Page images
PDF
EPUB

He was instructed again to press upon James the propriety of a personal meeting, to which the Scottish King gave a dubious consent.' The good sense and moderation which James exhibited during discussions of so delicate a nature, rendered him worthy of a more enlightened age, and of a better fate.

In 1542, the fatal battle, or rather rout of Solway, took place, in which a thousand Scottish prisoners, comprehending the Earls of Glencairn and Cassilis, Lords Maxwell, Somerville, and other nobles of the highest rank, fell into the hands of a small band of English borderers, who had approached the Scottish host, rather to observe their motions, than with any purpose of assault. By this disgraceful event, the heart of James V. was literally broken, and he died, leaving the crown to his daughter Mary, a new-born infant, whose misfortunes began in her cradle, and accompanied her, supported. Statutes against the authority of the Pope, and against the tenets of Luther, were enacted in the same Parliament, and Papists and Protestants were alternately brought to the same stake. The Protestants in Scotland were universally dissatisfied with this bastard reformation, a circumstance which had contributed not a little to cool their zeal for the lately proposed alliance with England. Sir Ralph Sadler, his ambassador, found himself in a very awkward predicament on this account; for the Papists were offended because he had not gone farther. The latter disrelished, in particular, the restrictions which he had imposed upon the reading and interpretation of the Scriptures, and which he urged the Regent to imitate in Scotland. And they had no desire for the King's book, of which Sadler was furnished with copies to distribute, and which lay as a drug upon his hands."M'CRIE'S Life of Knox, vol. i., p. 44-5.]

Pinkerton's History, vol. i., p. 374,

with little intermission, to her grave. In this crisis Henry formed a plan, equally moderate and sagacious, of uniting the two kingdoms by alliance, rather than conquest. For this purpose, he treated with kindness and liberality the Scottish prisoners, whom the success at Solway had placed in his power, and heaped favours upon the Earl of Angus, the head of the house of Douglas, who, with his kinsmen, had long found refuge in England from the wrath of James V., and was now about to return to Scotland in consequence of his death. To these nobles, his captives, as well as the Douglasses, the English monarch intrusted a scheme of a marriage to be contracted between the infant Queen of Scotland, and the youthful Edward, his son and heir. Henry appears to have received from all the strongest assurances, that they would support, with their utmost power, this proposition, so soon as it should be made to the Scottish Parliament. Not satisfied with these protestations, he took from the captives pledges and hostages for

[ocr errors]

["The disgraceful news of Solway, filled up the measure of the King's despair and desolation. He shut himself up in the Palace of Falkland, and refused to listen to any consolation. A burning fever, the consequence of his grief and shame, seized on the unfortunate monarch. They brought him tidings that his wife had given birth to a daughter; but he only replied, It (meaning the crown) came with a lass, and it will go with a lass.' He spoke little more, but turned his face to the wall, and died of the most melancholy of all diseases, a broken heart. He was scarcely thirty-one years old; in the very prime, therefore, of life. If he had not suffered the counsels of the Catholic priests to hurry him into war with England, James V. might have been as fortunate a prince as his many good qualities and talents deserved."-Tales of a Grandfather. First Series. Vol. iii., p. 75.]

their returning to captivity upon his summons ; and dismissed them much in the situation, though unanimated by the spirit, of the Roman Regulus. With them the Earl of Angus and the Douglasses returned to Scotland, after an exile of fifteen years, during which they had been in a great measure pensioners upon Henry's munificence.

With them, also, Sir Ralph Sadler came to Scotland, in the character of ambassador of England, for achieving this important match. The prudence and art with which he conducted the negotiation, as well as the real advantages which it held forth to Scotland, might, in any other country and circumstances, have secured its success. But the impatient spirit of Henry would not wait for the ripening of his own proposal, longing not only to form an interest in the heiress of the kingdom, but to have her person in his own custody, and her kingdom under his own government. Sir George Douglas, the brother of the Earl of Angus, protested from the beginning against this rash assumption. "If there be any motion," said he, "now to take the governor from his state, and to bring the government of this realm to the King of England, I assure you it is impossible to be done at this time. For," quoth he, "there is not so little a boy but he will hurl stones against it, and the wives will handle their distaffs, and the commons universally will rather die in it, yea, and many noblemen and all the clergy be fully against it." According to this prognostication, the whole country seemed to prepare for war; for when Sadler, by his sovereign's desire, still insisted on the King of England having

the personal custody of the princess, the combustion became very great, and Lord Maxwell assured him he should see such a meeting as was never seen at parliament or council, for every one was preparing jacks and spears, and if they fought not ere they parted, it would be a great wonder.

Notwithstanding Sadler's diplomatic ability, he had to contend with the prejudices which centuries of war had engraved in the bosom of the Scottish nation; prejudices so deep and unconquerable, that one of their most enlightened statesmen1 used to Sadler these strong expressions of the national abhorrence of an English match: "Our nation being a stout nation, will never agree to have an Englishman to be King of Scotland; and though the whole nobility of the realm would consent to it, the common people, the women with their distaffs, and the very stones in the street, would rise up and rebel against it." The impatient, haughty, and furious temper of King Henry, added to the obstacles which the ambassador had to encounter.His parsimony gave still farther embarrassment. It is easy to perceive that Henry reckoned almost solely upon the gratitude of the prisoners to whom he had given temporary freedom, and of the Donglasses whom he had protected in banishment; and that he disrelished the idea, suggested by Sadler, of refreshing by new acts of generosity, their recollection of former favours. Threats, expostulation, and upbraiding, were arguments which Henry held to be cheaper and more efficacious, than work

1 Sir Adam Otterburn.

ing by gifts and promises upon the poverty and avarice of the Scottish nobility. By this course, which Sadler vainly deprecated, the party which he had formed among that body became daily more doubtful, and the stern remonstrances of the English monarch only tended still farther to alienate them from his interest.

6

Their situation was indeed a hard one, and vindicated their once bitter complaints. Thus "the Lord Maxwell sware a great oath, that he thought your Majesty had them in some suspicion; and yet, for all that, they would be true men to your Majesty.' The Earl of Glencairn prayed me

To write to your Majesty, and to beseech the same for the passion of God, to encourage them so much, as to give them trust, for they were already commonly hated here for your Majesty's sake, and throughout the realm called the English lords; and such ballads and songs made of them, how the English angels had corrupted them, as have not been heard ; so as they have almost lost the hearts of the common people of this realm, and be also suspected of the governor and nobility of the same; and if your Majesty should also mistrust them, they were in a hard case: Wherefore, seeing they were minded, as indeed they would serve your Majesty with their bodies, goods, and all their power, according to their band and promise, from which they will never vary nor digress, they beseech your Majesty to give them trust and credit, which, if they may perceive, shall be most to their comfort;' wherein I did as much as I could to satisfy them."

On the other hand, the address of Sadler was counterbalanced by that of Cardinal Beaton, who availed himself of every obstacle which the prejudices of the Scots, the imbecility of the Regent, the impatience of Henry, and the liberality of France, afforded against the English treaty. Yet, under all these disadvantages, a hollow league was agreed to,

« PreviousContinue »