cellor entered Edinburgh at the head of 4000 horse, where the king and he were joyfully received. The governor showed no emotion at what had happened; on the contrary, he invited the chancellor to an interview, to settle all differences. Lord Douglas, however, continued to brave both parties. He demanded by his ambassadors, Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld, and Allan Lawder, the investiture of the sovereignty of Touraine from Charles VII. of France; which, being readily granted, served to increase his insolence. The first-fruits of the accommodation between the two great officers of state was the holding of a parliament at Edinburgh, for redressing the public disorders; and encouragement was given to all persons who had been injured by Douglas to make their complaints. The numbers which on that occasion resorted to Edinburgh were incredible; parents, children, and women, demanding vengeance for the murder of their relations, or the plunder of their estates; till, by the multiplicity of their complaints, they became without remedy, none being found bold enough to encounter the earl, or to endeavour to bring him to a fair trial. The parties, therefore, were dismissed without relief, and it was resolved to proceed with that haughty noble in a different manner. Letters were written to him by the governor aud chancellor in the name of the states, requesting him to appear with his friends in parliament, and to take that lead in public affairs to which they were entitled by their high rank and possessions: and the manner in which these letters were penned operated effectually on his vanity, and made the earl consider them as proceeding from the inability of the government to continue the administration of affairs without him. Without suspecting that any man in Scotland would be so bold as to attack him, he wrote to the chancellor and governor that he intended to set out for Edinburgh: when the chancellor, on pretence of doing him honor, met him on his journey; and, inviting him to the castle of Crichton, entertained him there for some days. The chancellor had not only removed the earl's suspicion, but had made him a kind of convert to patriotism, by painting to him the miseries of his country, and the glory that must redound to him and his friends in removing them. He therefore attended the chancellor to Edinburgh; and, being admitted into the castle, dined at table with the king. Towards the end of the entertainment, a bull's head, the certain prelude of immediate death, was served up. The earl and his brother started to their feet, and endeavoured to escape; but the armed men, rushing in, overpowered them, and, tying their hands and those of Sir Malcolm Fleming with cords, they were carried to the hill and beheaded. The young king endeavoured, with tears, to procure their pardon; for which he was severely checked by his unrelenting chancellor. In 1443 the king, being arrived at the age of fourteen, declared himself out of the years of minority, and took upon himself the administration of affairs. He appears to have been a prince of great spirit and resolution; and he had occasion for it. Having appointed one Robert Sempil of Fulwood governor of the castle of Dumbarton, he was killed by one Galbreath (a noted partizan of the earl of Douglas), who seized upon the government of the castle. The young earl of Douglas, finding himself not supported by the chief branches of his family, began to think his safest course would be to return to his duty. He accordingly repaired to the king at Stirling; and, throwing himself at his feet, implored his pardon. The king, finding that he insisted on no terms but that of pardon, and that he had unconditionally put himself into his power, not only granted his request, but made him the partner of his councils. James had always disliked the murder of the earl of Douglas and his brother; and the chancellor, perceiving the ascendancy which this earl was daily gaining at court, thought it high time to provide for his own safety. He therefore resigned the great seal, and retired to the castle of Edinburgh, the custody of which he pretended had been granted to him by the late King during his life, or till the present king should arrive at the age of twenty-one. Lord Callendar, who knew himself equally obnoxious as Crichton, and that he could not maintain his footing by himself, resigned likewise all his posts, but kept possession of the castle of Stirling. As both this and that of Edinburgh were royal forts, the two lords were summoned to surrender them; but, instead of complying, they justified their conduct by the great power of their enemies, who had been so lately at the head of robbers and outlaws; but promised to surrender themselves to the king as soon as he was of lawful age. This answer being deemed contumacious, the chancellor and the late governor, with his two sons Sir Alexander and Sir James Livingston, were proclaimed traitors in a parliament summoned to meet at Stirling. In another parliament held at Perth the same year, an act was passed that all the lands and goods which had belonged to the late king should be possessed by the