History Of Scotland Vol. 1 - Part 21

( Originally Published 1909 )

Policy of the Victors after the Battle of Sauchie Burn Trial of Lord Lindesay, He is defended by his Brother, and acquitted—Exploits of Sir Andrew Wood—Peaceful Disposition of Henry VII.—Prosperity of Scotland—Short War with England in behalf of Perkin Warbeck—Progress of the Scots in Learning and Literature—James IV.'s splendid Court—Marriage between him and Margaret of England—Peace between Scotland and England—Final Forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles—Measures to promote public Improvement—Naval Affairs—James builds the largest Ship in Europe—Affair of the Bartons—Murder of Sir Robert Kerr, and its Consequences—Intrigues of France to stir up James against England—Manifesto of James, and Henry's Answer—James assembles the Array of his Kingdom—Omens of Misfortune—James invades England, but loses Time in Northumberland, and differs with his Council—Battle of Flodden, and Defeat and Death of James IV.

AFTER the battle of Sauchie Burn, a pause ensued till the actual fate of the king should be known; for, as we have said, his body had been carried off by those who slew him, and it was never known where he was buried. The insurgent barons at length became aware of the extent of their success. They easily suppressed an assembly of troops made by the Earl of Lennox, who had put himself in arms to revenge the king's death. The Lord Home, who had been a prime leader of the insurrection against James III., was raised to the office of lord high chamberlain for life, and created warden of the east marches. Angus was also gratified with offices of trust and consideration. Both these great peers seem to have been so far men of wisdom and moderation, as to lend their willing aid to drown the recollections of the civil war, and establish a fair and equitable government, correcting the errors which had crept in during the late reign, but without disturbing the party of the deceased king, for the side which they had taken during the civil war.

This moderation, however, was not adopted until the failure of an attempt on the part of the prevailing faction to gain some advantage by means of obtaining fines and forfeitures from such of the lords as had been most active in the cause of James III., which they charged as an act of treason against his son.1 Lord Lindesay of the Byres was the first person called upon before the parliament to answer for a crime of a description so anomalous. He was a stout old soldier, bred in the wars of France, and knew no better answer to make to the indictment than by offering to fight with his accusers, venturing his own person against any two of them. The lord chancellor apologized to the king for the veteran's rudeness, the natural consequence of a military education, and advised Lord Lindesay to submit himself to the king's pleasure, who he ventured to say would be gracious to him. There stood near the Lord Lindesay his younger brother Patrick, who understanding it was the wily meaning of the chancellor to obtain a submission on the part of his brother, that he might impose some mulct or penalty upon him, trod upon the Lord Lindesay's foot, as an intimation to him not to plead guilty, or "come," as it was called, "into the king's will." The hint was totally lost on Lord Lindesay, who was on bad terms with his brother, and happened besides to have a corn on his toe, which made him resent the treading on his foot as an injury as well as an insult, for which he fiercely rebuked his brother. But, without regard to his unreasonable anger, master Patrick knelt down, and prayed to be heard as counsel for his brother and the house of his forefathers. This could not decently be refused; and the pleader, in an exordium of some eloquence, implored those whom he addressed, that, as victors in the civil contest, they would be pleased to recollect that they were still liable to the vicissitudes of human affairs, and might themselves hereafter stand at that very bar, and implore the protection of the laws against such triumphant enemies as might happen to be in power for the time. He therefore conjured them to administer the laws impartially, as they would desire to enjoy their protection if they should need it in their own case. The chancellor assured Lindesay that his pleading should be fairly heard and decided upon. The advocate proceeded to object to the presence in court of the young king, in whose name the suit was brought, and to his retaining a seat in the judicature, in a case where he was one of the parties concerned. The parliament yielded to his reasoning on the subject, and the young king, to his no small displeasure, was obliged to retire from the assembly. The counsel next stated that the term of the charge, which ought to run on the summons, had been suffered to elapse, and that the citation bore no continuation of days. This was an objection in point of form which the parliament also thought it necessary to sustain : so Lord Lindesay was dismissed from the bar. He was so much astonished at his escape, for it may be believed he comprehended nothing of the nature of the defence, that he swore, in a rupture of gratitude, that he would reward his brother's fine pyot words (i.e., magpie talk) with the lands of Kirkfother. The king, on the contrary, displeased with what he construed into a personal insult, said he would send the advocate where he should not see his feet for twelve months, and accomplished his threat by casting him into the dungeon of the Rothesay of Bute. Under what pretext Mr. Patrick Lindesay was subjected to this captivity we cannot hope to discover; but, if considered as an exertion of the king's absolute power, it is wonderfully inconsistent with the freedom of debate displayed before the parliament, and the laudable impartiality with which the case was decided.

Being foiled in this leading case of Lord Lindesay, the other prosecutions against the barons of the late king's faction were suffered to drop, and the lords of the king's council, with more liberal policy, seemed rather disposed to obliterate the recollection of the civil war than to keep it alive by trials and prosecutions.

