James IV. possessed every talent of a great and an accomplished prince. He was fond of military glory, of great personal courage, and of romantic generosity. He saw and pursued the true interests of his people; and such was his conduct towards his nobles, that while he maintained the authority of a monarch, he placed that confidence in them as his counsellors, which was returned by every mark of their duty and attachment. An animosity with England, which took place on account of James's affording a generous protection to Perkin Warbeck, whom he believed to be an injured prince, was soon after obliterated and reconciled by a marriage which Henry VII. brought about between the king of Scots and his daughter Margaret; a connection which founded the hereditary title of James VI. to the crown of England. This amity between the kingdoms was, however, unfortunately dissolved in the succeeding reign of Henry VIII. James, instigated by the French, the ancient allies of Scotland, then at war with Henry, and exasperated at the taking of some Scottish ships, and a few other circumstances which his high spirit interpreted into national affronts, much against the opinion of the chief and best of his counsellors, determined on a war with England. He levied an army of 50,000 men; and such was the attachment of his grandees, that the whole body of the Scottish nobility appeared, with all their dependants, under the banners of their sovereign. They entered the county of Northumberland, and were met by the earl of Surrey, in the field of Flodden. The address of the English general in avoiding an engagement till his army was reinforced; while the Scots, wanting provisions, in an enemy's country, and weakened by daily desertions, were reduced at length to a great inferiority of force; and the imprudent heroism of James in quitting a most advantageous post upon an eminence to attack the English, who were marshalled upon the plain-were the causes of a total and miserable defeat of the Scottish army. Five thousand were left dead upon the field of Flodden, among whom was the king himself, and almost the whole nobility of the kingdom. This fatal battle was fought on the 9th of September, 1513. A confused rumor of the event of the engagement reached Edinburgh on the next day; when the magistrates of the capital ordered a proclamation to be made, which has a striking similarity to one which the reader remembers to have been issued by the senate of Rome.

The Scottish proclamation runs in the following words :"Forasmuch as there is a great rumor newly arisen within this city touching our sovereign lord and his army, of which there is hitherto no certainty, we strictly command that all manner of persons, townsmen within this city, make ready their arms of defence and weapons of war, and that they appear marshalled therewith at the tolling of the common bell, for holding out and defending the city against all who may seek to invade the same. And we

also charge and require that all women do repair to their work, and be not seen upon the street clamoring and crying, under pain of banishment; and that the women of better sort do repair to the church, and there offer up their prayers to God for the safety of our sovereign lord and his army."

It is curious to compare this with the decree of the senate, as recorded by Livy, upon the event of the battle of Cannæ, and the Scottish proclamation will not suffer by the comparison; since, with the same expression of calm and determined fortitude, there is less of that parade of words, which, by endeavoring to conceal fear often betrays it.

James V., at the death of his father, was an infant of a year old. The regency of the kingdoin was conferred on the duke of Albany, grand-uncle to the king, a native of France, and consequently a stranger to the laws, manners, and genius of the people whom he governed. The disaster of Flodden, which had so greatly weakened the Scottish nobility, had not deprived the remnant of that body of their ancient spirit of ambition and independence. This long minority gave them time to recover strength; and some extraordinary exertions of authority in the regent had combined them in a very formidable association against the power of the crown, which James, upon assuring the government, found it an extremely difficult task to moderate and restrain. "We discern in the character of James V.," says Dr. Robertson, "all the features of a great and uncultivated spirit. On the one hand, violent passions, implacable resentment, an immoderate desire of power, and the utmost rage at disappointment. On the other, love to his people, zeal for the punishment of private oppressors, confidence in his favorites, and the most engaging openness and affability of behavior."