present to the time of his lawful age. This act was levelled against the late governor and chancellor, who were accused of having alienated to their own uses, or to those of their friends, a great part of the royal effects and jewels; and, their estates being confiscated, the execution of the sentence was committed to John Forrester of Corstorphin, and other adherents of the earl of Douglas. The sentence threw the whole nation into a flame. The castle of Crichton was besieged; and, being surrendered upon the display of the royal banner, it was levelled with the ground. It soon appeared that the governor and chancellor, the latter especially, had many friends; and in particular Kennedy bishop of St. Andrew's, nephew to James I., who sided with them from the dreau and hatred they bore to Douglas. Crichton thus soon found himself at the head of a body of men ; and, while Forrester was carrying fire and sword into his estates and those of the late governor, his own lands and those of the Douglasses were overrun. Corstorphin, Abercorn, Blackness, and other places were plundered; and Crichton carried off from them more booty than he and his adherents had lost. Douglas was so much exasperated by the great losses he had sustained, ander Dunbar dispossessed the latter of his castle that he engaged his friends, the earl of Crawford The king being about eighteen years of age, it was now thought proper that a suitable consort should be provided for him; and, after various consultations, Mary, the daughter of Arnold duke of Gueldres, was chosen, at the recommendation of Charles VII. of France. This produced an immediate rupture with England. The earls of Salisbury and Northumberland entered Scotland at the head of two armies. The former burnt the town of Dumfries, as the latter did that of Dunbar; while Sir John Douglas of Balveny made reprisals by plundering the county of Cumberland, and burning Alnwick. Upon the return of the English to their own country, additional levies were made, and a fresh invasion of Scotland was resolved upon under the earl of Northumberland, who had a lieutenant, whom the Scots, from the bushiness and color of his beard, called Magnus with the red mane. He was an excellent officer, having been trained in the French wars; and is said to have demanded no other recompense for his services, from the English court, than that he should enjoy all he could conquer in Scotland. The Scots, in the mean time, had raised an army commanded by George Douglas earl of Ormond, and under him by Wallace of Craigie, with the lords Maxwell and Johnston. The English, having passed Solway Frith, ravaged all that part of the country which belonged to the Scots; but, hearing that the earl of Ormond was approaching, called in their parties, and fixed their camp on the banks of the Sark. Their advanced guard was commanded by Magnus; their centre by the earl of Northumberland; and their ear, which was composed of Welsh, by Sir John Pennington, an officer of courage and experience. The right wing of the Scots was commanded by Wallace, the centre by the earl of Ormond, and their left wing by the lords Maxwell and Johnston. Before the battle, the earl of Ormond endeavoured to inspire his men with high resentment against the English, who, he said, had treacherously broken the truce. The signal being given, the Scots under Wallace rushed forward upon their enemies; but, as usual, were received by so terrible a discharge from the English archers that their impetuosity must have been stopped, had not their brave leader put them in mind that their forefathers had always been defeated in distant fights by the English, and that they ought to trust only to their swords and spears. They obeyed, and broke in upon the English, commanded by Magnus, with such fury as soon fixed the fortune of the day on the side of the Scots. The slaughter (for both parties fought with the utmost animosity) fell chiefly upon the division commanded by Magnus, who was killed, together with the whole of his body guard of picked soldiers. Sir John Pennington's division, with that under the earl of Northumberland, was likewise routed; and the whole Engish army, struck by the loss of their champion, fled towards the Solway; where, the river being swelled by the tide, numbers of them were drowned. The loss of the English in slain amounted to at least 3000 men. Among the prisoners were Sir John Pennington, Sir Robert Harrington, and the earl of Northumberland's eldest son, the lord Percy, who lost his own liberty in forwarding his father's escape. Of the Scots about 600 were killed; but none of note excepting the brave Wallace, who died three months after of his wounds. The booty on this occasion is said to have been greater than any that had fallen to the Scots since the battle of Bannockburn. The rest of the history of this reign is almost entirely a relation of the cabals and conspiracies of the nobles and other chiefs. The earl of Douglas had entered into a confederacy with the earls of Crawford, Moray, and Ross, and appeared on all occasions with such a train of followers as bade defiance to the royal power. This insolence was detested by