was memorable for nothing but his breaking with George Earl of March to whose daughter upon the payment of a great part of her portion which he never would repay he had promised his Son David for an husband to take the Daughter of Douglas who had a greater which occasioned the Earl of March to make many in-rodes with our Henry Hot-spur and a famous Duel of three hundred men a piece whereof of the one side ten remained and of the other one which was the onely way to appease the deadly Feuds of two Families The Inter-reign was governed by Robert who enjoying the power he had too much coveted little minded the libertie of his Nephew onely he sent some Auxiliaries into France who they say behaved themselves worthily and his slothfull Son Mordac who making his Sons so bold with indulgence that one of them kill'd a Faulcon on his fist which he denied to give him he in revenge procured the Parliament to ransom the King who had been eighteen years prisoner This James was the first of that Name and though he was an excellent Prince yet had a troublesom Reign first in regard of a great Pension raised for his Ransome next for Domestick Commotions and lastly for raising of money which though the Revenue was exhausted was called Covetousnesse which having offended Robert Graham he conspired with the Earl of Athol slew him in his Chamber his Wife receiving two wounds endeavouring to defend him This James left the second a boy of six years whose infancy by the mis-guidance of the Governour made a miserable People and betrayed the Earl Douglas to death and almost all that great Family to ruine but being supplanted by another Earl Douglas the King in his just age suffered minority under him who upon displeasure rebelled and was kill'd by the Kings own hand afterwards having his middle years perpetually molested with Civill broils yet going to assist the Duke of York against Henry the Sixth he was diverted by an English Gentleman that counterfeited himself a Nuncio which I mention out of a Manuscript because I do not remember it in our Stories and broke up his Army soon after besieging Roxburgh he was slain by the bursting of a Cannon in the twenty ninth year of his Age James the Third left a Boy of seven years governed by his Mothe afterwards the Boyds through the perswasions of Astrologers and Witches to whom he was strongly addicted he declined to Cruelty which so inraged the Nobility that headed by his son they conspired against him routing his Forces near Sterling wherein he flying to a Mill and asking for a Confessor a Priest came who told him that though he was no good Priest yet he was a good Leech and with that stabb'd him to the heart A Parliament approved his death and ordered Indemnities to all that had sought against him James the Fourth a Boy of fifteen years is made King Governed by the murtherers of his Father a prodigall vain-glorious Prince slain at Floddon Field or as some suppose at Kelsey by the Humes which as the Manuscript alledges seems more probability in regard that the Iron Belt a Ring to which he added every year which he wore in repentance for the death of his Father was never found and there were many the day of the Battell habited like him His Successor was his son James the Fifth of that Name a Boy of not above two years of age under whose minority what by the Mis-government of Tutors what by the factions of the Nobility Scotland was wasted almost into famine and solitude yet in his just age he proved an industrious Prince but could not so satisfie the Nobility but he and they continued in a mutuall hate till that barbarous execution of young Hamilton so fill'd him with remorse he dream-that Hamilton came and cut off his Arms and threatned after to cut off his Head and displeased the people that he could not make his Army fight with the English then in Scotland whereupon he dyed of grief having heard the death of his two sons who dyed at the instant of his Dream and leaving a Daughter of five dayes old whom he never saw This was that Mary under whose minority by the weaknesse of the Governour and ambition of the Cardinall the Kingdome felt all those woes that are threatned to them whose King is a Child Till at length the prevalency of the English Arms awakes for her Cause brought the great designe of sending her into France to perfection so at five years old she was tâ—ansported and at fifteen married to the Daulphin Francis after King whilest her mother daughter of the Guise in her Regency exercised all Rage against the Professours of the pure Religion then in the dawn who after two years left her a childlesse Widow so that at eighteen she returned into Scotland to succeed her Mother then newly dead in her exorbitoncies This young Couple in the transport of their Nuptiall solemnities took the Arms and Title of England which indiscreet Ambition we may suppose first quickned the jealousie of Elizabeth against her which after kindled so great a flame In Scotland she shewed what a strange influence loose education hath upon youth and that weaker Sex