the two armies fronted other, being posted on high ground, with a valley between them, and " each ready to abide, but not to give battle." Many skirmishes occurred, and some brave and distinguished persons fell: among them a brother of the marshal and the bastard of Bourbon. Want of provisions enforced the enemy to dislodge. The king followed them; but, "impeded with the desert ground and barren country through which he had to pass, over fells and craggy mountains, from hill to dale," says the chronicler, "from marsh to wood, from naught to worse, without victuals or succour," he was constrained to retire and make again for Worcester; and the enemy, harassing his retreat, cut off some of his stores. Finding, however, poor entertainment in Wales, and no hope of eventual success, the French returned to their own country, with some credit, but with no other advantage, from a painful expedition.* Eight ships, from a fleet of eight-and-thirty, conveying reinforcements to them, had been captured on the way; and Henry Paye brought home, from the coast of Bretagne, 120 prizes, laden with iron, salt, oil, and Rochelle wine. Scotland and England had ever been ill neighbours to each other, nor had any approach towards a better feeling between them been made since the line of the Roman wall was traced out. The exiles and malecontents of one country were harboured, at this time, as they ever were, in the other. This led to open war; and a .squadron, under sir Robert Logon, attacked an English fleet of fishers off Aberdeen. Some good ships of Lynn happened to come up in time to aid their countrymen, and Logon himself, "with the residue of his company, was taken. The English then landed upon some of the Orkneys, and spoiled them."+ Robert III. of Scotland, who had lost an excellent and dearly beloved wife, who was himself declining into old age, and sur * Monstrelet, c. 15. Holinshed, iii. 40. Speed, 620. PRINCE JAMES OF SCOTLAND. . 17 rounded by nobles distinguished for their ferocity and *Hall says that Hotspur's son, Henry, was with him, and that "by "Upon the wavis weltering to and fro, So infortunate was we that fremyt day, We weren all, and brought in thair contrie." 1405. favour might be shown him, if by any chance he should land within any of his dominions, reasons of policy prevailed over rectitude and honour; and, conformably to the advice of the privy council, the prince was treated as a prisoner. But this injustice provided better for him than his father's careful foresight would have done*: even confinement, perhaps, at first came in aid of a studious and gentle disposition, which was improved by the best education that the English court could supply. Boethius was his consolation in prison, and Chaucer his model. He became a most accomplished and amiable prince: he formed an attachment which ended in a marriage every way suitable, and produced his immediate enlargement; and when, after twelve years of as much happiness as could be enjoyed He says himself, "Blissit mot be the Goddis all So fair, that glateren in the firmament; My lufe, and to so glad a consequent : And thankit be Fortuny's exil tre And whele that thus so well has whirlit me." When Henry "assembled his council to know what should be done with this noble infant, some," says Hall, "to whom the continual wars and daily battle was both displeasant and odious, affirmed that there could not happen a better or a more surer occasion of peace and amity between both the realms; which being so offered, they would in no wise should be rejected, but taken, considering that this prince was sent thither in trust of safeguard, in hope of refuge, and in request of aid and comfort against his evil willers and malicious enemies: others (whose opinion took place) affirmed him to be a prisoner, and so to be ordered, forasmuch as he was taken, the war being open, and that his father did not only maintain the earl of Northumberland and other rebels within his country, and give them great honours, but also sent a great number of his nobility against the king, at the battle of Shrewsbury. Wherefore it was agreed that he should be detained as a prisoner, lawfully taken and duly apprehended. When tidings of this definitive sentence was showed to his father, he took such an inward conceit, and so sore a pensiveness, that he ended his natural life within a few months after. Although the taking of this young prince was at the first time displeasant to the realm of Scotland, yet surely after, he and all his region had great cause to rejoice, and thank God of their fortunate chance and good luck that ensued. For where before that time the people of Scotland were rude, rustical, without any urbanity, having little learning, and less good manners, and good qualities least of all, this prince, being eighteen year prisoner within this realm, was so instructed and taught by his schoolmasters and pedagogues, appointed to him by the only clemency of the king, that he not only flourished in good learning, and fresh literature (as the time then served), but also excelled in all points of martial feats, musical instruments, poetical arts, and liberal sciences. Insomuch, that at his return from captivity he furnished his realm both with good learning and civil policy, which before was barbarous, savage, rude, and without all good nurture."