Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 1

56 THE HISTORY OF THE AFFAIRS [1542-3.
King James was born in the month of April 1512, 1 and
lost his father at the unfortunate battle of Flowdon Hill in
Northumberland on the 9th of September, in the following
year 1513. It hath been already observed that the ad-
ministration of the Government during his minority was,
according to his father's latter will, lodged in the hands of
his mother during her widowhood ; and that, after her mar-
riage, John Duke of Albany was, by the States, declared
governor of the realm, in which office he continued till the
King took the administration upon himself. His Majesty
was of a middle stature, but rather tall ; his eyes of a dark
grey, and very penetrating; his hair of a yellow colour,
turned up into links ; his voice sweet ; his aspect and counte-
nance comely ; so that he was reckoned the handsomest
prince of his time. His body was sound and healthy, and
of a vigorous constitution ; and he rendered it still more firm
and strong by a constant application to labour and exercise,
[arched vault] or cell there are no leaden coffins. The first is King
James V. who died in 1542, but Drummond of Hawthorden, in the very
end of his Life, tells us this is not the place where he was first interred, hut
that King Henry VIII. of England's army having defaced his tomb and
monument, he was transported into this vault by King James VI., and
re-embalmed, which appeared by the freshness of his body and the liquor
about him. The second is his first Queen, Magdalene, daughter to Francis
I. King of France, who died in 1537. The third is Henry Lord Darnley,
father to King James VI., and Queen Mary's husband, who was strangled
in 1567. By his body he appears to have been a very tall proper man ;
others call the body Signor David Rizzio's, the Italian musician. The
fourth is Lady Jane Stuart, bastard daughter to King James V., and
Countess of Argyll, who died in 1587. The other two are some of their
children." Historical Observes of Memorable Occurrents in Church and
State from October 1680 to April 1686, by Sir John Lauder of Fountain-
hall, Edin. 4to. 1840, printed for the Bannatyne Club, p. 89, 90.— E.]
1 The day of his birth is uncertain ; some say it was the 15th, others the
1 1th, and others the 5th. — [Pinkerton states — " He was born about the 16th
of April, as appears from a letter of Magnus, Cal. B. VI. f. 333, mention-
ing that at Easter, 1525, James would attain the age of thirteen. In the
Epistle, R. S., 1. 142, date duodecimo as the MS., not undcci 'mo ; Easter hap-
pened on the 11th of April, so that the birth of James is fixed to the 10th
<>f April 1512 by that letter, p. 141." — History of Scotland, note, vol. ii. p.
110. Yet Pinkerton has a contradictory statement in another part of his
History. He says — " James was born on the 10th of April, as above
evinced, and some contraction has occasioned the change of date from the
13th or 23d to the 3d. Yet, as his birth happened on Easter Eve, it is
likely that it was computed from Easter to Easter, as the letter of Magnus,
quoted in the commencement of tins Reign, seems to prove." History of
Scotland, Note, vol. ii. p. 342.— E.]