L 

 
 fr
 
 ^.^ - — 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF A KING'S LIFE
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 English 'Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages 
 (XlVth Century). 
 
 The English Novel in the Time of Shake- 
 speare. 
 
 A French Ambassador at the Court of Charles 
 II. 
 
 Piers Plowman, 1362-1398. 
 
 A Literary History of the English People, 
 from the Origins to the Renaissance. 
 
 English Essays, from a French Pen.

 
 Cfje Bomame 
 
 of 
 
 a lyings Htfe 
 
 J. J. JUSSERAND 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY M. R. 
 REVISED AND ENLARGED BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 LONDON 
 T, FISHER UNWIN 
 
 1896
 
 \_All rights reserved.']
 
 Alas for the woful thing 
 That a poet true and a friend of man 
 In desperate days of bale and ban 
 
 Should needs be born a king. 
 
 RossETri.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 I I 
 
 16 
 
 . 22 
 
 24 
 
 . 36 
 
 47 
 . 56 
 
 70 
 . 78 
 
 83 
 
 II. The Truce between England and 
 Scotland, 1404-5 . . .84 
 
 III. King James's Poems . . 86 
 
 7 
 
 Chapters 
 
 I. 
 
 »» 
 
 II. . 
 
 j> 
 
 III. 
 
 »> 
 
 IV. . 
 
 >» 
 
 V. 
 
 »> 
 
 VI. . 
 
 » 
 
 VII. 
 
 ?» 
 
 VIII. . 
 
 Epilogue 
 
 • 
 
 Appendix 
 
 :— 
 
 I. The Wild Scots
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 APPENDIX PAGE 
 
 IV. James's Treaties with Norway and 
 Holland . . . .89 
 
 V. Some of King James's Laws . 90 
 
 VI. A Fight between Highlanders . 92 
 
 VII. The Pastimes of James I. . 93 
 
 VIII. Concerning Carthusians . . 94 
 
 IX. ^neas Sylvius's Impressions of Scot- 
 land .... 95 
 
 X. Journey of ^neas Sylvius to Scotland 97 
 Xr. Alain Chartier's Speech to James I. . 99 
 
 XII. Regnault Girard at Sea . . 100 
 
 XIII. Regnault Girard leaves Scotland — A 
 Farewell Banquet and an Exchange 
 
 of Gifts . . . .103 
 
 XIV. Death of Margaret, daughter of James 
 
 I., Dauphiness of France . . 105 
 
 XV. The "Bar-lass" . . .106 
 
 XVI. The Death of James I. . . 107
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 iEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, before James I. of 
 Scotland, a fancy picture by Pinturicchio 
 in the Library of the Sienna Cathedral. It 
 makes part of a series of frescoes by the 
 same, representing the principal events in 
 the life of -^neas Sylvius, afterwards Pope 
 Pius II. It was painted by order of Francis 
 Piccolomini, nephew of Pius II., after- 
 wards Pope Pius III. . . Frontispiece 
 
 Ruins of the Castle at St. Andrews To face page i6 
 
 A fifteenth-century representation of the star- 
 goddess Venus ; from MS. Harl., 4431, 
 works of Christine de Pisan : " Venus est 
 pianette ou ciel que les pa'iens jadis appelc- 
 rent deesse d'amours," fol. 102 To face page 31 
 
 The Wheel of Fortune, from the same MS, 
 
 fol. 131 . . To face page 33 
 
 Ruins of Inchcolm. There lived Walter 
 Bower, the principal chronicler of the 
 time of James I. He fortified the place 
 9
 
 10 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 to be able to withstand the attacks of the 
 English pirates . . To face page 45 
 
 The Castle of Tantallon, by Turner, from 
 " Provincial Antiquities and Picturesque 
 Scenery of Scotland, with Descriptive 
 Illustrations by Sir Walter Scott." London 
 and Edinburgh, 1826 . To face page 46 
 
 Linlithgow (partly built by James L), from the 
 "Theatruni Scotiae, containing the pro- 
 spects of their Majesties Castles." By 
 John Sle'/.er, London, 1693, fol. 
 
 lo face page 48 
 
 The Porch of Whitekirk, Haddington . 
 
 To face page 53 
 
 Dumbarton, from the "Theatrum Scotise, con- 
 taining the prospects of their Majesties 
 Castles." By John Slezer, London, 1693, 
 fol. . . . To face page 64
 
 ^ OING northwards, the landscape changes, 
 meadows disappear, trees become scarcer, 
 the sun grows dimmer. England leaves the 
 impression of a huge park with rich verdure ; 
 Scotland the impression of a boundless moor 
 covered as far as eye can see with heather. 
 Beeches and larches thinly scattered on the edge 
 of the streams project their irregular outlines 
 against the dark background of the mountains. 
 In those still solitudes, the clouds alone pursue 
 their silent march across the sky ; the wind 
 sunders them, rolls them into flakes ; they lower, 
 halt on the hill-side, and seem to catch in the 
 thorns ; then free themselves, float lightly off, 
 and are lost in the moving mass. 
 
 No sound, save the sound of waters ; the 
 brooks fall in cascades or quiver along the slopes ; 
 no song but the cawing of crows, gathered in
 
 12 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 great bands, unscared by the passing of the 
 traveller ; they look without stirring, and the 
 most they do is to cease their chatter ; they are 
 at home and on their own ground, the passer-by 
 is the intruder. Winter soon comes with its 
 long nights ; a few hours after noon the shadows 
 lengthen, colder grows the air, darkness enshrouds 
 the moor, the pathway, the larches, and hardly 
 allows the traveller to see the light of the distant 
 hovel, marked out for the night's rest. 
 
 Dwellings are few and poor, built of irregular 
 stones without any mortar coating, and roofed in 
 with heather. Heather is the great friend ; with- 
 out it human life would cease on the hills of 
 Scotland ; it gives the clear flame that warms the 
 hearth and lights the house, it forms the roof of 
 the abode, it affords material for the family couch 
 and the guest's bed ; its pink blossoms wrap the 
 landscape in beauty. Four walls of stone, and 
 a roof peaked on account of the snow, such is the 
 habitation ; oatmeal cakes, fish dried under the 
 chimney-board, such is the food ; the skin of a 
 long-haired calf spread on the clay floor, such is 
 comfort. 
 
 In these bare regions, beyond the lochs now 
 united by the Caledonian Canal, a land which 
 used to be known only by hearsay in Europe, 
 lived once what chroniclers called the " Wild
 
 A king's life. 13 
 
 Scottis," or catervani^ as they termed them 
 in their barbarous Latin. The race was a 
 proud and hardy one, delighting in dangers ; the 
 men were soldiers, fishers, seamen ; a deep feeling 
 of wondrous strength filled their breasts, the love 
 of their tribe ; other sentiments had less hold 
 on them ; the chief of the clan was to them the 
 incarnation of religion, country, and family, and 
 the chief acknowledged no master but God. No 
 law existed for those chiefs save that they made ; 
 the royal laws were in their eyes foreign ones ; 
 and it had ever been so. The Romans, masters 
 of the world, had given up trying to subdue the 
 people of Scotland, and in order not to draw back 
 themselves, had built in the north of England 
 the two famous walls going from one sea to the 
 other. 
 
 Through all the Middle Ages, the Scotch 
 remain the same. " They had as lief die," writes 
 of them Bartholomew the Englishman, " as be 
 in slavery, and say it is shameful to die in one's 
 bed. . . . Not often do they eat before the going 
 down of the sun. . . . And are an extremely 
 handsome people both in body and visage, but 
 wear a garb that does not make them look well." 
 Those who dwell near the border have left ofT 
 this garb ; but " the wild Scots who live in the 
 woods take pride in keeping to their ancient
 
 14 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 customs, in dress, in speech, and in their manner 
 of life. . . . The Scots do not love peace." ^ 
 
 Thus, of all the hard trades plied in the rude 
 Scotland of yore, the hardest was kingscraft. On 
 the frontier, a truceless war ; the Roman walls 
 have crumbled, and armies battle on their ruins ; 
 within the frontier, the continual revolts, and the 
 fratricidal strife of the catervani ; one single ally, 
 distant France. 
 
 Over this land and this people reigned, in 1402, 
 Robert III. Stuart. A strange doom rested on 
 his race. The genius of the family, angel and 
 demon by turns, appeared on birthdays to lay 
 within the cradle crowns of gold, of flowers, or 
 of laurel ; and the infant grew up brave and fair, 
 a peerless poet, a lover of art, a sturdy soldier, to 
 perish by the dagger, to mount the steps of the 
 scaffold, or to die forgotten in the dismal palace 
 of St. Germain in France. 
 
 The ramily had early a foreboding of its fate, 
 and strove to appease the oracle. Robert III. in 
 reality bore the name of John ; but it was an ill- 
 omened one for a king, as had been seen with 
 John of France, John of England, John of 
 Bohemia, and John of Scotland, When the 
 hour came for him to reign, he took the name of 
 Robert ; but who can out-wit Fate ? All called 
 
 ' See Appendix I.
 
 A king's life. 15 
 
 him Robert, but Fate knew him as John of 
 Scotland, second of the name ; strange misfor- 
 tunes awaited him, a yet stranger fate awaited 
 his son.
 
 II. 
 
