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in order to annul the Regency, and transfer the power to themselves, persuaded the King, a boy of only twelve years of age, to take the government into his own hands; and a Council held at Holyrood, declared him of age, and immediately issued proclamations in his name. This newly erected Power was soon shaken by the appearance of Angus, and Scott of Buccleuch, who, with four hundred men, forcibly entered the capital, and endeavoured, but unsuccessfully, to make good their possession of the city, whilst the artillery of the castle was pouring its volleys upon the helpless citizens. The Queen-Mother having sued out a divorce against her husband Angus, married her youthful lover Henry Stewart, and by such unmatronly conduct, she lost the respect of all parties.

Angus following out his schemes of ambition with a deeper and an abler policy than most men had hitherto given him credit for, obtained possession of the king's person, and, vesting in himself and his partisans the chief offices in the State, was successful for a time in usurping the government. June, 1525. More than one attempt was made to rescue the king from the thraldom in which he was now held by the Douglases, and to deliver the country from the mal-administration of that ambitious family. Angus returning from the border, whither he had gone, carrying the young king along with him, to suppress disorders, was met at Melrose, on the 25th of July 1526, by Scott of Buccleuch, who, with one thousand men, disputed his return to the capital, with the view of rescuing the king. In the conflict which ensued, Scott was repulsed with the loss of eighty of his men; and the death of Ker of Cessford, who was among the slain on the other side, produced a long and deadly feud between the Scots and Kers on the border. Another attempt made by Lennox, had no better success. Lennox marched from the west with ten thousand men, and was met at Linlithgow, by Angus and Arran, with an equal force. Sir George Douglas, brother of Angus, was bringing the young king from Edinburgh; and James, knowing that Lennox was making an effort for his freedom, moved slowly and reluctantly towards the scene of action, where, as the roar of artillery announced, the battle was already begun. George Douglas hurried the king along, and guessing his wishes,

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said, "Do not deceive yourself; you shall never escape -for if our enemies had hold of one arm, and we of the other, we would tear you in pieces, rather than quit our hold." This savage threat made a lasting impression on the king's mind, and was never forgiven. Lennox's party was defeated, and the Earl himself, after the action, was butchered by Sir James Hamilton, the bastard of Arran, a man of a bloody and ferocious character. These fruitless attempts to free the king from the power of the Douglases, only served to rivet his chains more firmly; and Angus, having passed sentence of forfeiture against those who had joined Lennox in the recent insurrection, continued to rule with despotic authority. This lasted for about three years, during which every species of outrage prevailed through the land, under the lax and unprincipled government of Douglas.

In May 1528, James, now sixteen years of age, planned and executed a scheme for his own escape. By dissembling his dislike of the Douglases, seeming pleased with his situation, and devoting himself to sylvan sports, his wily keepers were in a great measure thrown off their guard. Angus had retired to Lothian to attend to his private affairs; his uncle, Archibald, was on a visit to Dundee, and his brother George, to St Andrew's, leaving the king at Falkland, in the hands of Douglas of Parkhead, Captain of the king's body guard of one hundred men. The king having given orders for a grand hunting match on the morrow, and having repeatedly enjoined the guard to be in readiness to attend him at sun-rise, retired early to his apartment, where he exchanged his dress for that of a yeoman, and passing unobserved to the stables, saddled a horse, and, with two grooms whom he had taken into his confidence, galloped straight to Stirling. When he reached the bridge, which was then guarded by a gate and tower, he ordered the Warden to lock the gate, and enjoined him, on pain of treason, to open it to no Douglas. He was received with joy by the Governor of the Castle, and having summoned his nobles around him, the Doug lases were banished, and their estates forfeited.

II. JAMES V. Concluded.-1528-1542.

THOUGH it had been the base policy of Douglas to habituate the king to sensual indulgences, with the view of corrupting his mind, and unfitting him for the high duties of his kingly office, the youthful prince no sooner found himself a free monarch, than he manifested many high qualities fitted to adorn the throne, and benefit his country. He was unwearied in his efforts to restore order, and suppress violence. Having arrested Bothwell, Home, Maxwell, Buccleuch, Polwarth, and others of the more powerful border chiefs, he traversed, with an army of eight thousand men, those lawless districts, where he executed Cockburn of Henderland, Scott of Tushylaw, and the famous freebooter Johnie Armstrong, with forty of his men. With equal energy and sagacity he succeeded in restoring a certain degree of order in the Highlands and Isles. In 1532, he instituted the College of Justice, (Court of Session,) consisting of seven Peers, and seven Prelates, with a President, who was always a Clergyman.

