_Godscroft_, v. 2. p. 104. Ed. 1743.
[Footnote 12: "To ding down Tantallon, and make a bridge to the Bass,"
was an adage expressive of impossibility. The shattered ruins of this
celebrated fortress still overhang a tremendous rock on the coast of
East Lothian.]
[Footnote 13: Edgebucklin, near Musselburgh.]
The pertinacious opposition of Angus to his doom irritated to the
extreme the fiery temper of James, and he swore, in his wrath, that a
Douglas should never serve him; an oath which he kept in circumstances
under which the spirit of chivalry, which he worshipped[14], should
have taught him other feelings.
[Footnote 14: I allude to the affecting story of Douglas of
Kilspindie, uncle to the Earl of Angus. This gentleman had been placed
by Angus about the king's person, who, when a boy, loved him much, on
account of his singular activity of body, and was wont to call him his
_Graysteil_, after a champion of chivalry, in the romance of _Sir Eger
and Sir Grime_. He shared, however, the fate of his chief, and, for
many years, served in France. Weary, at length, of exile, the aged
warrior, recollecting the king's personal attachment to him, resolved
to throw himself on his clemency. As James returned from hunting in
the park at Stirling, he saw a person at a distance, and, turning
to his nobles, exclaimed, "Yonder is my _Graysteil_, Archibald of
Kilspindie!" As he approached, Douglas threw himself on his knees, and
implored permission to lead an obscure life in his native land. But
the name of Douglas was an amulet, which steeled the king's heart
against the influence of compassion and juvenile recollection. He
passed the suppliant without an answer, and rode briskly up the steep
hill, towards the castle. Kilspindie, though loaded with a hauberk
under his cloaths, kept pace with the horse, in vain endeavouring to
catch a glance from the implacable monarch. He sat down at the gate,
weary and exhausted, and asked for a draught of water. Even this was
refused by the royal attendants. The king afterwards blamed their
discourtesy; but Kilspindie was obliged to return to France, where he
died of a broken heart; the same disease which afterwards brought to
the grave his unrelenting sovereign. Even the stern Henry VIII. blamed
his nephew's conduct, quoting the generous saying "A king's face
should give grace."--_Godscroft_, Vol. II. P. 107.]
While these transactions, by which the fate of Scotland was
influenced, were passing upon the eastern border, the Lord
Maxwell seems to have exercised a most uncontrouled domination in
Dumfries-shire. Even the power of the Earl of Angus was exerted in
vain, against the banditti of Liddesdale, protected and bucklered
by this mighty chief. Repeated complaints are made by the English
residents, of the devastation occasioned by the depredations of the
Elliots, Scotts, and Armstrongs, connived at, and encouraged, by
Maxwell, [Sidenote: 1528] Buccleuch, and Fairnihirst. At a convention
of border commissioners, it was agreed, that the king of England,
in case the excesses of the Liddesdale freebooters were not duly
redressed, should be at liberty to issue letters of reprisal to his
injured subjects, granting "power to invade the said inhabitants of
Liddesdale, to their slaughters, burning, heirships, robbing, reifing,
despoiling and destruction, and so to continue the same at his grace's
pleasure," till the attempts of the inhabitants were fully atoned
for. This impolitic expedient, by which the Scottish prince, unable
to execute justice on his turbulent subjects, committed to a rival
sovereign the power of unlimited chastisement, was a principal cause
of the savage state of the borders. For the inhabitants, finding
that the sword of revenge was substituted for that of justice, were
loosened from their attachment to Scotland, and boldly threatened to
carry on their depredations, in spite of the efforts of both kingdoms.
James V., however, was not backward in using more honourable
expedients to quell the banditti [Sidenote: 1529] on the borders. The
imprisonment of their chiefs, and a noted expedition, in which many of
the principal thieves were executed (see introduction to the ballad,
called _Johnie Armstrong_), produced such good effects, that,
according to an ancient picturesque history, "thereafter there was
great peace and rest a long time, where through the king had great
profit; for he had ten thousand sheep going in the Ettrick forest, in
keeping by Andrew Bell, who made the king so good count of them, as
they had gone in the hounds of Fife." _Pitscottie_, p. 153.
A breach with England interrupted the tranquillity [Sidenote: 1532]
of the borders. The Earl of Northumberland, a formidable name to
Scotland, ravaged the middle marches, and burned Branxholm, the abode
of Buccleuch, the hereditary enemy of the English name. Buccleuch,
with the barons of Cessford and Fairnihirst, retaliated by a raid into
England, [Sidenote: 1533] where they acquired much spoil. On the east
march, Fowberry was destroyed by the Scots, and Dunglass castle by
D'Arcey, and the banished Angus.