 JAMES, son of Robert, was, in 1402, sole heir 
 to the old king. His life's tragedy had begun 
 early ; he was only a boy when his elder brother 
 David, Duke of Rothesay, suffered imprisonment 
 at the hands of his uncle Robert Stuart, Duke of 
 Albany, who, it was rumoured, allowed the young 
 prince to die of hunger. James was sent, for his 
 early education, to Bishop Wardlaw, in the learned 
 and godly town of St. Andrews, and he lived for 
 a while in the episcopal castle, now a shapeless 
 ruin on a rocky headland, by the sea shore. The 
 child was in safety ; but the king, always in fear 
 concerning the fate of the Stuarts, provoked 
 Destiny anew while trying to baffle her decrees. 
 He bethought himself of a better place to keep 
 the boy than St. Andrews, distant France ; 
 there James would be secure from danger, would 
 study letters, and become an accomplished 
 knight.
 
 
 r,- I . I 
 
 I I. ! 
 
 
 *•, J 
 
 2H*:»ifii!r 
 
 
 t'"^ '.""4; - 1 ,' 1^ r i\;'^^ss. xJl 

 
 THE ROMANCE OF A KINGS LIFE. 1 7 
 
 The royal child put out to sea in the spring 
 of 1405 ; it was a long journey. Froissart has 
 told us how tedious time appeared on the ships 
 of that period : the passengers used to play dice 
 and make bets ; by way of diverting his com- 
 panions a knight offered to climb in full armour 
 to the top of the mast, his foot slipped, he fell 
 into the sea, and he sank like a stone as may 
 well be believed, which was a great pity. An 
 unforeseen event shortened James's crossing ; as 
 his vessel was passing off Flamborough Head, 
 English sailors, warned it is thought by the 
 traitor Albany, attacked the ship and carried 
 away the passengers prisoners. The boarding 
 took place on Palm Sunday, April 12, 1405 : 
 
 This ilke schip sone takyn v\xs 
 Ewyn upon the Palm sonday 
 Before Pasch that fallis ay. 
 
 So says the contemporary chronicler, Andrew 
 of Wyntoun. It was a time of peace ; ^ but was 
 there ever real peace with Scotland? Henry IV. 
 reigned at Westminster Palace ; a self-willed and 
 unscrupulous prince, he deemed that what was 
 good to take was good to keep ; he had applied 
 this maxim to the kingdom of England, and 
 
 ' Appendix II.
 
 l8 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 acting upon it had deposed, imprisoned, and put 
 to death his predecessor and cousin, Richard II. 
 He therefore did not hesitate to send James to 
 the Tower, and was so little troubled in his 
 conscience that the only remark the event 
 elicited from him was : " If the Scotch had 
 been good people they would have sent me this 
 young man to teach, for I too know French very 
 well." I A captivity of eighteen years began 
 for the heir of the Stuarts. 
 
 Stone walls do not a prison make, 
 Nor iron bars a cage ; 
 
 the mind of the child fast growing to man- 
 hood was never captive. Behind the thick walls 
 of the Tower, built in former times by the 
 Conqueror, he studied ; guards watched over 
 him, but his spirit was afar, and journeyed in 
 the realms of poetry. Thus he visited in his 
 imaginary travels, heavy books on his knee, by 
 the light of his casement, the famous fields where 
 the deeds of the Romans were performed ; he 
 went to the plain of Troy, and beheld what 
 was then to be seen there, knights in armour 
 slaying each other for the love of Helens in 
 
 ' " Certe si grati fuerint Scoti, hunc misissent mihi juvenem 
 instituendum, nam et idioma Francias ego novi." Walsingham, 
 " Historia Anglicana," Rolls, ii. p. 273.
 
 A KING S LIFE. I9 
 
 cornets. The noble senator Boethius taught 
 him resignation ; Guillaume de Lorris took his 
 hand and led him to the Garden of the Rose ; 
 illustrious Chaucer beckoned him to join, on the 
 Canterbury road, the noisy troop of his pilgrims ; 
 sober Gower, announcing beforehand a sermon of 
 several hours, begged him to be seated, and to 
 the sound of his wise words the child, with his 
 head thrown back on the window-sill, quietly 
 slept. 
 
 Thus passed the years, and the main change 
 they brought was a change of prison ; after 
 the Tower the keep of Nottingham, another 
 Norman citadel ; then Evesham, then the Tower 
 again at the accession of Henry V., Windsor 
 Castle, the Tower once more, Kenilworth, 
 Pontefract, and other fortresses. 
 
 From time to time came tidings from abroad, 
 mostly evil ones ; fate continued adverse to the 
 prisoner. Then dark hours began for him ; 
 "Bel Accueil" smiled in vain; the mirth of 
 the Canterbury pilgrims was no longer catching ; 
 the Trojan war lost its fascination ; the boy 
 dreamed of other wars. 
 
 Fortune did not tire of befriending the English ; 
 they now had a whole " treasury " of prisoners 
 representing every hostile nation. There were, 
 besides James of Scotland, Gruffyd, son of the
 
 20 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 famous Welsh rebel Owen Glendower, as the 
 English called him, unable to pronounce his real 
 name of Glyndyfrdwy ; Murdoch Stuart, Earl of 
 Fife, another Scot, son of Albany, and who had 
 preceded James at the Tower, having been made 
 prisoner at Homildon Hill ; and finally, the 
 princely poet, Charles of Orleans, who came in 
 14 1 5 to tell the other captives of the disaster at 
 Agincourt. Fortune continued to be opposed to 
 France and her ally ; the epos of the " Bonne 
 Lorraine " had not yet begun. 
 
 Sadder than all others were the tidings from 
 Scotland. On hearing of his son's misfortune, 
 the old king had been seized with so deep a grier 
 that he declined from day to day. He refused at 
 last all food, and died on Palm Sunday, 1406, the 
 anniversary of his sorrow. ^ He had requested to 
 have graven on his tomb : " Here lies the worst 
 
 ' A thousand and four hundyr yere 
 To tha the sext all reknyt clere, 
 Sanct Ambrose fest in till Aprile 
 The ferd day fallis, bot in that quhile 
 That fest fell on Palm Sunday, 
 The quhilke before Pasch fallis ay, 
 Robert the Thrid, oure Lord the King, 
 Maid at Dundownald his endyng. 
 
 Andrew of Wyntoun, " Orygynale Cronykil," ed. Laing, vol. iii. 
 p. 98. As Andrew states it, the feast of St. Ambrose and Palm 
 Sunday happened on the same day, April 4, in the year 1406,
 
 A KING S LIFE. 21 
 
 of kings and the unhappiest of men." ' Vate had 
 never forgotten that Robert III. was in truth 
 John of Scotland. At the king's death, the 
 traitor Albany had become regent. He despatched 
 occasional embassies to England for the deliverance 
 of his nephew^ ; the envoys alvv^ays failed in their 
 mission, and w^ere no less favourably looked upon 
 by their master. He also sent missions for the 
 liberation of his son Murdoch, but these met 
 with better success ; Murdoch returned to his 
 own land, leaving James a prisoner, a fact kept 
 in mind by the youthful prince, in whom began 
 to stir the vengeful spirit of the Stuarts. 
 
 ' " . . . Ut scribatis pro meo epitaphio : Hie jacet pessimus 
 rex et miserrirmis hominum in universe regno." Bovver, in his 
 continuation of Forrlun's " Scotichronicon," 1759, vol. ii. p. 441.
 
 III. 
 
 TDOETS have celebrated in their epic tales, 
 illuminators have painted in their gold- 
 adorned miniatures, the prisoner of w^ar, confined 
 in a dungeon on the banks of the Thames or 
 the Rhone, in the Tourer of London or at 
 Beaucaire, or in the land of poetry and dreams. 
 The captive leans sadly out of the narrow^ window 
 of his cell ; he sees the silent river flow ; he hears 
 the clash of lances and of armour ; military bands 
 are starting on an expedition ; then, again, it is 
 spring time and dawn ; flowers bathed in dew 
 turn towards the rising sun ; birds carol in the 
 groves at the foot of the tower ; and here comes 
 through the wet grass, blithe as the birds, fresh 
 as the flowers, or pensive sometimes and full of 
 thoughts, the maiden seen in dreams, the giver of 
 joy or sorrow. Beholding his vision realised, the 
 prisoner doubts whether he be awake or asleep. 
 The maiden treads the paths, stoops to pluck the 
 flowers, sits in the shade of the trees while the 
 sun mounts ; in her tuni she dreams.
 
 THE ROMANCE OF A KING's LIFE. 23 
 
 She is called Nicolette in the tale of Aucassin, 
 Emily in Chaucer's "Knight's Tale," she was 
 called Jane Beaufort in the romance of real life 
 lived by James of Scotland. 
 
 Jane belonged, as did the prisoner, to a race of 
 tragic destinies, the Somersets, a branch of the 
 royal family of Lancaster, the chief scions of 
 which were, for over a hundred years, slain in 
 war or beheaded for high treason. Jane's brother 
 fell on the field of St. Albans, two of her nephews 
 perished on the scaffold, the third was killed at 
 Tewkesbury ; one of her grand-nephews won the 
 battle of Bosworth and became King Henry VII. 
 