all the French effeminacies came over with her the Court lost that little severity which was left David Rize was the onely Favourite and it too much feared had those enjoyments which no woman can give but she that gives away her honour and chastity But a little after Henry Lord Darnly coming with Matthew Earl of Lenox his father into Scotland she cast an eye upon him and married him Whether it were to strengthen her pretension to England he being come of Henry the Sevenths Daughter as we shall tell anon or for to colour her Adulteries and hide the shame of an impregnation though some have whispered that she never conceived and that the son was supposititious or some Phrenzy of affection drew her that way certain it is she soon declined her affection to her husband and encreased it to David he being her perpetuall Companion at Board and managing all Affairs whilst the King with a contemptible train was sent away insomuch that some of the Nobility that could not digest this entred a Conspiracy which the king headed and slew him in her Chamber This turn'd all the neglect of her Husband into rage so that her chiefest businesse was to appease her Favorites Ghost with the slaughter of her Husband poyson was first attempted but it being it seems too weak or his youth overcoming it that expectation failed But the Devil and Bothwel furnish'd her with another that succeeded she intices him being so sick that they were forc'd to bring him in an horse-litter to Edenburgh where she cherisht him extreemly till the credulous young man began to lay aside suspition and hope better so she puts him in a ruinous House near the Palace from whence no news can be had brings in her
Scots and agreed that Fergus whose Uncle the last King was being then in banishment and of a Militari breeding and inclination should be chosen King with him the Danes maintained a long War with the Romanes and pulled down the Picts wall at last he and the King of Picts were in one day slain in a battell against them This mans access to Government was strange ignotus Rex ab ignoto populo accersitus and may be thought temerarious he having no Land for his People and the Roman Name inimicall yet founded he a Monarchy there having been Kings ever since and we are to note this is the first man that the sounder writers will allow to be reall and not fabulous Him succeded his son Engenius whose Grandfather Grahame had all the power a Warlike Prince whom some say slain some dead of a disease After him his Brother Dongard who after the spending of five superstitious years left the Crown as they call it to his youngest Brother Constantine who from a good private man turned a lew Prince and was slain by a Nobleman whose daughter he had ravished he was succeeded by Congall Constantines son who came a tolerable good Prince to a loose people and having spent some two and twenty years in slight excursions against the Saxons left the rule to his Brother Goran who notwithstanding he made a good League against the Brittains which much conduced to his and the Peoples settlement yet they in requital after thirty four years made away with him which brought in Eugenius the third of that name the son of Congall who was strongly suspected to have a hand in his death insomuch that Gorans widow was forced to flie into Ireland with her children This man in thirty three years time did nothing but Reign and make short incursions upon the Borders he left the rule to his Brother Congall a Monastical Superstitious and unactive Prince who Reigned ten years Kynnatell his Brother was designed for Successor but Aydan the son of Goran laid his claime but was content to suspend in respect of the age and diseases of Kynnatell which after fourteen moneths took him out of the world and cleared the Controversie and Aydan by the consent of Columba a Priest that Governed all in those dayes came to be King a man that after thirty four years turbulently spent being beaten by the Saxons and struck with the death of Columba dyed of grief After him was chosen Kenneth who hath left nothing behinde him but his name Then came Eugenius the fourth son of Aydan so irregular is the Scots succession that we see it inverted by usurpation or cross elections in every two or three Generations this man left an ambiguous fame for Hector sayes he was peaceable the Manuscript implacably severe he Reigned sixteen years and left his sonne Ferchard Successour who endeavouring to heighten the Prerogative by the dissentions of the Nobility was on the contrary impeached by them and called to an account which he denying was clapt in Prison where he himself saved the Executioner a labour So that his Brother Donald succeeded who being taken up with the Piety of those dayes left nothing memorable save that he in Person interpreted Scots Sermons unto the Saxons He was followed by his Nephew Ferchard sonne of the first of that name a thing like a King in nothing but his exorbitancies who in hunting was wounded by a Wolf which cast him into a Feaver wherein he not observing the