The Earl of Arran, head of the house of Hamilton was appointed to
succeed De la Bastie in his perilous office. But the Douglasses, the
Homes, and the Kerrs, proved too strong for him upon the [Sidenote:
1520] border. He was routed by these clans, at Kelso, and afterwards
in a sharp skirmish, fought betwixt his faction and that of Angus, in
the high-street of the metropolis[7].
[Footnote 7: The particulars of this encounter are interesting. The
Hamiltons were the most numerous party, drawn chiefly from the western
counties. Their leaders met in the palace of Archbishop Beaton, and
resolved to apprehend Angus, who was come to the city to attend the
convention of estates. Gawain Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld, a near
relation of Angus, in vain endeavoured to mediate betwixt the
factions. He appealed to Beaton, and invoked his assistance to prevent
bloodshed. "On my conscience," answered the archbishop, "I cannot
help what is to happen." As he laid his hand upon his breast, at this
solemn declaration, the hauberk, concealed by his rocket, was heard
to clatter: "Ah! my lord!" retorted Douglas, "your conscience sounds
hollow." He then expostulated with the secular leaders, and
Sir Patrick Hamilton, brother to Arran, was convinced by his
remonstrances; but Sir James, the natural son of the earl, upbraided
his uncle with reluctance to fight. "False bastard!" answered Sir
Patrick, "I will fight to day where thou darest not be seen." With
these words they rushed tumultuously towards the high-street, where
Angus, with the prior of Coldinghame, and the redoubted Wedderburn,
waited their assault, at the head of 400 spearmen, the flower of the
east marches, who, having broke down the gate of the Netherbow, had
arrived just in time to the earl's assistance. The advantage of the
ground, and the disorder of the Hamiltons, soon gave the day to Angus.
Sir Patrick Hamilton, and the master of Montgomery, were slain. Arran,
and Sir James Hamilton, escaped with difficulty; and with no less
difficulty was the military prelate of Glasgow rescued from the
ferocious borderers, by the generous interposition of Gawain Douglas.
The skirmish was long remembered in Edinburgh, by the name of "Cleanse
the Causeway."--_Pinkerton's History_, Vol. II. p. 181.--_Pitscottie
Edit._ 1728. p. 120.--_Life of Gawain Douglas, prefixed to his
Virgil_.]
The return of the regent was followed by the banishment of Angus,
and by a desultory warfare with England, carried on with mutual
incursions. Two gallant armies, levied by Albany, were dismissed
without any exploit worthy notice, while Surrey, at the head of ten
thousand cavalry, burned Jedburgh, and laid waste all Tiviotdale. This
general pays a splendid tribute to the gallantry of the border chiefs.
He terms them "the boldest [Sidenote: 1523] men, and the hottest, that
ever I saw any nation[8]."
[Footnote 8: A curious letter from Surrey to the king is printed in
the Appendix, No. I.]
Disgraced and detested, Albany bade adieu to Scotland for ever. The
queen-mother, and the Earl of Arran, for some time swayed the kingdom.
But their power was despised on the borders, where Angus, though
banished, had many friends. Scot of Buccleuch even appropriated to
himself domains, belonging to the queen, worth 4000 merks yearly;
being probably the castle of Newark and her jointure lands in Ettrick
forest[9].--
[Footnote 9: In a letter to the Duke of Norfolk, October 1524, Queen
Margaret says, "Sen that the Lard of Sessford and the Lard of Baclw
vas put in the castell of Edinbrouh, the Erl of Lenness hath past hyz
vay vythout lycyens, and in despyt; and thynkyth to make the brek that
he may, and to solyst other lordis to tak hyz part; for the said lard
of Bavkl wvas hyz man, and dyd the gretyst ewelyz that myght be dwn,
and twk part playnly vyth theasyz as is well known."--_Cot. MSS.
Calig._ B.I.]
This chief, with Kerr of Cessford, was committed to ward, from which
they escaped, to join [Sidenote: 1525] the party of the exiled Angus.
Leagued with these, and other border chiefs, Angus effected his return
to Scotland, where he shortly after acquired possession of the supreme
power, and of the person of the youthful king. "The ancient power of
the Douglasses," says the accurate historian, whom I have so often
referred to, "seemed to have revived; and, after a slumber of near
a century, again to threaten destruction to the Scottish
monarchy."--_Pinkerton_, Vol. 11, p. 277.