 She appeared one day under the walls of 
 James's prison, young and fair as a heroine of 
 romance, with an air both gentle and resolute. 
 The prince saw her from his window, coming as 
 the maidens in miniatures to gather flowers in the 
 dew, at the foot of the gloomy walls. Never 
 had James seen anything so charming save in 
 imagination, while turning the pages of his 
 favourite Chaucer. Youth stood before him. 
 Beauty, and all the wondrous beings with which 
 the authors of that time liked to people their 
 palaces of love. James became enamoured, made 
 his passion known, had the joy of seeing it 
 shared ; he sana; it.
 
 IV. 
 
 T IKE most of the Stuarts, the captive king 
 was a poet. He was also a musician, an 
 artist, an excellent horseman and tennis-player ; 
 he was skilful in all things. After he knew 
 Jane Beaufort, love gilded the bars of his prison, 
 and life changed its aspect ; the world for him 
 was an immense parterre where Jane gathered 
 flowers, the rest was non-existent ; the abstrac- 
 tions of the Garden of the Rose took shape in 
 his eyes, his soul was no longer lonely, he con- 
 versed with Bel Accueil, he defended himself 
 against Male-Bouche, he took counsel of Venus 
 and of Minerva ; the fancies of rhymers were no 
 longer fancies to him, books of love no longer 
 poetic pastimes ; the rose of love was no longer 
 an allegory ; his rose was a living rose, with 
 bright eyes, scarlet lips, and a heart that beat ; 
 she had a name and a rank in the world ; James 
 loved Jane Beaufort. 
 
 24
 
 THE ROMANCE OF A KING S LIFE. 2$ 
 
 He sang Jane Beaufort. He sang her accord- 
 ing to the fashion of the day, in musical and 
 delightful verses, verses full of birds and flowers, 
 where we seem continually to hear the flutter 
 of wings, where the branches rustle softly in 
 the morning breeze, where spring-tide sets the 
 seal of youth on brow and heart. Jane is repre- 
 sented in the " Kingis Quair " ^ like a figure in 
 a manuscript, slight, tall, graceful ; and — love 
 works these marvels — after four hundred years 
 she has not been frozen by death ; her hands 
 retain their warmth. 
 
 But how differently were told, in a style 
 peculiar to the period, joys and sorrows like unto 
 ours ! 
 
 Heigh in the hevynnis figure circulete 
 The rody sterres tvvynklyng as the fyre ; 
 
 And, in Aquary, Cynthia the clere 
 
 Rynsid hir tressis like gold in wyre . . . 
 
 in other words it was night. Instead of sleeping 
 the poet-king mused ; he recalled his woes, 
 he thought of his country, and of that persistent 
 enmity of Fate which, after so many years, con- 
 tinued to keep him away from his own hearth. 
 He opened a book, the book opened by all 
 
 ' "The Kingis <»)unir," ed. by W. W. Skeat, Scottish Text 
 Society, 1883-4.
 
 26 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 the wretched of former days, and which, in that 
 time when sudden reverses overtook even the 
 strongest, had been translated into all the lan- 
 guages of Europe, the Consolation of Boethius, 
 
 that noble senatoure 
 Oft' Rome, quhilom that was the warldis floure. 
 
 James was still reading when he heard in the 
 air outside the sound of the matin bell : 
 
 Bot now, how trowe ye ? suich a fantasye 
 Fell me to mynd, that ay me thoght the bell 
 Said to me, "Tell on, man, quhat the befell." 
 
 How disobey a bell ? He therefore seated him- 
 self at the table where he had already wasted 
 much "ink and paper, spent to lyte effect," 
 took a pen, made a cross on the first page, and 
 thus began. . . . 
 
 He begins by addressing the Muses, an ele- 
 gant fashion which was not then as antiquated 
 as it has become since ; he invokes Clio and 
 Polymnia like Chaucer, and adds "Thesiphone," 
 whom he takes for a muse, being less versed in 
 mythology than Chaucer. He is going to relate 
 all that happened to him, 
 
 to write my turment and my joye. 
 
 Firstly about his childhood ; his departure from 
 Scotland,
 
 A king's life. 27 
 
 With niony " fare wele '' and " Sanct Johne to borowe," 
 
 wishes of loving friends, not granted by Fortune ; 
 then conies the episode of his capture at sea, and 
 the description of his years of exile, the weary 
 days, the wearier nights. 
 
 One morning, early risen as was his wont out 
 of love for the sweet hours of dawn, he leaned 
 at his window ; it was one of his amusements. 
 He enjoyed watching from there : 
 
 To se the warkl onfl folk that went forby ; 
 As for the tyme, though I of mirthis fude 
 Myght have no more, to luke it did me gude. 
 
 He looked out on a garden, quite green and full 
 of flowers ; the nightingale sang, and the words 
 of her song seemed to be : 
 
 Worschippe, ye that loveris bene, this may, 
 For of your blisse the kalendis are begonne, 
 
 And sing with us : Away, winter, away ! 
 
 Cum, Somer, cum, the suete sesoun and sonne ! 
 
 And as the youthful king cast down his eyes, 
 what should he see, save what he took for a 
 living flower. 
 
 The fairest or the freschest yonge floure 
 
 That ever I sawe, me-thoght, before that houre. 
 
 The blood rushed to his heart, and he suddenly
 
 2b THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 drew back from the window, as if he had seen 
 something he should not, and at once bent his 
 head again towards the garden : 
 
 sudaynly my hert became hir thrall 
 For ever, of free wyll ; for of menace 
 There was no takyn in hir suete face. 
 
 Thus James loved Jane at first sight and for 
 ever, as Theagenes had loved Chariclea, and as 
 Des Grieux will love Manon. "Je m'avan^ai 
 vers la maitresse de mon coeur," Des Grieux 
 says when he has just caught a first glimpse of 
 Manon. The Greek heroes in the same way- 
 had looked on each other's faces, and read in 
 each other's eyes so deep a love that they could 
 not believe it born on the spot, and wondered 
 where they had met before. " A ! suete," cries 
 James, 
 
 ar ye a warlily creature, 
 
 Or hevinly thing in likenesse of nature ? 
 
 Or ar ye god Cupidis owin princesse, 
 
 And cummyn are to louse me out of ban 1 ? 
 
 Or ar ye verray Nature the goddesse 
 
 That have depaynted with your hevinly hand 
 This gardyn full of flouris as they stand ? 
 
 Quhat sail I think, allace ! quhat reverence 
 
 Sail I minister to your excellence ? 
 
 He does not weary of gazing and worshipping j 
 he admires her hair, her attire, her hands, her face
 
 A KING S LIFE. 2g 
 
 fair " eneuch to male a world to dote " ; enough 
 to "ramener I'univers a I'idolatrie," as Des 
 Grieux will say in nearly the same words three 
 hundred years later, so greatly does love resemble 
 love. 
 
 James cannot take his eyes off her ; he prays, 
 he beseeches, he sings ; he watches the slightest 
 motions of the maiden, her gait, the folds of her 
 gown ; he is silent, then talks anew and his 
 words are like caresses ; we know that he will 
 find out the way to touch her and win his suit : 
 
 Yif ye a goddesse be, and that ye like 
 To do me payne, I may it noght astert. 
 
 He envies the little dog whose bell tinkles along 
 the path, in front of her. She departs, and it 
 seems to him that the flowers close, and the day 
 declines. Never had the prison walls seemed so 
 oppressive ; he remains near the window whence 
 he can see out ; he kneels on the stone, he stares 
 into vacant space. 
 
 Till Phebus endit had his hemes bryght 
 And bad go farewele every lefe and floure. 
 
 Night has come, and yet he still remains there ; 
 he dozes on the window-ledge. 
 
 Half sleeping, half waking, he has a dream. 
 No work of imagination or of sentiment would
 
 30 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 then have been complete without a dream. He 
 fancies himself in the palace of the goddess 
 Venus, mistress of his destiny ; the palace is 
 filled with the lovers of old, rewarded by endless 
 joy for having suffered the pangs of love ; princes, 
 poets, " yong folkis ; " 
 
 Here bene the princis, faucht the grete batailis 
 
 In mynd (memory) of quhom ar maid the bukis newe ; 
 
 here are those who were ashamed of being 
 in love, whose service to the goddess was 
 "cowardy" ; they are allowed within the palace, 
 because after all they were lovers, but 
 
 For schame thaire hud is ovre thaire eyne thay hyng. 
 
 James holds love, as others have done since, 
 to be a religion and a virtue, its devotees merit 
 paradise — " que la terre leur soit legere ! " 
 
 There the poet-king meets Fair-Calling and 
 all his friends of the Romaunt of the Rose ; 
 Cupid, " the blynd god," 
 
 And on his longe yalow lokkis schene 
 A chaplet had he all of levis grene. 
 
 He carries his golden bow, and his harmful 
 arrows. Venus reclines on her couch, her head 
 is decked with flowers :
 
 ' i^ ^ 6' 
 
 
 
 a^ 
 
 J 
 
 A FIFTEENTH CENTURY REPRESENTATION OF THE STAR GODDESS VENUS.
 
 A KING S LIFE. 3I 
 
 And on hir heHe, of rede rosis full suete 
 A chapellet sche had, faire, fresch, and mete. 
 
 She wore a mantle — 
 
 A mantill caste over hir schuldris quhite, 
 
 a piece of apparel that Chaucer, less modest, 
 had neglected to place on them. Be merciful, 
 " Quene of Lufe ! sterre of benevolence ! " and 
 the king in tears tells his sorrow ; he longs to 
 behold once more the maiden of the garden ; if 
 he does not see her again he will die. Listen, 
 " O bryght, blisfull goddesse," 
 
 And with the stremes of your percyng lyght 
 Convoy my hert, that is so wo-begone, 
 
 Ageyne unto that suete hevinly sight 
 That I, within the wallis cald as stone, 
 So suetly saw on morow walk and gone, 
 
 Law in the gardyn, ryght tofore myn eye : 
 
 Now, merci, Quene ! and do me noght to deye. 
 
