with great loss to both and little advantage to any of the Parties Richard having his Reign in his Infancy and not yet settled nor come to any growth and maturity being obnoxious to the scandal of his Brothers Sons and possessed with fears of Henry Earl of Richmond then remaining in France who by all honest and good men was earnestly invited to come home and hazard one day of battel for a whole Kingdom knowing it necessary for the advancement of his designs to have Peace with all his Neighbour Princes to render himself more secure and safe at home and terrible to his Enemies abroad sendeth Embassadours to Scotland to treat a Peace or a suspension of Arms for some years King James no softlier rocked in the Cradle of State than Richard chearfully accepteth this Embassage for by a Peace he may a little calm the Stormy and wild minds of tumultuous Subjects reducing them to a more quiet fashion of living and seclude his Rebels and banisht from entertainment in England and all places of Refuge and Sanctuary The two Kings agreeing in substance Commissioners are appointed to meet at Nottingham the seventh day of September For the King of Scotland appear'd the Earl of Arguil William Elvingstoun Bishop of Aberdeen the Lord Drummond of Stobhall the Lord Olyphant Archibald Whitelaw Secretary Duncan Dundass Lyon King of Arms. For Richard of England appeared the Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Northumberland the Lord Stanley the Lord Gray the Lord Fitshugh John Gunthrope Privy Seal Thomas Barrow Master of the Rolls Sir Thomas Bryan Chief Justice In the latter end of September these conclude a Peace between both Realms for the space of Three years The same to begin at the rising of the Sun September twenty nine in the year One thousand four hundred eighty four and to continue unto the setting of the Sun on the Twenty ninth of September in the year One thousand four hundred eighty seven During which time it was agreed that not only all Hostility and War should cease between the two Realms but that also all Aid and Assistance against enemies should be afforded It was agreed the Town and Castle of Berwick should remain in the hands of the English for the space of the foresaid term with the same bounds the English possessed That all other Castles Holds Fortresses during the term of three years should remain in the hands of those that held them at that present the Castle of Dumbar only excepted which the Duke of Albany delivered to the English when he left his Country Which Castle for the space of six months should be exposed to the Invasion of the Scots if they could obtain it and during the assaulting of this Castle the Truce should not be broken Neither should the English within the Castle do any harm to the Scots dwelling thereabouts except to those who invade the Castle and at that time And that it should be lawful to any of the Parties to use all Stratagems and extend their power either for winning or defending the said Castle It was agreed That no Traitor of either Realm should be received by any of the Princes of the other Realms and if any Traitor or Rebel chance to arrive in either Realm the Prince thereof should deliver him upon demand made Scots abiding within the Realm of England and sworn there to the King may remain still so their names be made known to the King of Scotland within fourty days If any Warden of either Realm shall Invade the others Subjects he to whom such a Warden is subject shall within six days Proclaim him Traitor and certifie the other Prince thereof within twelve days In every safe conduct this Clause shall be contained Providing always that the Obtainer of the safe Conduct be no Traytor If any of the Subjects of either Prince do presume to Aid and help maintain and serve any other Prince against any of the Contractors of this Truce then it shall be lawful for him to whom he shewed himself enemy to apprehend and attach the said Subject coming or tarrying within any of their Dominions Collegues comprehended in the Truce if they would assent thereunto on the English part were The King of Castile the King of Arragon the King of Portugal the Arch-Duke of Austria and Burgundy the Duke of Bretaign Upon the Scottish part Charles King of Denmark and Norway the Duke of Guilderland this Treaty was appointed to be Published the first of October in all the great and notable Towns of both Realms It was agreed that Commissioners should meet at Loch-maben the eighteenth of November as well for Redress of Wrongs done on the West Marches as for declaring and Publishing the Peace where the greatest difficulty was to have it observed Richard after this Truce intreated a Marriage between the Prince of Rothsay eldest Son to King James and Lady Ann de la Pool Daughter to John Duke of Suffolk of his Sister To this effect Embassadours met at Nottingham others say at York and it is concluded Writings thereupon being drawn up ingrossed and sealed And Affiances made and taken up by Proctors and Deputies of both parts Lady Ann thereafter being stiled the Princes of Rothsay But by the death of her Uncle she enjoyed not long that Title After the League and intended Marriage King James wrote friendly Letters to Richard concerning the Castle of Dumbar Whether he could be content that the same should remain only six months in the power of the English or during the whole space of Truce That he was not minded to seek it by Arms during the term of the whole Truce Notwithstanding he earnestly required out of the bond of Love and friendship between them since it was given unto the English by Treason and neither surprised nor taken in lawful War it might be friendly rendred Richard dall'yd with him and pass'd away that purpose with complemental Letters all the time of his Government which was not long for the year One thousand four hundred eighty six Henry Earl of Richmond came with some Companies out of France of which that famous Warriour Bernard Stuart Lord Aubany Brother to the Lord Darnley in Scotland had the Leading which by the resort of his Country men turned into an Army and rencountred Richard at Bosworth where he was killed and Henry-Proclaimed King of England To which Victory it was uncertain whether Vertue or Fortune did more contribute Alexander Duke of Albany before this disaster of Richard at a Tilting with Louys Duke of Orleance by a splint of a Spear in his head had received his death-wound One thousand four hundred eighty three He was a man of great courage an enemy to Rest and Peace delighting in constant changes and novations He left behind two Sons John Duke of Albany begotten of his second Marriage upon the Earl of Bulloignes Daughter who was Tutor to King James the Fifth and Governour of Scotland and Alexander born of the Earl of Orkenays Daughter his
which now for fear of their Lives they would be forced to forsake or to proceed with great timorousness and neglect if by any secular power they might be called in Judgment and embrue Scaffolds with their blood The Pope though highly provokt parted not from his Resolution yet used a sort of moderation he threatneth still to let fall the blow in the mean time holding his hand Thus to give satisfaction to his Court he formed a Process against King Henry and a most severe Sentence but abstained from the publication of it during his pleasure Secretly sending many Copies of it to those Princes he thought could be useful to his Designs when occasion should serve and he proceed with a constant rumor of the Bull shortly to be put in execution and publisht Amongst many interested in wrongs by the King of England considering there was none comparable to the Nation and King of Scotland he directeth hither John Antonio Compeggio This Legate findeth King James at Faulkland 22. February 1535. and here with many Ceremonies and Apostolical Benedictions delivereth him a Cap and a Sword Consecrated the Night of the Nativity of our Saviour which the fame of his valour and many Christian virtues had moved his Master to remunerate him with Also saith the Original that it might breed a terror in the heart of a wicked neighbouring Prince against whom the Sword was sharpned The Popes Letter in most submissive stile contained A Complaint for the death of John Bishop and Cardinal of Rochester miserably taken away by the hand of an Hang-man The Calamities of England occasioned by the Kings Divorce from Katherine of Spain and his Marriage with Ann Bullen That since the Roman Church had received great disgrace and a deadly wound and by patience procured more and more wrongs from the King of England She was constrained to use a searing Iron For the application of which She had recourse to his Majesty a Prince for his Ancestors piety and his own renowned His aid maintenance protection she implored Since King Henry was a Despiser a Scorner One who set at naught the censures of the Church an Heretick Schismatick a shameful and shameless Adulterer a publick and profest homicide Murtherer a Sacrilegious Person a Church-Robber a Rebel guilty of lese-Majesty Divine outragious many and innumerable ways a Felon a Criminal By all Laws herefore justly to be turned out of his Throne The King of Scotland for the Defence of the Church would undertake something worthy a Christian King and himself he would endeavour to suppress Heresie defend the Catholick faith against those whom the justice of Almighty God and judgments were now prepared and already ready to be denounced The King kindly entertained the Legate answered the Pope with much regret for the estate and stubborness of the King of England Who would not be struck with Pitty that a King who late amongst Christian Princes was honoured with the Title of Defender of the Faith should be obnoxious to so many Crimes that now amongst Princes he could scarce be reputed a Christian This Compassion was common to him with others but he by a necessity of Nature and nearness of Blood felt a more piercing sorrow he should leave no means untried to recal his Uncle to the obedience of the Church and though by his Embassadors he had once or twice went about the same but in vain he would study a way how face to face he might give him his best Counsel and remonstrate how much good he would do the Christian World and himself by returning again to the Church Mean while he requested him not to be heady forward nor rash in executing the Sentence against his Uncle which would but obdure him in his separation King James not having lost all hopes of his Uncle directeth the Lord Areskin to England to acquaint him with the Emperors and Popes Embassages and to take his Counsel about a Marriage with the Duke of Vandosons Daughter whom the French King had offered to him his own Daughter being weak and sickly In this Embassage there was a complaint against the Londoners who in their passage to the Island fishing spoiled the Coasts of Orknay and the adjacent Islands with a Roquest that King Henry would not succour the Lubeckers against the Duke of Hulstein The King of England not to prove inferior to the Emperour and Pope in conferring honours upon his Nephew admitteth him to the Fraternity of the Garter which he delivered to the Lord Areskin his Embassador And thereafter dispatched William Lord Howard Brother to the Earl of Norfolk as if that name were a sufficient Scar-crow to the Popes Sword and the Emperours Golden-fleece to Scotland who made such hasty Journeys that he prevented the News of his coming and at unawares found the King at Sterlin The Substance of his Embassage was That the King of England and Scotland might have an interview at York at which meeting the King of Scotland should be declared Duke of York and General Lieutenant of the Kingdom of England That his Master having Instructions of the Alliance offered him by neighbouring Princes did offer to his own and his Counsels judgments if they could find a more fit than to contract a Marriage with his Daughter which might be easily perfected if his Master and King James could condescend upon some few points When the King had taken these Propositions into deliberation the Church-men suspecting if this meeting and match had way the King would embrace the Opinions of the new Reformers set all their wits to overthrow it The nearest Successors to the Crown covering their claim and interest argued That to Marry the Lady Mary of England who for many years would not he marriagable was not a right way to continue his Race by procreation of Children and that his impatience of living alone would not be much abated by marrying a Child That King Henry projected this Marriage to no other end than to hinder him from better Alliances or to facilitate an entry to the Kingdom That when a Prince would take advantage of any neighbour Prince it was more safely done by Alliance than open force That it was more safely King Henry being a wary Prince never meant to marry his Daughter at all as long as himself lived but to keep her at Home with him bearing many Princes in hand to save him from Dangers both at home and abroad which counsel was practised lately by the Duke of Burgundy Most oppose neither to the meeting of the two Kings nor to the Alliance but to the place of their meeting which seemed unto them of no small importance being in the heart of England and amidst the most martial people of that Nation They require the two Kings might have their interview at Newcastle this place when they meet being most commodious for furnishing all necessaries by Ships That the number of their Train should be agreed upon as one thousand which none of the two Kings should
affairs to be brought to a good end and finished by the opportunity occasions than force and power with an able Company of Mariners and Souldiers setteth his Daughter to Sea The English Fleet had waited upon her but Providence so appointed she escaped them and they encountred a fleet of Spaniards keeping their course towards the Netherlands Them they beset with fourscore Vessels commanding the Ladies and all of their Company to be delivered unto them when they would not accept of friendly answers they fall to handy blows till in end by loss of men and some Ships they understood their errour The Lady Margaret thus without danger by the Western Seas arrived at Rochel having for their Convoy a whole Colony of Gentle-women the Histories say an hundred and forty went with her all of noble parentage of which train were her five Sisters from Rochel she held her progress to Tours there with an extraordinary Pomp and Magnificence the Twenty fourth of June Anno 1436. was she married to the Daulphin Lewis The King to defray the charges raised by transporting and marriage of his Daughter the French seeking with her small or no Dowry these times preferring Parentage and Beauty before Gold or Riches all that was craved being a supply of Men of Arms for their support against the English laid a Subsidie on his Subjects the one half of which being levied and the People grudging and repining at the exacting of the other half it being taken from men who lived hardly in a barren soyl He caused render a part of it again and discharged the remainder At this time by Sea and Land the English in revenge of the refusal of the offers of their Ambassadours began to use all Hostility against the Scots Henry Piercy of Northumberland invadeth the Country with four thousand men whether of his own bravery abhorring ease and idlenes or that he had a Commission so to do is uncertain with him came Sir Henry Cliddesdale Sir John Ogle Richard Piercy and many men of choice and worth the frontier Garrisons invade all places near unto them To resist these incursions William Dowglass Earl of Anguss getteth charge a man resembling his Ancestors in all vertues either of War or Peace and the most eminent of his time with him went Adam Hepburn of Hailes Alexander Elphinstoun of Elphinstoun in Lothian and Alexander Ramsey of Dalhowsie of all being Four thousand strong These covetous of glory besides the ancient quarrel of the two Nations having the particular emulations of the Names and Valour of their Ancestors to be spurs unto them make speedy journeys to have a proof of their vertue and courage The Lists of their meeting was Popperden a place not far from Bramstoun Rhodam Roseden Eglingham all cheared with the stream of a small Brook named Crammish which arising out of the Cheviot loseth its name in the Till as the Till after many windings disgorgeth it self in the Tweed Adam Hepburn and Alexander Elphinstoun led the Van-guard of the Scots Sir Richard Piercy Sir John Ogle of the English Alexander Ramsey and Henry Cliddisdail kept the Rears the two Generals rode about the Armies remembring them of their ancient valour the wrongs received the justness of the Quarrel the glory of the Victory the shame of the overthrow No sooner were they come within distance of joyning when the sound of the Drums and Trumpets was out-noised by the shouts of the Assailants who furiously ren-countred The Guns being about this time found out were here first practised between the Scots and the English in an open field When the Fight with equal order had been long maintained on both sides now the Scots then the English yielding ground many of the Commanders at length began to fall most of the English Then was the Piercy constrained to be at once Commander and Souldier but ere he could be heard some Companies had turned their backs among the thickest throngs of which breaking in he found so great disorder that neither by Authority Intreaty or Force he was able to stay their flying Thus distracted between the two courses of honour and shame he is hurried far from the place of Fight And Victory declared her self altogether for the Scots which was not so great in the execution as in the death and captivity of some brave men Of the Scots Two hundred Gentlemen and common Souldiers were slain amongst which was Alexander Elphinstoun maintaining the Battel with his sword voice and wounds and two other Knights Of the English died Sir Henry Cliddisdail Sir John Ogle Sir Richard Piercy with fifteen hundred Gentlemen and common Souldiers of which fourty were Knights four hundred were taken Prisoners The King irritated by the way-laying of his Daughter the Invading of his Borders and encouraged not a little by this little smile of Fortune at Popperden it being more sure to prevent than repel dangers and with the same Policies to defend by which the Enemies offend resolveth by open Wars to Invade England He was also stirred unto this by his intelligence from his friends in France who had brought greater matters to pass then in so short a time could have been expected for concealed envy and old malice bursting out between Richard Duke of York and Edmund Duke of Sommerset Philip Duke of Burgundy being entred in friendship with King Charles the English began to be daily losers and were put out of Paris and many Towns of France To this effect King James having raised an Army cometh to Roxburgh a place fatal to his and there besiegeth the Castle of Marchmond which is Roxburgh it was valiantly defended by Sir Ralph Gray but when he was come so near the end of his labours that they within the Castle were driven to terms of Agreement and conditions for giving up the Fort the Queen in great haste cometh to the Camp representing to her Husband a Conspiracy the greatness of the peril of which if it were not speedily prevented should endanger his Estate Person and Race Whether she had any inckling of the Conspiracy indeed or contrived this to divert his Forces from the Assault and further harm of the English her Friends and Countreymen it is uncertain The King who found his imagination wounded upon this point after many doubtful resolutions and conflicts in his thoughts raiseth the Siege disbandeth the Army and accompanied with some chosen Bands of his most assured Friends returned back to provide for his own safety A strange resolution to disband an Army for a tale of Treason where could there be greater safety for a King than in an Army Yet have Conspiracies been often in Camps and in his own time Richard Earl of Cambridge brother to Edward Duke of York Henry Lord Scroope with Sir Thomas Gray at the instigation of the Daulphin of France for a great sum of money conspired to Murder Henry the Fifth King of England in the midst of his Armies if they had not been surprised The King feared all because he