Under a monarch of this disposition, had it been possible to restrain the turbulent spirit of a factious nobility, the nation might have arrived at happiness and splendor. But ambition once kindled in the breasts of his nobles, and encroachments attempted on the power of the crown, this high-spirited prince formed, from the beginning of his reign, a deliberate design of humbling and reducing them to subjection. To this purpose his plan was deeper and more systematic than that of any of his predecessors. The church, which was under the influence of the crown, was naturally hostile to the body of the nobles, who were their rivals in wealth and power. With the concurrence of the clergy, whom he knew he could always command, James determined effectually to abase the power of the grandees.* He chose his

In order to repress the predatory, ferocious, and most tubulent spirit of the northern chieftains, many of whom had exchanged their allegiance to their native prince, for a league of alliance with Henry VIII. of England, James, with a bold and magnanimous policy, circumnavigated the greatest part of his dominions, visiting the whole of the coast to the north of the river Forth, and

counsellors from the church, men of consummate abilities, whom he raised to all the offices of trust and confidence. His prine minister was the cardinal Beaton, an ecclesiastic of very superior genius, who concurred with great keenness and satisfaction in the designs of his sovereign. The nobles, removed entirely from all share in the councils of state, and many of them punished with extreme rigor for very slight offences, were restrained only by their own weakness from breaking out into open rebellion. One imprudent measure of the king gave them at length an opportunity of taking a severe, though an ignominious revenge.

Henry VIII., at variance with the see of Rome, and insecure of the affections of his own subjects, wished to strengthen himself by an alliance with the king of Scots; and for this purpose proposed an interview at York, where a treaty of amity was to be concluded between the two kingdoms. It was certainly the real interest of James to have concurred with these views of the king of England, which would have been of mutual benefit to both; and he engaged to meet him for that purpose; but in the meantime, he unfortunately gave ear to the persuasions of his clergy, who, exasperated by the part which Henry had taken against the see of Rome, and apprehensive of a similar plan of reformation to that which was now taking place in England, employed all their ' credit with the king to prevent this alliance. They succeeded, and James disappointed the promised interview, which necessarily brought on a declaration of war on the part of Henry VIII.

The king of Scots was now obliged to court the aid of that nobility, which it had been the object of his whole reign to mortify and humiliate. An army was raised for the defence of the kingdom; but the nobles, upon the first opportunity which occurred, gave a striking proof to what length they had carried their disaffection to their prince. The English army, after an inroad upon Scotland, being obliged from scarcity of provisions to retire again beyond the borders, an obvious advantage was offered to the Scots, who, by pursuing them, might have cut them off in their retreat. James gave his orders for that purpose, but the disaffected barons sternly and obstinately refused to advance one step beyond the limits of the kingdom. Stung to the heart with this affront, James, in a transport of rage and indignation, instantly disbanded his army and returned abruptly to his capital. From that moment his temper and disposition underwent a total change. One measure more was wanting on the part of the nobility to complete their base revenge, and to drive their sovereign to frenzy and despair. His ministers had again prevailed on some of the nobles

then bending his course by the islands of Orkney to the Western Islands, attended by an armament of twelve ships completely manned and furnished with heavy artillery,-he awed into submission the rebellious chieftains, and insisted on their delivering into his hands the principal offenders, whom he detained as hostages for the obedience and peaceable subjection of all their followers.

to assemble their followers, and to attempt an inroad on the western border; but the chief command was given to one of the king's favorites, who was to them particularly obnoxious. So great was their resentment, that a general mutiny instantly took place, and a resolution was formed unparalleled in history. The Scottish army, consisting of 10,000 men, surrendered themselves prisoners to a body of 500 of the English without attempting to strike a blow. On the news of this disgraceful event, the spirit of James totally sunk under the tumult of contending passions, and, overcome with melancholy and despair, he died of a broken heart in the thirty-third year of his age, a few days after his queen had been delivered of a daughter, the unfortunate Mary, queen of. Scots, a princess, whose eventful life we shall briefly delineate, in treating of the reign of her contemporary, Queen Elizabeth.

