XXXIII. War with CHAPTER XXXIII. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. --VICTORY AT SOLWAY.-DEATH OF JAMES V.- TREATY CHAP. HENRY, being determined to avenge himself on the King of Scots for slighting the advances which he had made 1542. him, would gladly have obtained a supply from ParliaScotland. ment, in order to prosecute that enterprise; but as he did not think it prudent to discover his intentions, that assembly, conformably to their frugal maxims, would understand no hints; and the king was disappointed in his expectations. He continued, however, to make preparations for war; and as soon as he thought himself in a condition to invade Scotland, he published a manifesto, by which he endeavoured to justify hostilities. He complained of James's breach of word, in declining the promised interview, which was the real ground of the quarrel": but in order to give a more specious colouring to the enterprise, he mentioned other injuries; namely, that his nephew had granted protection to some English rebels and fugitives, and had detained some territory which Henry pretended belonged to England. He even revived the old claim to the vassalage of Scotland, and he summoned James to do homage to him as his liege lord and superior. He employed the Duke of Norfolk, whom he called the scourge of the Scots, to command in the war; and though James sent the Bishop of Aberdeen, and Sir James Learmont of Darsay, to appease his uncle, he would hearken to no terms of accommodation. While Norfolk was assembling his army at Newcastle, Sir Robert Bowes, attended by Sir Ralph Sadler, Sir Ralph Evers, Sir Brian Latoun, and others, made an incursion into Scotland, and advanced towards Jedburgh, with an intention of pillaging and destroying that town. The Earl of Angus and George a Buchanan, lib. 14. Drummond in James the Fifth. XXXIII. 1542. Douglas, his brother, who had been many years banished CHAP. their country, and had subsisted by Henry's bounty, joined the English army in this incursion; and the forces commanded by Bowes exceeded four thousand men. James had not been negligent in his preparations for defence, and had posted a considerable body, under the command of the Earl of Huntley, for the protection of the borders. Lord Hume, at the head of his vassals, was hastening to join Huntley, when he met with the English 24th Aug. army; and an action immediately ensued. During the engagement, the forces under Huntley began to appear; and the English, afraid of being surrounded and overpowered, took to flight, and were pursued by the enemy. Evers, Latoun, and some other persons of distinction, were taken prisoners. A few only, of small note, fell in the skirmish". The Duke of Norfolk, meanwhile, began to move from his camp at Newcastle; and being attended by the Earls of Shrewsbury, Derby, Cumberland, Surrey, Hertford, Rutland, with many others of the nobility, he advanced to the borders. His forces amounted to above twenty thousand men; and it required the utmost efforts of Scotland to resist such a formidable armament. James had assembled his whole military force at Fala and Sautrey, and was ready to advance as soon as he should be informed of Norfolk's invading his kingdom. The English passed the Tweed at Berwick, and marched along the banks of the river as far as Kelso; but hearing that James had collected near thirty thousand men, they repassed the river at that village, and retreated into their own country. The King of Scots, inflamed with a desire of military glory, and of revenge on his invaders, gave the signal for pursuing them, and carrying the war into England. He was surprised to find that his nobility, who were in general disaffected on account of the preference which he had given to the clergy, opposed this resolution, and refused to attend him in his projected enterprise. Enraged at this mutiny, he reproached them with cowardice, and threatened vengeance; but still resolved, with the forces which adhered to him, to make an impression on the enemy. He sent ten thousand b Buchanan, lib. 14. c Ibid. men to the western borders, who entered England at XXXIII. Solway-frith; and he himself followed them at a small 1542. distance, ready to join them upon occasion. Disgusted, however, at the refractory disposition of his nobles, he sent a message to the army, depriving Lord Maxwell, their general, of his commission, and conferring the command on Oliver Sinclair, a private gentleman, who was his favourite. The army was extremely disgusted with this alteration, and was ready to disband; when a small body of English appeared, not exceeding five hundred Victory at men, under the command of Dacres and Musgrave. A panic seized the Scots, who immediately took to flight, and were pursued by the enemy. Few were killed in this rout, for it was no action; but a great many were taken prisoners, and some of the principal nobility: among these the Earls of Cassilis and Glencairn; the Lords Maxwell, Fleming, Somerville, Oliphant, Grey, who were all sent to London, and given in custody to different noblemen. 24th Nov. Solway. 