In fact, the time now returned, when no one durst strive with a
Douglas, or with his follower. For, although Angus used the outward
pageant of conducting the king around the country, for punishing
thieves and traitors, "yet," says Pitscottie, "none were found greater
than were in his own company." The high spirit of the young king was
galled by the ignominious restraint under which he found himself; and,
in a progress to the border for repressing the Armstrongs, he probably
gave such signs of dissatisfaction, as excited the [Sidenote: 1526]
laird of Buccleuch to attempt his rescue.
This powerful baron was the chief of a hardy clan, inhabiting Ettrick
forest, Eskdale, Ewsdale, the higher part of Tiviotdale, and a portion
of Liddesdale. In this warlike district he easily levied a thousand
horse, comprehending a large body of Elliots, Armstrongs, and other
broken clans, over whom the laird of Buccleuch exercised an extensive
authority; being termed, by Lord Dacre, "chief maintainer of all
misguided men on the borders of Scotland."--_Letter to Wolsey_, July
18. 1528. The Earl of Angus, with his reluctant ward, had slept at
Melrose; and the clans of Home and Kerr, under the Lord Home, and
the barons of Cessford, and Fairnihirst, had taken their leave of
the king, when, in the gray of the morning, Buccleuch and his band
of cavalry were discovered, hanging, like a thunder-cloud, upon the
neighbouring hill of Haliden[10]. A herald was sent to demand his
purpose, and to charge him to retire. To the first point he answered,
that he came to shew his clan to the king, according to the custom of
the borders; to the second, that he knew the king's mind better than
Angus.--When this haughty answer was reported to the earl, "Sir," said
he to the king, "yonder is Buccleuch, with the thieves of Annandale
and Liddesdale, to bar your grace's passage. I vow to God they shall
either fight or flee. Your grace shall tarry on this hillock, with my
brother George; and I will either clear your road of yonder banditti,
or die in the attempt." The earl, with these words, alighted, and
hastened to the charge; while the Earl of Lennox (at whose instigation
Buccleuch made the attempt), remained with the king, an inactive
spectator. Buccleuch and his followers likewise dismounted, and
received the assailants with a dreadful shout, and a shower of lances.
The encounter was fierce and obstinate; but the Homes and Kerrs,
returning at the noise of battle, bore down and dispersed the left
wing of Buccleuch's little army. The hired banditti fled on all sides;
but the chief himself, surrounded by his clan, fought desperately
in the retreat. The laird of Cessford, chief of the Roxburgh Kerrs,
pursued the chace fiercely; till, at the bottom of a steep path,
Elliot of Stobs, a follower of Buccleuch, turned, and slew him with a
stroke of his lance. When Cessford fell, the pursuit ceased. But his
death, with those of Buccleuch's friends, who fell in the action, to
the number of eighty, occasioned a deadly feud betwixt the names
of Scott and Kerr, which cost much blood upon the marches[11].--See
_Pitscottie_, _Lesly_, and _Godscroft_.
[Footnote 10: Near Darnick. By a corruption from Skirmish field, the
spot is still called the Skinnerfield. Two lines of an old ballad on
the subject are still preserved:
"There were sick belts and blows,
The Mattous burn ran blood."
[Footnote 11: Buccleuch contrived to escape forfeiture, a doom
pronounced against those nobles, who assisted the Earl of Lennox, in
a subsequent attempt to deliver the king, by force of arms. "The laird
of Bukcleugh has a respecte, and is not forfeited; and will get his
pece, and was in Leithquo, both Sondaye, Mondaye, and Tewisday last,
which is grete displeasure to the Carres."--_Letter from Sir C. Dacre
to Lord Dacre, 2d December_, 1526.]
[Sidenote: 1528] Stratagem at length effected what force had been
unable to accomplish; and the king, emancipated from the iron tutelage
of Angus, made the first use of his authority, by banishing from
the kingdom his late lieutenant, and the whole race of Douglas. This
command was not enforced without difficulty; for the power of Angus
was strongly rooted in the east border, where he possessed the castle
of Tantallon, and the hearts of the Homes and Kerrs. The former, whose
strength was proverbial[12], defied a royal army; and the latter, at
the Pass of Pease, baffled the Earl of Argyle's attempts to enter the
Merse, as lieutenant of his sovereign. On this occasion, the borderers
regarded with wonder and contempt the barbarous array, and rude
equipage, of their northern countrymen Godscroft has preserved the
beginning of a scoffing rhyme, made upon this occasion:
The Earl of Argyle is bound to ride
From the border of Edgebucklin brae[13];
And all his habergeons him beside,
Each man upon a sonk of strae.