I shall here, in the meantime, make some observations on the ancient constitution of the Scottish government. We have hitherto seen the kings of Scotland employed in a constant struggle towards reducing the exorbitant power of the nobles, who, looking back to those barbarous periods when the rude state of the country, with the want of laws and of policy, made them independent sovereigns in their distant provinces, were continually aiming at the same degree of power and authority which had been enjoyed by their ancestors. Their oppressive and tyrannical measures, and the dangers with which the crown was often threatened by those barons who possessed great wealth and a most formidable vassalage, were sufficient motives for those exertions on the part of the sovereign to reduce them to submission and obedience. The welfare of the country required it, the happiness of the people called aloud for the repression of their tyrannical authority, of which there can be no stronger proof than that, in those attempts of the Scottish kings to humble their nobility, the people almost always took the part of their sovereign. It is well observed by Dr. Robertson, that "if these attempts to humiliate their nobility were not attended with success, we ought not for that reason to conclude that they were not conducted with prudence. Accidental events concurred with political causes in rendering the best concerted measures abortive. The assassination of one king, the sudden death of another, and the fatal despair of a third, contributed no less than its own natural strength to preserve the aristocracy from ruin." But, in the meantime, the attempt was laudable, and the consequences were durably beneficial. A new system was formed of many excellent laws, and order and good policy began gradually to take place of anarchy, violence, and rapine.

In the framing of these laws, the king seems to have possessed almost the sole legislative power; the reason of which it is easy to explain. The Scottish parliament, when it first began to take a regular form, which was in the reign of James I., after the

exemption of the lesser barons, or landholders, from personal attendance, consisted of three estates; the nobles, or great barons; the ecclesiastics, or dignified clergymen; and the representatives of the boroughs and shires. The churchmen were devoted to the sovereign, who had the nomination of all vacant bishoprics and abbeys, and they equalled in number the body of the nobles; and the influence of the crown was always sufficient to secure a majority among the representatives of the boroughs and counties. Besides, there was one singular part of the Scottish constitution, which furnished an additional source of the crown's influence in parliament. This was the committee termed the Lords of the Articles, whose business it was to prepare and digest all matters which were to be laid before the parliament, and who had the power of approving or rejecting all motions for new laws and ordinances; a very extraordinary court, which, in fact, possessed in itself the essential powers of legislation, of which the parliament was no more than the mouth or vehicle. These lords of the articles were chosen jointly by the three estates, but from the mode of their election were virtually at the king's nomination.* In some instances they seem to have been appointed by the monarchs solely. Certain it is, however, that they were generally obedient and obsequious to their will. Hence the king had the absolute command of parliament, and it is much to the credit of the Scottish monarchs, as proved by the excellence of their laws, that there are very few instances of their abusing this authority.

The kings of Scotland retained themselves a supreme jurisdiction in all causes, civil or criminal, within the kingdom. This jurisdiction they were formerly accustomed to exercise by their privy council; till the year 1425, when, in the reign of James I., a new court was erected, consisting of the chancellor and a certain number of judges chosen by the king out of the three estates of parliament; and to them was transferred the jurisdiction of the

"The lords of the articles were constituted after this manner. The temporal lords chose eight bishops; the bishops elected eight temporal lords. These sixteen named eight commissioners of counties, and eight burgesses; and without the previous consent of those thirty-two persons, no motion could be made in parliament. As the bishops were entirely devoted to the court, it is evident that all the lords of the articles, by necessary consequence, depended on the king's nomination; and the prince, besides one negative, after the bills had passed through parliament, possessed indirectly another before their introduction.' Hume's History of England, vol. vi., p. 428. The lords of the articles appear first in the records of a parliament held at Perth by David II., 1370, under the description of a committee elected "by the consent of the three communities assembled," to treat and deliberate on "certain special and secret affairs of the king and kingdom before they came to the knowledge of the general council."— 4to. Register, f. v. 40. By and by, the whole business of parliament was exclusively conducted by this committee, who being named in the first day of the session, the other members were immediately declared to be at liberty to depart to their respective homes, and often did not assemble till next year, in order to give their ratification to the laws which the committee had framed. See Pinkerton's History of Scotland, vol. i., for an instructive and curious account of the origin, progress, and constitution of the Scottish parliament.

VOL. II.

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