the wiser part of the nation; and Maclellan, who was nephew to Sir Patrick Gray, captain of the king's guard, refused to give any attendance upon the earl. This inoffensive behaviour was by the latter considered as a kind of treason, and seizing upon Maclellan's house and person, he sent him prisoner to the castle of Douglas. As Maclellan was a gentleman of great worth and reputation, his uncle Sir Patrick applied to James in his favor; who wrote and signed a letter for his release: and, upon Gray's delivering this letter to Douglas at his castle, the latter seemed to receive it with the highest respect, and to treat Gray with hospitality; but in the mean time he gave private orders that Maclellan's head should be struck off, and his body exposed upon the green before the castle. After dinner the earl told Gray that he was ready to obey the king's commands; and, conducting him to the green, showed him the lifeless trunk. Upon this Gray mounted his horse, and, trusting to his swiftness for safety, was pursued by the earl's attendants to the gates of Edinburgh. The conspiracy against James's government was now no longer a secret. The lords Balveny and Hamilton, with such a number of other barons and gentlemen, had acceded to it, that it was thought to be more powerful than all the force the king could bring into the field. Even Crichton advised James to dissemble. The confederates entered into a solemn bond and oath never to desert one another: all who did not enter into this association were treated as enemies to the public; their lands were destroyed, their effects plundered, and they themselves imprisoned or murdered. Drummond says that Douglas was now able to bring 40,000 men into the field; and that his intention was to have usurped the crown. When James invited him to a conference in the castle of Stirling, he offered to comply, provided he had a safe conduct; which was expedited in the form and manner required. The earl began his march with his usual great retinue, and arrived at Stirling on Shrove Tuesday. He was received by the king as if he had been the best of his friends, and admitted to sup with his majesty, while his attendants were dispersed in the town. The entertainment being over, the king told the earl, That, as he was now of age, he was resolved to be the father of all his people, and to take the government into his own hands; that he, therefore, had no reason to be under any apprehensions from his old enemies Callendar and Crichton; that there was no occasion to form any confederacies, as the law was ready to protect him; and that he was welcome to the principal direction of affairs under the crown, and to the first place in the royal confidence; nay, that all former offences done by himself and his friends should be pardoned.' This speech was the very reverse of what the earl of Douglas expected. It rendered him, indeed, the first subject of the kingdom; but still he was controlable by the civil law. In short, upon the king's peremptorily putting the question to him, he not only refused to dissolve the confederacy, but upbraided the king for his government. This produced a passionate rejoinder on the part of James; but the earl represented that he was under a safe conduct, and that the nature of the confederacy was such that it could not be broken but by the common consent of all concerned. The king insisted upon his setting the example; and, the earl continuing more and more obstinate, James stabbed him with his dagger, and armed men, rushing into the room, finished the slaughter. After the death of the earl of Douglas the confederacy came to nothing. The insurgents excused themselves as being too weak for such an enterprise; and were contented with trailing the safe conduct at a horse's tail, and proclaiming by trumpets and horns the king a perjured traitor. They proceeded no farther, and each departed to his own habitation, after agreeing to assemble with fresh forces about the beginning of April. James lost no time in improving this short respite; and found the nation in general much better disposed in his favor than he had reason to expect. The intolerable oppressions of the great barons made his subjects esteem the civil far preferable to the feudal subjection, and even the Douglasses were divided among themselves; for the earl of Angus and Sir John Douglas of Dalkeith were among the most forward of the royalists. James at the same time wrote letters to the earl of Huntly, to all the noblemen who were not parties in the confederacy, and to the ecclesiastics. Before the effect of those letters could be known, the insurgents had returned to Stirling (where James still kept himself upon the defensive); repeated their insolence, and the opprobrious treatment of his safe conduct; and at last plundered the town, and laid it in ashes. Being still unable to take the castle, partly through their own divisions, and partly through the diversity of their operations, they left Stirling, and destroyed the estate of Sir John Douglas of Dalkeith, whom they considered as a double traitor. They then besieged his castle; but it was so bravely defended by Parick Cockburn, a gentleman