- -P. 39. ROBIN MEND-MARKET. 19 in his miserable station, he was murdered by a knot of traitorous subjects, he left for himself a more honourable remembrance, as the best poet of his age, than royalty can confer, or wealth and fortune purchase.* In the hostilities that ensued, the vice-admiral of England, sir Robert Umfreville, infested the Scotch coast. Some little time before, upon an incursion into Scotland, he had burnt the town of Peebles, and obtained from the people of that country, who were not unwilling to profit by their neighbour's loss, the name of Robin Mend-market, because his men measured the cloth which they took there by the spear or the bows-length, and sold it at plunderer's price. He now entered the Forth with ten ships; and remaining there a fortnight, landed every day on one side or the other, and spoiled the country, notwithstanding the duke of Albany and earl Douglas had brought together a considerable power to oppose him. "He burnt the galleot of Scotland (being a ship of great account) with many other vessels, lying at the same time at Blackness, over against Leith; and at his return brought with him fourteen good ships, and many other prizes of clothes, both woollen and linen, pitch, tar, wood, flour, meal, wheat, and rye, which, being sold abroad," says Holinshed, "the markets were well holpen thereby, so that his surname of Robin Mend-market seemed very well to agree with his qualities."+ Umfreville has a much better claim to remembrance; and it would be wronging his memory to omit it here. He and his nephew, Gilbert earl of Kyme, and their kinsman, sir John Gray, were sent with an English force to assist the duke of Burgundy against the Orleanists: they had taken a great many prisoners, and the duke commanded them to put them all to the sword. But the English leaders made answer, that they were not sent thither Chalmers's Life of James I. Poetic Remains of the Scottish Kings, Fordun, lib. xv. c. 18. Holinshed, iii. 40. Speed, 620. + Holinshed, iii. 50. Hardyng, 366. It appears that sir Manserd de Bos had been put to death, and divers others, which the Burgogneans bought of the Englishmen that had taken them prisoners.-Holinshed, iii, 51. A.D. to act as butchers; they would neither kill their prisoners nor offer them in the market for sale, but put them to their fair ransom, according to the laws of arms; and they drew themselves up in array with their prisoners, to defend, and, if need were, to die with them, as honour required. This determination had its effect, and the duke was politic enough to applaud them for the spirit they had displayed.* At this time the French applied to the king of Cas1405. tille, Henrique III., for naval aid. The Seville fleet of galleys, which would otherwise have been sent, was too far distant: the king, therefore, ordered forty ships to be made ready with all speed, and three galleys in Santandes, appointing Martin Ruiz de Abendaño to the command of the former, and Pero Niño to that of the latter. The two commanders were enjoined to wait for each other, and to keep company; although it was well known that ships and galleys could seldom act together, because it suited the galleys every night to seek the shore, and the ships to keep the sea. Pero Niño, afterwards Conde de Buelna, was a man of high birth, and had previously distinguished himself by his services in the Mediterranean. The king, who was then rejoicing over the birth of a son and heir, and whose heart was opened by festivity, provided this squadron most liberally: it was manned with the ablest men who could be found, either as soldiers or sailors; and money was not forgotten, though by the treaty between the two powers France was to take upon itself the charges of such a force while employed in its aid. So little concert was there between the two commanders, notwithstanding their instructions, that while the ships were at Santona, the galleys set out in quest of them from Santander, looked for them every where but in the right place, and having got to Passages without finding them, made at once for Rochelle. Pero Niño presumed on his influence, his abilities, and his good fortune; and probably he was better pleased to act independently with a small force than to co-operate * Hardyng, 368. |