to the Cannons Gate in Edenburgh the King compassionate of his disease sendeth his Physitians to attend him they to restore his understanding which was molested open some veins of his head and arms in which time whether by his own disorder or misgovernment in his sickness the bands being loosed which tyed the lancing or that they took too great a quantity of blood from him he fainted and after sowning died unawares amongst the hands of his best friends and servants These who hated the King gave out that he was taken away by his command and some Writers have recorded the same but no such faith should be given unto them as to B. W. E. who was living in that time and whose Records we have followed who for his place could not but know and for his possession would not but deliver the very Truth certain Witches and Sorcerers being taken and examined and convicted of Sorcery at this time and being suborned they confessed that the Earl of Marr had dealt with them in prejudice of the King and to have him taken away by incantation For the Kings Image being framed in Wax and with many spels and incantations baptized and set unto a fire they perswaded themselves the Kings person should fall away as that Image consumed by the fire and by the death of the King the brothers should reach the Government of the State with such vanities was the common people amused Alexander Duke of Albany imputing the death of his brother to the favourites of the King and a vouching them to have been the occasioners of his distraction stirred the Nobility and People to revenge so foul a deed but whilst he keeps private meetings with them of his Faction in the Night to facilitate their enterprise betrayed by some of his followers he is surprised and imprisoned in the Castle of Edenburgh Out of which about the appointed time of his tryal by the killing of his keeper he escaped and in a Ship which to that effect was hired sailing to the Castle of Dumbar of which he had the keeping he passed to France After the escape of the Duke of Albany the Lord Evandale Chancellour of the Kingdom raising the power of the nearest Shires beleagured the Castle of Dumbar the besieged unprovided of Victuals as men expecting no such alterations betake themselves in small Boats to the Sea and came safe towards the Coasts of England The Castle having none to defend it is taken some Gentlemen in pursuit of the flying souldiers by their own rashness perished The Kings of Scotland and England tossed along with civil troubles and affecting peace with all their neighbours by an equal and mutual consent of thoughts send at one time Ambassadors to one another who first conclude a Peace between the two Nations and that the Posterity might be partakers of this accord contract afterwards an Alliance between the two Kings It was agreed that the Princess Cicilia youngest daughter to King Edward should marry with James Duke of Rothsay when they came to years of discretion A motion heard with great acceptance but it was thought by some familiar with King Edward and in his most inward Counsels that really he never intended this marriage and that this negotiation aimed only to temporize with Scotland in case that Louys of France should stir up an Invasion of England by the King of Scotland King Louys at this time had sent one Doctor Ireland a Sorbonist to move King James to trouble the Kingdom of England and to give over the projected marriage which when King Edward understood knowing what a distance was between things promised and performed to oblige King James and tye him more strongly to the bargain that this marriage might have more sway he caused for the present maintenance of the Prince and as it were a part of the Dowry of Lady Cicilia deliver certain sums of money to King James Notwithstanding of which benevolence the witty Louys wrought so with the Scottish Nobility that King James sent Embassadors to the King of England entreating him not to assist the Duke of Burgundy his brother in Law against King Lovys which if he refused to do the Nobility of Scotland who were now turned insolent would constrain him by reason of the ancient League between the French and the Scots to assist the French The Duke of Albany during his abode in France had married a Daughter of the Earl of Bulloigne she was his second Wife his first having been a Daughter of the Earl of Orkenay a Lady of great Parentage and many Friends who incessantly importuned King Lovys to aid the Duke for the recovery of his Inheritance and places in the State of Scotland out of which he was kept by the evil Counsellors of his brother Louys minding to make good use of his brother and underhand increasing discords and jealousies between him and the King of England slighting his suits told him he could not justifie his taking of Arms to settle a Subject in his Inheritance That Princes ought to be wrought upon by persuasion not violence and he should not trouble a King otherways then by Prayers and Petitions which he would be earnest to perform Upon this refusal the Duke of Albany having buried his Dutchess troubled with new thoughts came to England King Edward with accustomated courtesies receiving him giveth him hopes of assistance entring of in communication with him how to divert the Kingdom of Scotland from the invasion of his Dominions at the desire of the French the Agents and traffickers of Louys lying still in Scotland and daily bribing and soliciting the Scots Nobility to necessitate the English to stay at home The Duke freely and in the worst sense revealed the weakness of his Kingdom that his King was opinionative and had nothing of a Prince in him but the Name His ungoverned Spirit disdained to listen to the temperate Counsel of sober men obeying only his own judgment Such who govern'd under him were mean persons and of no account great only by his favour and indued with little virtue who ruling as they listed and excluding all others made use of his Authority for their own profit and advantage The Nobility were male-contents and affected a change in the Government which might easily be brought to pass by the assistance of King Edward If he would help to raise some civil broyls and dissention in the Nation it self he needed not to be in fear that they could or would trouble his country by any Invasion The King hearing the Duke manifest what he most affected approving his judgment promised him all necessaries and what he could desire to accomplish the design and he undertaketh by some fair way to traffick with the Nobility of Scotland for an alteration of the present form of Government After a dangerous intelligence the Lords of Scotland who under the shadow of the Publick good but really out of their disdain and particular interests conspired against the King send the
and for their own safety tyed to second and assist all their intentions and to advance their ends The King is conveyed to Edenburgh and shortly after he either enclosed himself in the Maiden Castle as his Lodging or which is more probable was there by the contrary Faction committed as his Prison the Earl of Athol and some other Lords being appointed to attend him During this time the general humours of the Kingdom being ripe for mischief Alexander Duke of Albany every thing falling right as it was plotted prevailed so with King Edward that the Duke of Gloucester the King of Englands brother with the Title of Lieutenant General for him set forwards toward Scotland The Army consisted of Two and twenty thousand and five hundred In his retinue went of the Nobility Henry Earl of Northumberland Thomas Lord Stanley with them was the Duke of Albany The Earl of Dowglass came not being reserved for an after-game The Duke of Albany having been before Commander of Berwick and a Man who was still in his absence beloved of that Garrison diverted the Duke of Gloucester from Anwick where he had incamped in June to assail the Town of Berwick By his intelligence they enter the Town without great opposition and it is given up to their discretion The Castle by the Lord Hails the Captain was made good against their assaults The Duke of Gloucester fore-seeing that this Siege would spend much time considering the uncertainty of events and being invited to march forward by the Lords of the association of Scotland committing the charge of assailing the Castle to the Lord Stanley Sir John Elrington and Sir William Parr with the body of the Army marched directly to Edenburgh The Country lay open to their Invasion no Army taking the Field to oppose them they came in Scotland the twentieth day of August One thousand four hundred eighty two 1482. The Army encamped at Restlerig the Duke himself entred the Town of Edenburgh which at the intreaty of the Duke of Albany who was his Harbinger he spar'd receiving such presents as the Citizens offered unto him His entry seeming rather a Triumph than Hostile Invasion The King being shut up from him and immured in the Castle the Duke by a publick writing at the Market Places gave out high Demands That King James should perform what he had Covenanted with his Brother King Edward That he should give satisfaction for the Damage done the English during the last Inroads of the Borders which if he refused to accomplish he as Lieutenant to his Brother was to exact of him and take satisfaction of his Country denouncing him open War and proclaiming him all Hostility King James forsaken of his People and wronged by his Lords laying aside his Passions and taking to him more moderate and discreet thoughts as a Man in Prison answered nothing to his Demands The Lords who by their Kings misfortune had reckon'd their felicity having obtain'd what they chiefly desir'd to obviate the common and last danger the thraldom of their Kingdom by these strangers whom they had drawn into the Country for the recovery of their liberties assemble themselves together at Hadington with some Companies not to Fight but to Supplicate They sent the Lord Darnley and the Elected Bishop of Murray to entreat a suspension of Arms and require a firm and lasting Peace for time to come The beginning of the War and taking of Arms was for the safety of this the neighbour Country of England miserably thral'd by a licentious Prince there was nothing more unworthy of a King or Republick than not to keep their promis'd Faith The English could have no colour for executing their indignation further upon this Country which already by the rapine of their own Men was impoverish'd and unmanur'd Only now to be recover'd by entertaining Peace with their Neighbours and amongst themselves They require that the Marriage contracted between the Prince of Rothesay and Lady Cicily King Edwards Daughter might be accomplish'd when it should please the King of England and the age of the two Princes might suffer it For any spoil taken in these last incursions the interest considered upon both sides satisfaction should be given out of the publick contributions The Duke of Gloucester as forgetting and seeming not to know the grounds of their coming into the Country and looking to nothing more than his own Fame and Glory Answer'd his coming into Scotland was to right the honour of his Country so often violated and to restore the Duke of Albanie unjustly commanded to Exile to his own native soyl and the dignity of his Birth as concerning the Marriage of the Prince of Scotland with the Daughter of England He knew not how his Brothers resolution stood at the present whereupon he requir'd repayment of the monys lent to their King upon their first agreement and withal a delivery of the Castle of Berwick up into his hands or if they could not make the Castle to be render'd they should give their oaths upon the holy Evangelists that they should neither assist the Besieged or harm the Besiegers till the Castle were either by Force taken or upon fair conditions rendred The Lords having received this Answer yielded freely to all the Conditions except they found themselves perplexed in the rendring of Berwick it being a Town of old appertaining to the Crown of Scotland though by force and Violence the English had a long time kept it That did not take away their right and Title After much contesting agreeing to the surrender of Berwick they desired that the Walls of the Town should be demolished that it might not be a place of Tyranny and Incursion over their bordering Countries No arguments could prevail against the Duke of Gloucesters Resolutions and being stronger in Power he persever'd in his demands and in all likelihood this was agreed upon between the Duke of Albany and the Confederate Lords and the English before their entring Scotland Thus the Castle and Town of Berwick returned to the English the Twenty fourth of August One thousand four hundred eighty two after it had been delivered by Queen Margarite to gain Sanctuary for her Husband King Henry when expelled England and remained in the Possession of the Scots twenty and one years They likewise appointed a day for restitution of all the Monys lent by King Edward and promised upon a full discussion to make satisfaction for all dammages done the English by any Inroad of the Scottish Borders For the Duke of Albanies provision whose safety was principally pretended in this Expedition a general Pardon was promised for him and all his followers Together with an abolition of all discontents whereby he had given unto him the Castle of Dumbar with the Earldoms of Mar and March he should be reinvested in all his former Dignities and Places and by consent of the Nobility of Scotland he was Proclaimed Lieutenant of the Kingdom The Peace Proclaimed the Duke of Gloucester in
abolition for all was past and the Kings hand at it they doubted not to null and make it void All being done by a King constrained by a powerful Army and a close Prisoner which writing could not oblige any private man far less a King what he then bargained was upon constraint and yielded unto upon hopes of saving his life and an Act exacted by force The Duke of Albany finding by the Malice and detraction of a malignant Faction his Brothers countenance altered towards him and danger the requital of his late setting him at liberty the established reconciliation being shaken by suspicions and fancy of revenge obeying necessity fled to his Castle of Dumbar out of which he came to England to present to King Edward and the Duke of Gloucester the consideration of his grievances In his absence he is convinced of many points of Treason besides the being accessary to the taking of Berwick by the English As his dangerous and long intelligence with the King of England his sending of many Messengers at all occasions unto him That without any safe conduct or pass from his Brother and not so much as acquainting him he had left the Country come into England to devise Conspiracies against his King and native Kingdom The Lord Creighton as his friend associate and complice is forefeited with him against whom Informations were given That often and divers times under the pretence of hunting secretly with the Duke of Albany he rode into England and there meeting with Commissioners sent by King Edward he deliberated of matters concerning novations and of the altering the State That there he kept appointments with James Earl of Douglass the often quench'd fire-brand of his Country That in spight of the Kings Forces sent their to lie in Garrison he kept the Castle of Creighton The greatest discontent the King conceived against him was love to one of his Sisters and some feminine jealousies When the Duke understood the proceedings against himself and the Lord Creighton and that for their contumacy and not appearing to answer and give in their answer they were convict of Treason and their Lands to be seized upon He caused give up the Castle of Dumbar of which he was Lieutenant to King Edward who immediately placed by Sea a Garrison in it About this time Edward King of England left this World One thousand four hundred eighty three and his Brother Richard Duke of Gloucester did first take the name of Protector and Governour of the Kingdom of England and after his Brothers Sons put in the Tower and their Mother the Queen taking Sanctuary in the Month of June possest himself of the Crown The Duke of Albany finding that Richard by his change of Fortune had not changed his affection towards him imploreth his Aid in restoring him to his own and repairing not his wrongs alone but a wrong done in his sufferings to the King of England sith there was now an open breach of the Truce and Peace so solemnly by him set down and confirmed by his Brother If he could be furnished but with a few number of choice men of reputation and power to pass into Scotland and take a tryal of the Minds and good will of his Friends and Confederates he doubted not at his entring the Country to find numbers who by his presence would hazard upon the most desperate dangers Richard finding the man his Supplicant with whom he endeavoured once an entire friendship and whose advancement in Authority he had most studied condescendeth that five hundred men and Horses should be chosen upon the borders with others who were outlaws and necessitated sometime to make incursions and with James the old Earl of Douglass a man well known and renowned in the West-borders should make an in-road into Scotland The two and twentieth day of July the banished Champion having chosen a good number of their borderers put forward towards Loch-Maben to surprize a Fair spoil a publick Market seize upon all the Buyers and Sellers which here meet and Traffick every St. Magdalens Festival under pretence of Devotion and the liberty of Trading many English had hither resorted at the twelfth hour of the day when the Merchants and Country-people were in greatest security the Burse is Invaded and not Bloud but Wares sought after the Laird of Johnstoun who was Warden and Laird of Cockpool with many stout Borderers having Surveyed and Ridden through the places where the People were met to prevent and hinder all disorders and dangers at the noise of an Incursion of the English dispatch Posts to the adjacent bounds for supply and in the mean time rencounter the Plunderers of the Fair. Here is it Fought with greater courage than force and in a long continued Skirmish the danger of the loss stir'd up and incited the parties as much as Fame and Glory The day was near spent leaving the advantage to either side disputable when the supply of fresh men come to defend their Country and Friends turned the Fortune of the Fight and put the English borderers all to the rout The Duke of Albany by the swiftness of his Horse and the good attendance of his Servants winneth English ground but the Earl of Dowglass loaden and heavy with years and arms is taken by Robert Kirken-patrick who for that service got the lands of Kirk-michael and brought as in triumph to Edenburgh It is Recorded that when the Earl was come in the Kings presence he turn'd his back and refus'd to look him in the face considering the many outrages he had perpetrated against his Father and this late offence The King taken with the goodly personage gravity and great age of the man commiserating his long patience and cross fortune being in his young days designed to be a Church-man confin'd him as in a free Prison in the Abacy of Lyndores Besides he considered that when occasion served he might bring him out of this solitariness and in these turbulent times by his counsel and presence play more advantageously his game of State being a man of long experience in the affairs of the World and the most learned of all his Nobility He was now become tyred of the Earl of Anguss the remembrance of his first offence remaining deeply ingraven in his heart and to counterpoise his greatness this was the only weight The Duke of Albany found little better entertainment in England the Battel being lost some men taken and killed this being the first road upon Scotland under the Reign of Richard who had been formerly so fortunate in his own Person his Fame injur'd and reputation by this diminished the Duke began to be disliked and was not received with that kindness he was wont whereupon by the Assistance and Convoy of John Liddale he secretly retired to France After the Road of Lochmaben sundry incursions are made by the Scots upon the English borders and by the English upon the Scottish The Champian ground is scoured houses are burnt booties taken