The Scottish historians of this period record with triumph the valiant exploits of Sir Andrew Wood of Largo, a Scottish seaman, who attacked and defeated, with two vessels only, an English flotilla of five in number, who were interrupting the Scottish trade and plundering their merchant vessels. Henry VII., it is said, affecting to treat Wood's conduct as an act of piracy, offered a large reward for the capture of him. One Stephen Bull, a gallant English seaman, under-took the task with three good ships; but, after a long and desperate action, had the misfortune to be himself taken, and carried into Dundee. The prisoners were restored by James IV., with a courteous message to Henry VII., now on the throne of England, assuring him that the Scots could fight by sea as well as land.

The deeply-politic views of Henry VII. were uniformly founded on a peaceful basis; and having re-established in all points the truce with Scotland, he endeavored, by a union of the royal families, to convert that state of temporary tran quillity into a secure and lasting peace. This he proposed to effect by a union between his daughter and the young Scottish king. Nor was he disgusted when he found that the prejudices of the Scots made them pause upon accepting his offer, fearful even of the most advantageous proposals when they came from the old enemies of Scotland.

Meantime years glided away in ease and tranquillity. The Scottish nobility displayed an unusual degree of con-cord among themselves; and James at once gratified his own taste and theirs by maintaining a court splendid beyond the means of Scotland, had not the royal coffers still contained a portion of the hoards of James III., now neither wasted in idle refinements of music and architecture, nor reserved to slumber in inactivity ; but employed in expenses which served to connect the king with his nobles and with his people, by procuring pleasures which they could all en-joy. Unhappily, James IV., with a love of justice and affection for his people which he intimated by his whole administration, had also an admiration of chivalry, which he carried to romantic excess. Nothing delighted him so much as jousts and tournaments, and trials of skill at all military weapons; and he sought personal adventures by traversing the country in disguise, and throwing himself into situations which have been recorded in the songs and traditions of the time.

It was probably by an appeal to this romantic cast in James's disposition that the Scottish king was prevailed on to take up the cause of Perkin Warbeck, the pretended Duke of York, in 1496. He received this adventurer at the court of Scotland; he permitted him to wed a near relation to the crown, the daughter of the Earl of Huntley; acknowledged Perkin's claim to the kingdom of England as authentic; and supported him with an army, at the head of which he him-self marched into Northumberland, expecting a general insurrection in favor of his ally. The expectations of James were entirely disappointed: no one joined with Perkin. The Scottish king gave a loose to his disappointment, and laid waste the country. Perkin affected compassion for the subjects whose allegiance he claimed, and interceded in their behalf. "You are too merciful," answered James with a sneer, "to interest yourself for a people who are so tardy in acknowledging you for their sovereign." These words intimated that James felt himself engaged in a losing adventure, which he soon afterward terminated by a truce with England.

In the previous negotiation, September 30, 1498, James firmly refused to deliver up Perkin Warbeck to Henry; but he dismissed him from his kingdom, to pursue elsewhere that series of adventures which ended with his life on the gallows at Tyburn. His unfortunate widow was honorably supported by Henry VII., and long distinguished at the English court by the title of the White Rose, from her husband's claim to be the representative of the House of York.

The unceasing disturbances on the border every now and then seemed to threaten the duration of the tranquillity between the kingdoms, had not the impetuous and mettled temper of the Scottish king been matched with the calm, sagacious, and wary disposition of Henry, who suffered no quarrel arising out of mere punctilio to interfere with the plan which his wisdom conceived, and seemed as little disposed to take offence at James as an animal of great size and strength which endures with patience the petulances of one of the same species inferior in these qualities.

Meantime Scotland began to derive advantages from the duration of peace. A university, the second in the kingdom, that of St. Andrew's being the first, had been erected at Glasgow in 1453, under the pious care of Turnbull, bishop of that see. A third seat of learning was now, in 1500, founded by Elphinstone, bishop of Aberdeen. Nor were the labors of these learned seminaries in vain: learning began to be understood, cultivated, and patronized. Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld, made an excellent translation of Virgil's "AEnid" ; and Dunbar, the Scottish Chaucer, appeared at court, with a power both of heroic and humorous poetry no way unworthy the bard of Woodstock. James IV., him-self a poet, loved and encouraged the Muses; and from what remains of the strains of the day it is obvious he permitted the satirists to take considerable freedoms with his own foibles rather than their vein should be interrupted or their spirit checked by any severity of restriction. In a prince like James IV. such a license shows an honest consciousness that his merits were sufficient to redeem his reputation, and that he could with safety soar above and neglect the petty artillery of the satirists.

The king had his father's taste for architecture, though not in its excess. He improved the palaces of Stirling and Falkland. Young and unmarried, he engaged too much in licentious pleasures. But his regard for the Church was not diminished; and, after the fashion of the time, it was testified by the foundation of monasteries and other ecclesiastical establishments. James never lost a deep sense of remorse for the share which he had been caused to take in his father's defeat. He wore, by way of penance, an iron belt round his body, to which he added a certain weight every year which he lived. He also yearly dedicated part of Lent to strict retreat into some monastery, where rigid prayer, fasting, and acts of penance, were unsparingly employed to expiate the crime which afflicted the king's conscience. These dark intervals must have made a singular contrast with the busy course of James's ordinary life, which was spent in the active discharge of the administration of justice, and other kingly duties; while each interval of leisure was employed in the princely pleasures of the chase, the ball-room, and the tilt-yard. To keep pace with other sovereigns, who affected forming orders of knighthood, in which they them-selves should preside, like Arthur at his Round Table, or Charlemagne among his Paladins, James established the Order of St. Andrew, assuming the badge of the thistle, which since that time has been the national emblem of Scotland.

