Series 1 > History of Greater Britain, as well England as Scotland

chap, xxiv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN
309
Wales, and duke of Cornwall, and earl of Chester. But them Henry the
we will now dismiss till we have told of what happened amongst Flfth‘
the Scots during these years.
On the death of David Bruce, in the thirteen hundred and What happened
seventieth year1 from the incarnation of the Word, the three |^0°sgst the
estates of Scotland convened in Linlithgow to make choice
of a king. The larger and indeed the wiser part agreed
upon Robert Stewart, grandson of king David. Nevertheless Robert Stewart
William Douglas made opposition thereto, asserting on the oVthTscots!^
part of the Baliols and the Cummings that the succession to
the throne lay with them. But to such a claim as this George
Dunbar, earl of March, and the earl of Moray, his brother,
and the lord Erskine, who amongst them had in keeping
the chief strongholds of the kingdom—Maidens’ Castle2, to
wit, and Stirling, and Dumbarton—manfully opposed them¬
selves ; and William Douglas would have exposed his own
foolhardiness, and done nothing more, had he persisted in his
claim. He renounced, therefore, his pretended right, which
in point of fact was none at all ; but to James Douglas, his The king’s
son and heir, was given in marriage the daughter of the king
born in lawful wedlock. Soon afterward they carried Robert D°ugias.
Stewart to Scone, and there crowned him king. In this way
we have the second Robert, king of Scotland, and of the
Stewarts the first king, under which surname the kings of the
Scots are known at this present day. And hence it follows
that seven Stewart kings have now borne rule amongst the
Scots for a term of one hundred and forty-eight years ; and
of these kings the present one is a child, in this year fifteen
hundred and eighteen entering upon his seventh year3 ; and
with the first of them we bring this fifth book to a close.
1 That is, as now reckoned, 1371,—the year then running on till the 24th of
March. 2 See ante, p. 15.
3 This fixes the exact date of the writing of this work.