
France and Scotland being confirmed by Charles V. of France
and his newly elevated brother Eobert II. of Scotland. The
old league between the kingdoms was renewed with solem-
nity, an embassy going to Paris, under Sir Archibald Douglas,
for the purpose.*
Edward III. of England had on hand so severe a task in
coping with the French on their own territory, that the
combats and Border forays which occurred at the commence-
ment of the Stuart regime were unimportant and practically
without result, ending as they did in a welcome truce between
1381 and 1384. At the conclusion of the truce in 1384,
John of Gaunt marched to the Border with a powerful army
professedly to preserve peace. f The year following, however,
John de Vienne, Admiral of France and her most famous
soldier, appeared in the Firth of Forth with 2000 men, half
of them mounted, together with a thousand stand of armour
and arms. As a set-off against the gathering of the Low-
lands, which took place around this nucleus of a formidable
Franco-Scotch army, the young King of England, Richard
II., put himself at the head of seventy thousand men, and
marched to the Border.
Fortunately for those interested in the period, Froissart,
the French chronicler, was a witness of the events that
ensued, and it is to his attractive pages that the facts here
related owe their preservation. After a dispute between
Vienne and Douglas as to the mode of campaign, it
was resolved to ignore the approaching English. King
Robert II. appears on this occasion as a respectable figure-
head, surrounded by — according to Froissart — "nine sons
who loved arms ; " J but his state of health precluded the
* Burton's ' History of Scotland,' new edition, vol. ii. p. 348.
t Ibid., p. 350.
X Froissart, translated edition, 1808, vol. vii. p. 53. Three natural sons
according to Tytler.