James IV., being now about thirty years of age, began perhaps to desire a more domestic life than he had hitherto led; the rather that the English princess Margaret, who, when the treaty was first proposed, had been a mere child, was now rising to the years of womanhood. In 1503, an important treaty was concluded, the effects of which reached deep into futurity, and did justice to the wisdom of Henry VII., by whom it had been so long urged with such patience and perseverance. Thirty thousand angel-nobles were to be paid as the queen of Scotland's dowry, and a jointure of two thousand pounds sterling was to be secured to her in case of her surviving James. This marriage treaty was accompanied by a peace between England and Scotland, the first which had existed since that of Northampton in 1332. The articles were equitable, without advantage on either side, unless in one instance, by which Scotland renounced in future her right to the town of Berwick.

In consequence of these important arrangements, the English princess Margaret was conveyed to Scotland with befitting splendor, in 1504. James came flying to meet her at the abbey of Newbattle with bridegroom haste, which a spectator compares to the speed of a falcon darting on his prey. The marriage was celebrated with great magnificence, and with all the dignity of chivalry. The Highland and border chiefs took the opportunity of challenging and fighting to extremity; the death of such turbulent subjects being little regretted by the king or the statesmen, the latter of whom probably looked on the contest with an eye of policy rather than of romantic admiration.

Important national regulations succeeded these festivities. The total suppression of the dignity of the lord of the Isles was a remarkable, and, considering the arrogance and in-subordination of these petty kings, a very important incident. John, lord of the Isles, having been deprived of the earldom of Ross, and his continental dominions of Knapdale and Cantire, in 1476, had submitted to restrictions of his power, and promised amendment of his conduct. In 1480, this intractable prince again renewed his secret negotiations with England. He had been summoned to make answer for these intrigues before the Scottish parliament ; but the divisions of James III.'s reign had prevented the matter from being insisted on. In James IV.'s vigorous reign, forfeiture was denounced against this insular prince, whose lordship of the Isles became thus an appanage of the crown. Measures were now taken to extend to these distant and disorderly regions the advantage of an equal distribution of justice. This was, however, only sowing seeds of civilization, which it required three centuries and a half, and a variety of contingencies, to bring to maturity. The destruction of this great family, formerly the natural leaders of misdoers, and the refuge of the lawless and ungovernable of every description, was a main step attained to the kingdoms; and the disorders of the Highlands and the Isles were afterward neither so universal, so frequent, nor so perilous.

Other statutes of this period show that the Scottish legislators possessed wisdom superior to their age, and evinced a disposition to accelerate the improvement of the country by legislative enactment. A just statute corrected the abuse of naming one inferior species of crime in the pardons or re-missions which were too often granted for the purpose of afterward using the same remission to cover an offence of deeper dye. Another declared no pardon should be granted to deliberate murderers. Another provided for the punishment of faithless notaries. There is a series of regulations for the improvement of rural economy, which imposes a heavier mulct than before on the destroyers of wood, "the forests of Scotland being (it is alleged) utterly destroyed." For the same reason, every heritor is directed to plant at least an acre of wood, to form parks and enclosures, construct fish-ponds, stock rabbit-warrens and dove-cots, and plant orchards. One statute especially testifies the inclination of these wise legislators to cultivate the arts of peace, since it permits the king, and, by a supplemental provision, all other landholders, to let in feu any portion of land which he might please. The vassal, in this species of tenure, was exempted altogether from military service, and held subject to the payment of a quit-rent in money or produce in lieu of other prestations. The churchmen availed themselves of this important privilege, to the great increase of the value of their lands, and the general cultivation of the country. Lastly, the riches which might be derived from the Scottish fisheries did not escape the prescient eye of these statesmen, and they made regulations which showed them sensible of their value; though from want of boats, nets, and, above all, of money, little could be done to realize their patriotic wishes.

James IV. has been already mentioned as a patron of the Scottish navy, which, under Andrew Wood and the two Bartons, showed much alacrity and energy both on the coasts of Holland, of the Baltic, of Portugal, and elsewhere. It would seem that in these times the rules of war were not so well understood by sea as by land ; since the vessels, even of friendly powers, often met and fought on the ocean, for the same reason, doubtless, which makes an Arab declare that there is no friend in the desert, or a buccaneer that there is no peace under the line. In several of these skirmishes the Scottish mariners defended bravely the honor of their flag; and one of them accelerated the fatal war in which James ended his life.