frequent in that place He is a Prince we find little said of as to his person and possibly best to be considered in the Negative We find many things done by his Captains not by him which notwithstanding we may rather attribute to the stirring and violent humour of that age than either his age want of Genius or love of quiet yet herein appears somewhat of his Character that meeting with turbulent times and a martial people he met not with any Insurrections and was a gainer and though he did it by other hands we must suppose that their Motions were directed by his Brain that communicated Motion and Spirits unto them since the Minds of Kings like the first Mover turn all about yet are not perceived to move and it was no humane wit said their hearts were unscrutable The same year his Eldest Son John was caled to succeed who thinking that name ominous to Kings there wanted not examples as of him of England and him of France and fancying somewhat of the felicity of those two former Roberts was crowned King by the name of ROBERT the III. This man being unactive the weight of the Government rested upon his Brother Robert The first seven years of his Reign past in a calm with England by reason of two Truces but not without some fierce fewds among his Subjects one whereof was very memorable between Thomas Dunbar Earl of Murray and and James Lindsay Earl of Crawford and was most high insomuch that seeing the difficulty of reducing them he resolved to make this proposition to them That 300. of each side should try it by dint of Sword before the King the Conquered to be pardoned and the Conquerour advanced This being agreed on a place was appointed on the Northside of St. Johnstons but when they came to joyn battel there was one of one side missing whom when his party could not supply and none would relinquish the other a Tradesman stept out and for half a French Crown and promise of maintenance for his life filled up the company The fight was furious but none behaved himself more furiously than the Mercenary Champion who they say was the greatest cause of the Victory for of his side there remained ten grievously wounded the other party had but one left who not being wounded yet being unable to sustain the shock of the other threw himself into the Tey and escaped By this means the fiercest of two Clanns being cut off the remainder being headless were quiet Two years after the King in Parliament made his two Sons Dukes 1398 a title then first brought into Scotland Next year Richard the second of England being forced to resign Henry the fourth succeeded in the beginning of whose reign though the Truce was not ended the seeds of War began to bloom out and upon this occasion George Earl of March had betrothed Elizabeth his Daughter to David the Kings eldest Son Archibald Earl of Dowglass not brooking this gets a vote of Parliament for revocation of this marriage and by the power of Robert the Kings Brother made a marriage between Mary his Daughter and David and giving a greater sum got it confirmed in Parliament The Earl of March nettled at this demands redress but being not heard leaves the Court and with his Family and Friends goes into England to the Lord Percy an utter Enemy of the Dowglasses wast 's March and especially depredating the lands of the Dowglasses The Scots declare the Earl of March an Enemy and send to demand him up of the English who deny to surrender him This made Hot-spur Percy and March make several incursions into Scotland till at last they were repulsed at Linton-Bridge by the Dowglasses 1400. This was about the year four hundred at which time War was denounced and the English entred with a great Army took Haddington and Lieth and laid siege to Edinburgh Castle David the Kings Son being within it which the new Governour ambitiously delaying to relieve the English satisfied with the terrour they brought retired again After which March did not cease his little incursions which to be revenged of Dowglass divided his Forces into two Squadrons the first to Halyburton who returned from Barmborough with some prey the second and greater to Patrick Hepburn who unwarily roving with his prey was set on by the English and with all the youth of Lothian put to the Sword To revenge this Dowglass gets together 10000. men and passing beyond Newcastle met with young Percy c. who at Homildon a little village in Northumberland in the year 1401. gave gave him and his Party such a considerable defeat as Scotland had not receiv'd the like for a long time This put Percy in hope to reduce all beyond the Fryth but the troubles at home withdrew him from that design By this Annibal the Queen dying David her Son who by her means had been restrained broke out into his natural disorders and committed all kind of Rapine and Luxury Complaint being brought to his Father he commits him to his Brother the Governour whose secret design being to root out the off-spring the business was so ordered as that the young man was shut up in Falkland Castle to be starved which yet was for a while delayed one woman thrusting in some thin Oaten Cakes at a chink and another giving him milk out of her paps through a Trunck But both these being discovered the youth being forced to tear his own members died of a multiplied death which murder being whispered to the King and the King inquiring after it was so abused by the false representations of his Brother that grief and imprecations was all the relief he had left him as being now retired sickly to Bote-Castle and unable to punish him The King being solicitous of James his younger Son is resolved by the example of the good usage of David to send him to Charles the Sixth of France and having taken Shipping at the Basse as he past by the Promontory of Flamborough whether forc'd by tempest or that he was Sea-sick he was forc'd to land taken by the English and detained notwithstanding the allegation of a Truce of eight years and his Fathers Letters And though it came to the Privy Council to be debated yet his detention was carried in the Affirmative This advantage he had by his Captivity that he was well and carefully educated but the News so struck his Father that he had almost presently died but being carried into his Chamber with voluntary abstinence and sorrow he shortned his life three days longer viz. to the first of April 1406. He was a man of a goodly and a comely personage one rather fit for the tranquillity of a private life than the agitations of Royalty and indeed such an one whose Reigns do little else but fill up Chronologies with the number of their years Upon this the Parliament confirm Robert for Governour a man of parts able enough for that employment but
Aberdeen Alexander Cornwall Arch-Dean of Lothian These coming to London were graciously received by the State and severally entertained by King James and so many friends as either his Alliance or Virtues had acquired After some few days stay desiring to have audience in Counsel they were admitted where Bishop Lightoun is said to have spoken to this effect The respect and reverence which the Nation of the Scots carryeth toward all Kings is all where known but most that love and loyalty which they have to the sacred Persons of their own native Princes for as Monarchy is the most ancient form of Government so have they ever esteemed it the best it being more easie to find one instructed and trained up in heroical virtues than to find many And how well soever Governours and Vice-Gerents rule the Commmon-wealth yet is that Government but as the light of the Moon or stars in absence of the Sun and but representations of shadows for real Bodies This hath moved the three estates of that Kingdom to direct us here unto you Our King these many years hath been kept from us upon just or unjust Grounds we will not argue that providence which hath appointed every thing to its own end hath done this for the best both to you and us and we are now to treat with you for his Delivery Beseeching you to remember that his Father of Sacred memory recommended him out of that general duty which one Prince oweth to another to your Kings Protection in hope of Sanctuary and in request of aid and comfort against secret and therefore the more dangerous Enemies And to confess the Truth hitherto he hath heen more assured amongst you than if he had remained in his own Countrey your favours being many ways extended towards him having in all liberal Sciences and vertues brought him up That his abode with you seemeth rather to have been a remaining in an Academy then in any Captivity and thus he had been lost if he had not been lost Besides tho we have the happiness to claim his Birth and Stem ye have the claim of his Succession and Education He being now matched with the Royal Blood of England in Marriage Thus his Liberty which we entreat for is a benefit to your selves and those Princes which shall claim the descent of his off-spring For if it should fall forth as what may not by the variable changes of Kingdomes come to pass that this Prince by Usurpers and Rebels were disgarnished of his own Crown they are your Swords which should brandish to set him on his Royal throne We expect that as ye have many ways rendred him yours ye will not refuse to engage Him yet more by his Liberty which he must acknowledge wholly and freely to receive from you and by benefits and love to overcome a King is more than by force of Arms. And since he was not your Prisoner by chance of War having never raised Arms against you but by way of Protection detained here and entertained so ye will respecting your ancient honour and Generosity send him freely back to his own yet if it be so that ye will have acknowledgment for what ye have bestowed on his education the distress of the present estate of his Subjects and Crown considered We will not stand upon trifles of Money for the Redemption of a Prince above all price The Lords of the Council were diverse ways inclined to this Embassie some thought it not fit to dismiss him For his remaining in England seemed the more to assure the kingdom of Scotland unto them having the King and his children in their custody what dared they not enterprise or not bring to pass Or if Scotland should plot any thing by way of Rebellion the King having his party within the Realm by the assistance of the English would keep under the other Factions and thus the Estate by both being made weak it would be a fair breach for a Conquest and the annexing that Kingdom to the Crown of England That he knew too much of the Estate and affairs of England to be sent away to a Nation ever their enemies That being at liberty and amongst his own he might resent the injury of his long restraint Others of the Council thought it best to dismiss him They had learned by experience that the keeping of the King of the Scots hindered no ways the Scots from assisting the French yea rather that it did exasperate their choler and make them in Revenge addict themselves wholly to the French the Governour no ways keeping to the English and siding the French upon whom to be revenged they could find no surer way than to set at liberty the King whose return of necessity must needs change the face of the State and trouble him As for the conquest of the Crown of Scotland it was not at that time of such moment for England they having the most part of France in their Subjection which was as much if not more as they could hold then it would prove a more harmless and sure purchase to make Scotland theirs by the Succession of Lady Jane of Somerset than by war the event whereof is ever doubtful and beyond any assurance of Man The Liberty of the King of Scots might prevent the encreasing strength of the Kings Enemies in France and secure the Peace and tranquillity of the Common-wealth at home King James being all English by education if he proved not of their Party yet he must prove neutral to both the Kingdoms Henry the sixth then King of England being of under-age was governed by his three Uncles of his Fathers side Humphrey Duke of Glocester who was made Protector of his Person and Realm John Duke of Bedford who was established Regent of France and Thomas Duke of Excester But Henry Beaufoord Cardinal Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England a man eminent in Blood and Riches Uncle to the Lady Jane in effect governed all These gave way rather then approved that the King of Scots should be set at liberty and sent home And though they would have dismissed him freely in respect of the Dowry of his Queen which was not delivered having use of present moneys for the maintenance of the Wars in France and the more to cover the injustice of his Captivity they thought it expedient to set a Ransom upon him The Commissioners having met it was declared that for a sufficient sum of moneys their King might return and enjoy his own Liberty the one half to be paid in hand able Hostages remaining in England till the other half was fully discharged The Ransom agreed upon was four hundred thousand Marks but by the power of the Cardinal the third was discharged for which he was long after accused before the King by the Duke of Glocester The Governour and Estate of Scotland having known the sum laid upon them for the Liberty of the King though the hasty acquiring of it was grievous unto them preferring Glory
had not yet heard the names of any but most the Army by reason of the Nobility many of which who liked not the present form of Government were irritated against him Were the Conspiracy a Rebellion and in general by them all they were ready in Arms to maintain their Factions and if upon suspicion the King should attach any being secretly joyned in a League He could hardly have medled with their persons without a Civil War which in regard of his Engagement with England he endeavoured to spare perplexed pensive sad he cometh to Perth stayeth in the Covent of the Dominicans named the Black-friers a place not far from the Town Wall endeavouring so secretly as was possible to find out the Conspiracy But his close practising was not unknown to the Conspirators as that there was more peril to resolve than execute a Treason a distance of time between the Plot and execution discovering and overthrowing the enterprise Hereupon they determine to hazard on the mischief before tryal or remedy could be thought upon The Conspirators were Robert Graham Uncle and Tutor to Miles Graham Robert Stuart Nephew to Walter Earl of Athol and one of the Kings sworn Domesticks But he who gave motion to all was the Earl of Athol himself the Kings Fathers Brother whose quarrel was no less then a pretended title and claim to the Crown which he formed and alledged thus His Brother David and he were procreated by King Robert the Second on his first Wife Eupheme Ross daughter to the Earl of Ross and therefore ought and should have been preferred to the succession of the Crown before King John named Robert and all the Race of Elizabeth Moor who was but his second wife and next them but Heirs to King Robert the second They were the eldest sons of King Robert after he was King John and Robert being born when he was but in a private State and Earl of Strathern for it would appear that as a Son born after his Father hath lost his Kingdom is not esteemed for the Son of a King so neither he that is born before the Father be a King These reasons he thought sufficient the King taken away to set him in the room of State But considered not how sacred the name of a King is to the Scots Nation how a Crown once worn quite taketh away what defects soever and that it was not easie to divest a King in present possession of a Crown who had his right from his Father and Grandfather with the Authority of a Parliament approving his Descent and secluding all other less came it in his thought that those children are Legitimate and lawful which cannot be thrust back and rejected without troubling the common Peace of the Country and opening Gates to Forreign Invasions Domestical disturbances and all disorders with an unsetled course of Succession the common Errour making the Right or Law Athol animated by the Oracle of a Sooth-sayer of his Highland Country who had assured him he should be crowned in a Solemn Assembly before his Death never gave over his hopes of obtaining the Crown and being inferiour and weak in power and faction to the other Brothers to compass his designs he betaketh himself to treacherous devices It was not in his power to ruine so many at once for mischief required there should be distance between so many bloody Acts therefore he layeth his course for the taking away of his kindred one by another at leasure he soweth jealousies entertaineth discords maintaineth factions amongst them by his counsel David Duke of Rothesay the Kings eldest Brother was famished in the Tower of Falkland neither had James then a child escaped his treachery if far off in England he had not been preserved He perswaded the Earl of Fife that making out of the way the King his Brother he should put the Crown on his own head He trafficked the return of King James and he being come he plotted the overthrow of Duke Mordock by fit Instrument for such a business proving the Crimes laid against him in the Attaindor he himself sat Judge against him and his Children Thus stirring one of the Kinsmen against another he so enfeebled the Race of Elizabeth Moor that of a numerous off-spring there only remained James and his Son a childe not yet six years of Age upon whose Sepulchers building his designs with a small alteration of the State he thought it an easie step to the Crown Robert Graham had been long imprisoned at last released but being a man implacable once offended and cruel whom neither business could oblige nor dangers make wise an enemy to Peace Factious and Ambitious alike by many wicked Plots afterwards and Crimes against the Laws of the Country driven to an Out-lawry and to live as banished he had ever a male-talent against the King since the adjudging of the Earldom of Strathern from his Nephew Miles Robert Stuart was very familiar with the King and his access to his Chamber and Person advanced the Enterprise being a riotous young man gaping after great matters neither respecting Faith nor Fame and daring attempt any thing for the accomplishing of his own foolish hopes and his Grandfathers aims and ambition These having associated unto them the most audacious whom either fear of punishment for their misdeeds or hopes of preferment by a change of the Government would plunge into any enterprise in the moneth of February so secretly as was possible assembled together where the Earl spake to this sense unto them These engagements which every one of you have to another and which I have to every one of you founded on the strongest grounds of consanguinity friendship interest of committed and received wrongs move me freely here to reveal my secret drifts and discover the depths of my hidden purposes and counsels The strange Tragedies which in the State and Government have been enacted since the coming of this English man to the Crown are to none of you unknown Mordock with his children hath been beheaded the Earl of Lenox his Father in Law had that same end the Nobility repine at the Government of their King the King is in jealousie of his Nobles the Commons are in way of rebellion These all have been the effects of my far-mining Policies And hitherto they have fallen forth as fortunately as they were ingeniously Plotted For what more ingenious and cunning Stratagem could be projected to decline the rank growth of these Usurpers then to take them away by handles made of their own Timber And if there was any wrong in such proceedings in small matters wrong must be done that justice and equity may be performed in great My fear was and yet is that the taking down of the Scaffold of Mordock should be the putting up of ours Crowns suffer no corrivals the world knows and he himself is conscious to it that the right and title of the Crown by descent of blood from Robert the second my Father was in the