A short peace was quickly followed by another war, which proved fatal
to Scotland, and to her king. In the battle of Haddenrig, the English,
and the exiled Douglasses, were defeated by the Lords Huntly and Home;
but this was a transient gleam of success. Kelso was burned, and the
borders [Sidenote: 1542] ravaged, by the Duke of Norfolk; and finally,
the rout of Solway moss, in which ten thousand men, the flower of the
Scottish army, were dispersed and defeated by a band of five hundred
English cavalry, or rather by their own dissentions, broke the proud
heart of James; a death, more painful a hundred fold than was met by
his father in the field of Flodden.
When the strength of the Scottish army had sunk, without wounds,
and without renown, the principal chiefs were led captive into
England.--Among these was the Lord Maxwell, who was compelled, by the
menaces of Henry, to swear allegiance to the English monarch. There is
still in existence the spirited instrument of vindication, by which
he renounces his connection with England, and the honours and estates
which had been proffered him, as the price of treason to his infant
sovereign. From various bonds of manrent, it appears, that all
the western marches were swayed [Sidenote: 1543] by this powerful
chieftain. With Maxwell, and the other captives, returned to Scotland
the banished Earl of Angus, and his brother, Sir George Douglas, after
a banishment of fifteen years. This powerful family regained at least
a part of their influence upon the borders; and, grateful to the
kingdom which had afforded them protection during their exile, became
chiefs of the English faction in Scotland, whose object it was to urge
a contract of marriage betwixt the young queen and the heir apparent
of England. The impetuosity of Henry, the ancient hatred betwixt the
nations, and the wavering temper of the governor, Arran, prevented
the success of this measure. The wrath of the disappointed monarch
discharged itself in a wide-wasting and furious invasion of the
east marches, conducted by the Earl of Hertford. Seton, Home,
and Buccleuch, hanging on the mountains of Lammermoor, saw, with
ineffectual regret, the fertile plains of Merse and Lothian, and the
metropolis itself, reduced to a smoking desert. Hertford had scarcely
retreated with the main army, when Evers and Latoun laid waste the
whole vale of Tiviot, with a ferocity of devastation, hitherto unheard
of[15]. The same "lion mode of wooing," being pursued during the
minority of Edward VI., totally alienated the affections even of those
Scots who were most attached to the English interest. The Earl of
Angus, in particular, united himself to the governor, and gave the
English a sharp defeat at Ancram moor, [Sidenote: 1545] a particular
account of which action is subjoined to the ballad, entituled, "_The
Eve of St. John_." Even the fatal defeat at Pinky, which at once
renewed the carnage of Flodden, and the disgrace of Solway, served to
prejudice the cause of the victors. The borders saw, with dread and
detestation, the ruinous fortress of Roxburgh once more receive an
English garrison, and the widow of Lord Home driven from his baronial
castle, to [Sidenote: 1547] make room for the "_Southern Reivers_."
Many of the barons made a reluctant submission to Somerset; but those
of the higher part of the marches remained among their mountains,
meditating revenge. A similar incursion was made on the west borders
by Lord Wharton, who, with five thousand men, ravaged and overran
Annandale, Nithsdale, and Galloway, compelling the inhabitants to
receive the yoke of England[16].
[Footnote 15: In Haynes' State Papers, from p. 43 to p. 64, is an
account of these destructive forays. One list of the places burned and
destroyed enumerates--
Monasteries and Freehouses .... 7
Castles, towres, and piles .... 16
Market townes ................. 5
Villages ...................... 243
Mylnes ........................ 13
Spytells and hospitals ........ 3
See also official accounts of these expeditions, in _Dalyell's
Fragments_.]
[Footnote 16: Patten gives us a list of those east border chiefs who
did homage to the Duke of Somerset, on the 24th of September, 1547;
namely, the lairds of Cessfoorth, Fernyherst, Grenehed, Hunthill,
Hundely, Makerstone, Bymerside, Bounjedworth, Ormeston, Mellestains,
Warmesay, Synton, Egerston, Merton, Mowe, Rydell, Beamerside. Of
gentlemen, he enumerates George Tromboul, Jhon Haliburton, Robert Car,
Robert Car of Greyden, Adam Kirton, Andrew Mether, Saunders Purvose of
Erleston, Mark Car of Littledean, George Car of Faldenside, Alexander
Mackdowal, Charles Rutherford, Thomas Car of the Yere, Jhon Car of
Meynthorn (Nenthorn), Walter Holiburton, Richard Hangansyde, Andrew
Car, James Douglas of Cavers, James Car of Mersington, George
Hoppringle, William Ormeston of Edmerden, John Grymslowe.--_Patten_,
in _Dalyell's Fragments_, p. 87.
On the west border, the following barons and clans submitted and gave
pledges to Lord Wharton, that they would serve the king of England,
with the number of followers annexed to their names.