temper of that monarch; they prompted him to severe and barbarous measures against the Reformers; and they now fomented, by every art in their power, a war with England, through their dread of Henry's influence extending the Reformation to Scotland. James had, moreover, given mortal offence to the nobles, first, by revoking the grants of all lands that had been alienated from the crown during the minority; secondly, by the sweeping forfeitures pronounced against the Douglases and their adherents, whose estates he annexed to the crown; and lastly, by seizing, as forfeited by rebellion, the whole of the Hebrides, along with the Orkney and Shetland Islands: all which made the nobility tremble for themselves, when they saw the unrelenting rigour of the king, and the vast accessions he was making to his power. The mode of revenge they adopted, though only intended to mortify their sovereign, had the effect of sending him to a premature grave.

Henry's displeasure at finding he could make no impression on his nephew, broke out into fury, when the promised conference at York, was, through the arts of the Scottish priests, once more denied him. Norfolk, the same who, when Earl of Surrey, had commanded at Flodden, crossed the border with an army of forty thousand men, and laid waste some hamlets and villages. James summoned the array of his kindom, and although the laws of the feudal tenure compelled the barons to muster with their retainers, it was in no loyal or submissive temper that they assembled on the Borough Muir at Edinburgh. James led his army to Falla Muir, near the western extremity of the Lammermuirs, where he learned that want of provisions, and the severity of the weather, it being now the end of November, had compelled Norfolk to retreat. The king wished to revenge Norfolk's invasion, by retaliating upon the English border; but the nobles peremptorily refused to advance, alleging that the feudal laws did not bind them to carry their arms beyond the frontier of the kingdom. James urged, threatened, implored, but all to no purpose. The sullen nobles remained immovable, and James, mortified and dishonoured, disbanded his army and returned to the capital.

This act of mutiny and disobedience was a severe blow to the proud spirit of the king. He had been insulted by

Henry, his kingdom invaded and laid waste, and he saw himself powerless to defend or retaliate. A second attempt was made to assemble the army; and Maxwell with a force of ten thousand men, advanced to Solway Moss, to invade England by the western marches; whilst the king himself approached the border, to obtain the earliest tidings of the invasion. Maxwell's host consisted chiefly of the men of the west, many of whom had embraced the Reformed faith, and were, therefore, totally disinclined to a war with England; and when the royal commission was read by a herald, appointing the unpopular favourite, Oliver Sinclair, to the command of the army, their discontent exploded in open mutiny: some instantly departed for their homes, while the whole camp was a scene of tumult and disorder. The English Wardens, Lords Dacre and Musgrave, who, with three hundred cavalry, were watching the motions of the Scottish army, observing the unaccountable confusion in the ranks of their enemies, took advantage of the moment, and boldly charging the disordered Scots, put the whole to the rout. The men fled without striking a blow, leaving several prisoners of distinction in the hands of the English horse

men.

The news of this shameful defeat were as fatal to James V. as the dagger of the assassin had been to two of his ancestors. The honour of his arms appeared irretrievably tarnished, and he thought he saw in his nobles a determination to betray him to England, and to gratify their hatred of his person, even at the risk of the independence of the kingdom. He betook himself to his palace at Falkland, where he sunk into the most gloomy despair. After two weeks of mental anguish, James V. died of a broken heart, in the 31st year of his age, and the 29th of his reign. When informed, eight days before his death, that the queen had been delivered of a daughter in the palace of Linlithgow, he only replied, "It came with a girl, and it will go with a girl," alluding to the daughter of Bruce, through whom the kingdom had come to his family. 14th December 1542.

James V., in many points of his character, resembled his great progenitor, James I. He showed equal firmness in checking disorders, in asserting the prerogative,

G

and in curbing the nobility; and the same causes seem to have led to the assassination of the one, and the despair of the other.

III.-Mary.

THE EARL OF Arran Governor of the Kingdom, 1542-1554.

THE death of James V. was the signal for a renewal of all those factious intrigues which had marked previous minorities, now embittered by a new element, a difference of religious opinions. The late king, favouring the views of his clergy, had been a bitter opponent of the Reformation; but persecution had only produced its usual effects, serving to stimulate, rather than retard, the progress of the new doctrines. Arran, though not distinguished for his zeal, either as a religious, or political partisan, had so far imbibed the new faith, that he kept about him two Protestant Divines, as his Chaplains. Glencairn, and the other nobles who had been taken at the Solway rout, returned from England, either inclined of their own accord, or fettered by their engagements with Henry, to favour the Reformed cause, and the English interest. Douglas and his brother, who returned from their fifteen years' exile, bound by equal or stronger obligations to Henry, were also led by their own interest to join the same political party. The Parliament authorised the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and the introduction of Protestant books from England.