 And the goddess takes pity on him. She knows 
 how to cure the wounds inflicted by her son : 
 
 He can the stroke, to me langis (belongs) the cure. 
 
 I shall heal thine if thou pledgest thy word to 
 love for ever, and to teach my law to men, 
 
 Quhen thou descendis doun to ground ageyne.
 
 32 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 For men forego my empire and love no more ; 
 this thought wounds my " wofull tender hert " ; 
 I weep, 
 
 And of my cristall teris that bene schetie, 
 
 The hony flouris growen up and sprede 
 That preyen men [as] in thaire flouris wise, 
 Be trewe of lufe, and worschip my servise, 
 
 A Venus in a " mantill " is not an ordinary 
 Venus ; no wonder that this one, giving the 
 poet " Gude-Hope " for a guide, sends him to 
 Minerva, a precaution the Venus of Titian 
 might perhaps have omitted. The Goddess of 
 Wisdom shows herself most prudent ; her advice 
 is drawn from the book of all wisdom ; she 
 agrees on every point with King Solomon ; too 
 honest to conceal it, she admits that she's merely 
 quoting passages from Ecclesiastes : the poet is 
 again visiting a goddess unknown to Olympus. 
 He promises, " be Him that starf (died) on rude," 
 to love, to be ever true, and to do anything he 
 be ordered ; but, " madame," allow me to see 
 her again, 
 
 To sene the fresche beautee of hir face. 
 
 Well instructed in his duty the king leaves 
 Minerva, who pierces with a ray the immensity 
 of clouds, and forms a shining track by which
 
 1 1 . 
 
 If 
 
 Itt*- Ml 
 
 i 
 
 ...«jv-«. ^.^.J-J.^'-i-BMiL-i 
 
 
 THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE, FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
 
 A KINGS LIFE. 33 
 
 he descends to earth. He finds himself on the 
 border of a stream, 
 
 Embroudin all with fresche flouris gay ; 
 
 whose waters ripple over golden pebbles ; in its 
 eddies swim fish with ruby scales. Following 
 the river he meets the Goddess Fortune, who, 
 seeing his " dedely coloure pale," has pity on 
 him, and just as she promises he shall know the 
 highest place in her terrible wheel, the prince 
 opens his eyes and finds himself still leaning on 
 his window ; below him the garden awakes, 
 above him the sun rises. 
 
 Is it a dream ? And if so, where does it 
 begin ? Can its most beautiful part, the appear- 
 ance of Jane Beaufort, be only mist ? Mist, 
 like the palace of Venus ? mist, like Minerva 
 quoting Ecclesiastes, and like the river with 
 ruby fish ? The real and unreal mingle ; the 
 poet sees, or thinks he sees ; he is awake, and yet 
 the dream goes on ; through his casement, open 
 to the morning breeze, a snow-white dove has 
 just entered ; she drops before the lover a sprig 
 of red gillyflower ; is it another illusion ? or do 
 his eyes really perceive golden letters upon the 
 green stalk ? And these letters say : 
 
 Awak ! awake ! I bring, lufar (lover), I bring 
 The newis glad, that blisfull ben and sure
 
 34 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 Of thy confort ; now lauch, and play and syng, 
 Tliat art besid so glad an aventure, 
 For in the hevyn decretit is the cure. 
 
 Is it not wonderful ? Less wonderful though 
 than the sight of Jane Beaufort in the garden. 
 
 Blessed be, thinks the king, the starry god- 
 desses that shine in the sky. 
 
 So fair that glitteren in the firmament ; 
 
 blessed be the Goddess Fortune, notwithstanding 
 her terrible slippery wheel ; blessed be the night- 
 ingale, whose love-song has delighted the heart 
 of her I love ; blessed be the gillyflower above 
 all other flowers ; blessed be all flowers because 
 of the gillyflower ; blessed be the walls of the 
 prison where I was visited by these heavenly 
 visions. Some will perhaps say that it is making 
 much ado for a vain trifling fancy ; but they 
 are wrong. Think of a man who has crept 
 from hell to heaven ; could he keep silent ? 
 Every man has his mind full of " his own sweet 
 or sore " : 
 
 Bot for als moche as sum micht think, or seyne 
 Quhat nedis me, apoun so litill evyn, 
 
 To writt all this ? I ansuere thus ageyne : 
 
 Quho that from hell war croppin onys in hevin, 
 Wald after o thank for joy mak sex or sevin ; 
 
 And every wicht his awin suete or sore 
 
 Has maist in mynde : I can say you no more.
 
 A KING S LIFE. 35 
 
 Silence befits only those who are staggered by 
 the dangers on the road, 
 
 And has no enrage at the rose to pull. 
 
 Go little book, " nakit of eloquence," 
 
 Unto [the] impnis of my maisteris dere 
 
 Govvere and Chaucere, that on the steppis satt 
 
 Of rethorike quhill thai were lyvand heie, 
 Superlative as poetis laureate 
 In moralitee and eloquence ornate, 
 
 I recommend my buk in lynis sevin, 
 
 And eke thair saulis unto the blisse of hevin. Amen.' 
 
 ' Appendix III.
 
 V. 
 
 '\ /"ENUS, Minerva, and the dove with the 
 gillyflower had told the truth, better days 
 were in store. Even in Scotland the future 
 seemed less dark ; death had put an end to the 
 regency of Albany ; Murdoch, his heir, could 
 not long continue his father's policy and thwart 
 the nation's desire to have back its king. In 
 her turn England was under tutelage, and knew 
 the evils of long minorities ; the hero of Agin- 
 court slept now among his peers on the threshold 
 of the Confessor's Chapel, his hauberk and hel- 
 met, worn in the French wars, lay, idle trophies, 
 beneath an arch of Westminster, where they 
 still remain. The hour draws near when the 
 "King of Chinon" will be "Charles le 
 Victorieux." 
 
 An embassy arrived from Scotland, this time 
 with orders to succeed ; in the summer of 1423 
 the delegates of both countries came to an agree- 
 36
 
 THE ROMANCE OF A KING S LIFE. 37 
 
 ment. James was to pay a ransom of sixty 
 thousand gold marks. The contract was signed 
 on the loth of September in the Chapter House 
 at York. The King of Scotland was free. 
 
 Before returning to his country the king's 
 dream was realised. One morning in the month of 
 February, 1424, the Church of St. Mary Overy, 
 on the other side of London Bridge, was decked 
 as for a festival, the chimes sounded their merry 
 peals ; they did not say like the matin bell, 
 "Tell thy woes," they rang out the joy of the 
 poet-king. That day, in the church where one 
 of his masters in poetry, Gower, a chaplet of 
 roses on his brow, lay buried, James Stuart, 
 henceforth James I. of Scotland, was wedded to 
 Jane Beaufort. 
 
 They started at once for their dominions, and 
 on the 2ist of May were anointed at Scone, still 
 held by the Scots a holy city, even now that the 
 English had removed the famous Jacob's stone, 
 another trophy kept at Westminster. The aged 
 Bishop Wardlaw, who had not seen his pupil 
 since the day, nineteen years ago, when so many 
 " Fare wele " and " Sanct Johne to borowe " 
 were exchanged, placed the crown on the king's 
 head. Great was the enthusiasm throughout 
 the land • the nobles vied with each other in 
 offering themselves as hostages for the payment
 
 38 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 of the ransom. James gave nine thousand 
 marks towards it. Precise minds will regret to 
 hear that having made this effort, the royal poet 
 did not go further, and never paid a single mark 
 of the remainder : so that long after his death 
 the poor hostages continued to do penance in 
 England, waiting for a ransom that never came. 
 
 Dire was the state of the kingdom : the weak 
 government of Robert III., the tyranny and 
 partiality of Albany, had stirred up the spirit of 
 rebellion ; lawlessness was at its height. The 
 chiefs of the clans governed their own men and 
 acknowledged no master ; each had few subjects, 
 but his rule was undisputed. The national 
 forces had no cohesion, there was no centralisa- 
 tion, no obedience to a supreme authority ; clans 
 waged war with one another regardless of the 
 fatherland's welfare, and no more importance was 
 attached to these wars than if they had been 
 private duels. What could be done in this rude 
 country by a dreamer scarce out of fairyland, 
 suddenly called upon to ply the hard trade of 
 kingscraft ? 
 
 Strange as it may appear, the poet of Fair- 
 Calling and of Good-Hope seemed trans- 
 formed from the moment he set foot on his 
 native soil. His affection for his beloved Jane 
 continues undiminished, but there is room for
 
 A KING S LIFE. 39 
 
 an iron will besides ; he meditates, matures 
 plans, remembers what he has seen in other 
 countries — in France, where Henry V. had taken 
 him for a time ; and in England, at West- 
 minster and London. The stern chiefs of the 
 " catervani " discovered in him a will more 
 indomitable than their own ; unfortunately his 
 will would possess his whole mind so that he 
 could see nothing either to the right or to the 
 left but onlv his appointed goal, taking no 
 difficulties or impossibilities into account — a 
 common but fatal characteristic of the Stuart 
 race. " I want," he had said in proud words, 
 on the day he crossed the frontier, " the key 
 to keep the castle and the bush to keep the 
 cow." I All his life's energy was to be spent 
 in the pursuit of that impossible aim. 
 