It was his love for nautical affairs which led King James into the mistaken ambition of desiring to possess the largest ship then in the world. The Great Michael, for such was her name, exhausted all the oak-forests of Fife (that of Falk-land excepted), and "cumbered all Scotland" before she could be got to sea. A cannon-ball, discharged against her by the king's order, could not penetrate her sides, which were ten feet in thickness. She was twelve-score feet in length, and thirty-six in wideness. The crew of this immense galleon amounted to no less than three hundred mariners to manage her on the sea, and a thousand soldiers to combat on board of her. It is easy to see that if the expense employed on the construction of this unwieldy wooden fortress had been bestowed upon the equipment of eight such vessels as were commanded by Sir Andrew Wood, Scotland would have risen to that rank among maritime powers which she was entitled to claim from the advantages of a seacoast full of creeks, roadsteads and harbors. But the construction of this huge vessel plainly shows that James erred in the mode by which he endeavored to attain his object.

The purpose of the king was to raise the character of the Scottish marine force; and, as above observed, it was in a great measure his attention to naval affairs which led that prince to a fatal breach with England, the more easily effected that the sceptre of that country was no longer swayed by the cautious Henry VII., but by his son Henry VIII., whose temper was as fiery and haughty as that of the Scottish monarch himself.

A Portuguese squadron having made prize of a Scottish vessel belonging to John Barton, letters of reprisal were granted by James to Barton's sons. The exploits of the Bartons in revenge of their father's wrongs had extended not merely to Portuguese vessels, but to English ships bound for Portugal, and several such vessels had been taken and plundered by them. In retaliation for such unjustifiable depredations, the sons of the Earl of Surrey, Lord Thomas and Sir Edmund Howard, were despatched by Henry VII. with two ships to bring the pirate into an English port. Sir Andrew Barton, the elder brother, boldly encountered the two young noblemen, and maintained a desperate combat, encouraging his men with his whistle till his death induced them to surrender.

Another quarrel between the sister countries, in 1511, rested on the following grounds :—Some English borderers murdered Sir Robert Kerr, warden of the middle marches of Scotland. One of the assassins, named Lilburn, with Heron of Ford, the brother of another commonly called the Bastard Heron, was delivered up to the Scottish king by order of Henry VII. ; but immediately upon the death of that wise prince the other accomplices of the murder began to show themselves publicly on the border. Andrew Kerr, the son of the slain Sir Robert, employed two of his own followers, named Tait, to obtain the revenge which he had in vain sought from the justice of England. They succeeded in their mission, and brought back with them into Scotland tho head of Starked, one of the slayers of Sir Robert. Kerr caused it to be exposed at the cross of Edinburgh. But the Bastard Heron still lived and was suffered to go at liberty, and on that and other accounts James IV. nourished a deep resentment against his brother-in-law of England.

His discontent was at the height when an envoy from France arrived at Edinburgh, who availed himself of the power attained by largesses in the Scottish court, and promises and flattery over the romantic spirit of the king himself, to engage James in an alliance offensive and defensive with France, the ultimate consequence of which was sure to be a war with England. Yet the rupture was for some time suspended; for Henry, whose purpose it was to invade France, was averse to leave his country exposed to an incursion from Scotland; and James hesitated on the threshold of a rash undertaking. Female interference at length determined the fate of the chivalrous James. The queen of France wrote a letter, in which, terming the king of Scot-land her knight, she besought his assistance on her behalf in the manner and tone of a distressed princess of romance imploring the succor of some valiant paladin. A ring from the queen's finger was the pledge of faith by which she conjured James to risk but one day's march into England for her sake. At the same time, a more solid present of four-teen thousand crowns contributed something to remove the want of funds which otherwise might possibly have interfered with the projected expedition.

James's first step to gratify the queen of France was to despatch a naval force to that kingdom, from which the greater part of the fleet never returned, the consequences of the battle of Flodden having deprived the government of Scotland of the energy which ought to have been exerted for their preservation, so that the vessels rotted neglected in French harbors, or were sold at a low price to the French king.

James, however, meditated a more direct mode of assisting his ally and chastising Henry, whom he was now disposed to consider as an enemy rather than a brother-in-law. The Scottish monarch sent a herald to France, with a manifesto to be delivered to the English king, then preparing to lay siege to Terouenne. In this species of defiance were recapitulated the capture of Barton, the murder of Kerr, the detention of a legacy bequeathed by Henry VII. to his daughter Margaret, with other grievances; and it concluded with summoning the king of England instantly to desist from the invasion of France on pain of seeing Scotland take arms in the cause of that kingdom. The English king, highly offended both at the matter of this remonstrance and the terms in which it was couched, returned an answer, in which he upbraided James with perfidy, and even perjury, in having broken the perpetual peace which at his nuptials he had sworn to observe toward England; he treated with scorn Scotland's pretence of interfering in his quarrel with France, and concluded with retorting defiance.

In the meanwhile the war was already commenced. Lord Home, who held the dignity of high chamberlain of Scotland, entered England with a considerable force, burned several villages, and collected much prey. It was not, however, his destiny to carry his booty safe into Scotland. In marching heedlessly through the extensive flat north of Wooler, called Millfield Plain, the Scottish commander fell into an ambush of archers who lay concealed among the long broom, and was surprised, defeated, and put to flight, leaving his brother and many of his followers prisoners in the hands of the enemy.