In 1533, James, in company with the Queen-Mother, and the Papal Ambassador, made a summer progress to the north, where he was entertained by the Earl of Athol, with a splendour and magnificence unique and romantic. A rural palace, curiously framed of wood, was erected in a meadow: the chambers were hung with tapestry, and ornamented with gold; the light was admitted by windows of stained glass; the whole furnishings were of the most costly and showy description; and every luxury that could delight the senses was lavished in profusion. Even the Italian was filled with amazement at the beauty and grandeur of the fairy mansion; nor was his wonder diminished when, on the departure of the royal party, he saw the whole edifice committed to the flames-the owner declaring that this rural palace having had the honour to entertain majesty, should never be profaned by a less noble inhabitant.

James's hatred of the Douglases, and his distrust of the nobles, had led him to choose many of his councillors from the members of the clergy. This had the effect of retarding the Reformation. He resisted all the solicita

tions of his uncle, Henry VIII., to favour the reformed opinions, and declared his determination to support the religion of his fathers. In 1534, an ecclesiastical court was held in Holyrood for the trial of heretics, in which the king took his seat on the bench, clothed in a complete suit of scarlet, the judicial costume of the time. Many persons who had embraced the Reformed faith were summoned before this tribunal; when some abjured their errors others fled to England, amongst whom were the brother and sister of Patrick Hamilton, who had suffered martyrdom for the same cause in the early part of this reign; and two, David Straiton, and Norman Gourlay, who defended their faith, were condemned and burnt, on the 27th of August 1534.

In 1536, James proceeded to Paris, where he married Magdalen, only daughter of Francis I., and having spent nine months of festivity in the French capital, returned to his own kingdom in May 1537. The young queen, who was in a delicate state of health before her marriage, expired in July 1538; and in the following year the king married Mary of Guise. In the interval, Lady Glammis, sister of the banished Douglas, had been condemned to the flames for a conspiracy to take off the king by poison.

Cardinal Beaton's promotion in 1539, to the archbishopric of St Andrew's, was marked by renewed severities against the Reformers. Four of the lower order of the clergy were condemned, and burnt on the Castle Hill of Edinburgh, and two about the same period suffered the same death at Glasgow. Among the charges preferred against them, were "preaching to the people, and teaching them the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed in the vulgar tongue."

In 1540, James undertook an expedition beneficial to his subjects, and honourable to his character as a king, viz. to visit in person the most remote and disturbed districts of his dominions. With the Earls of Angus, Huntly, and Arran, he set out from Leith in May, with twelve ships and two thousand men, and coasting along the east coast of Scotland, visited the Orkneys, whence he passed to the Western Isles, making descents on the mainland, and various islands. He pitched his pavilion on the beach, round which the rude chiefs crowded entreating pardon

for past offences, and promising future obedience to the laws. Many of the chiefs were brought off as hostages for the good behaviour of their clans; a few were thrown into irons and the royal squadron having compassed the whole coast of the kingdom, anchored in the Frith of Clyde in July.

Sir James Hamilton, commonly called the Bastard of Arran, whose ferocious character has already been noticed, had contrived to insinuate himself into the good graces of James whilst a youth-a partiality repudiated by the king's riper judgment. This bloody and unprincipled man was now accused of having been concerned in a conspiracy for the assassination of the king. He was tried, condemned, and executed, on the 26th of August 1540. The death of this traitor, once a favourite, made a deep impression on the king's mind; and the apprehension entertained by James, that he was an object of hatred to his nobles, and that his life was aimed at, seems to have thrown him into a state of despondence and melancholy. He refused his usual pleasures and employments, shut himself up in private, and gave way to the most gloomy suspicions. His sleep was troubled by frightful visions, and he sometimes leapt from his bed and alarmed his attendants. On one occasion, his chamberlain was roused by groans from the royal apartment, and entering, he found the king sitting on his bed, who declared that the bastard of Arran had appeared to him with a drawn sword, threatening to cut off both his hands, and to return shortly to complete his revenge. This vision of his troubled fancy obtained the more credit and importance, from its apparent verification in an event which speedily followed, and which plunged the royal family and the nation into the deepest grief; James's two infant sons died within a few days of each other, leaving the king again childless, and the succession uncertain. James's vigorous character by degrees shook off his grief, and he turned with unsubdued energy to the affairs of his kingdom.

To the clergy of the Catholic hierarchy, into whose hands James had too exclusively cast himself, may be imputed the chief misfortunes of this reign. They urged him twice to refuse a conference with his uncle Henry VIII. at York, and thereby mortally offended the irritable

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