 Before all things the kingdom was to be 
 regulated ; external peace was indispensable. 
 James maintained it throughout his whole 
 reign ; Jane helped him to keep it with England, 
 even though the old alliance with France re- 
 mained unbroken. He put an end to the ancient 
 broils commercial jealousies had stirred up be- 
 tween the Flemings and the Scots. He reduced 
 and settled the tribute his kingdom owed Norway 
 
 ' Bower's continuation of Fordun's " Scotichronicon," Edin- 
 burgh, 1759, vol. ii. p. 511,
 
 40 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 for the islands since the distant date of their 
 conquest by the Scandinavian Vikings.^ 
 
 During his stay among the English, James had 
 been struck by the utility and effectiveness of that 
 system then unique in the world — the Parliament 
 sitting at Westminster. Every lever needs a 
 fulcrum, and he felt that a parliament was the 
 fulcrum best suited to a king. His decision 
 once taken, he proceeded without delay to act 
 upon it. He developed the representative insti- 
 tutions of the kingdom, and was careful to have 
 his reforms ratified from year to year by his 
 Parliament. Henceforth the laws imposed on 
 the chiefs of clans would not be merely the laws 
 of the king, but the laws of all the nation. By 
 this means the prince was enabled to exact more, 
 and he did not fail of doing so : all his laws 
 have centralisation, organisation, and peaceful 
 development for their object. All feuds are 
 punished whether civil, religious, or military ; 
 the unruliness of the " Wild Scottis " in parti- 
 cular is met by stern measures. 
 
 Parliaments succeed each other at Perth, 
 Stirling, and Edinburgh : they decide, with the 
 king's consent, that private wars shall be pro- 
 hibited ; those who neglect to aid the sovereign 
 in his expeditions against the rebels shall be held 
 
 • Appen;lix IV.
 
 A KING S LIFE. 4I 
 
 as rebels themselves ; the highland chieftains, 
 instead of dwelling where they please, must 
 restore and inhabit their dilapidated manors ; it 
 will thus be possible to know where to find 
 them, and they will be responsible for good 
 order in their district. James sets the example 
 by repairing the tower of Inverness and his other 
 strongholds. He encourages artillery, which 
 supplies the sovereign with a power not wielded 
 by his subjects ; he has a cannon sent from 
 Flanders, the Lioriy "machinam bombardicam 
 vocatam Lyoun," ^ the largest yet seen in Scot- 
 land. The king and Parliament forbid the 
 chiefs to travel with those numerous retinues 
 which resembled armies and allowed of skirmishes 
 resembling battles. Laws shall be codified ; 
 royal shall replace local justice. Heretics shall 
 be carefully burned. 
 
 Salmon, a staple article of trade in Scotland, is 
 protected by special laws ; smoked it was ex- 
 ported in barrels to England and the Continent ; 
 merchants who brought foreign goods to Scot- 
 land were often paid partly in money and partly 
 in salted salmon.^ War shall be waged on those 
 immense flocks of rooks who devour the young 
 corn ; the heather must not be set on fire, as in 
 
 ' "Liber Pluscardensis," 1877, vol. i. p. 376, year 1431. 
 2 " Exchequer Rolls of Scotland," vol. iv. p. cxlv.
 
 42 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 this way the crops may be destroyed. Small 
 landholders will be protected against the great. 
 All men will practise archery from twelve years 
 old and upwards. Football is not to be played 
 any more : this was coming very near un- 
 sufferable tyranny.^ 
 
 James suspected as much, and, unable to rule 
 it, he dreaded the inherited spirit of the Stuarts. 
 
 Lat wisedome ay to thy will be iunyt, 
 
 had been the timely warning given him by the 
 Goddess Minerva. But James was not the 
 master of his own will. He did not see his goal 
 as it was, but he saw it surrounded with such 
 a halo that he became blind to all dangers. No 
 prince evinced more cruelty in his vengeance 
 than the poet of the gold-lettered gillyflowers ; 
 it seems as if the hatreds of Rimini or Ferrara 
 had been transplanted to northern climes. 
 
 The house of Albany has fomented strife : it 
 must be crushed. Its chiefs and their principal 
 adherents are arrested and delivered up to Parlia- 
 ment : for the example of respect to that body 
 
 ' On these various laws see Appendix V. The statute on 
 football foresees the case in which the lord of the land (a most 
 probable case) would refuse to receive the fine to which tres- 
 passers would be sentenced.
 
 A KING S LIFE. 43 
 
 must be set by the king himself. Parliament 
 condemns them ; Murdoch, the former com- 
 panion in years of exile, is beheaded ; his sons 
 Walter and Alexander are also beheaded. Pity 
 was felt for them "because they were such fine 
 fellows and of such tall stature" ("homines 
 giganteas staturas"). The aged Earl of Lennox, 
 Murdoch's father-in-law, nearly eighty, is like- 
 wise executed ; five others are drawn, "equis 
 tracti," and their quartered bodies nailed to the 
 gibbets of the principal towns in Scotland. 
 Death was held of such small account in those 
 days that tortures or infamy were joined to it 
 that it should not pass unnoticed. 
 
 The highland chieftains, disregarding the 
 commands of king and Parliament, continued 
 to fight together at will. Lost in their ravines, 
 sheltered by their hills and bogs, hidden in their 
 islands, they went on acknowledging no master 
 but God. James mustered his forces, mounted 
 his horse, met the " catervani " on the shore of 
 one of their lochs, cut them in pieces, and 
 drowned them in the loch ; but next year the 
 scattered clans had resumed shape again, fierce 
 and independent as before. The king had not 
 secured his end ; he had to find other means, 
 no matter which, as he must secure it. The 
 royal poet therefore assembled at Inverness the
 
 44 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 chieftains, " one by one with great wisdom," ^ 
 remarks the good monk Walter Bower, a con- 
 temporary chronicler, who knew James person- 
 ally many years ; and when they were all come 
 into his tower he singled out fifty of them, 
 beheaded a MacArthur, hanged a Campbell 
 and several others, and imprisoned the remainder 
 — all without a frown, and without in the least 
 troubling himself about a possible vengeance, 
 keeping his even temper so perfectly that he 
 improvised, by way of defiance, a Latin epigram 
 (with a false quantity) on this dismal deed : 
 
 Ad turrim fortem ducamus caute cohortem ; 
 Per Christ! sortem, meruerunt hi quia mortem. 
 
 But the goal was not to be reached ; the 
 attempt of James was premature. The first 
 thing Angus Murray did, on leaving prison, was 
 to send a challenge to Angus MacdufF, chief of 
 the Mackays of Strathnavern. They met, but 
 not singly, each chief had a following of twelve 
 hundred men strictly told ; and so fierce was the 
 struggle, the sense of honour so high, and flight 
 held for so shameful, that only nine survived. 
 
 ' " Quorum unumquemque sagaciter et singillatim invitavit ad 
 turrim, et seorsum in arcta poni fecit custodia." Year 1427 ; 
 Bower, in his continuation of Fordun's " Scotichronicon," 1759, 
 vol. ii. p. 489.
 
 ' 1 ■ W^7 
 
 Ml 
 
 1 1 7/'/ 
 
 ' . m I 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 
 ilK^Li 
 
 |l s
 
 A KING S LIFE. 45 
 
 This is attested again by Bower, who says that 
 it is a wonderful fact, but yet a fact. " The 
 Scottish highlanders," he remarks, by way of 
 funeral oration for the slaughtered catervatii^ 
 " living on the confines and marches of the 
 world, are by nature more audacious than other 
 nations." ^ 
 
 Alexander, Lord of the Isles, had also been 
 imprisoned, then set at liberty, leaving his own 
 mother as hostage ; she was confined in the 
 abbey of Inchcolm under the guard of this same 
 Bower, the chronicler. Once free, the Lord of 
 the Isles gathers his clans, marches against the 
 royal town of Inverness, takes and burns it. 
 James is compelled to collect his troops and wage 
 war in person against his subject. He pursues 
 and overtakes him in the morasses of Lochaber, 
 "in quodam marisco de Lochaber " ( 1429). The 
 catervani are routed and scattered ; clan Chattan 
 and clan Cameron join the royal banner ; the 
 Lord of the Isles sues for peace, which is refused. 
 The king triumphs. 
 
 On the eve of St. Augustine-the-Doctor 
 was witnessed in the chapel of Holy Rood a 
 moving sight. Wearing only a shirt, a halter 
 round his neck, holding his sword by the point, 
 a suppliant passed up the nave, and stopping 
 
 ' Appendix VI.
 
 46 THE ROMANCE OF A KING's LIFE. 
 
 before the king's throne proffered him his weapon. 
 It was Alexander, Lord of the Isles, the descen- 
 dant of the famous Somerlaed, the heir to the 
 Scandinavian kings, who was begging for mercy. 
 James had given few proofs of clemency, and the 
 fate of the rebel seemed certain ; the gibbets ot 
 the four towns awaited his quartered body. But 
 Jane was present ; she besought the king to 
 pardon, and James granted the prayer he read in 
 the eyes of his love. The Lord of the Isles 
 received the boon of his life, and was imprisoned 
 in the castle of Tantallon. 
 