James, stung to the heart with the loss which he had sustained, and the dishonor which Home's defeat had cast upon his arms, made preparations for war on an extensive scale. He summoned the whole array of his kingdom to meet him at Edinburgh in arms, each man bringing with him provisions for the space of forty days. This was the utmost strength he could assemble, and the longest period for supporting the war which he could make provision for. The king was obeyed, for his rule was highly popular; but it was with regret on the part of those who could think or reason upon the subject of the war, by all of whom it was considered as impolitic, if not unjust.

Omens, also, are said to have occurred calculated to impress the superstitious public with fearful anticipations of the fate of the campaign. Voices as of a herald were heard at night at the market-cross of Edinburgh, where citations are usually made, summoning the king and his nobles by name to appear within sixty days at the bar of Pluto. In the church of Linlithgow also, while King James was performing his devotions, a man in a singularly-shaped eastern dress, assuming the character of the Apostle John, solemnly warned the king that if he persevered in his purposed expedition it would terminate in his ruin. The warning was delivered in a slow and unabashed voice and manner, and con-eluded with a warning menace against the king's indulgence in libertine amours. While all were astonished at the boldness of the messenger, he escaped from among them, so that he could not be apprehended. It is probable that this pageant, which seemed calculated to have effect on the superstitious temperament of James IV., was devised by some of the nobility who were hostile to the invasion of England. But the king proved, unhappily, inaccessible to fantastic omens, as well as to the dictates of reason and policy.

August 22, 1513, James entered England with as gallant an army as ever was led by a Scottish monarch; and the castle of Norham, with that of Wark, and the border towers of Etal and Ford, were successively taken. In the latter fortalice James made captive a lady, the wife of Heron of Ford, lord of the manor, who acquired so much influence over the amorous monarch as to detain him from the prosecution of his enterprise, while his army dwindled away, owing to the impatience of inaction in some, and the want of provisions experienced by all. The army was diminished to thirty thousand men, when James was aroused from his amorous dalliance by the approach of the Earl of Surrey at the head of a large force to defend the English frontiers. A herald brought a defiance to the monarch, in which the English lord stated that he was come to vindicate the death of Barton, and challenged the king of Scotland to combat. James's insane spirit of chivalry induced him to accept this romantic proposal, in spite of the remonstrances of his best counsellors, and, among others, of the old Earl of Angus, called Bell-the-Cat. "If you are afraid, Angus," said the king coldly in reply to his arguments, "you may go home." Angus would not abide in the camp after such an affront : he departed with tears of anger and sorrow, leaving his two sons and his followers with charge to stand by the king to the last.

It was on the 6th of September that James, removing from the western side of the river Till, took up his camp on the hill of Flodden, which closes in the northern extremity of Millfield Plain. In this advantageous ground he had the choice to fight or maintain the defensive at his pleasure. Surrey observed the advantages of the king's position, which, being very steep on the southern side, where the eminence sinks abruptly on the plain, was, in that quarter, inaccessible to an attack. Thus situated, the English commander, finding that provisions were scarce, and the country around wasted, determined by a decisive movement to lead his army round the flank of the Scottish king's position, and place himself on the north side of Flodden Hill; thus interposing the English army between King James and his own country. This march was not made without much risk, since during the circuit round the hill it necessarily exposed the flank of the Earl of Surrey's army to destructive attacks, had the Scottish king chosen to take the advantage which it afforded him. But James, more distinguished for chivalry in the lists than conduct in the field, suffered the English quietly to march round the extremity of his position, and remained inactive, until he saw Lord Surrey pass the river Till by a narrow bridge and a bad ford. Surrey, having crossed the river, continued his march eastward for a little way, then, forming his army in order of battle, with his front to the south, advanced toward the Scottish camp by a declivity much more gentle than that which ascends from the plain toward the southern ridge of the hill. The king then took his determination to fight, and put his army in order for that purpose. Each host was divided into four large bodies, and each had a reserve in the rear of the centre.

Of James's army the Earls of Huntley and Home led the extreme left wing, chiefly consisting of borderers. Next to them, on their right, were the Earls of Crawford and Montrose, whose followers were Highlanders. The king himself commanded the third or central division. The fourth division, or right wing, was led by the Earls of Lennox and Argyle. All these bodies were separated by intervals, but kept the same front. The Earl of Bothwell commanded the reserve, which was posted behind the king's division: this force consisted of his own followers, and those of other chiefs in Lothian.

The English were nearly in the same order. Opposed to Huntley and Home were the two noble brothers, Sir Edmund Howard and High Admiral Sir Thomas. The centre was led by Surrey in person, and the reserve by Lord Dacres. Sir Edward Stanley commanded the left wing.