A marriage was proposed by Henry, between the young queen and his own eldest son, the Prince of Wales, which was gladly received, and the necessary treaties concluded, when the measure was defeated by Henry's extravagant demands, and the violence with which he pushed them. He insisted that the person of the infant queen should be sent to England, and that the fortresses of Scotland should be put into his hands; which demands so incensed the nation, that the treaties were annulled, and preparations made for war with England.

Cardinal Beaton, the main prop of the Catholic or French party had been arrested; but that wily prelate having made his escape, had contrived to gain over the irresolute Governor, Arran, and even induced him to abjure the new faith. A new persecution of the Reformers immediately followed: and at Perth, four men were hanged, and one woman drowned, for their adherence to the reformed faith.

In May, 1543, an English fleet of two hundred sail appeared in the Frith of Forth. The army having been disembarked at Granton, plundered Leith, and set fire to Edinburgh, which burned for three days: after these outrages, part of the forces were re-embarked, whilst the others retreated to England by land, burning Haddington and Dunbar on their way.

Arran's feeble government gave general dissatisfaction: he was removed from his office, in June 1544, the Queen Dowager appointed in his stead, and Angus named Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. Arrak ersisted in acting as Governor, and the country beheld the unseemly spectacle of two rival Parliaments fulminating sentences of treason and forfeiture against each other.

Douglas could see his country ravaged, and its towns burnt, without feeling any virtuous indignation against the assailant; but when he learned that Henry VIII, had given to Sir Ralph Evre a grant of all the lands he should conquer in Merse and Teviotdale, a great portion of which formed the hereditary property of Douglas, his selfish passions were instantly roused. He declared, with an oath, that if the English Baron should dare to take possession, "he would write the sasine on his skin with sharp pens, and bloody ink." Evre advanced with a force of five thousand men, burned Broomhouse with its lady and her whole family-laid Melrose in ruins, ransacking its abbey, and defacing the tombs of the Douglas. Angus and the Governor having approached with a far inferior force, were surprised and defeated by the English. Angus, however, still hung upon their rear, and being joined by Norman Lesly, the Master of Rothes, with twelve hundred spearmen, and by the veteran Laird of Buccleuch and his men, he encountered Evre on Ancrum-Moor, and gained a complete victory, in which the English lost eight

hundred slain, and one thousand prisoners, Evre himself having fallen in the battle.

Cassils, Glencairn, and other nobles, along with the Laird of Branston, had for two years been plotting the assassination of Cardinal Beaton, and bargaining with the English king for a reward, if they should take off this, his principal enemy in Scotland. An event now occurred which excited the most bitter feelings against the Cardinal, and brought the plot of the conspirators to its consummation. In spite of all the persecution, the Reformed opinions continued to spread among the lower orders of the clergy, the middle ranks of the people, and many of the nobles. George Wishart, the most popular of their preachers, boldly inveighed against the abominations of the Romish Church, the errors of her Creed, and the licentiousness of her Clergy, and, by his bold and energetic eloquence, urged his countrymen to study the Scriptures, and to embrace the truth. He preached in Perth, Montrose, Ayr, and Dundee; in which last place, he so roused the populace, that two monasteries were destroyed. As he generally preached in the midst of mailed barons, and their armed retainers, and travelled from town to town with a two-handed sword borne before him, and escorted by his friends, he escaped for a time the vengeance of the enraged ecclesiastics. At last, Cardinal Beaton had him arrested and conveyed to St Andrews, where he was tried by an Ecclesiastical Court, condemned, and suffered at the stake, with a heroism and resignation that left a deep impression on the minds of the spectators.

About two months after this event, the conspirators having been joined by Norman Lesly, who had a private quarrel with the Prelate, and by some of the more ardent of the Reformers, who looked upon the Cardinal as the enemy of God and his people, and considered it a sacred duty to revenge the death of Wishart, they assembled from different quarters at St Andrews, in the evening. Beaton was fortifying his castle against an apprehended attack from England. Next morning at dawn, when the porter had lowered the drawbridge to admit the workmen, a small party of the conspirators entered along with them but John Lesly, uncle of Norman, and a wellknown enemy of the Cardinal, presenting himself, was