 That order might also reign in matters 
 spiritual, and to keep his subjects in the narrow 
 way that leads to heaven, James made severe war 
 on the Wyclifites, Hussites, and all other heretics. 
 Paul Crawar of Prague, " hasreticus obstinatus," 
 come over to preach the doctrines of Hus, was 
 seized and burned with great solemnity by way 
 of warning, in the town of St. Andrews. He 
 persisted to the last in denying Purgatory and 
 the Resurrection of the Dead.
 
 VI. 
 
 TN our days, a prince who should have the 
 bloody limbs of his foes gibbeted on the 
 public square, would be considered cruel ; he 
 would doubtless be so even in his own eyes, and 
 his life would be disturbed by the thought of 
 vengeance to be dreaded, or retaliation prepared. 
 Small leisure would be left him for the delights 
 of family life, or the enjoyment of art. 
 
 It was not so formerly : the fierce, warlike 
 ruler of the Scots was still the poet of the 
 *' Kingis Quair " ; he continued to write verses, 
 and remained the impassioned lover of Jane 
 Beaufort. Even in the laws of the kingdom 
 traces of his fondness are to be seen : the Scots 
 shall offer up prayers in their churches not only 
 for the king, but for the queen likewise ; besides 
 the oath of allegiance to the king, a personal 
 
 47
 
 48 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 oath of allegiance shall be taken to the queen. ^ 
 Heaven had blessed the marriage, and many 
 children grew up around the royal couple : 
 Margaret, Isabel, James, afterwards king, Jane, 
 Eleanor, Mary, Anabella. On his return home 
 after his raids, the prince became once more the 
 poet of the " Kingis Ouair " ; he displayed the 
 amiability and liveliness of the Stuarts ; he 
 chatted late into the night, read romances, 
 played chess. Seated by the queen under the tall 
 mantelpiece, piling logs on the fire, either in the 
 Perth monastery or in the castle of Linlithgow, 
 the favourite abode of Queen Jane (and the 
 future birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots), he 
 liked to tell tales of yore ; sometimes he recited 
 verses, or made music : he was wholly a Stuart. 
 But, differing in this from all other Stuarts, he 
 proved himself as true as tender ; almost alone 
 of his race, he never had a mistress ; he did not 
 follow the example of his ancestors, of Robert II. 
 
 ' " Dominus rex noster, ex deliberatione et consensu tocius con- 
 silii statuit quod onines et singuli successores prelatorum regni 
 quorumcumque necnon onines et singuli heretics futuri comitum, 
 baronum omniumque liberetenencium domini Regis teneantur 
 facere consimile juramentum domine nostre Regine ; nee uUus 
 prelatus de cetero admittatur ad suam temporalitatem aut heres 
 cujusvis tenentis domini Regis ad suas tenandrias nisi prius prestet 
 regine illud juramentum." Perth Parliament of 1428. "Acts 
 of the Parliament of Scotland," vol. ii.
 
 LINLITHGOW.
 
 A KING S LIFE. 49 
 
 for example, who left eight bastards besides four- 
 teen legitimate children. 
 
 His voice was fine, and he played, moreover, 
 on many instruments, such as the cittern, organ, 
 flute, and even the trumpet. He resembled 
 Orpheus, says Bower, who adds with more 
 truth : " he was a true Scot." ^ He also drew 
 fine miniatures, and doubtless depicted more than 
 once the romance lived by him in England, the 
 gloomy walls of the citadel, the prisoner at his 
 window, the maiden treading the garden paths 
 and picking flowers in the dew. Such a subject 
 was a favourite one with painters, and several 
 representations of it are still extant, but none by 
 the King of Scotland. One of them shows us a 
 fellow exile of his, like him, too, a poet, Charles 
 of Orleans, at the window of the Tower of 
 London, sadly watching the waters of the 
 Thames flowing towards the sea, towards liberty 
 and fair France. 2 
 
 In the day time, when not engaged in war- 
 fare, James indulged his fondness for physical 
 sports. He was an excellent tennis player, and 
 on fine days endless matches took place between 
 him and his friends in the moat of the monastery 
 
 ' Appendix VII. 
 
 ~ Reproduced as a frontispiece for my " Literary History of the 
 English People." 
 
 3
 
 50 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 at Perth, where he liked to withdraw. He 
 threw the hammer better than any one, and 
 drew a straight and strong bow, rarely missing 
 his aim : " Optimus arcitenens et hastiludior 
 gnarus ; ultra communem usum hominum lapidis 
 jactor et mallei projector." Excelling in horse- 
 manship, scarcely a noticeable accomplishment 
 in an age when horsemanship was a necessity, he 
 practised running and walking as distinct arts ; 
 he seemed to have " wings to his heels," and 
 prided himself on being one of the best pedes- 
 trians in the kingdom. 
 
 His religious zeal was not confined to burning 
 Paul Crawar ; he built chapels, and founded a 
 monastery in his favourite town of Perth. Great 
 surprise was expressed on learning what religious 
 order he intended to establish there : the con- 
 templative order of the Carthusians ; this choice 
 was much criticised. " I have been told," writes 
 Bower, " that many speak ill of this holy order 
 because they have never heard of miracles wrought 
 by Carthusians, whereas members of all other 
 holy orders perform them." But this is not at 
 all surprising : " The Carthusians, desirous of 
 pleasing God only, carefully conceal the miracles 
 wrought by them, and therefore to doubt the 
 sanctity and purity of the order is not only sacri- 
 legious but blasphemous as well." Who doubts
 
 A KINGS LIFE. 5I 
 
 the holiness of John the Baptist ? " Know you, 
 that miracles are commonly wrought to prove 
 the holiness of he who performs them when 
 doubt is possible," and for this reason "John the 
 Baptist performed never a one, though no son 
 of woman was greater than he." James, in 
 accordance with these somewhat contradictory 
 reasons, founded his monastery at Perth, in the 
 Vale of Virtues, and it was then discovered the 
 event had been predicted " many years before 
 the king thought of it." ^ Bower was present 
 when a notable clerk revealed the prophecy. 
 The first abbot was Oswald of Germany, a man 
 of vast learning, and admirable sanctity ; the 
 second was Adam of Hangaldsid, a Scot who had 
 long lived in a monastery on the Continent, but 
 wasallowed by the prior of the Grande Chartreuse 
 to go and rule the convent of Perth. 
 
 Sometimes more illustrious personages than 
 even Oswald and Adam arrived from the Con- 
 tinent to visit the King of Scotland. There 
 came one destined to leave his name in history, 
 and who was called JEne^s Sylvius Piccolomini. 
 He had been sent by the Council of Basel, to 
 treat of certain religious matters. He was then 
 a very young man, among the most brilliant 
 Italy had produced. Learned, elegant, skilful, 
 
 ' Appendix VIII.
 
 52 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 filled with the spirit of the early Renaissance, a 
 lover of art, science, and history, a composer of 
 chronicles and romances, over-fond of those licen- 
 tious tales so much in favour in the lettered 
 courts of Italy, he was later to take holy orders 
 and to follow, not without fame, his new career ; 
 he became Pope, under the name of Pius II. 
 
 The rudeness of the climate and manners 
 made a painful impression upon this elegant 
 nobleman, used to the refinements of marble 
 cities. He found in Scotland nothing but 
 material discomforts and physical annoyances. 
 He relates them at length ; these unpleasant 
 recollections obliterate all others, so much so, 
 that after noting them all in detail, he fails to 
 tell us exactly what he came to accomplish in 
 the kingdom. Perhaps his mission was a secret 
 one ; if so, the secret has been well kept. He 
 obtained, at all events, what he wanted : " Nihil 
 non impetravit ex his quae petitum venerat." 
 
 Dreadful was his crossing, in the winter sea- 
 son, with two terrible tempests, " duabus maxi- 
 mis jactatus tempestatibus," one of them 
 lasting fourteen hours, and the other two nights 
 and a day. The ship was driven far away towards 
 the north, and the sailors, navigating under new 
 stars, ceased to know where they were : " Ad- 
 eoque in oceanum et septentrionem navis excur-
 
 
 
 >!') 
 
 
 
 
 
 /?:. 
 
 ttSr^'iL^'' "'■-■• vi'iiiE^i 
 
 Ma 
 
 THE PORCH OF W HITF.KIRK.
 
 A KINGS LIFE. 53 
 
 rit, ut nulla jam coeli signa nautae cognoscentes, 
 spem omnem salutis amitterent." The pas- 
 sengers, believing themselves lost, made all 
 manner of vows to the saints. JEneas promised 
 to undertake a pilgrimage barefoot to the nearest 
 shrine. The shrine happened to be that of 
 Whitekirk, " Alba Eccelsia," as he calls it, near 
 North Berwick. I The future Pope walked ten 
 miles barefoot on the frozen ground, suffering 
 such agony that on returning he had " to be 
 borne rather than led by his servants." 
 
