Biggar and the House of Fleming

HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE FLEMING FAMILY. 511
VIII. still continued. James refused to wed Henry's daughter,
Mary, and formed a matrimonial union with Mary of Guise.
Henry was anxious that a conference should take place between
James and himself at York, to discuss various matters of im-
portance to both kingdoms, and James promised to meet his
uncle, but, influenced by the remonstrances of the Romish
priests, who were apprehensive that James would be drawn
from his allegiance to the Church of Rome by the entreaties
and reasonings of his uncle, who had become a zealous cham-
pion in support of the principles of the Reformation, he failed
to keep his appointment. A war consequently broke out
between the two kingdoms. The success, at first, was on the
side of Scotland. An English invading force under the com-
mand of the Duke of Norfolk, harassed by detachments of the
Scots, suffering from the want of provisions, and opposed by a
formidable army, in a short time beat a retreat across the
border. Now was the time, as James thought, to retaliate
with effect on the English ; but, to his extreme surprise and
mortification, his principal barons refused to advance a step
further than Fala, and he had no alternative but to disband
his army.
The conduct of these barons threw the King still more
thoroughly into the arms of the Romish priests and their
bigoted adherents, who, elated with the confidence reposed in
them, strove to gratify the wishes of the King by contributions
of men and money. In a short time James saw himself at
the head of 10,000 men, whom he dispatched, in November
1542, with all haste to the border, but they had scarcely dis-
entangled themselves from the dangerous sands and bogs of
the Solway, when they were filled with surprise and indigna-
tion by a proclamation, that Oliver Sinclair, the King's gentle-
man-in-waiting, had been appointed to the chief command.
They instantly raised a shout that they would not follow such
a leader ; and a scene of complete insubordination and disorder
consequently ensued. The English wardens, Dacre and Mus-
grove, with 400 horsemen, happened at this juncture to
advance for the purpose of reconnoitring, and, observing the
confusion of the Scots, instantly assailed them with levelled
lances, and drove them in irretrievable rout from the field. A