of Fortune the blame of her unlawful Wedlock laid upon the Earl consented to by her out of a certain fear of her life submitted her self to the Kings Clemency The King who denied not mercy to any that sought it of him that the less guilty amongst the seditious might withdraw themselves and the obstinate remain the less powerful and weak receiveth her and giveth her in Marriage to his Brother John Earl of Athol son to the Black Knight of Lorne designing for her Dowry the Lordship of Balveny By her example the Countess of Ross abhorring the fierceness and cruelties as she gave out of her barbarous Husband but rather out of policy to be an Agent for him flyeth to the King and hath Revenues allowed her for the maintenance of her Estate Not long after the Earl of Ross himself the misadventure of his Confederates having taught him now some wisdom having seen the Kings Clemency towards others equal to him in Treason and Rebellion by many humble supplications craved pardon and begged peace The King by his great prudence and the course of the affairs of his Kingdom knew that it was necessary sometimes to condescend to the imperfections and faults of some Subjects and having compassion apply and accomodate himself to that which though according to the strictness of equity was not due yet for the present occasion and reason of State was convenient answered he would neither altogether pardon him nor flatly reject him there being many signs of his wickedness few of his changed mind when honestly without fraud or guile he should crave a Pardon and give satisfaction to those whom by blood and pillage he had wronged and by some noble action deface the remembrance of his former crimes then should it be good time to receive him Notwithstanding this should not discourage him but he should know he had a desire to make him relish the effects of his bounty so he himself would find the means and subject In this interim he wished him to keep the common peace of the Country and not oppress any of his Neighbours About this time the University of Glasgow was founded by William Turnbul Bishop of that See William Hay Earl of Arrol George Creightoun Earl of Caithness William Lord Creightoun died One thousand four hundred fifty five and the Bishop of St. Andrews is made Chancellour The King partly having loosed partly cut in pieces that Gordian knot of the League of his Nobility began to reobtain again the ancient Authority of the Kings his Predecessours giving and imposing Laws to his Subjects according to reason and greatest conveniences Shortly progressing through the Quarters of the kingdom by the sound counsel and instructions of the Bishop of St. Andrews James Kennedy and William Saintclare Earl of Orknay used such clemency that in a short time he reclaimed all his turbulent subjects In the year One thousand four hundred fifty five he held a Parliament where he ratified what was resolved upon to be done for the peace and weal of his People establishing many profitable Laws for the posterity after this time Embassadors came from England and France unto him Henry the sixth King of England a soft facile Prince and more fit to obey than command having restored in blood and allowed the descent of Richard Plantagenet Duke of York the Duke under pretence and countenance of reforming the State and removing of bad Counsellors from the Court the umbrage of all Rebellions by one Jack Cade an Irish a bold man and who had a Spirit which did not correspond with his low condition who feigned himself to be a Cousin of his of the House of Mortimer and other his Instruments raised a Rebellion which began amongst the Kentish-men and was after continued by his Confederacy with the Duke of Norfolk Earls of Warwick Salisbury Devon and others and notwithstanding he had sworn fealty to King Henry at Blackheath again openly took arms gainst him at St. Albans where in pitched field Edmond Duke of Somerset his greatest Competitor and who had been preferred to his place in the Regency of France was killed the King wounded taken and committed to the Tower of London At a Parliament after the Duke is made Protector of the Kingdom at another Parliament he maketh claim for the Crown as in his own Right laying down thus his Title The Son of Ann Mortimer Daughter and Heir to Roger Mortimer Earl of March Son and Heir of Philip the Daughter and sole Heir of Lionel Duke of Clarence the third Son of King Edward the Third and elder Brother to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster is to be preferred by very good right in Succession of the Crown before the Children of John of Gaunt the fourth Son of the said Edward the Third but Richard Plantagenet Duke of York is come of Philip the Daughter and sole Heir of Lionel Third Son to King Edward the Third then to be preferred to the Children of the fourth Son who was John of Gaunt and so to Henry the Fourth the Usurper his Son to Henry stiling himself Henry the Fifth his Son and Henry the Sixth now wrongfully calling himself King of England This Parliament chosen to the Duke of Yorks own mind at first various at last unanimously enacted that Henry during his life should retain the Name and Honour of a King but that the Duke of York should be continued Protector of the Country and be declared Heir apparent and Successor of the Crown after the death of Henry Margaret the Queen Daughter to Rheny King of Sicily more couragious than her Husband disclaimeth the Parliamentary Authority and this Agreement of her King with the Duke of York as a matter done to the prejudice of her Son and against the Laws of Nations which admit not of a forced Contract and done by a Prisoner The Crown of England hanging at this point the Queen to her defence imploring the aid and assistance of her best greatest Friends and Allies sendeth Embassadors to King James These remembring the duties one King oweth to another against Rebels and the Usurpers of their Crowns the correspondency and amity of King Henry with King James during his posterity expostulating the cruelty of the Rebels against Edmond the late Duke of Somerset Uncle to King James slain by them in defence of his Prince promise in their Kings Name Queens and their Sons with the approbation of the Noble-men of their Party to restore to the Kings of Scotland the Lands of Northumberland Cumberland and Bishoprick of Durham after the manner the Kings of Scotland in former times had held these Territories of the Kings of England so he would raise an Army and advance to their aid and supply The Duke of York sent hither also his Embassadors giving in many complaints against King Henry he had oppressed the people with taxations and all kinds of exactations he had preferred to places of State and Government new men by whose counsel and his Queen he governed
only he despised the old Nobility he had lost Normandy and Gascony as France had been lost by him England was likely to run the same danger They could not longer suffer his dull sluggishness and his Wifes exorbitant pride he was courageless in War and base in Peace For the Duke of York if Justice did not warrant his Claim except his Descent were undisputable and his Title without all exception he would not desire the possession nor succession of the Crown King James should remember it was King Henry who entertained the late Dissentions and civil Discords of Scotland he supported the banished Scots in England and after they had much enlarged their discourse with reasons of a just War against King Henry if King James will arise in arms against him and assist them They promise to restore and render all the Forts and places of importance taken in the old Wars from the Kingdom of Scotland to him and his Successors King James answered the English Embassadors That he was not ignorant of the State of their Kingdom neither to whom the Crown did appertain but that he would not take upon him to be Umpire of their strife for the raising an Army he would think upon it though he had small assurance for the performance of their promised conditions he had long projected the recovering of the lost Fortresses of Scotland in their hands and now he would try whom he might trust The Embassadors dismissed the King raised an Army but left to the Divination of the Posterity which of the Parties he was to side The English and French Writers affirm he was to aid King Henry and revenge the death of the Duke of Somerset his Mothers Brother the Scotish to assist the Duke of York and that by a counterfeit Legate from the Pope after he had been upon his March he was moved to return It seemeth persuaded by the French King the ancient Confederate of Scotland and who for that end had sent his Embassador to keep the English within their own Country and disable them in their Conquest of France he intended upon the advantage of this Civil discord to make a rode in England as the French made an Algarad by Sea upon Kent The Kings Army being gathered that it should not loyter in idleness attending greater intelligence from the event of the English Factions having passed the Tweed invadeth the Town of Roxburgh which with little travel is taken and equalled with the Ground the Castle a strong Fortress is besieged Whilst the King here passeth the time inviting it more by courtesies and blandishments than Amunition and Warlike Engines to be rendred to him Commissioners come from the Duke of York requiring him to leave his Siege and contain himself within his own Kingdom unless he would run the hazard to engage himself in a War against the whole Body of the Kingdom of England they give him thanks for his forwardness to their supply all things succeeding after their desires now and as they could have wished they request him to return home when their necessity required his aid they would implore it and not prove forgetful for what he should do towards him King James asked the Commissioners if the Duke of York and his Associates had sent any direction concerning the keeping of their promises to him when he should appear with an Army They assuring him they had no such Commission I answered the King before their Embassie came had resolved to take in and throw down this Castle builded upon my bounds and being by no benefit obliged to any of your Factions will not for words leave off what I am about by Arms to perform The Commissioners departing the King caused apply his Battery against the Castle which couragiously defended it self and holding good beyond expectation bred an opinion that Famine would be the only Engine to make it render The Kings Army daily at this Siege encreased and amongst all the Companies none were more forward and prompt to discharge their duties in this Service then those of the late League with the Earl of Dowglass above others the Earl of Ross to testifie his remembrance of the Kings clemency in his behalf with a great company of his Irish came to the Camp men only fit for tumultuous fights and spoil Alexander Earl of Huntley coming the King with the Earl of Anguss would take a view of the Trenches and as to welcome a man whose presence seemed to presage good Fortune caused discharge a pale of Ordinance together but his coming to this place was as fatal as at Sterlin prosperous For at this Salve by the slices of an over-charged piece or wedge the King his Thigh-bone broken was striken immediately dead and the Earl of Anguss was sore bruised This misfortune happened the third of August the Twenty ninth or as others the Thirtieth of the Kings life of his Raign Twenty four the year One thousand four hundred sixty Who will take a fair view of this Prince shall find him to have been endowed with what conditions and qualities are to be desired or wished in a Monarch both for mind and body of an excellent feature and pleasant aspect astrong vigorous complexion given to all Knightly exercises He is said to have had a broad red spot upon one of his cheeks from which by his Country-men he was named James with the fiery face which would make Physiognomists conceive he was of an hot active violent disposition and one who had more need of restraint than encouragement in all difficulties yet in his actions we find him temperate stayed and of a well setled humor proceeding upon sound grounds and after mature deliberation being much given to follow the advice and counsel of grave men about him He was upright sincere affable courteous loving to his Domesticks human towards his Enemies gracious and benign to all men a lover of Justice liberal but without oppression of his loyal Subjects wise in adversity industrious and diligent politick in affairs of State having always raised up one Faction to relieve him from the hazard and burthen of another and expose the Faction he most feared to the nearest hazard He was wisely diffident and put on a judicial distrust often to be governed as occasions should vary and could dissimulate according to the fashions and changes of the time He seemeth to have been indifferent in keeping his Favorites and that he could ever as well transfer his fancy as he had setled his affection For like the Sun he would make a round and not always shine upon the Horizon The death of the two Earls of Dowglass were fatal to him and though he was innocent of the first the second chanced deservedly in his hand Couragious Princes are not to be provoked by any Subject how great soever Confederations and Leagues are fearful attempts against Soveraignty and for the most part end with the ruine of their Authors The extirpation of the Earls of Dowglass in the person
with his Queen his Son and the remainder of his dispersed friends secured himself by flight into Scotland James Kennedy Bishop of Saint Andrews to whose person the Authority of the State was then reduced received him with Magnificence and Honour and put him in hopes by the Assistance of Scotland to restore his fortune King Henry as well to reserve some Refuge and Sanctuary for himself as to win the heart and insinuate himself in the favour of the People of Scotland caused render the Town of Berwick to them which the English had violently possessed since the days of Edward the First For which favour the Scottish Nobility vowed at all times to come to his supply and defend him to their uttermost and that the friendship begun might continue without all vacillation the Queens of Scotland and England both descended of the French Race began to treat of an Alliance promising Edward Prince of Wales should be married with the Lady Margaret the King of Scotlands Sister none of them then having attained the years of Marriage The miseries of King Henry encreasing suffered not these two Queens to stay long together Margaret with her Son Edward to implore the aid of her Friends maketh a Voyage towards France to her Father Rhene King of Sicily Naples and Jerusalem Duke of Anjou a Prince large of Titles short of Power These who had followed King Henry into Scotland whilest he is left only intentive to devotion in the Cloyster of the Gray-Fryers at Edenburgh return back again to solicite their Friends in England for a second rencounter Upon the arrival of Queen Margaret in France she obtaineth of her cousin Lewis the Eleventh that those who favoured and assisted the Duke of York were prohibited Traffique and commanded to remove out of the French Dominions and that Five hundred Soldiers should come to her aid a number so small and so unworthy the name of an Army that it was but a competent retinue for so great a Princess with these she came to the coast of Scotland and from thence sailed to Tinmouth where being impulsed by the Inhabitants and forced again to put to Sea she was by a furious Tempest driven to Berwick Here leaving the Prince her Son Edward with the encrease and supply of some Scots taking the King her Husband with her she advanced into the Bishoprick of Durham in her march through Northumberland her Army encreased to a great number The Duke of Somerset Sir Ralph Piercy and divers of King Henrys well-wishers having resorted unto her King Edward finding King Henry by the fresh air of the North to have acquired new Spirits prepareth to oppose him and having sent down the Lord Mountague Brother to the Earl of Warwick he himself with greater Forces shortly followed Mountague having through the Shires where he went and the Bishoprick of Durham gathered a convenient Army marched directly against King Henry In the mean time Henry Beaufort Duke of Somerset the Lords Hungerford Ross Moulines Sir Ralph Piercy present themselves to hinder his further progress They are overthrown and King Henry with great difficulty escapeth to Berwick At the news of this overthrow King Edward being in his March towards Durham finding the presence of his Person or Army needless turned towards York and gave the Earl of Warwick command to take in all the Castles and Fortresses which as yet held good for King Henry in the North. Amongst the Garrisons placed in Northumberland by the Queen there was a Garrison of the French in the Castle of Anwick under the Command of Peter Bruce otherwise named le Seigneur de la Varoune