 After this beginning everything in the country 
 seemed horrible to him. The days in Scotland, 
 short enough in winter, appear to him shorter than 
 they really are ; he only allows them three or four 
 hours of light. He naturally mentions the poor- 
 ness of the dwellings, greatly resembling those 
 of to-day, built of stones, without mortar, and 
 thatched with heather. The horses are hideous, 
 he says ; they have shaggy coats, " never dis- 
 entangled by iron brush or wooden comb." He 
 wanted to see the famous trees which bore ducks 
 for fruit, the said ducks, when ripe, falling from 
 
 ' " The church of Hamer, which was dedicated to the Virgin 
 Mary, was early called White-Kirk, from the whiteness of its 
 appearance, and at length became in the popular tradition the 
 name of the village and parish." N. Carlisle, " Topographical 
 Dictionary of Scotland," 1813. The church still subsists.
 
 54 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 the branches into the water and swimming away, 
 a sort of tree firmly believed in as late as the 
 seventeenth century ; but he was always in- 
 formed wherever he went that they were to be 
 vcitt further i?^ and he heard at last that they did 
 not grow in Scotland proper, but in the Orkneys. 
 One marvel, however, he saw and could testify 
 to. In this land " I saw at the church-doors 
 beggars, half-naked, go away happy after receiv- 
 ing pieces of stone for alms. This stone, owing 
 to the sulphureous or other fat substances con- 
 tained in it, burns, and replaces wood, which is 
 lacking in this country." ^ A strange kind oi 
 stone, truly, destined to work many wonders in 
 the world some day, being coal. 
 
 James did his best to cheer his guest, showing 
 himself courteous according to his wont ; he 
 presented the Italian with a couple of horses, 
 and there is no reason to suppose these had not 
 been carefully combed ; he also paid all his ex- 
 penses and gave him fifty nobles besides. But 
 all in vain ; the pilgrim of Whitekirk left with 
 a dreadful impression ; he described Scotland in 
 the darkest colours, and made matters worse by 
 praising England. Even James did not find 
 favour in his eyes ; he pronounced him heavy 
 and fat, very fat even, " multa pinguedine gravis," 
 
 ' Appendix IX,
 
 A KING S LIFE. 55 
 
 an accusation which was keenly resented in Scot- 
 land when it was known there. " The Italians 
 think us fat," the chronicler John Major in- 
 dignantly answered, " because we are well fed ; 
 people of the north have much flesh upon them, 
 but there is no fat in it. . . . Those dry, blood- 
 less Southerners rank as fat people those who 
 have blood in them." " On the whole," con- 
 tinued Tineas, " Scotland and the border land in 
 nowise resemble Italy ; it is a wilderness, which 
 knows no sun at all in winter." ^ 
 
 ' Appendix X.
 
 VII. 
 
 C EVERAL other solemn embassies were sent 
 to James : by the Pope, whose encroach- 
 ments the Scotch king ever wanted to stop, 
 and with whom he had ever-recurring diffi- 
 culties ; by the King of England, who sent once 
 as an envoy Henry Beaufort, cardinal of St. 
 Eusebius, uncle of Queen Jane ; and by the 
 sovereigns of Europe, not without memorable 
 results. Charles VII. of France, hard pressed 
 by his foes, and as yet only " King of Chinon," 
 felt urgent need of the help of his allies the 
 Scots ; a marriage might perhaps tighten the 
 bonds of tliis alliance, and a marriage was prac- 
 ticable, for he had a son Louis, dauphin of 
 Viennois, two years older than Margaret, eldest 
 daughter of James. He decided to despatch an 
 embassy to ask for the hand of the princess, and 
 
 he entrusted this mission to Regnault de Chartres, 
 
 56
 
 THE ROMANCE OF A KINGS LIFE. 57 
 
 Archbishop-duke of Reims, peer of France, and 
 to John Stuart of Darnley, " Constable of the 
 Scotch in France," belonging to the royal family 
 of Scotland, pensioned " as a reward for having 
 left wife and children," said the French King in 
 his charter, "to remain in the service of France." 
 This John Stuart, who, for the valour he dis- 
 played at Bauge and elsewhere, was made 
 Seigneur of Aubigny and Count of Evreux, 
 with the permission to quarter the arms of 
 France, was to die on his return from Scotland, 
 as well as his brother, at the battle of Herrings. 
 Both these ambassadors had orders to negotiate 
 the marriage, besides renewing " the ancient 
 alliances, leagues, and compacts existing between 
 the two nations as far back as the time of the 
 Emperor Charlemagne." They accordingly set 
 out towards the end of the year 1427, attended 
 by a large retinue, and travelling slowly, as 
 became personages of their rank. 
 
 A good diplomatist must know how to write 
 well and how to speak well. This was such a 
 recognised fact in the Middle Ages, that kings 
 often made their poets ambassadors owing to 
 the gift of eloquence bestowed on them by 
 heaven. Chaucer as envoy had represented 
 England ; Eustache des Champs, France ; Boc- 
 cacio, the Florentine Republic ; and Petrarch,
 
 58 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 Padua. The unfortunate King of Chinon, 
 shorn of all his territory, still possessed a poet 
 and had recourse to him. While the archbishop 
 and constable took their time, Charles despatched 
 one more envoy, who was to precede them and 
 prepare the way ; and this envoy was none other 
 than Maitre Alain Chartier, " father of French 
 eloquence," as he is called by Jean Bouchet, a 
 peerless clerk and magnificent orator — " clerc 
 excellent, orateur magnifique," says Octavien de 
 Saint-Gelais in his "Sejour d'honneur." 
 
 Alain had lately returned from Germany on a 
 mission to the Emperor Sigismund ; the mission 
 had completely failed, without impairing Alain's 
 renown in the slightest degree ; since a poet had 
 not succeeded, it was plain no one could. Alain 
 who, when abroad, translated his name into Latin, 
 "Magister Allanus Aurigae," ^ Master Alan of 
 Carter, started accordingly, and went to seek 
 James in his town of Perth. 
 
 ' The names of the three ambassadors are given thus in 
 James's letters patent concerning the betrothal of his daughter, 
 and dated from Perth, July 19, 1428: " Reverendum in Christo 
 Patrem Reginaldum permissione divina Archiepiscopum et 
 Ducem Rhemensem, Parem Francie, Joannem Stewart, comitem 
 Ebroicensem, dominum de Dernle, militem, consanguineum 
 nostrum, et fvlagistrum Allanum Aurigae, cancellarium 
 Bajocens[em]." "Acts of the Parliament of Scotland," vol. ii. 
 p. 27.
 
 A king's life. 59 
 
 He was received in solemn audience. The 
 occasion was an important one, the eyes of two 
 nations were fixed on Alain. The man who has 
 expressed with happy simplicity many profound 
 truths, who has succeeded in giving a lasting 
 shape to many wise and ancient sayings, who 
 has been able to write sweet sentences, the glory 
 of our language, where not a word can be 
 touched, such as " La vieillesse vient tard aux 
 gens de modeste maison," Alain the poet kept 
 silence, and Magister Allanus Aurigae, "ambaxi- 
 ator solemnis," spoke. The speech had been 
 composed beforehand, every word carefully 
 weighed ; a copy of it had been enrolled on 
 parchment, and thus we know to-day what the 
 ambassador said. As beseemed Magister Allanus, 
 his oration was a Latin one, and this is how the 
 " father of French eloquence " expressed himself 
 when he spoke Latin : 
 
 " Sire, when I behold myself, when I consider 
 the narrowness of my understanding, the paucity 
 of my eloquence, the exiguity of my person, 
 how dare I raise my eyes to such majesty, in 
 what terms begin my speech ; truly I know not. 
 Shall I rear to heaven my brow ; shall I venture 
 to set my taper near the effulgence of the sun, 
 and weary royal wisdom and learned ears with 
 my uncouth oration ? Distrusting my powers,
 
 6o THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 I would instantly forsake my task, did not the 
 thought of him who sent me, the object of my 
 mission, and your royal favour inspire me with 
 courage. ... I have reflected how I might best 
 begin . . . and have found this mode of greeting 
 to be far above all others, and unsurpassable by 
 human ingenuity. . . . Thus, in the name of 
 the most Christian king of the French, your 
 brother, kinsman, and very dear ally, I address 
 your serene excellence in the words of greeting 
 used by the messenger Ahimaaz when he came 
 to King David and said : Salve Rex ! " ^ 
 
 Many things are included in these two words. 
 What is a king, and what is a greeting ? 
 Allanus Aurigae had not studied logic without 
 discovering that, in order to be understood, it is 
 necessary to be clear, and in order to be clear, 
 involved propositions should be reduced to their 
 essential parts. He therefore divides his propo- 
 sition in two parts, develops each of them in the 
 amplest fashion, every saying of his being 
 propped up by a quotation, so that by the time 
 the first half of his discourse is over, the king 
 and his court will have an exact notion of what 
 a king and a greeting really are. 
 
 Then by successive steps, with infinite pre- 
 cautions, he descends the long winding way that 
 
 ' Text below, Appendix XI.
 
 A king's life. 6i 
 
 will bring him to his subject ; he dwells on the 
 illustrious kingdom of Scotland and on the illus- 
 trious and unhappy kingdom of France. But in 
 vain does he try when he arrives at that point to 
 continue rhetorical, explaining to his royal 
 hearer that " expectatio quasi enim ex spe static 
 derivata est," the eloquence of facts prevails, and 
 there is something heartrending in this petition 
 for his native land, still struggling against adver- 
 sity, not quite overpowered, having lately gained 
 some advantage over her foe — and who does not 
 know that already, in the fields of Lorraine, the 
 inspired shepherdess listens to heavenly voices. 
 