The fight began on the Scottish left wing, with an omen of good fortune which it did not long retain. Home, encountering the admiral with great fury, beat him to the ground, and had wellnigh dispersed his division, had it not been supported by Lord Dacres with the reserve of English cavalry. Their support was so timely and effectual that the Scots were kept at bay. The Highlanders, under Craw-ford and Montrose, rushed down the hill with disorderly haste, and were easily routed by the two Howards. Both the Scottish earls fell. During these conflicts the king's division engaged furiously with that of the Earl of Surrey, and, although overwhelmed with showers of arrows, the Scots made a most valiant defence. The Earl of Bothwell, with the reserve, bravely supported them, and the combat became very sanguinary. In the meanwhile Sir Edward Stanley, with the men of Cheshire and Derbyshire, forming the English right wing, totally dispersed their immediate opponents, the division under Lennox and Argyle. Both these earls fell, and Stanley, pressing onward over the ground they occupied, and wheeling to his own left, placed his division in the rear of King James's broken ranks; and by an attack in that direction seconded the efforts of Surrey, who was engaged with the Scottish army in front. But these broken and bleeding battalions consisted of the pride and flower of the Scottish gentry, who, throwing themselves into a circle so as to resist on all points, defended themselves with honorable desperation. No one thought of abandoning the king, who, with useless valor, fought and struggled amid the foremost in the conflict. Night at least separated the combatants ; and the Scottish, like a wounded warrior, whom his courage sustains so long as the conflict lasts, but who faints with loss of blood when it is ended, became sensible of the extent of their loss, and melted in noiseless retreat from the field of battle in which the king and his nobles had perished.

There lay slain on the fatal field of Flodden twelve Scottish earls, thirteen lords, and five eldest sons of peers fifty chiefs, knights, and men of eminence, and about ten thousand common men. Scotland had sustained defeats in which the loss had been numerically greater, but never one in which the number of the nobles slain bore such a proportion to those of the inferior rank. The cause was partly the unusual obstinacy of the long defence, partly that when the common people began, as already mentioned, to desert their standards, the nobility and gentry were deterred by shame and a sense of honor from following their example.

The Scots historians long contested the fact that James IV. fell in the field of Flodden; and denied that the body which the English exhibited as the corpse of that unhappy king was in reality that of their sovereign. Some supposed that, having escaped from the slaughter, James had gone to the Holy Land as a pilgrim, to appease the resentment of Heaven, which he conceived had sent his last misfortune in vengeance for his accession to his father's death. But there is no doubt, in the present day, that the body of James was found and carried to Berwick by the Lord Dacres, to whom the king must have been personally well known. It was afterward interred in the monastery of Sheen or Richmond. The corpse was pierced with two arrows, and had received the mortal wound from a bill or battle-axe. This amiable but ill-fated monarch left two lawful children, James, his successor, and Alexander, a posthumous infant, who did not live two years. James IV. was the only Scottish king that fell in battle with the English since the defeat and death of Malcolm III. near Alnwick. He fell in his forty-first year, after he had reigned twenty-six years.

This may be no improper time to take a rapid view of the two countries as they stood contrasted with each other, in their civil and military systems, in customs and in manners. We must be understood to speak only of the lowland countries of Scotland; for the Highlands were as different from the Saxon part of their countrymen as they were in the beginning of the eighteenth century.

War was almost constantly the state in which the sister kingdoms stood in relation to each other; so much so, that the two portions of the same island most fitted by their relative position to be governed by the same laws and rules might be considered as looking upon each other in the light of natural enemies. In such a contest, it would be idle to inquire whether either nation possessed over the other any superiority in strength of person or bravery of disposition; advantages which nature distributes with impartiality among the children of the same soil. Different degrees of discipline, different species of arms, different habits of exercise, may be distinctly traced as the foundation of advantages occasionally observable either in the victories of the English over the Scots, or in those obtained by the inhabitants of the northern parts of the island over their southern neighbors.

The superiority of the English arose from two principal circumstances : first, the better discipline and conduct of their armies, which at an early period manoeuvred with considerable art and address, for which we shall presently show some reason ; and, secondly, on their unrivalled skill in the use of the long bow, the most formidable weapon of the age, which neither Scot, Frenchman, Fleming, nor Spaniard, could use with the same effect as the yeomen of England. These men possessed a degree of independence and wealth altogether unknown to the same class of society in other kingdoms of Europe. They placed their pride in having the most excellent and best-constructed bows and shafts, to the formation of which great attention and nicety were necessary; and they had attained the art of handling and using them with the greatest possible effect. Their wealth enabled them to procure weapons of the first order, and their mode of education brought the use of them to the highest pitch of perfection. Bishop Latimer says of himself that, like other children, he was trained to shoot first with a small bow suitable to his age, and afterward with one fitted to his increasing strength; and that consequently he acquired a degree of skill which far surpassed that of those who never handled a bow till they came to be young men. Neither was the shape of the weapon less fitted for its purpose. The bow was of considerable length and power, and the arrow, constructed with a small head of sharp steel, was formed so as to fly a great distance and with much force. On the contrary, the Highlanders were the most numerous, if not the only archers in Scotland. These mountaineers carried a weak bow, short and imperfectly strung, which discharged a heavy arrow with a clumsy barb, three or four times the weight of an English shaft. To these advantages on the part of the English must be added the dexterity with which archery was practiced by their yeomen, who always drew the bowstring to the right ear, while the bowmen of other nations pulled it only to the breast, and thus discharged a shorter shaft from a much less formidable bow. The superiority of the English in archery cannot be better expressed than by the Scottish proverb, that each southern archer bore at his belt the lives of twenty-four Scots, such being the number of arrows with which he was usually supplied.