Seneschal of Normandy which held long good against the English This Peter Bruce was in great account with Charles the Seventh Father to Lewis the Eleventh and for this was not much liked of Lewis but sent over with Queen Margaret to make wrack upon apparent dangers having escaped Tempests at Sea he took the Castles of Bambrough and Dunstanbrough which he demolished After he essayed to keep the Castle of Anwick but the Earl of Warwick King Edward lying near to Durham there beleagured him Whether this man came from the Race of the Bruces of Scotland or no is uncertain for the vulgar Writers in this detract him naming him Bryce and a Breton or that the Scots would give a proof of their friendship to the Queen of England and of their valour to the French whilst he is every where beset and near past hope of relief the Earl of Anguss then Warden of the Marshes raised a Power of twenty three thousand horse-men remarkable for their Valour These about the midst of the day coming near the Castle of Anwick and by their colours and arms being known a far to Captain Bruce he taketh a resolution to sally out and meet them the strongest of the Scottish Horsemen receiving them convoy them safely to their Borders some of the Besiegers would have fought in the pursuit but the English General gave him fair passage King Edward having taken all the Castles and Forts which in the North held out against him placing Garrisons in them returned to London as King Henry void both of counsel and courage came back to Edenburgh Here he had not long stayed when tired with the tediousness of his exile the prolonging of a wretched life being more grievous to him than death it self and allured by false hopes of his Friends he resolveth to hazard upon a return to his own Kingdom his Crown lost all his Favorers and well-wishers almost slaughtered he cometh into England then disguised and by night journies shifting from place to place at last betrayed by some of his Servants he is found out It is recorded a Son of Sir Edward Talbots apprehended him as he sate at Dinner at Wadding Town-hall and like a Common Malefactor with his Legs under the horse belly guarded him up towards London By the way the Earl of Warwick met him who led him Prisoner to the Tower Margaret his desolate Queen with her Son is driven once again to flie to their Father Rhene into France King Edward his Competitors all dead or suppressed finding a Cessation of Arms expedient and a breathing time from War to settle and make sure his new Government as to other his neighbour Princes for Peace sendeth Embassadors to Scotland to treat for a Truce for some years The Earl of Argile Bishop of Glasgow Abbot of Holy-rood-house Sir Alexander Boyd Sir William Cranstoun being chosen to this effect Commissioners come to York and the English Commissioners there attending them a Truce for fifteen years is agreed upon and solemnly by both Kings after confirmed Mary Queen of Scotland daughter to Arnold Duke of Gilders and mother to King James the projected Marriage of her Daughter with Edward Prince of Wales by the miseries of King Henry and Queen Margaret her kinswoman proving desperate her Son Alexander either as he went to the Low-Countries to see his Grand-father or returned from him
and with great hopes sent home after which time King Edward and he kept always private Intelligence together The Duke being promoted to the keeping of the Castle of Dumbar and Town of Berwick the King of England to insinuate himself in his affection was wont to whisper unto such who loved him That if his Brother kept not fair with England he would one day set him in his Place upon his Royal Throne At this time the King was served by men whom his opinion of their worth and love towards him had advanced to places and whose Fortunes and Estates wholly depended upon his safety and who were less apt to do him harm His counsel was likewise of men approved for their affection to him and thus secluding great men from his familiarity and affairs he gave them cause of offence His brothers long masking their ambition under discontentment stir the Male-contents to complain against the Government which ordinarily falleth forth not because a people is not well governed but because great ones would govern themselves These upbraided the King with inglorious sloath and endeavour by his dishonour to encrease the credit of his Brothers These spared not to speak evil of him every where and what they pleased of his Ministers and Favourites they said he neither used rule nor moderation in his proceedings that his counsel was base and of men of no great account who consulted only to humour him That a Mason swayed a Kingdom this was Robert Cochranne a man couragious and bold first known to the King by his valour in a single Combat and after from an Architect or Surveyor of his buildings preferred to be of his counsel a silly wretch swayed the soul of a great King and curbed it as it were interdicted or charmed to his pleasure His contributions were the rewards of Parasites to whom fortune not merit gave growth and augmentation that honours wept over such base men who had not deserved them and the stately frames of ancient houses upbraided with reproaches the slender merits of those new-up-starts who enjoyed them that he began to look downwards into every sordid way of enriching himself That his Privadoes abused him in every thing but in nothing more than in making him believe what was plotting against them was against his Person and Authority and that it was not them his brothers and the Nobility sought to pull down but his Soveraignty His counsellors servants and such who loved him having long busied their wits to save their Masters reputation and that no shadow of weakness should appear to the common People understanding by whom these rumours were first spread abroad and observing many of the Nobility and Gentry to favour the proceedings of his brothers not daring disclose themselves to the King what their suspicions made them fear would come to pass knowing him naturally superstitious an admirer and believer of Divinations suborn an aged woman one morning as he went a hunting to approach him and tell she had by Divination that he should beware of his nearest kinsmen that from them his ruine was likely to come This was no sooner told when the Woman was shifted and some who were upon the Plot began to comment the Prophesie of his brothers A Professor of Physick for his skill in Divination brought from Germany and promoted to some Church-benefice about that same time told the King That in Scotland a Lyon should be devoured by his Whelps William Schevez then Archbishop of St. Andrews by way of Astrological predictions put him in a fear of imminent dangers from his kindred though truly he had his knowledge from Geomancy and good informations upon earth by the intelligence between the Nobility and Churchmen Many such like aspersions being laid upon the King the people cryed out that he had only for his fellow-companions Astrologers and Sooth-sayers whom as occasion served he preferred to the Church-benefices and Bishopricks Patrick Graham then Prisoner in Dumfermling a man desolate and forgotten as if there had not been such a man in the world taking the opportunity of the rumours of the time sent a Letter to the King which contained That the misery of his imprisonment was not so grievous unto him as the sad reports which he heard of his Majesties estate he was hardly brought to believe them but by his long detention and imprisonment he was assured his great enemy was in great credit with him That he had brought the King very low in making him jealous of his brothers by giving trust to his vain Divinations and no wonder these Arts bring forth dissentions which have their precepts from the father of lyes and discord to foment discord among brothers was reproachful to Religion and outragious to Policy to seek to know things to come by the Stars was great ignorance that Oracles leave a man in a wilderness of folly That there was no other difference betwixt Necromancy and Astrology saving that in one men run voluntarily to the Devil and in the other ignorantly Humanity attains not to the secrets above and if it did it is not wise enough to divert the wisdom of heaven which is not to be resisted but submitted unto that never any had recourse to these arts but they had fatal ends That almighty providence permitting that to befall them out of his justice of necessity which before the Oracle was sought was scarce contingent that he should rest upon the Almighties Providence and then all things would succeed well with him whose favors would wast him out of the surges of uncertainties After this free opening of his mind Patrick Graham was removed out of Dumfermling to the Castle of Loch-leven a place renowned long after by the imprisonment of Mary Queen of Scotland where in a short time he left the miseries of this world The people now throughly deceived and incensed against their King the most audacious of the Nobility had brought his brothers on the way of taking the Government to themselves their power being able to perform what their ambition projected and the murmuring of the people seeming to applaud any Insurrections The Earl of Marr young and rash purblind in foreseeing the events of things is stirred up to begin the Tragedy some of the Nobility of his Faction being present with more liberty than wisdom he broke out in menacing and undecent speeches as that his brother did wrong to his Majesty in keeping near him and being so familiar with such contemptible fellows as these of his Bed-chamber and Officers withal railing against the Government of the State and Court The King passionately resenting his words caused remove him From his presence and he persevering in his railing was committed to the Castle of Craigmillar where surmising that he was in a Prison his anger turned into a rage his rage kindled a Feaver and his Feaver advanced to a Phrensie This sickness encreasing that he might be more neer to the Court and his friends in the Night he is transported
all solemnity of greatness returned towards London being welcomed by the King with many demonstrations of great joy He to show how much he approved the conditions of this Peace went solemnly in procession from St. Stephens Chappel now the Parliament House accompanied with the Queen his Sister and a mighty retinue of the greatest Lords into Westminster Hall Where in presence of the Earl of Anguss the Lord Gray and Sir James Liddale Embassadors extraordinary from Scotland the Peace was Ratified At the return of the Scots Embassadors to their Country King Edward sent an Herauld with them who in his Masters name gave over the Marriage contracted between the Lady Cicilia and the Prince of Rothsay and required the money which had been delivered upon hopes of consummation to his King The Citizens of Edenburgh had given their Bond for the redelivery and a day being granted to them for the Payment they at the appointed day entirely delivered the sum Some thought King Edward recalled this Marriage of a suspicion he conceived that the Ambition of the Duke of Albany and the hatred of the Subjects against their King amidst the manifold distractions of the Realm might hazard the Succession of the Prince of Rothsay to the Crown But King Edward having gained what he had endeavoured most to acquire a division amongst the Nobles of Scotland and by this a Security from their assisting the French rejected the Match Besides the Duke of Gloucester who after his coming in Scotland was laying the Foundations of the Usurping the Crown of England his Brother once dead thought the Alliance of his Brothers Daughter with a King of Scotland too strong a Support to that Race which he was to declare Bastard and a Rock upon which he was confident he should make a fearful shipwrack Neither his Brothers daughter being married to a King of such martial and turbulent Subjects as the people of Scotland durst he ever attempt the taking away of her Brothers and King Edward in neglect of this Match committed a greater error of State than he did in his marrying the Lady Elizabeth Gray and forsaking the Lady Bona Daughter to the Duke of Savoy According to the Records of some Authors whilst the King is kept nine Months in the Castle of Edenburgh the Duke of Albany the Lord Evandale Chancellour the Earl of Arguile the Arch-bishop of St. Andrews the Earl of Athol his Uncle who for the preservation of his person and honour of his Office accepted the charge to attend him in that Fortress govern'd the State The King say the honest Records had all honour which appertained to a Prince save that he could not come abroad and none was permitted to speak unto him except in the audience of some one of his Lords Keepers and that his Chamber doors were shut before the setting of the Sun and long after the rising opened Proclamations were Publisht in his Name and Authority and other publick Writings Such who only heard of him could not but take him to be a free and absolute Prince when near he was but a King in phantasie and his Throne but a Picture the Regal Authority being turned into a Cloak to cover the Passions of those who did govern The Duke of Albany daily importuned by the solicitations Prayers and tears of the Queen a calm and temperate Lady for her Husbands Liberty finding himself not so respected by the other Governours as his Birth and merits did deserve being a man who delighted in nothing more than in changes and novations of Court and State after so many scorns and rebukes offered to his Brother and King commiserating his long sufferance and believing that good turns would make past offences be forgotten and recent benefits were sufficient to blot away old injuries with all remembrance of former discontents whilst the other Governours at Sterling securely passed the time posted in the Night to Edenburgh Here a meeting being appointed of some of his Friends and Vassals who knew nothing of his intentions by the assistance of the Citizens of Edenburgh men entirely loving their King and devoted to him all the time of the Insurrection of his Nobles who gave the first assault yet was it rather their intelligence than Force the Castle is surprized the King and all his Servants set at liberty This unexpected and noble Act of the Duke of Albany having so fortunate a success brought a mighty change on the Court and State The King is now again reinstall'd and hath this Residence in his own Palace to which many Noblemen and Gentlemen have frequent concourse rejoycing to see such evident tokens of love pass between the two Brothers if their affection could have continued The Provost and Baylies of Edenburgh in recompence of their Service were made Sheriffs within all the bounds of their own Territories and rewarded with other Priviledges contained in that Patent which they call their Golden Charter One thousand four hundred eighty two The Lords of the contrary Faction who remained at Sterlin by this new accident betook themselves to new thoughts and considerations every man full of fears and repinings flying to his own dwelling place and conceiving a great hatred against the Duke of Albany They said he was inconstant rash mad in setting at liberty the man who would prove his Executioner and one who would never forget any profer'd injury that if he perished before them it was but his own just deserving and procurement The Duke contemning those reproaches and answering their calumnies and evil words with patience and good deeds by the mediation of the Earl of Anguss studied a reconciliation between the King and his discontented Lords And his endeavours had such good success that in a short time after this Atonement some of them turned so familiar and inward with the King that like the Ivy they began to sap the wall by which they had been supported They made the wound of the Kings old jealousies ranckle again and added poyson to former discontents remembring him of the unnaturalness of his Brothers first Rebellion and assuring him that his ancient Ambition had yet more power of him than his new fears of honesty and respect That howsoever he shewed outwardly the arguments of a reconciled Brother he loved yet to govern and aimed at the Crown That he had wrought his liberty to bring a greater confusion in the State than he had ever done before The King who ever had a watchful eye over his reconciled enemies and who desired to be freed and fairly quited of them all gave way to their calumnies And they after long deliberation resolve upon a Plot to bring the Duke within compass of Law and summoned him to answer upon Treason And this was the rendring of the Town of Berwick to the English which they undertook to prove was only by his Intelligence procuration and being in company with the Duke of Gloucester in that expedition Though the Duke had an absolute and general Pardon and an