of the family of Langton, that they raised the siege. All this time the unhappy country was suffering the most cruel devastations; for matters were now come to such extremity that it was necessary for every man to be a royalist or a rebel. The king was obliged to keep on the defensive; and, though he had ventured to leave the castle of Stirling, he was in no condition to face the rebels. They were in possession of all the strong passes by which his friends were to march to his assistance; and he even consulted with his attendants on the means of escaping to France, where he was sure of an hospitable reception. He was diverted from that resolution by bishop Kennedy and the earl of Angus, who was himself a Douglas, and prevailed upon to wait for the event of the earl of Huntly's attempts. This nobleman, who was descended from the Seatons, but by marriage inherited the great estates of the Gordons in the north, had raised an army for James, to whose family he and his ancestors, by the Gordons as well as the Seatons, had been always devoted. James was not mistaken in the high opinion he had of Huntly; and in the mean time he issued circular letters to the chief ecclesiastics and bo dies politic of his kingdom, setting forth the necessity he was under to proceed as he had done, and his readiness to protect all his loyal subjects against the power of the Douglasses and their rebellious adherents. Before those letters could have any effect, the rebels had plundered the defenceless houses and estates of all who were not in their confederacy. The indignation which the public had conceived against the king, for the violation of his safe conduct, began now to subside; and the behaviour of his enemies seemed to justify what had happened. The forces he had assembled being unable, as yet, to act offensively, he resolved to wait for the earl of Huntly, who by this time was at the head of a considerable army, and had begun his march southwards. He had been joined by the Forbeses, Ogilvies, Leslies, Grants, Irvings, and other relations and dependents of his family; but, having advanced as far as Brechin, he was opposed by the earl of Crauford, the chief ally of the earl of Douglas, who commanded the people of Angus, and all the adherents of the rebels in the neighbouring counties, headed by foreign officers. The two armies joining battle, on the 18th of May, victory was for some time in suspense; till one Coloss of Bonnymoon, or Balnamuin, on whom Crauford had great dependence, but whom he had imprudently disobliged, came over to the royalists with the division he commanded, which was the best armed part of Crauford's army. His defection gave the fortune of the day to the earl of Huntly, as it left the centre flank of Crauford's army entirely exposed. He himself lost one of his brothers; and fled with another, Sir John Lindesay, to his house at Finhaven, where he declared, That he would be content to remain seven years in hell, to have in so timely a season done the king his master that service the earl of Huntly had performed, and carry that applause and thanks he was to receive from him.' No author informs us of the loss of men on either side, though all agree that it was very considerable upon the whole. The earl of Huntly lost two brothers, William and Henry; and to indemnify him for his services, and for the presents he had made to his followers, the king gave him the lands of Badenoch and Lochaber. The battle of Brechin was not inmediately decisive in favor of the king, but proved so in its consequences. The earl of Moray, a Douglas likewise, took advantage of Huntly's absence to harass and ravage the estates of all the royalists in the north; but Huntly, returning from Brechin with his victorious army, drove the enemy into his own county of Moray, and afterwards expelled him even thence. James was now encouraged, by the advice of his kinsman bishop Kennedy, to proceed against the rebels in a legal manner, by holding a parliament at Edinburgh, to which the confederated lords were summoned; and, upon their non-appearance, declared traitors. This proceeding seemed to make the rebellion rage more fiercely; and at last the confederates disowned their allegiance to James. The earls of Douglas, Crauford, Ormond, Moray, the lord Balveny, Sir James Hamilton, and others, signed public manifestoes, which were pasted on the doors of the principal churches, importing that they were resolved never to obey any command or charge, nor answer any citation for the time coming; because the king, so far from being a just master, was a bloodsucker, a murderer, a transgressor of hospitality, and a surpriser of the innocent.' These atrocious proceedings did no service, however, to their cause. The earl of Huntly continued victorious in the north, where he and his followers, in revenge for the earl of Moray's having burnt his castle of Huntly, ravaged all Moray's estate north of the Spey. When he came to Forres, he burnt one side of the town because it belonged to the earl, and spared the other, the property of his own friends. James thought himself, from the behaviour of Douglas and his adherents, now warranted to come