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DEFEATS SIR WALTER SCOTT OF BUCCLEUCH, 1526. 227
from Jedburgh, on hearing of Scott's attack, they returned and aided Angus.
After a severe struggle, in which Scott was wounded and eighty of his vassals
slain, Angus put his opponents to flight, and conveyed the king in safety to
Melrose. The Kers paid dearly for their fidelity by the death of one of their
chiefs, Andrew Ker of Cessford. 1
This attack by Sir Walter Scott was the result of a plot formed by the
king and Lennox, and on being charged by Angus with complicity, Lennox
justified the suspicion by withdrawing from Court, and concerting with the
queen offensive measures on a scale which promised better success. An
appeal from Magnus to return to her duties was ineffectual to terminate the
queen's long retirement in the north of Scotland, but she now came to Dun-
fermline to consult with the Archbishop of St. Andrews and Lennox to get
the king out of the hands of Angus. She wrote to her brother and Wolsey,
complaining of her son's being held in thraldom. James, she says, had
written to her, and to the Archbishop and Lennox, on the subject, and they
had resolved to provide a remedy. The Archbishop also wrote from Dun-
fermline, and James himself sent a letter to Henry, sealed with his mother's
signet, because his own seals, he said, were withheld. 2
Angus, though, as Magnus informs Wolsey, likely to be put in peril, or
forced to surrender his care of the king, took measures to fortify himself
against the powerful coalition now being formed against him. He secured
the assistance of Arran and of others by bonds of amity and friendship.
But there was treachery in his own camp, and the young king by this means
1 Buchanan, vol. ii. p. 293 ; Calderwood, and reconciliation, Scott withdrew from Par-
vol. i. p. 70 ; Lesley, p. 134. Acts of the liament, and went to France for a time.
Parliaments of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 330 ; The 2 Vol. iv. of this work, p. 113 ; Letters and
Scottsof Buceleuch, by William Fraser, vol. ii. Papers, etc., Henry viii., vol. iv. Nos. 1968.
p. 151. During the remainder of Angus's 1974, 2414, 2415, 2425, 2430 ; State Papers,
supremacy, notwithstanding offers of favour Henry viii., vol. iv. pp. 452-454.