Queen in the Abby Church of Cambuskynneth buried his body This King concerning his personage was of a Stature higher than ordinary well proportioned his hair was black his visage was rather long than round approaching in colour more to those in the Southern than Northern Climates Concerning his conditions He was a Prince of an haughty and towring Spirit loved to govern alone affecting an absolute Power and Royal Perogative over his People He knew that Noblemen were of his Predecessours making as the coyn and why he might not put his stamp upon the same mettal or when these old Medals were defaced that he might not refound them and give them a new Print he thought no sufficient reason could be given His Reign seemeth a Theater spread over with mourning and stain'd with Blood where in a Revolution many Tragedies were acted Neither were the neighbour Kingdoms about in a calmer estate during his Reign France under Louys the Eleventh England under Henry the Sixth Edward the Fourth and Richard the Usurper Flanders and Holland under Charles the War-like Arnold Duke of Guilders was imprisoned by his own Son As if the heavenly Influences were sometimes all together set to produce upon this Ball of the Earth nothing but Conspiracies Treasons Troubles and for the wickedness of the Inhabitants to deprive them of all rest and contentment This King is by the most condemned as a rash imprudent dangerous Prince good People make good Kings when a People run directly to oppose the Authority of their Soveraign and assume Rebellion and arrogancy for obedience resisting his fairest motions and most profitable commandments if a King be Martial in a short time they are beaten and brought under If he be politick prudent and foreseeing in a longer time as wild Dear they are surprized and either brought back to their first order and condition or thrall'd to greater miseries If he be weak and suffer in his Reputation or State or Person by them the Prince who succeedeth is ordinarily the Revenger of his wrongs And all Conspiracies of Subjects if they prosper not in a high degree advance the Soveraignty This Prince seemeth not to have been naturally evil inclined but to have been constrained to leave his natural inclination and necessitate to run upon Precipices and dangers his turbulent Subjects never suffering him to have rest Many Princes who in the beginning of their Reigns have been admired for their fair Actions by the ingratitude of their Subjects have turn'd from one extremity to another and become their rebellious Subjects executioners He was provoked to do many things by the insolency of private men and what some call Tyranny and fierceness in a Prince is but just severity He sought to be feared believing it to be the only way to obedience It is true injuries took such deep impression in his mind that no after service could blot them away The taking away of his Favourites made him study revenge which if he had not done he had to much of the Stoical vertues little of the Heroical These who blame Princes under a pure and absolute Monarchy for having Favourites would have them inhumane base and contemptible and would deprive them of Power to confer favours according to the distinguishing power of their understanding and conceptions The choice a Prince maketh of men whom he advanceth to great imployments is not subject to any mans censure And were it bad yet ought it to be pass'd over if not approv'd least the discretion and judgment of the Prince be questioned and his Reputation wounded Favourites are shrines to shaddow Princes from their People Why should a people not allow a Prince some to whom he may unmask himself and discover the secrets of his Heart If his secrets should be imparted to many they would be no longer secrets Why should it be imposed on a Prince to love all his Subjects alike since he is not beloved of them all alike This is a desire to tyrannize over the affections of Princes whom men should reverence He seemeth too much to have delighted in retiredness and to have been a hater of business nor that he troubled himself with any but for formalities sake more desirous of quietness than Honour This was the fault of the Governours of his youth who put him off business of State that they might the more easily reach their own ends and by making him their shadow govern after their pleasure Of this delight in solitariness his Brothers took their advantage and wan the people to their observance He was much given to Buildings and trimming up of Chappels Halls and Gardens as usually are the lovers of Idleness and the rarest frames of Churches and Pallaces in Scotland were mostly raised about his time An humour which though it be allowable in men which have not much to do yet it is harmful in Princes As to be taken with admiration of Watches Clocks Dyals Automates Pictures Statues For the Art of Princes is to give Laws and govern their people with wisdom in peace and glory in war to spare the humble and prostrate the proud He is blam'd of Avarice yet there is no great matters Recorded of it save the encroaching upon the dealing and taking the giving to whom he pleased of Church Benefices which if he had liv'd in our times would have been held a vertue He was of a credulous Disposition and therefore easie to be abused which hath moved some to Record he was given to Divination and to inquire of future accidents which if it be credible was the fault of those times Edward the Fourth of England is said to have had that same fault and that by the misinterpretation of a Prophecy of a Necromancer which foretold that one the first Letter of whose name was G. should Usurp the Kingdom and dispossess the Children of King Edward he took away his Brother George Duke of Clarence which being really practised in England some Scottish Writers that a King of Scotland should not be inferiour to any of his Neighbour Princes in wickedness without grounds have recorded the same to have been done by this King his love was great to learned men he used as Counsellors in his important affairs John Ireland a Doctour of Divinity and one of the Sorbon in Paris made Archdeacon of St. Andrews Mr. Robert Blackadore whom he promoted to be Bishop of Glasgow Mr. William Elphinstoun whom of an Official or Commissary of Lothian he surrogated in the place of Mr. Robert Blackadore and made Bishop of Aberdeen and his faults either in Religion or Policy may be attributed to these and his other Counsellours Many have thought that the fatal Chariot of his Precipice was that he had equally offended Kindred Clergy Nobility and People But suppose this had been true why should such an horrible mischief have been devised as to arm his own Son against him and that neither the fear of Divine Justice the respect of Infamy with the present or after times
Princes testifying the same by the Letters which contained That Edward the eldest Son of Edward the Fourth who succeeded his Father in the Crown by the Name of Edward the Fifth was Murthered by Richard Duke of Gloucester their unnatural Uncle but Richard the younger Son his Brother by the Man who was employed to execute that Tragedy making report to the Tyrant that he had performed his command for both Brethren was saved and with speed and secrecy convoyed to Tourney there conceal'd and brought up by his Fathers Sister Margarite Dutches of Burgundy That King James should acknowledge this for Truth and friendly assist this young Man who was that very Richard Duke of York to recover his Inheritance now most unjustly Usurped and Possessed by Henry Tuder Earl of Richmond That the right of Kings extended not only to the safe preservation of their own but also to the Aid of all such Allies as change of time and State have often hurled down from Crowns to undergo an exercise of sufference in both fortunes and Kings should repossess Kings wrongfully put from their own As his Predecessors to whose royal vertues he was heir had repossessed Henry the Sixth King of England spoyled of his Kingdom and distressed by which Charity obliging all vertuous Princes unto him he should find ever as his own Maximilian of Bohemia Charles of France and Margarite Dutchess Dowager of Burgundy King James graciously receiving this young man told him That whatsoever he were he should not repent him of putting himself into his hands and from that time forth though many gave Informations against him as a counterfeit entertained him every way as a Prince embraced his quarrel and seiling both his own eyes and the eyes of the World he gave consent that this Duke should take to Wife Lady Katherine Gordoun daughter to the Earl of Huntley which some thought he did to increase the Factions of Perkins in England stir the discontented Subjects against King Henry and to encourage his own Subjects to side on his quarrel Not long after in person with this Duke of York in his Company who assured him of powerful Assistance he entred with an Army into Northumberland but not one Man coming to side with them the King turned his enterprize into a Road and after he had spoiled the Country returned to Scotland It is said that Perkin acting the part of a Prince handsomely where he saw the Scots pillaging and wasting of the Country came to the King and in a deplorable manner requested him to spare his afflicted people that no Crown was so dear to his Mind as that he desired to purchase it with the blood and ruine of his People whereunto King James answered He was ridiculously careful of an interest another man possessed and which perhaps was none of his The King of England who delighted more to draw treasure from his People than to hazard the spilling of their Blood to revenge the predatory war of the Scots and find out Perkin requireth a subsidy of his Subjects and though few believed he would follow so far a flying Hart he was Levying a puissant Army No sooner this Subsidy began to be collected amongst the Cornish-men when they began to grudge and murmur and afterwards rebelled which when it was understood of the King he retained the Forces raised for his own service and use In the mean time dispatching the Earl of Surrey to the North to attend the Scots incursions whilst the Cornish-men are in their March towards London King James again entred the Frontiers of England with an Army and besieged the Castle of Norham in person But understanding the Earl of Surrey was advancing with greater Forces loaden with spoil he returned back again the Earl of Surrey finding no Enemy sat down before the Castle of Aytoun which he took and soon after returned into England the cold season of the year with the unseasonableness of the weather driving away time invited a Treaty of Peace on both sides Amidst these turmoyls and unprofitable Incursions of the two Kingdoms Ferdinando and Isabella of Spain sent one Peter Hialas to treat a Marriage between Katherine one of their Daughters and Arthur Prince of Wales This Allyance being agreed upon and almost brought to perfection King Henry desirous of quietness and to have an end of all Debates especially these with Scotland communicateth his intentions to Hialas a man wise and learned and whom he thought able to be employed in such a Service for it stood not with his Reputation to sue unto his enemy for Peace But Hialas a stranger unto both as having direction from his Master for the Peace of Christian and Neighbour Princes might take upon him this Reconciliation Hialas accepteth the Embassage and coming to King James after he hid brought him to hearken to more safe and quiet Counsels wrote unto King Henry That he hoped that Peace might easily be concluded if he should find some wise and temperate Councellour of his own that might treat of the Conditions Whereupon the King directeth the Bishop of Duresm Richard Fox who at that time was at his Castle of Norham to confer with Hialas and they both to treat with some Commissioners deputed from King James The Commissioners of both sides meet at Jedbrough and dispute many Articles and conditions of Peace Restitution of the spoils taken by the Scottish or dammages for the same is desired but that was passed as a matter impossible to be performed An enterview in person at Newcastle is desired of both Kings which being referred to King James his own arbitrement he is reported to have answered that he meant to treat a Peace and not go a begging for it The breaking of the Peace for Perkin Warbeck is highly aggravated by the Bishop and he demanded to be deliver'd to the King of England That a Prince should not easily believe with the common people that Perkin was a Fiction and such an one that if a Poet had projected the Figure it could not have been done more to admiration than the House of York by the old Dutchess of Burgundy Sister to Edward the Fourth having first raised Lambert Simnel and at last this Perkin to personate Kings and seduce the People His Birth Education not resident in any one place proved him a Pageant King that he was a reproach to all Kings and a person not protected by the Law of Nations The Bishop of Glasgow answered for his Master That the love and Amity grounded upon a Common cause and universal Conclusion amongst Kings to defend one another was the main Foundation upon which King James had adventured to assist Edward Duke of York that he was no competent Judge of his Title he had received him as a Suppliant protected him as a Person fled for refuge espoused him with his Kinswoman and aided him with Arms upon the belief that he was a Prince that the People of Ireland Wales and many in England acknowledged him no less
Dunkell his Uncle to offer them what honourable satisfaction they could require All that he propounded being rejected by implacable men and finding the only way to be freed of violence to be violent and that danger could not be avoyded but by a greater danger with an hundred hardy resolute men armed with long Spears and Pikes which the Citizens as he traversed the Streats out of Windows furnished him he invested a part of the Town and barricadoed some Lanes with Carts and other impediments which the time did affrad The adverse party trusting to their number and the supply of the Citizens who calling to mind the slaughter of their Deacon shew them small favour disdaining the Earl should thus muster on the Streats in great fury invade him Whilst the bickering continued and the Town is in a Tumult William Dowglass brother to the Earl of Anguss Sir David Hume of Wedderburn George Hume brother to the late Lord with many others by blood and Friendship tyed together enter by violence the East Gate of the Town the Citizens making small resistance force their passage through the throngs seek the Earls enemies find them scoure the streets of them The Master of Montgomery eldest Son to the Earl of Eglintoun Sir Patrick Hamiltoun Brother to the Earl of Arran with almost fourscore more are left dead upon the place The Earl himself findeth an escape and place of retreat through a Marsh upon the North side of the Town The Chancellour and his retinue took Sanctuary in the Dominican Fryers the tumult by the slaughter of some and flight of others appeased the Earl of Anguss now freed of danger licensed all who pleased without further pursuit peaceably to leave the Town of Edenburgh and return to their own Houses Some daies after the Humes well banded and backed with many Nobles and Gentlemen of their linage by the Earl of Anguss consent took the Lord Humes and his brothers heads from the place where they had been fixt and with the funeral Rites of those times interr'd them in the Black-Fryers The Earl of Anguss having angled the Peoples hearts by his Magnificence Wisdom Courage and Liberality his Faction began to bear greatest sway in the Kingdom For the continuance of which the King of England dealt most earnestly with the French King to keep the Duke of Albany still in France with him But the French had contrary designâ— And when the Duke understood the great discords of the Nobility of Scotland persons of Faction being advanced to places dangerous immunities being granted to the Commons France and England beginning to be tyred of their Peace and preparing for a new War to curb the Scottish Factions keep the Nation in quietness in it self by giving the Subjects other Work abroad whilst common danger should break off particular Discords Notwithstanding of the English Ships which lay in wait to take him after he had been about five years in France in November he arrived on the West Coasts of Scotland at a place named Garloch The Governour coming to Edenburgh set himself to amend the enormities committed in his absence the Magistrates of the Town are deposed because in the late uproar they had been evil seconds to the Lords of the West when they went to surprise the Earl of Anguss A Parliament is called to which many Noblemen and Gentlemen are cited to make appearance in February to be tryed and to answer for offences committed by them in the Governours absence The appointed time being come these who appeared not were Indicted and fled into England Amongst which and the chief were the Humes and Cockburns men Authors and accessory to the death of Sir Anthony Darcy The tyde now turning and mens affections changed the Earl of Anguss with his Brother Sir George Dowglass by the Intercession of the Queen are constrained to seek a Pardon which was obtained for them but with the condition that they should leave the Country and stay in France one whole year which they obeyed Others have Recorded they were surprized in the Night and in French Ships conveyed privately away Mr. Gavin Dowglass Bishop of Dunkell in the absence of his Nephew finding the Governour violent in the Chase of the Faction of the Dowglasses fled privately to the Court of England where he gave informations to King Henry against him He alone had taken to him the custody of the young King the sequel whereof he much feared he was an irreconcilable Enemy to the whole Family of the Dowglasses The principal cause of his coming to Scotland was to engage the Nation in a War against England that the English should not assist the Emperour against the French King and make his Nation slaves to France This Bishop shortly after dyed at London and was buried in the Savoy Church having been a man Noble Valiant Learned and an excellent Poet as his Works yet extant testifie The King of England upon such informations sent Clarencieux King of Arms to Scotland to require the Duke to avoid the Country according to the Articles agreed upon between the French King and him in their last Truce It belonged said Clarencieux to his Master to tender the life wellfare honour fortunes of his Nephew of none of which he could be assured so long as the Duke ruled and stayed in Scotland It was against all reason and unbeseeming the man should be sole Guardian to a King who was the next heir to the Crown how easily might he be tempted by opportunity to commit the like unnatural cruelty which some have done in the like case both in England and other parts of Europe if he loved his Nation and Prince as he gave out he required him to leave the Country which if he yield not unto but obstinately continued in a resolution to stay he denounced from his Master present war He farther complained That the Earl of Anguss who was King Henries Brother-in-Law was by him banisht and detained in France That during the banishment of the Earl which had been near a whole year the Duke had importuned his Sister the Queen with dishonest love The Governour answered Clarencieux That what the Kings of France and England agreed upon in their Treaties of Peace was to him uncertain but of this he was most certain That neither the King of England nor France had power to banisht him a Foreiner over whom their authority did not reach his native Country like over like having no jurisdiction As concerning the King of Scotland who was yet young in years he reverenced him as his Soveraign Lord and would keep and defend both him and his Kingdom according to his Conscience honour and bound duty that there were ever more men in the world who desired to be Kings than there were Kingdoms to be bestowed upon them of which number he was none having ever preferred a mean estate justly enjoyed before a Kingdom evil acquired For the Earl of Anguss he had used all Courtesies towards him notwithstanding of