imposed Temperance brought upon himself the lowsie disease upon which discomforted he was by the perswasion of Colman a Religious man brought out in his bed covered with Hair-cloth where he made a publick acknowledgement to the People and soon after died Maldwin Donalds son followed who after a twenty years ignoble Reign was strangled by his Wife Eugenius the Fift succeed son they say of King Dongard though the Chronologie seem to refute it This man spent five years in slight incursions and was succeeded by Eugenius the Sixt son of Ferchard This man is famous for a little learning as the times went and the prodigie of raining of bloud seven dayes all Lacticinia turning into bloud Amberkelleth nephew to Eugenius the Fift succeeded this rude Prince while he was discharging the burden of Nature was slain by an arrow from an unknown hand Eugenius the Seventh followed who being attempted by Conspiratours had his new-married Wife slain in bed beside him for which he being accused produced the murderers before his triall and was acquitted and so ended the rest of his 17. years in peace recommending unto the People Mordack son of Amberkelleth who continuing a blank raigne or it may be a happy one in regard it was peaceable left it to Etfyn son of Eugenius the seventh the first part of his reigne was peaceable but Age obliging him to put the Government into the hands of four of his servants it hapned to him as it doth to other Princes whose fortunes decay commonly with their strength that it was very unhappy and turbulent Which miseries Eugenius the Eighth son of Mordack restrained but he it seems having a nature fitter to appease tumults then to enjoy rest at the first enjoyment of peace broke into such lewdnesse that the Nobility at a meeting stabb'd him and made way for Fergus the sonne of Etfyn one like his Predecessour in manner death and continuance of reigne which was three years the onely dissimilitude was that the latter's Wife brought his death for which others being impeached she stept in and confessed it and to elude punishment punished her self with a knife Soluath son of Eugenius the Eighth followed him who though his gout made him of lesse Action yet it made his prudence more visible and himself not illaudable his death brought in Achaius the son of Etfyn whose reign was innobled with an Irish War and many learned men besides the assistance lent Hungus to fight against the Northumbrians whom he beat in famous battell which if I may mention the matter was presignified to Hungus in a dream Saint Andrew appearing to him and assuring him of it and in the time of the battell a white Crosse that which the Heraulds call a Saltier and we see commonly in the Scots Banners appeared in the Sky and this I think to have been the occasion of that bearing and an order of Knights of Saint Andrew sometimes in reputation in Scotland but extinguished for ought I can perceive before the time of James the Sixth though the Collar and Pendent of it are at this day worn about the Scots Arms To this man Congal his Cousin succeeded who left nothing behind him but five years to stretch out the account of time Dongal the son of Soluath came next who being of a nature fierce and insupportable there was an endeavour to set up Alpine son of Achaius which designe by Alpine himself was frustrated which made the King willinger to assist Alpine in his pretension to the Kingdome
of Picts in the which attempt he was drowned and left unto Alpine that which he before had so nobly refused who making use of the former raised an Army beat the Picts in many signall Victories but at last was slain by them leaving his name to the place of his death and the Kingdome to his son Kenneth This man seeing the People broken with the late War and unwilling to fight drew on by this subtilty invites the Nobility to dinner and after plying them with drink till midnight leaves them sleeping on the floor as the manner was and then hanging Fish-skins about the wals of the Chamber and making one speak through a trunk and call them to Warre they waking and half asleep supposed something of Divinity to be in it and the next morning not onely consented to War but so strange is deluded imagination with unspeakable courage fell upon the Enemy and put them to the rout which being confirmed by other great Victories utterly ruined the Pictish Name This man may be added to the two Ferguses and truly may be said to be the Founder of the Scots Empire not onely in making that the middle of his Dominion which was once the bounds But in confirming his acquests with good Laws having opportunitie of a long peace which was Sixteen years his whole time of Government being Twenty This was he that placed that Stone famous for that illusory Prophesie Ni fallat fatum c. which first was brought our of Spain and Ireland and from thence to Argyle at Scown where he put it in a Chair in which all his Successours till Edward the First brought it away were crowned and since that all the Kings of England till the happinesse of our Common-wealth