2U SCOTLAND. 



A long minority succeeded ; but. James II, would probably have 

 equalled tne greatest of his ancestors both in warlike and civil vir- 

 tues, had he not been suddenly killed by the accidental bursting of a 

 cannon, in the thirtieth year of his age, as he was besieging the cas- 

 tle of Roxburgh, which was defended by the English. 



Suspicion, indolence, immoderate attachment to females, and many 

 of the errors of a feeble mind, are visible in the conduct of James 

 III ; and his turbulent reign was closed by a rebellion of his subjects, 

 being slain in battle in 1488, aged thirty-five. 



His son, James IV, was the most accomplished prince of the age t 

 he was naturally generous and brave : he loved magnificence, he de- 

 lighted in war, and was eager to obtain fame. He encouraged and 

 protected the commerce of his subjects, so that they greatly increas- 

 ed in riches ; and the court of James, at the time of his marriage 

 with the daughter of Henry VII, was splendid and respectable. Even 

 this alliance could not cure him of his family distemper, a predilec- 

 tion for the French ; into whose cause he rashly entered, and was kill- 

 ed, with the flower of his nobility, by the English, in the battle of 

 Flowden, anno 15 13, and the fortieth of his age. 



The minority of his son, James V, was long and turbulent : and 

 when he grew up, he married two French ladies ; the first being 

 daughter to the king of France, and the latter of the house of Guise. 

 He instituted the court of session, enacted many salutary laws, and 

 greatly promoted the trade of Scotland, particularly the working of 

 the mines. At this time the balance of power was so equally poised 

 between the contending princes of Europe, that James's friendship 

 was courted by the pope, the emperor, the king of France, and his 

 uncle Henry V11I, of England, from all of whom he received mag- 

 nificent presents. But James took little share in foreign affairs ; he 

 seemed rather to imitate his predecessors in their attempts to humble 

 the nobility: and the doctrines of the reformation beginning to be 

 propagated in Scotland, he permitted, at the instigation of the cler- 

 gy, a religious persecution ; though it is generally believed, that, had 

 he lived longer, he would have seized all the church revenues, in 

 imitation of Henry. Having rather slighted some friendly overtures 

 made to him by the king of England, and thereby given great um- 

 brage to that prince, a war at length broke out between them. A 

 large army, under the command of the duke of Norfolk, entered 

 Scotland, and ravaged the country north of the Tweed. After this 

 short expedition, the English army retired to Berwick. Upon this the 

 king of Scotland sent ten thousand men to the western borders, who 

 entered England at Solvvay-Frith ; and he himself followed them at 

 a small distance, ready to join them upon occasion. He soon after 

 gave great offence to the nobility and the army, by imprudently de- 

 priving their general, lord Maxwell, of his commission, and confer- 

 ring the command on Oliver Sinclair, a private gentleman, who was 

 his favourite. The army were so much disgusted with this altera- 

 tion, that they we*e ready to disband, when a small body of English 

 horse appeared, not exceeding five hundred. A panic seized the 

 Scots, who immediately took to flight, supposing themselves to be at- 

 tacked by the whole body of the English army. The English horse, 

 seeing them flee with such precipitation, closely pursued them, and 

 slew great numbers; taking prisoners seven lords, two hundred gen- 

 tlemen, and eight hundred soldiers, with twenty-four pieces of ord- 

 nance. This disaster so much affected king James, that it threw 