his evil demerits not for his own sake he did confess but for the Queens sake whom he honoured find respected as the Mother of his Prince and towards whom he should continue his Observance That the King of England needed not misdoubt he would attempt any thing should derogate from the honour of his Sister that complements of meer courtesie in France might be surmised sometimes by English Ladies to be solicitations and suits of Love For the War with which in case of his stay he threatned his nation he would use his best endeavours to set his in a posture of Defence When this answer was reported to King Henry he gathered a great Army to invade Scotland and essay if by their own dangers the Scots people could be moved to abandon and disclaim the Dukes authority Seven great Ships came to Inche-keeth and spoiled the adjacent Coasts all the Scots and French which did them inhabite London and other places of England were put ot their fines and commanded to go off the Country In compensation and for equal amends the French Kingseized all English mens goods in Bourdeaux imprisoned the persons and retained the money to be paid for the restitution of Tournay The Earl of Shrewsbury making incursions on the Borders burned the one half of Kelso and plundered the other At this time the Emperor Charles the fifth came to England and stirred King Henry to take arms against the French King and the French had sent Embassadours to Scotland intreating and conjuring the Scots by their old and new League to arise in arms and invade England The Governour assembled the three Estates at Edenburgh which together condescended to the raising of an Army to resist the incursions of the English and defend the Kingdom to encourage every man for fighting the Wards of those which should fall in this expedition were freely remitted and discharged by Act of Parliament and pensions designed to the Widdows and Daughters of those who dyed in this service This Empyrick balm could the French apply to cure the wounds of the Scottish Commonwealth The Earl of Shrewsbury advancing as was reported towards the west Borders an Army was far gathered and encamped on Rosline-moor which after according to the orders given marched to Annandale and forwards came to the Esk a River running in the Irish Seas neer Carlile the Governour delighted with the Seat and standing of the place caused dig Trenches and by the advice of certain French Gunners placed some Field Pieces and small Ordinance for defence of them and spread there his Pavilions The Citizens of Carlile terrified at the sudden approach of so powerful an Army offer many presents for the satety of their Towns which he rejected The English Army not minding to invade the Scots so long as they kept themselves on their own ground and advanced not the Governour endeavoured to make the Scots spoil the Country by incursions but he findeth them slack and unwilling to obey and follow him most part refusing to go upon English Ground amongst whom Alexander Lord Gordon was the chief and first man The Governour finding his command neglected and some Noble men dissenting from what he most intended cometh back to the place where they made their stand and desires a reason of their stay They told him they had determined to defend their own Country not invade England That it neither consisted with the weal of the Commonwealth nor as matters went at that time had they sufficient forces to make invasive War That the Governour did not instigate them to invade England for the love he carryed to Scotland but for a benefit to the French by invading they might make themselves a prey to their enemies they were Men and not Angels it was enough for them whilst their King was under age to defend his Kingdom from the violence of Foreigners Put the case they were in one battel victorious considering the slaughter and loss of their Nobles and Gentry in that purchase they might be overthrown in a second fight and then to what would the King and Country be reduced their last King might serve them for a pattern the Revenge of whose death should be delayed till he himself were of years to undertake it The Governour brought to an exigent said they should have propounded these difficulties before they took Arms and not on the place of Battel Temerity misbecame Noblemen in action but especially in matters of War in which a man cannot err twice At the convention of the three Estates when war was in deliberation they should have inquired for the causes of it he was not to bring them upon the danger of a war without their own consent The English had made many incursions upon their Country burning and ravaging who stand only upon defence stand upon no defence a better defence of their own Country could not be found than by invading the Country of their Enemies They should not be dejected for that accident at Flowden since it was not the fault of the Souldier but the Treason of their Chamberlain who had suffered for it That the glory of the Nation should raise their courages and inflame their bosoms with a desire of revenge The Kings honour and their piety towards the Ghosts of their Compatriots craved no less from them That if they would not invade England at least for their Reputation and Fame with the World they would pitch there a short time their Tents and try if the English would hazard to assail them That it would be an everlasting branding their honour if timorously in a suddenness they show their backs to their enemies and dared them not in the face by some daies stay The Queen though absent had thus persuaded the Noblemen and having understood the Governour to be turned now flexible she dispatched a Post to him requesting he would be pleased with a Truce for some Months and that he would commune with the Warden of the English Marches whom she should move to come to his Tent and treat with him The Governour finding he stood not well assured of some of his Army and knowing what a cumbersome task it was to withstand the the violence of their desires determined to follow their own current seemed well pleased to hearken to their opinion Hereupon the Lord Dacres Warden of the West Marches came unto the Governours Camp the eleventh of September and as some have recorded the Queen also where a Cessation of Arms was agreed unto for some daies in which time the Queen and the Governour should send Embassadours to treat for a Peace with King Henry and shortly after Embassadours were directed to the Court of England but returned without any good done King Henry demanding extraordinary and harmful conditions to the Realm of Scotland The year 1522. Andrew Forman Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews dyed and James Beatoun Arch-Bishop of Glasgow and Chancellour of the Kingdom came in his place of St. Andrews the ArchBishoprick of Glasgow was conferred upon
opposed by the Queen and Nobility he was likely to have lost himself and the whole Kingdom or revenged the death of his Cousen His courteous nature went above his ambition he could as well lay down his Honours as he had modestly when they were laid upon him received them Before the Rumor of the Duke of Albanies taking the Seas was spread abroad the King of England by secret Letters had required the Earl of Anguss who then an Exile staid in France to come to him after the receit of which with a short-leave taking he left France where he had staid almost three years cometh to England King Henry had brought him to believe That the Duke had determined to extirpate his whole Linnage To prevent which he made him offer of Men and Ammunition to preserve his own and by his faction at home and his assistance to send the Duke over Seas which if he had staied the Earl was esteemed powerful enough to have accomplished The Duke of Albany being in France the Queen with the Government of the State assumeth the person of her Son whom she moved to leave Sterlin and come to Edenburgh the third day after he had made his entry in the Town she lodg'd with him in the Maiden Castle and it seized on armed with authority she doubted not to make the Country yield her all obedience That the Supream Magistrate of the Town should not oppose her Designs he is put from his Office and the Lord Maxwell a man to her obsequious is substituted in his place To give the fairer lustre to her Actions a Parliament is called at Edenburgh that what she did might consist with Law When King Henry understood the Duke had left Scotland to exclude and bar him all regress he sent one Magnus a great Oratour but greater by the renown of his skill in the Laws with Roger Ratcliff his Embassadours to try how the Scots amidst unnecessary turmoils would rellish a Truce and Cessation of Arms and these lay the blame of all the disorders and discords between the two Nations upon the Duke The Nobles tyred with their tedious Wars beginning to espy a Haven of rest cheerfully accept of this Embassie and agreeunto a Truce for one whole year To confirm which they condescend Commissioners shall be dispatched instantly who shall treat not only for a Truce but for a firm and lasting Peace between the two Nations and unite the Crowns in bands of Amity as well as they were united in degrees of blood The Earl of Anguss his enemy abandoning the Kingdom after honourable entertainment of the King of England many promises to befriend him and blandishments at his departing cometh to Scotland and his return began to change the Game of State The Queens and Earl of Arrans Faction carryed all matters of importance the Earls of Lennox Arguyl and the Humes had been sequestred from publick imployments the first faction by his presence find their power diminisht the other by his counterpoise and assistance have new hopes of arising both factions disliked that Anguss should arise to the first place and suspected he would not be content with the second they loved to have him an equal not Supreme Private jarrs smothered and interests delayed matters concerning England requiring a hasty and present discharge Gilbert Earl of Cassiles Robert Cockburn Bishop of Dunkell David Mill Abbot of Cambuskenneth are sent Commissioners to the Court of England At Greenwich they are honorably and kindly received by King Henry whose countenance promised them a refusal of no reasonable thing they would require The Bishop had a speech the Sum of which was That dissention and hatred taken away between the two Nations a faithful Peace might be agreed unto and confirmed their Discords turned into Union their Rancour into Love which to bring to pass and make durable the only apparent and probable means was to bestow the Lady Mary the Kings daughter upon James the young King of Scotland The English with great joy applauded to what was said And King Henry appointed certain Commissioners to treat about that purpose in private These when they had met to advance the Union of the Kingdoms desired these Conditions First That the Scottish Nation giving over and fairly forsaking the League they had with France should enter in a new League with them upon the same conditions and terms which were contained in their League with France Next That the young King of Scotland till by age he was able for marriage should be brought up at the Court of England When the Embassadours of Scotland had answered That these conditions were above their Commission to which they could not well answer and desired a time to acquaint the Council of Scotland with them it was condescended unto Thus two of them remaining at London the Earl of Cassiles returned to Scotland to bring back an answer When the day in which the Parliament should have been held was come the Queen and they who were of her faction as the Earls of Arran Murray Eglintoun fearing the Earl of Anguss might turn the wavering peoples affection and move them to some Revolt which might hinder their Determinations or terrify the Commissioners by the frequent convention of his Friends and followers constraining their voices and restraining their freedom of speech Or that they had a plot to surprize some of the contrary Faction and by authority of Parliament commit them in that place caused a Proclamation to be made That none of the three Estates should sit or assemble themselves in the Town of Edenburgh but that they should keep their meeting in the Castle and there give their presence The Earls of Anguss Lennox Arguyl Arch-Bishop of Saint Andrews Bishop of Aberdeen and Dumblane with their adherents and others who joyned with them rather out of fear than good will refuse to enter the Castle and require That the Parliament be kept in the accustomed Place the King may in Triumph be shewn to his own people conveyed along the High-street All which being denyed them giving out That Justice was violated the King kept against his will as a Prisoner the Government and custody of his person seised on without consent of the three Estates they surround the Castle with two thousand men in Arms stop all furniture of food and Victuals which should been afforded by the Town In this distress they in the Castle turn the great Ordnance against the Town and threaten the innocent Citizens with the overthrow of their buildings Some powder and time spent in terrifying the people at last Church-men interposing themselves and interceding persuading with the parties an accommodation and atonement is wrought their fury quenched all rancour supprest injuries forgotten the King in magnificence and pomp is convoyed from the Castle to his Palace at Holy-rood-House and the Estates assemble in the wonted place of the Town of Edenburgh In this Parliament the Authority of the Governour is abrogated by which means they saved him a
her Father so King James continuing in his first resolution the marriage is contracted between them an hundred thousand Crowns of the Sun being promised in Dowry besides thirty thousand Franks of yearly pension during the life of King James the Jointure assured to her by the King of Scotland was all the Lands possessed by any former Queen the Earldoms of Strathern and Fyfe with the Palace of Faulkland and other Lands of the best and most certain Revenue Thus Anno _____ in the Church of Nostre-Dame in Paris the King of Scotland married the Lady Magdalen in presence of her Father seven Cardinals the King of Navarr many great Dukes and Barons King Francis after the Solemnities of this Marriage having Piccardy and Piedmont then over-run by the Imperialists and King James fearing he might suffer wrong in his absence from the King of England with assurance of mutual Amity part from other in the end of April and from New-haven the Queen with her Husband the 29. of May arrives at the Port of Leith it is reported that after she put her foot on the Shore upon her Knees she kissed the Ground Praying for all happiness to the Countrey and People Never Queen in so short a time was more beloved of her Husband nor sooner made conquest of the hearts of her Subjects Nor was their greater hopes conceived of any Alliance than of this nor greater joy did ever arise for those hopes but as in the life of man there is ever remaining more of bitter than sweet so were these contentments but Shadows matched with the real Sorrow that the death of that young Lady brought forth For she lived not many weeks after her Arrival in Scotland when of a Feaver which she contracted in June she departed this life in July She was buried with the greatest mourning Scotland ever till that time was participant of in the Church of Holy-rood-House near King James the Second These last honours to the dead Queen and funeral pomp finished the King desirous of Succession hath yet his thoughts wandring in France Mary of Burbon Daughter to Charles Duke of Vandosm being frustrate of her Royal hopes had not only turned religious but was dead of displeasure Whilst he disported himself at the Court of France he had been acquainted with a Lady rich in all excellencies who next Magdalen had the power of his affections Mary of Lorrain Sister to Francis Daughter to Rhene Duke of Guize and Widdow of the Duke of Longueville Her he thinketh for her Stemm healthful complexion fertility for she had been a mother and other fortunes worthy of his love But to try her affection towards him he directeth David Beatoun his late paranymph and the Lord Maxwell to France Whilst they traffick this Marriage many false accusations as Plots laid against his Person are intended one after another at the Court amongst which two are remarkable for their notable calumny John eldest Son to the Lord Forbess a young Gentleman chief of his name hardy and valorous but evil brought up and therefore easily suspect to but capable of sin had for a Servant or Companion and ordinary sharer of his pleasures one named Strachan a man come of the dreg of the people and perfectly wicked This man after much familiarity and some secret service and attendance to satisfie his insatiable desire desired earnestly something from the Master of Forbess which he passionately refused to give him upon which carried away with rage and malice he not only renounced his friendship and service but betook himself to the Service of his Enemy the Earl of Huntley by whose advice he forgeth a malicious Plot to overthrow him To compass their design they accuse the Master of Forbese to have had once an intention and mind to kill the King that the Dowglasses might be restored to their wonted honours and ancient possessions By price and prayers witnesses are procured to prove this against him and convict him or at the least to leave him suspected and taxed with this Treason Though this crime was not sufficiently and clearly proved yet was the Master of Forbess indicted and convicted by an Assize for having conspired the Kings death for the which he was beheaded and quarter'd and his Quarters set aloft upon the Gates of Edenburgh This Gentlemans death proveth how dangerous the Society and company of the wicked is to any for ascending the fatal Scaffold he justified his innocency of what was laid to his Charge but confessed the guilt of the Laird of Drummes blood by the justice of God brought him to that end His Father the Lord Forbess was upon suspicion kept long after in the Castle of Edenburgh The King when he could not amend what was past testified he was grieved at the death of this Nobleman for he banished Strachan because he had so long concealed the Treason of Forbess silence in a matter importing no less than the life of a Prince being reckoned equal to the Treason he made his second Brother one of his Domesticks restoring him to the Estate which was forfeited This thunderclap was immediately followed by another for the quality of the Person and strangeness of the Crime deplorable but more for the horrour and terrour of the punishment Jane Dowglass Sister to Archembald Earl of Anguss the Widdow of John Lyon Lord Glammes with her Husband Archembald Campbell of Keepneeth her young Son the Lord Glammes and an old Priest were brought to Edenburgh committed and accused that they should have poysoned the King Their accuser was William Lyon a Kinsman of the late Lord Glammes This Treason had no probability of truth among such who knew the accused being persons who lived far from the Court in their solitary mansions seldom or never almost seeing the King Nevertheless their accusations were believed and strict command given to the Judges to dispatch their Process William Lyon aggravating the case represented to the King the ancient faults of the Family of the Dowglasses committed against his Predeoessors the particular wrongs of Earl Archembald now stirring the English against him and ravaging his Borders That he should believe he not being able to be restored to his first Estate by prayers and solicitations of Neighbour Princes nor by open force now set on work his last engines to come to his end though it were with the life of his Soveraign That in so secret and dangerous a Plot he could not use but his nearest Kindred a Woman and his own Sister might attempt such a mischief her sex and other qualities making her less suspect to have access to his Person Suppose clear proofs could not be found against her the whole race of the Dowglasses should be extirpate being a Linage only fertile in bringing forth Monsters of Rebellion That by sparing her life and suffering her to escape he should afford her time licence and power to execute what she but now perhaps had intended The King not knowing the mans particular hatred against