In the possession of much greater wealth, the English had another advantage over their neighbors scarcely less effectual than that of their archery. This enabled them at pleasure to summon into the field considerable bodies of mercenaries, either horse or foot, whose trade was arms, and who maintained themselves by selling their services to those who could best afford to pay for them. It was natural that such bands, who were constantly in active service, should be much better acquainted with the art of war and the discipline of the times than the natives of Scotland, who only occasionally adopted the profession of arms. What was even of greater importance was the habit of obedience in military matters which these men had learned to practice, and which (provided always they were regularly paid) rendered them prompt and obedient to orders, and amenable to discipline. The English armies were, especially after Henry VII.'s time, augmented by bands from Flanders, Spain, Italy, and the most warlike countries then in the world, led by commanders whom long experience had made completely acquainted with the art of war, which was their only profession, as the camp was their only home. Their discipline was an example to the native troops of England, and showed them the advantage to be derived from implicit obedience during the campaign and on the field of battle. All these troops were placed under the command of a general of approved abilities, who received his orders from the king and council, presenting thus the absolute authority which is requisite to direct the movements of an army.

Besides this peculiar advantage of hiring regular troops, the wealth of England enabled her chivalry to come to the field in full panoply, mounted on horses fit for service, and composed of men-at-arms certainly not inferior to any which Europe could boast. She had also at command money, stores, provisions, ammunition, artillery, and all that is necessary to enable an army to take and to keep the field.

The Scottish armies, on the other hand, were composed of the ordinary inhabitants of the country, who, unless they chanced to have a few French men-at-arms, were destitute of any force approaching to regular soldiers. Their own men-at-arms were few and ill-appointed; and though they had in their armies numerous troops of hardy horses, they were too light for the actual battle. They always fought on foot, a circumstance which exposed their broad masses of spearmen still more to devastation by the English archers, who could remain at a distance and pour on them their fatal shot without encountering the brunt of their pikes. Their hosts were, indeed, nominally under command of one general; but wanted all that united force and energy acquired by a large body acting with a common purpose and under the authority of a single individual. On the contrary, they rather consisted of a number of little armies under separate chiefs, unknown to or perhaps at variance with each other, and acknowledging no common head save the king, who was not always fit to command in person, and to whom implicit obedience was not always rendered.

These great advantages of superior address in the missiles of the period, and in superior wealth for the formation and support of armies, were particularly observable in general battles upon a large scale; which the Scots, in their impatience and poverty of means to keep the field, hazarded far more frequently than was politic, and received a succession of dreadful and sanguinary defeats, so numerous and apparently decisive that the reader may be surprised how they could escape the total subjugation which seemed so often impending. But Scotland, to balance these disadvantages, was superior in some circumstances highly favorable to the nation, when her armies could withhold themselves from general actions.

When the nations met with moderate numbers on each side, the dissensions so frequent in a Scottish camp did not exist, and the armed natives of some particular district fought with unanimity under a Stewart or a Douglas, whose command was acknowledged, by all in the field. Such was the case at Otterbourne and many fields of combat, where neither host exceeded a few thousand men, and still more frequently where the numbers were much smaller. The Scottish inferiority in archery was on many occasions balanced by the advantage which their national weapon, the Scottish spear, gave them over the English bill, with which that nation maintained the combat, when they joined battle hand to hand. The strength and solidity of the Scottish phalanx of spearmen, either for attack or resistance, is on many occasions commemorated. If it be considered that a thrusting weapon is far more formidable than one calculated for striking, and that where troops use the former they must close and serry their ranks, while, to have room to employ the latter, they must keep loose order, it is not assuming any superior strength or courage in the Scots to say that in small skirmishes and battles of a secondary class they asserted a considerable advantage over the English.

But, besides the mode of fighting hand to hand, it must be remembered that the Scots were natives of a severe climate and poor soil, brought up to endure rigor of weather, and accustomed to scantiness of food, while at the same time they waged their wars chiefly in their own country, a mountainous and barren region, with whose recesses they were familiar; and it will not be surprising that, endowed with a peculiar obstinacy of temper, they should have succeeded, against all other disadvantages, in maintaining such an equality with their powerful neighbors as enabled them repeatedly, by a series of skirmishes, ambuscades, and constant attacks on the invaders, to regain what the nation lost in great general actions.