14th Dec. James the Death of Fifth. The King of Scots, hearing of this disaster, was astonished; and being naturally of a melancholic disposition, as well as endowed with a high spirit, he lost all command of his temper on this dismal occasion. Rage against his nobility, who, he believed, had betrayed him; shame for a defeat by such unequal numbers; regret for the past, fear of the future; all these passions so wrought upon him that he would admit of no consolation, but abandoned himself wholly to despair. His body was wasted by sympathy with his anxious mind; and even his life began to be thought in danger. He had no issue living; and hearing that his queen was safely delivered, he asked whether she had brought him a male or a female child? Being told the latter, he turned himself in his bed: "The crown came with a woman," said he, "and it will go with one: many miseries await this poor kingdom: Henry will make it his own, either by force of arms or by marriage." A few days after, he expired, in the flower of his age; a prince of considerable virtues and talents; well fitted, by his vigilance and personal courage, for repressing those disorders to which his kingdom during that age was so much exposed. He executed justice with impartiality and rigour; but as he XXXIII. 1542. supported the commonalty and the church against the CHAP. rapine of the nobility, he escaped not the hatred of that order. The Protestants also, whom he opposed, have endeavoured to throw many stains on his memory; but have not been able to fix any considerable imputation upon him d Henry was no sooner informed of this victory, and of the death of his nephew, than he projected, as James had foreseen, the scheme of uniting Scotland to his own dominions, by marrying his son, Edward, to the heiress of that kingdom". He called together the Scottish nobles who were his prisoners; and after reproaching them in severe terms for their pretended breach of treaty, he began to soften his tone, and proposed to them this expedient, by which, he hoped, those disorders, so prejudicial to both states, would for the future be prevented. He offered to bestow on them their liberty without ransom; and only required of them engagements to favour the marriage of the Prince of Wales with their young mistress. They were easily prevailed on to give their assent to a proposal which seemed so natural and so advantageous to both kingdoms; and being conducted to Newcastle, they delivered to the Duke of Norfolk hostages for their return, in case the intended nuptials were not completed; and they thence proceeded to Scotland, where they found affairs in some confusion. The pope, observing his authority in Scotland to be in danger from the spreading of the new opinions, had bestowed on Beaton, the primate, the dignity of cardinal, in order to confer more influence upon him; and that prelate had long been regarded as prime minister to James, and as the head of that party which defended the ancient privileges and property of the ecclesiastics. Upon the death of his master, this man, apprehensive of the consequences both to his party and to himself, endeavoured to keep possession of power; and, for that purpose, he is accused of executing a deed which required a high degree of temerity. He forged, it is said, a will for the king, appointing himself, and three noblemen more, regents of the kingdom during the minority of the d See note [O], at the end of the volume. e Stowe, p. 584. Herbert. Burnet. Buchanan. 1543. XXXIII. 1543. CHAP. infant princess': at least, for historians are not well agreed in the circumstances of the fact, he had read to James a paper of that import, to which that monarch, during the delirium which preceded his death, had given an imperfect assent and approbation". By virtue of this will, Beaton had put himself in possession of the government; and having united his interests with those of the queen-dowager, he obtained the consent of the convention of states, and excluded the pretensions of the Earl of Arran. James, Earl of Arran, of the name of Hamilton, was next heir to the crown by his grandmother, daughter of James III., and on that account seemed best entitled to possess that high office into which the cardinal had obtruded himself. The prospect also of his succession after a princess, who was in such tender infancy, procured him many partisans; and though his character indicated little spirit, activity, or ambition, a propensity which he had discovered for the new opinions had attached to him all the zealous promoters of those innovations. By means of these adherents, joined to the vassals of his own family, he had been able to make opposition to the cardinal's administration; and the suspicion of Beaton's forgery, with the accession of the noblemen who had been prisoners in England, assisted too by some money sent from London, was able to turn the balance in his favour. The Earl of Angus and his brother, having taken the present opportunity of returning into their native country, opposed the cardinal with all the credit of that powerful family; and the majority of the convention had now embraced opposite interests to those which formerly prevailed. Arran was declared governor; the cardinal was committed to custody under the care of Lord Seton; and a negotiation was commenced with Sir Ralph Sadler, the English ambassador, for the marriage of the infant Treaty with queen with the Prince of Wales. The following conScotland. ditions were quickly agreed on that the queen should remain in Scotland till she should be ten years of age; that she should then be sent to England to be educated; that six Scottish noblemen should immediately be deli f Sadler's Letters, p. 161. Spotswood, p. 71. Buchanan, lib. 15. |