Series 3 > Letters of James the Fourth, 1505-1513

LETTERS OF JAMES IV
XXXIX
in a dispute between Duke Charles and Ferdinand about
the frontiers of Gueldres.1 Six months later, however, on
hearing from the Duke that the King of England proposed
to aid Maximilian and Ferdinand in the dismemberment
of his Duchy,2 he reminded his father-in-law that an attack
on the Duke would be an attack on his kinsman and ally,
and that, if he made it, James would be compelled, to his
sorrow, to regard him as an enemy.3 At the same time he
sent more tactful remonstrances to Maximilian, and to the
Chancellor and Council of Burgundy.4
The Duke found a more effective ally in the King of
France, whose policy it was to maintain an outpost of
French influence on the Lower Rhine. The Duke was
therefore able to announce to James on March 9, 1509,5
that he had been comprehended in the Treaty of Cambrai,
though he had been compelled to surrender part of his
heritage. He asked James therefore, in his forthcoming
interview with Henry, to press for the restoration of the
whole of the Duchy. The interview with Henry, as we
have seen, never took place. When at the end of the year
the Duke complained that Gueldres had again been invaded,
and appealed to James to come to his rescue,6 James
replied briefly that he would help him to the best of his
ability, but did nothing more.7
Scotland and Denmark
James displayed the same caution in his dealings with
his uncle, John of Denmark, King de jure, of the three
kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, united under
one monarch since the Peace of Calmar (1397), and Duke
of Holstein. But Holstein he held only conjointly, and as
a fief of the Empire, with his younger brother Frederick,
afterwards (1523-33) King Frederick I of Denmark. And
the King de jure was not King de facto : two of his three
kingdoms had revolted against him, and though in Norway
3 No. 73. « Nos. 71 and 72.
‘ No. 226. « No. 283.
7 No. 297.