In government and constitution the English and Scottish kingdoms had originally the strongest resemblance to each other, both being founded upon the feudal system, at this time universally adopted in Europe. Indeed, before the reign of Henry VII. there was little difference between them. But the wars of York and Lancaster had swept off such numbers of the English nobility, and left those who remained so shorn of their power, that that politic prince had no difficulty in executing his deep-laid purpose of depriving the aristocracy of their influence in the state, and raising the crown to that height of power which it displayed under the House of Tudor. This scheme, to which the intro-auction of mercenary troops instead of feudal levies greatly contributed, was slowly and silently operating to increase the power of the crown and diminish that of the peers; and the boroughs and commons of England, whom the king favored, as a weight in his own scale, were yet more imperceptibly gaining consequence in the constitution. But in Scotland the crown was possessed of very little power, and the king could scarce be considered as more than the first baron of the kingdom, subject to be restrained, imprisoned, dethroned, and slain, at the pleasure of a turbulent aristocracy. It is true that, when the Scottish monarch possessed the love and affection of his peers, he was generally allowed considerable weight in the national councils; but the extent of his power usually rested on the degree of personal estimation in which he was held. James III. was repeatedly imprisoned, and finally deposed and murdered, by the same class of nobles (in some instances the very same individuals) who loved, honored, and obeyed his more popular son with such devotion that they followed him against their own better judgment to the fatal field of Flodden, in which with the flower of his kingdom he lost his life. The quiet and prosperity of the nation rested far too much on the personal character of the prince to be capable of much stability.

The difference between the condition of the lower orders in the two kingdoms was such as might be expected from the comparative point of civilization to which each had attained. In England, the merchants were possessed of great capital; the principal citizens were skilful and thriving; the ordinary ones substantial and easy, living under the protection of equal laws. The yeomen and farmers, in a great measure loosened from the dominion of their lords by the law against feudal retainers, and other laws in favor of personal freedom, were possessed of opulence, and employed themselves in improving the agriculture of the country, instead of following their lords to battle. In Scotland, this was all diametrically re-versed. The towns, though encouraged by favorable laws, were languishing through the decay of commerce, for which the Scottish merchants had neither stock nor capital. Their subjects of export were only hides, wool, and similar raw materials which the country afforded; and, as almost every necessary or convenience of life was imported from Flanders ready made, the balance of trade preponderated against the poorer country. Nor was improvement to be expected where neither skill nor labor was in demand, even had there been money to purchase them. The country was scarcely in a better condition than the towns. War being the constant state of the nation, the pursuits of agriculture were unavoidably postponed to the practice of arms. The farmers, who were in absolute dependence on the landholders, rode up and down the country in armor, attending upon their lords, while the labors of the farm were left to old men, women, and children. Bondmen were also employed in these domestic duties, unworthy, it was thought, of free hands. Yet the very rudeness of their character prevented the tenants from being oppressed beyond a certain limit. If a farmer took a lease over the head of another, at a rent which his poorer neighbor could not afford, the dispossessed agriculturist would kill his successor, to be revenged of his avaricious landlord. Numerous laws were made for repressing these evils, but in vain; the judges seldom had power, and often wanted will, to en-force them. The Scottish parliament saw the disease, and prescribed the remedy; but the difficulty lay in enforcing it.

In literature the Scots made a more equal competition with their neighbors than in other particulars. They used the same language with the English, though time had introduced a broader pronunciation.

The Scottish parliament were so much impressed with the necessity of education that in 1494 they passed a remarkable edict, by which each baron and substantial freeholder was enjoined, under the penalty of twenty pounds, to send his eldest son to the grammar-school at six, or, at the utmost, nine years of age. Having been competently grounded in Latin, the pupils were directed to study three years in the schools of philosophy and law, to qualify themselves for occupying the situation of sheriffs, justices of the peace, and other judges in ordinary.

That this singular statute had considerable influence we cannot doubt; yet the historian Mair or Major still continued to upbraid the nobility of his time with gross neglect of their children's education. But though a majority may have contemned literature and its pursuits, in comparison with the sports of the field or the exercises of war, there were so many who availed themselves of the opportunities of education as to leave a splendid proof of their proficiency. Dunbar, the Chaucer of Scotland, has, in his Lament for the Death of the Makers, enumerated eighteen poets of eminence in their time, who flourished from the earlier half of the fifteenth century down to the reign of James V. Many of their poems which have been preserved attest the skill and taste of the authors; but the genius of Dunbar and Gawain Douglas alone is sufficient to illuminate whole centuries of ignorance. In Latin composition, the names of Bishop Elphinstone, John Major, or Mair, Patrick Paulner, secretary to James IV., and Hector Boece, or Boëtius, an excellent scholar, though a most inaccurate and mendacious historian, attest the progress of Scottish literature.

The recent discovery of the lost classics had again awakened the light of learning in countries which had been long darkened with the shades of ignorance, and that light had penetrated into both parts of Britain. But deeper and more important speculations were rapidly expanding themselves. The art of printing, now in full action, had spread the knowledge of the Scriptures among thousands who had not been allowed to hear of them otherwise than as sophisticated by human inventions. The Church of Rome found herself in a situation where She was encumbered even by her own fortifications. Having once definitively avowed the doctrine that her decrees were infallible, it became impossible for her, without inconsistency, to sacrifice to the advancing knowledge of the period opinions, rites, or practices adopted during ages of ignorance, or to make any compromise with the spirit of inquiry. Thus the clergy were driven upon the difficult task of smothering it by authority and violence.