to extremities; and, marching into Annandale, he carried fire and sword through all the estates of the Douglasses. The earl of Crauford destroyed the lands of the people of Angus, and of all others who had abandoned him at the battle of Brechin. James, returning from Annandale to Edinburgh, marched northwards to Angus, to reduce the earl of Crauford, who had hitherto deferred throwing himself at the king's feet, only in hopes that better terms might be obtained from James for himself and his party. Perceiving that the earl of Douglas's obstinacy had put an end to all hopes of a treaty, he resolved to make a merit of breaking the confederacy, by being the first to submit. James, having arrived in Angus, was continuing his march through the country, when the earl and some of his chief followers fell on their knees before him on the road, bare-headed and bare-footed; the earl acknowledging his crimes, and imploring forgiveness. James was then attended by his chief counsellors, particularly bishop Kennedy. He asked their advice; which proving merciful, James promised to the earl and his followers restitution of all their estates and honors. The earl, in gratitude, before the king left Angus, joined him with a troop of his friends and followers; and, attending him to the north, was extremely active in suppressing all the remains of the rebellion there. The submission of the earl of Cranford was followed by that of the earl of Douglas; but he soon resumed his rebellious practices, and in 1454 raised an army to fight against the king. The king erected his standard at St. Andrew's, marched thence to Falkland, and ordered all the forces of Fife, Angus, Strathern, &c., to rendezvous at Stirling; which they did to the number of 30,000. Douglas assembled his forces, which amounted to 40,000, some say 60,000 men, on the south bank of the Carron, between Stirling and Abercorn. Bishop Kennedy had advised the king to divide his enemies by offering them pardon separately; and thus in a few days the earl was cause. deserted by all his numerous army, excepting about 100 of his nearest friends and domestics, with whom he retired towards England. However, in his journey southward, he raised a considerable body of forces, consisting of his own tenants, of outlaws, robbers, and borderers, with whom he renewed his depredations on the loyal subjects of the king. He was opposed by the earl of Angus, who continued firm in the royal An engagement ensued at Ancrum muir; where Douglas was entirely defeated, and he himself with great difficulty escaped to an adjacent wood. His estates were afterwards forfeited to the king. The rest of the reign of James II. was spent in internal regulations for the good of his people. He was killed in 1460 at the siege of Roxburgh castle, by the bursting of a cannon. This siege he had undertaken in favor of the queen of England, wife of Henry VI., who, after losing several battles, and being reduced to distress, was obliged to apply to him for relief. The nobility who were present concealed his death for fear of discouraging the soldiers; and in a few hours after the queen appeared in the camp, and presented her young son James III. as their king. James III. was not quite seven years of age at his accession to the crown. The administration devolved on his mother, who pushed the siege of Roxburgh castle with so much vigor that the garrison capitulated in a few days; after which the army ravaged the country, and dismantled the castle of Wark. In 1466 negociations were begun for a marriage between the young king and Margaret princess of Denmark; and in 1468 the following conditions were stipulated;1. That the annual rent hitherto paid for the northern isles of Orkney and Shetland should be for ever remitted and extinguished. 2. That king Christian I. should give 60,000 florins of gold for his daughter's portion, whereof 10,000 should be paid before her departure from Denmark; and that the islands of Orkney should be made over to the crown of Scotland by way of pledge for the remainder; with this proviso that they should return to that of Norway after complete payment. 3. That king James should, in case of his dying before the said Margaret, leave her in possession of the palace of Linlithgow, and castle of Down, in Monteith, with all their appurtenances, and the third part of the ordinary revenues of the crown, to be enjoyed by her during life. 4. But, if she chose to return to Denmark, that in lieu of the said liferent, palace, and castle, she should accept of 120,000 florins of the Rhine; from which sum the 50,000 due for the remainder of her portion being deduced and allowed, the islands of Orkney should be reannexed to the crown of Norway. When these articles were agreed upon, Christian found himself unable to fulfil his part of them. Being then engaged in an unsuccessful war with Sweden, he could not advance the 10,000 florins which he had promised to pay down as part of his daughter's fortune. He was therefore obliged to apply to the plenipotentiaries to accept of 2000, and to take a farther mortgage of the isles of Shetland for the other 8000. The Scottish plenipotentiaries, of 1 |