this effect sent him to Scotland A great number of the Lancastrians and North-Humbrians who upon hopes of spoil had followed him pretending want of Victuals and the rigorous season of the year with Arms and Baggage leave this Army Having done little harm to the Scots and suffered much hunger and cold at Berwick he prepareth a retreat towards London When King James understood the Duke had repassed the Tweed he encouraged his Army to follow him The Common Souldier was indifferent the Noblemen refuse to fight except upon Scottish ground The King urgeth them with the commodity and advantage of a Revenge of the old wrong of the Duke commanding an Army neither of the Gentry nor many Nobles of England but of Hirelings and pressed Artizans whose number would prove hurtful to themselves and turn them in a disordered confusion They had many days suffered famine and all necessities of War their vigour and courage was spent that the English fought far off and they at home There wanted not matter to answer but a man to deliver the King an answer generally they refuse to fight To defend the Person of their Prince the State and Countrey they would hazard their lives and if they had any thing more dear If the Enemy would stay on Scottish ground they would do their uttermost to make him retire or by main force expel him But to invade England and tempt an Army who not only was retired but returned to their own bounds they neither had so just a quarrel as they wisht nor were they sufficient at that time to pursue them Their provisions for War were spent the Winter approached Victuals consumed that despair often turned it self into true fortitude and men in good Order retiring would not be too near followed that even flying Enemies should have Bridges of Gold Now if they were to charge the Enemy they would not have the Kings presence a man young rash valorous upon whose life not only the glory of the Battel but the life of the Common-wealth depended his two Sons being lately departed For if the fortune of War brought a period to his life the Crown would remain at the mercy of the Victor that the Kings glory was not little that he had in so short a time with so small Forces and these suddenly gathered stopt the progress of so mighty an Army which was so long in gathering and boasted of such great matters yet which durst not advance one mile in Scottish ground Whether the English fly or retire they had suffered as much wrong as they had done and now to fight them and that perhaps with disadvantage was to put in hazard what was already acquired The Duke of Norfolk returning to London the King with his Army cometh to Edenburgh which immediately he disbanded but he forgot not the secret Plot against his Favourites nor the open refusal of his Nobles to fight on English ground as if the Earth were not all one piece and Matter and men the destinade inhabitants of it every where the Cardinal David Beatoun Oliver Saintclair Craggy Ross and others add fewel to these flames Falla-Moor Plot mightily instigating them The King avouched publickly That the Nobility neither loved his honour nor desired his continuance amongst them To cool these smoaking humors and breed in the King fairer hopes of his Nobles the Lord Maxwel offereth giving him ten thousand men to command if the State thought it expedient to invade England at Salloway affirming the State and fortune of those who assail to be better than theirs who are still put to their defence The English Forces being divided he doubted not to stay longer on English ground than the Duke had done on the Scottish and to effectuate something to the Kings content The King thanking him for his offer appointeth a Rendezvous to be at the West Marches No Proclamations are divulged for the Levies of men but close Letters sent The Cardinal and the Earl of Arran the one a Church-man of a mind above many Nobles the other a Nobleman of an humility under any Church-man to give false perspective to those proceedings by sound of Trumpets and beating of Drums raise men openly march toward Hadingtoun and the East-Borders Whilst the Earls of Cassiles Glencaris Lords Flammin Sommervail Areskin Barons Aytoun Langtoun Ormestoun Waughtoun and many others accompanied with the Kings domestick Servants ride to the West Borders The night before the Road the King himself came to Loch-Maban attending the event of the incursion Companies comming from all quarters of the Countreys about none knowing of another with the power of the Scottish Borderers pass the Water of Esk burn certain Hamlets of the Grahams on the very limits Sir Thomas Whartoun Warden of these Marches not a little troubled at such a frequent assembly of the Scottish Riders raising the power of the Countrey placeth them by a hill where he might take a view of their Forces in good order with him were Bastard Dacres and Jack Musgrave two valiant Captains The Scottish Lords beholding the English range themselves in a Battalion desire to know the Kings Lieutenant-General for now it was to Marshal their Companies and every man to take him to his Charge Presently Oliver Saintclair upon crossed Pikes is mounted the Kings Banner displayed and the Commission read in which he is designed Lieutenant and all commanded in the Kings name to obey and follow him It hath been reported by those who were acquainted with Oliver that the Commission was not read but that at his very sight such a tumult confused clamour and enter shouldering of Male contents arose their Ranks were broken the Military order turned into a confusion none so repining as the Lord Maxwel and the Borderers Who if he had patience to have heard the Commission as Oliver protested was Lieutenant and not he whose charge was only to present it The English who now were ready for the Fight observing this disorder take the advantage upon the occasion and brake forwards with a military shout whilst the others are in doubt whether to flee or stand and the Guidiats and Scullons are pesle mesle thronging with the foot Soldiers and they with the Horsemen Here is a general surprize most part willingly rendring themselves to the English without any shew of defence or the slaughter of any person of any side This overthrow proveth that neither arms nor the multitude and numbers of Souldiers without their love and hearts availeth any thing in a Field yea rather they are hurtful the more in number they be if their affection be alienated from their Commanders It is recorded that at this road which was named Solloway-Moss every English had three or four Scots for Prisoners and when their wanted men to take them the women of the neighbouring Hamelet and Boys had Prisoners the Earls of Cassiles and Glencarn the Lords Maxwel Flamin Sommervail Olivant Gray Robert Areskin Son to the Lord Areskin Oliver Saintclair The Lairds of Craggy
the Pope the Kings of Spain or France after some revolutions of years seeking to trouble the state and peace of this Isle should entertain and maintain one of the Heirs of the Earls of Strathern as Queen Elizabeth did Don Antonio the Prior of Crato who claimed the Crown of Portugal to reclaim whose Kingdom She sent the Earl of Essex _____ and Drake or should marry one of them to their neerest Kinswomen and send him armed with power to claim his Title to the Crown of Scotland as King James the fourth of Scotland practised upon Perkin Warbeck naming himself Richard Duke of York to whom he gave in marriage Lady Katharine Gordoun Daughter to the Earl of Huntley and thereafter with all his forces to estable his said Ally in his Title invaded England It would be considered whether they had a fair bridge to come over to this Isle It would likewise be considered if the Earl of Strathern though a mean Subject these two hundred years having been debarred from all title to the Crown and now by the indulgency and exceeding favour of the Prince being restored to his descent in blood and served Heir to his great Progenitors and indirectly as by appendices to the Crown if either out of displeasure or for want of means to maintain their estates he or his should sell and dispose their Rights and Titles of the Kingdom of Scotland to some mighty and Foreign Prince such as is perhaps this day the King of Sweden who wanteth nothing but a title to invade a Kingdom not knowing whither to discharge his victorious forces It would be considered if that title disposed to that Prince were sufficient to make him King of Scotland Or if establishing his right upon fair conditions such as is liberty of conscience absolution and freedom from all taxes and subsidies the transferring of Ward lands into fewd the people of Scotland might give him their Oath of Allegiance or if he might redact the King of Scotland to give him satisfaction and compound for his right of the Crown of Scotland It would to these be considered If times should turn away the minds of Subjects from their Prince by superstition sedition and absolute Rebellion as what may not befall an inconstant ever wavering Nation to an Aristocratie Oligarchy Democratie or absolute Anarchy If the Rebellious subjects and abused Populace might not make advantage of such Men who draw their titles from Evanders mother to trouble the present times That nothing could be more dangerous to the Nobleman himself than this service may be understood by the like examples Clouis King of France having understood that a Nobleman of Artois named Canacare blown up by Powder had vaunted that he was come and lineally descended from Clodion le Chevelu and by that same Succession was heir of the Crown of France closed not his ears to it saies the History but caused extirpate that Sower of impostures and all his Race Henry the fourth King of England after the deposure of King Richard the second kept Edmond Mortimer Earl of March who had a just title to the Crown under such Keepers that he could never do nor attempt any thing till he dyed But Henry the seventh King of England took away Edward Plantaginet Duke of Warwick Heir to George Duke of Clarence by reason of his jealousie of Succession to his Uncle Edward the fourth Margaret Plantaginet his sole Daughter married to Sir Richard Pole knight by Henry the eight restored to the Earldom of Salisbury was attained threescore and two years after her Father had suffered and was in the Tower of London beheaded in whose person dyed the surname of Plantaginet Ann Plantaginet Daughter to Edward the fourth being marryed to Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey and Duke of Norfolk was the ground and chief cause wherefore King Henry the eight cut off the head of Henry Earl of Surrey though the pretended cause whereon he was arraigned was the bearing certain arms of the house of York which only belonged to the King Mary Queen of England cut off the head of Lady Jane Gray and the Lord Guilford her Husband for their title to the Crown and that same reason was the overthrow and finall destruction of Mary Queen of Scotland by Queen Elizabeth The Duke of Guise by a Genealogy deduced from Charles the Great in the reign of Henry the third the French King was thought to aspire to the Crown of France and suffered at last for this and his other presumptions It is notoriously known that these two hundred years the Race of Euphane Ross in her children David Earl of Strathern and Walter Earl of Athol and all their Succession by all the Kings of Scotland sithence have been ever suppressed and kept under and for reason of State should still be kept low and under unless a Prince would for greater reason of State advance them to give them a more horrible blow and by suborning mercenary men make them aim above their reach to their last extirpation Dum nesciunt distinguere inter summa precipitia Princeps quem persequitur honorâ—… extollit in alium An intended Speech at the West Gate of Edenburgh to King JAMES SIR IF Nature could suffer Rocks to move and abandon their natural places this Town founded on the strength of Rocks now by the chearing Rays of your Majesties presence taking not only motion but life had with her Castle Temples and Houses moved towards you and besought you to acknowledge her yours and her indwellers your most humble and affectionate Subjects And to believe how many souls are within her Circuits so many lives are devoted to your sacred Person and Crown And here Sir She offers by me to the Altar of your glory whole Hecatombs of most happy desires praying all things may prove prosperous unto you that every Virtue and Heroick Grace which make a Prince eminent may with a long and blessed Government attend you Your Kingdoms flourishing abroad with Bays at home with Olives presenting you Sir who art the strong Key of this little World of Great-Britain with those keys which cast up the Gates of her affection and design you power to open all the springs of the hearts of those her most Loyal Citizens Yet this almost not necessary For as the Rose at the fair appearing of the morning Sun displayeth and spreadeth her purples So at the very noise of your happy return to this your native Countrey their hearts if they could have shined through their breasts were with joy and fair hopes made spatious Nor did they ever in all parts feel a more comfortable heat than the glory of your presence at this time darteth upon them The old forget their age and look fresh and young at the appearance of so gracious a Prince the young bear a part in your Welcom desiring many years of life that they may serve you long all have more Joys than Tongues For as the words of other Nations far go beyond
amongst so many Taxes and Taillages so much pilling and polling So that substance is daily plucked and pilled from honest men to be lashed out amongst unthrifts that as Thucydides writes of the great Plague in his time at Athens Men seeing no hopes of safety spent all they had in one night So the uncertainty of enjoying and holding what they have for the present draws the thrifty and unthrifty to one end for no man being sure of Lands less of Moneys every man is turned in a desperate carelesness of his Estate As to tell him also about this Subject who is the subject of this Letter the People say Kings seeking Treason shall find Land and seeking Land shall find Treason The denial of a Princes desire was the destruction of an innocent Naboth the voice of the People should not be kept up from the Ears a Prince As to unfold to a King if Usury be not lawful at all for it is against Nature that Money should beget Money and not tolerate by the Mosaical Law and in Ezekiel cap. 18. v. 13. it is reckoned amongst the roaring sins such as are Adultery and bloudshed it being a sin in the persons of subjects it is a greater sin in the person of a Prince for any sin is greater in the person of a Prince than in the persons of subjects As sin was worse and greater in Angels than men Nothing is profitable to a Prince which is not joined with honour and the State of Kings unless it stand in pureness and fidelity it cannot subsist in power As to tell King Charles what a strange thing it is to swaer a man for the true value of his own Substance Since the valuing of Subjects Lands and Rents Rents were never less nor the Lands worse a secret scourge of God having followed it the Country scarce affording bread to the Labourers of it Remember Davids numbring the people In the times of King Henry the eight Regnante Cardin. Volseio this was held uncouth strange and terrible and no wonder if men scare and start at it now under a Prince of so meek a Spirit so innocently good who preferreth peace before war rest before business honesty before profit None of all his kingdom no not one being more holy more chaste nor a better man in whom reigneth shamefastness and modesty and patience taking all worldly crosses in good part never gaping for glory nor thirsting after riches but only studying the health of his soul peace of his Kingdoms and how to advance the holy Church and restore her to her first Rents and integrity But God knoweth what he hath predestinated and ordained for the Scourge of this Country against whose Ordinance prevaileth no counsel A Prince should be advertised that the hatred and distast of mens present estates and fortunes setteth them on work and maketh them exceeding earnest to seek novations for finding themselves plunged in the beggary of a miserable estate as many do believe it turneth not them base nor keepeth them under but raiseth in them a mad desire to change their fortune and this hath been the ensign of Malecontents to attempt and enterprize dangerous matters for it hath often been found that nothing hath sooner armed a people than poverty and poverty hath never so often been brought upon a Nation by the unfruitfulness of the Earth by disasters of Seas and other human accidents as by the Avarice of the Officers and Favourites of Princes who are brought foolishly to believe that by tearing of the skins of the flock they shall turne the Shepherd rich It is no property of a good Shepherd to shear often his flock and ever to milk them Nor is it of a Prince to gall and perpetually afflict a people by a terrible Exchequer Brutorum se Regem facit qui premit suos Now in such Theams it were not evil for a Prince to read Jan Marianai and George Buchanans piece de jure Regni apud Scotos for his own private and the publick good Princes have in their actions this disadvantage that in matters of wrong and injuries concerning their Subjects though they sometimes suffer by reason of their power being thought stronger they are ever esteemed to do the wrong which should move them to abstain from all violent courses and think really their Subjects losses are their own Ye will then say the case of Princes is pittiful if Writers of infamous Libels be not rigorously punished without all question the Law is just and necessary against them But in some cases good Princes never follow the rigour and extremity of punishment set down by their Laws no not against the naughtiest Subjects and especially when the case concerneth their own particulars There is much to be considered in the convoy of such Libels If they contain Truths there is small wrong in such papers as to call Mary Magdalen a Sinner Matthew a Publican Thomas a Misbeliever Paul a Persecutor Peter a Denyer of his Master and the rest fugitives from him and these are to be slighted and past over If they contain mixed truths and apparences they may be neglected If they admit no interpretation but true and flat railing then is a Princes patience to be tryed and the Libel to be scorned If they propound novelty and causes of sedition upon apparent grounds they are to be answered and by good reason to be overthrown If they be presented by way of Supplication for redressing of errors in the State it is a question whether they be Libels or not That Supplication of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester to King Henry the sixt of England against the Cardinal of Winchester Archbishop of York may have place amongst Libels for the King is taxed there of notable dotage As that by the counsel of the Cardinal he had set at Liberty the King of Scots suffered his Jewels and houshold-stuff to be sold granted the Cardinal a Charter of Pardon for taking up his Rents which were sufficient to have maintained the wars in France many years The setting of the Duke of Orleance at liberty against the Duke of Burgundy the great friend of the English and many other points Yet this being done by way of Supplication for redress of wrongs in the State he was not threatened for perhaps verity but remitted to the Council and what for fear and what for favor saith the English History the whole matter was winked at touching the Duke and nothing said against the Cardinal Miseria summa ubi de injuria conqueri pro delicto habetur These who set their Prince on work to follow and persue such an idle piece of Paper if they had fair Judges and powerful Enemies near the Court may themselves be brought within compass of that same punishment which they would have laid upon others as Pâ—rillus was brought to take an Essay of his own brazen Bull for no better are they which relate divulgate and are occasioners to have infamous Libels published than they which