made it uselesse His Brother Donald was his Successour a man made up of extreamities of virtues and vices no man had more bravery in the field nor more vice at home which increasing with his years the Nobility put him in prison where either for fear or scorn he put an end to his dayes leaving behind him his brother Constantine a man wanting nothing of him but his vices who struggling with a potent Enemy for the Picts had called in the Danes and driving them much into despair a bravery that hath not seldome ruin'd many excellent Captains was taken by them put into a little Cave and there slain He was succeeded by Ethus his brother who had all his eldest brothers vices and none of his seconds virtues Nature it seems making two extremes and a middle in the three Brethren This man voluptuous and cowardly was forced to resigne or as others say died of wounds received in a Duell from his Successour who was Gregory son of Dongal who was not onely an excellent man but an excellent Prince that both recovered what the others had lost and victoriously traversed the Nothern Counties of England and a great part of Ireland whose King a Minor and in his power he generously made no advantage of but setled his Countrey and provided faithfull and able Guardians for him These things justly yield him the name of Great Donald son of Constantine the second by his recommendation succeeded in his power and virtues notwithstanding some say he was removed by poyson Next was Constantine the third son of Ethus an unstable person who assisted the Danes which none of his Predecessours would do and after they had deserted him basely yet yielded them succours consisting of the chief of the Scots Nobility which with the whole Danish Army were routed by the Saxons this struck him so that he retired amongst the Culdys which were as the Greek Caloyers or Romish Monks at this day and there buried himself alive After him was Milcom son of Donald the third who though a good Prince and well skill'd in the arts of peace was slain by a Conspiracy of those to whom his virtue was burthensome His Successour was Judulf by what title I find not who fighting with the Danes that with a Navy unexpectedly came into the Frith was slain Duffe his son succeeds famous for an accident which if it be true seems nearly distant from a fable He was suddenly afflicted by a sweating disease by which he painfully languish'd yet no body could find the cause till at last a Girl that had scattered some words after torments confessed that her mother and some other women had made an Image of wax which as it wasted the King should waste by sweating much the place being diligently searched it was found accordingly so the Image being broke he instantly recovered That which disturbed his five years Reign was the turbulency of the Northern people whom when he had reduced and taken with intent to make exemplary punishment Donald the Commander of the Castle of Forresse where he then lay interceded for some of them but being repulst and exasperated by his wife after he had made all his servants drunken flew him in his bed and buried him under a little bridge lest the cutting of turfs might bewray a grave near Kilross Abbey though others say he turned aside a River and after he had buried him suffered it to take its former Channel Culen the son of Induffe by the Election of Parliament or Convention of People succeeded good onely in this one Action of inquiring and punishing his Predecessours death but after by the neglect of Discipline and the exquisitnesse of his vices became a monster and so continued three years till being weakned and exhausted in his body and vext with perpetuall diseases he was summoned by the Parliament and in the way was slain by a Thane so they then called Lieutenants of Counties whose daughter he had ravished Then came Kenneth brother to Duff though the forepart of his Keign was totally unlike his who being invaded by the Danes beat them in that famous battel which was won by three Hays husbandmen from whom all the Hays now give three shields gules who with their Sythes reinforced the lost battel but in his latter time he lost this reputation by poysoning Milcolm sonne of Duff to preserve the Crown for a son of his name though of lesse merit for sayes Bucanan They use to choose the fittest not the nearest which being done he got ordained in a Parliament that the Succession should be lineall the Son should inherit and be called Prince of Scots and if he were a minor be governed by some wise man here comes the pretence of Succession whereas before it was clearly Elective and at fifteen he should choose his Guardian himself But the Divine vengeance which seldome even in this life passes by murther overtook him for he was insnared by a Lady whose son he had caused to be executed and slain by an arrow out of an ambush she had laid Constantine the son of Culen notwithstanding all the artifice of Kenneth by his reasoning against the Act perswaded most of the Nobility to make him King to that Milcolm the son of Kenneth