 Sentences follow each other, quotations begin 
 again, the vision fades away. Whether owing 
 to the eloquence of facts or of words is of little 
 import ; certain it is that the speech made a great 
 impression. When the archbishop-duke and 
 the constable of the Scotch appeared on the 
 scene they were received with due honour ; they 
 were feasted, at a cost of £^6 9s. lod. ^ for one 
 night, in the castle of Linlithgow (newly re- 
 paired by James), and they found no difficulty in 
 coming to terms with the king concerning a 
 
 ' " Et pro expensis domini archiepiscopi Remensis in Francia 
 et domini de Derne factis una nocte apud Lithgw in eorum 
 primo adventu, de mandato regis, testante camerario, vi ;^i. ix s. 
 X d." "Exchequer Rolls of Scotland," vol. iv. p. 485.
 
 62 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 definitive treaty. James set his seal to the deed 
 at Perth on the 19th of July, 1428, and the 
 original document brought over to Charles VII. 
 by the ambassadors was ratified at Chinon on 
 October 19th. 
 
 The object of this embassy, however, the 
 Princess Margaret, was but three years old ; the 
 Dauphin de Viennois but live. Years were 
 suffered to glide by, and it was only in 1434 
 that the King of France sent another embassy to 
 Scotland to fetch his son's betrothed. Alain 
 Chartier had been dead some years ; so Charles 
 decided to confide this important mission to his 
 faithful councillor and master of the hostel, 
 Regnault Girard, " knight, lord of Bazoges," 
 a worthy and honest citizen, who, for all his 
 knighthood, had small leanings towards 
 adventures and navigations.^ On hearing of 
 the great honour thrust upon him, he almost fell 
 ill. Troubled by the thought of the English 
 fleet, and of tempests, he sought some way of 
 
 ' His own account of the journey, with his instructions and a 
 number of official documents, has been preserved, and is as yet 
 unpublished. It is to be found in the MS. Fr. 17,330, No. 9, in 
 the National Library, Paris. See " English Essays from a French 
 Pen," 1896, pp. 24 ff. The mission of Girard, wrongly called 
 Arnauld Girard and wrongly described as Governor of La 
 Rochelle, " Gubernator Rupellae," is mentioned in the " Liber 
 Pluscardensis," 1877, vol. i. p. 374.
 
 A king's life. 63 
 
 not stirring, and found no better one than to 
 publicly offer four hundred crowns to any one 
 who would go in his stead. Even in those days 
 such a proceeding seemed unacceptable ; Charles 
 informed his councillor that he must undertake 
 the journey in person ; ^ and to be sure he should 
 not escape, sent the Comte de Vendosme to 
 escort and see him safe on board. Regnault 
 Girard, Seigneur de Bazoges, embarked thus on 
 the 14th of November, 1434, "not," he says, in 
 the relation he has left us of his journey, " with- 
 out much sorrow and weeping." 
 
 Scarcely had the ambassador set sail, than his 
 worst anticipations were fulfilled ; the sea proved 
 as merciless to him as to ^neas Sylvius ; "a 
 great and marvellous storm "2 arose which lasted 
 five days and five nights, causing him to miss the 
 Scilly Islands, to miss Ireland, and be driven 
 more than a hundred leagues off the coast, " ac- 
 cording to the chart," into the " great ocean 
 sea," on the way, though he knew it not, to the 
 discovery of the New World. Regnault Girard, 
 
 ' " Et estoit ladicte ambassade bien dangereuse et perilleiise. 
 Et pour eschiver le danger de la mer, je voulusse donner quatre 
 cens escuz a celluy qui entreprendroit I'ambassade et qu'il pleust 
 au Roy me tenir pour excuse ; mais le Roy ne le volt consentir 
 et me comnianda tres expressement d'aller en ladicte ambassade 
 sur tout le service que jamais faire luy vouldroye." Fol. 120. 
 
 ' See text, Appendix XII.
 
 64 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 who had given himself up for lost before he even 
 started, was not, however, reserved for this 
 glory ; in his despair he had recourse, like iEneas 
 Sylvius, to a vow, and in his case too, the vow 
 was heard. More prudent than the future Pope 
 even in this dire necessity, the ambassador merely 
 promised a silver ship, with the arms of France 
 engraved upon it, to an Irish saint, and hastened 
 to offer his gift as soon as he landed. 
 
 After a journey of fifty-six days in the very 
 heart of winter and in stormy weather, " en fin 
 cueur d'hyver et en tourmente," Regnault Girard 
 could at last anchor before the rock and castle of 
 Dumbarton, or " Dompbertrain," as he calls it, 
 the chief port used for communication with 
 France in those days. Once on shore, Charles's 
 councillor recovered his presence of mind, 
 negotiated skilfully, and overcame by his patience 
 and cleverness all obstacles. These were many, 
 chiefly owing to the fact that the royal family of 
 Scotland was a most united one. James and 
 Jane could not bear to part with their daughter. 
 They asked for guarantees and proposed con- 
 ditions. A town of her own was to be assigned 
 in France to Margaret ; a Scotchman was to be 
 in command and the guard to be a Scottish one ; 
 the princess must have Scottish ladies with her 
 to keep her company : all this obliged Regnault
 
 
 4Jr~'-, 
 
 DUMBARTON.
 
 A king's life. 65 
 
 Girard to write to his master and meant delays. 
 Then the king and queen would point out that 
 the time of the year was unfavourable ; " that 
 they could not send over my said lady the 
 Dauphiness at this season, for the Queen her 
 mother would never suffer it." And James 
 added, slily, " that we ourselves (the French 
 ambassadors) knew full well in what peril we 
 had been when coming to this said land of 
 Scotland." It was safer to wait till spring, 
 and then only would the youthful princess be 
 sent "a I'aventure de Dieu." 
 
 A delay of over a year was thus secured by 
 the king ; but February came at last, and the 
 treaty had to be fulfilled. A fleet sent from 
 France was waiting at Dumbarton to escort the 
 princess ; the hour of parting had struck. 
 
 The ambassadors and the royal family met 
 once more at a farewell banquet. Poor Jane, 
 in tears, was present, seated next the king " in 
 a chair." The following day " the King and 
 Queen of Scotland sent for the Dauphiness to 
 come before them, and addressed her in many 
 touching and rnemorable words, exhorting her 
 to behave rightly ; God knows what tears were 
 shed on both sides." No less affected than his 
 wife and desirous of endearing the whole family 
 to the ambassador who was to take charge of
 
 66 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 Margaret, the king "ordered me, Regnault 
 Girard, to kiss the queen, and the queen kindly 
 and graciously saluted me ; which kiss I repute 
 the greatest honour ever bestowed on me. We 
 left thereupon." 
 
 Regnault departed to make all ready on board, 
 and remained at anchor fifteen days tossing on the 
 water, and enduring "great discomforts" ("ou 
 j'enduray de grans malaises "), awaiting the king 
 and his daughter, who lingered, still anxious to 
 gain time. Presents were exchanged, those of 
 the ambassador being of primeval simplicity. 
 They consisted in "a gentle mule" ("ung mulct 
 bicn gent"), offered by advice of the Comte de 
 Vendosme, and in six casks of wine, and three 
 of "chestnuts, pears and apples of divers sorts " 
 for the queen, "who was much pleased, there 
 being little fruit in Scotland." As for the mule, 
 it was considered " a very strange beast, because 
 there are no such animals over there." i 
 
 James arrived at last with the future Dauphi- 
 rress ; wishing himself to select the ship which 
 was to carry his daughter, he caused the fleet to 
 put out to sea in his presence, " to ascertain 
 which was the swiftest and best appointed." It 
 happened to be a vessel of Spanish build, which 
 was at once chosen, to the great indignation of 
 
 ' See text, below, Appendix XIII.
 
 A king's life. 67 
 
 the Breton and French seamen, who rebelled 
 and were with difficulty pacified. 
 
 The princess embarked, and the king, feeling 
 there was nothing more in store save sorrow for 
 all, shortened the final leave-takings, " did not 
 stay long but went away weeping many tears " 
 ("Le Roy n'y demeura pas longuement, mais 
 s'en alia a grans pleurs, du regret de madicte 
 dame la daulphine sa fille"). 
 
 A century later the same harbour was to wit- 
 ness, under equally fateful circumstances, the 
 departure of another princess of the house of 
 Stuart : Oueen Mary, then six years old, who 
 left Dumbarton on a French galley to become, 
 in her turn, Dauphiness of France, the first act 
 in the tragedy of her life. 
 
 " On the fifth day of May, in the year fourteen 
 hundred six and thirty, the town of La Rochelle 
 was richly hung and decorated." Margaret of 
 Scotland made a state entry therein. At 
 Poictiers she was received by the mayor and 
 notables, as well as by the doctors and students 
 of the University ; while she was entering the 
 town " a child, disguised as an angel, was let 
 down from the portal of the city, and placed a 
 chapel (crown) on her head, a thing which was 
 most genteelly and craftily performed." Finally, 
 Tours was reached, and there the gentle and
 
 68 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 gracious Margaret, endowed, like many of the 
 Stuarts, with the gift of poetry, the heroine of the 
 legend of the kiss bestowed upon Alain Chartier 
 (who was dead, however, before she came to 
 France), married the Dauphin of Viennois, and 
 became acquainted with the husband Alain had 
 secured for her. He was the future King Louis 
 XI., who in truth, says Commines, "seemed 
 more fitted to rule a world than a kingdom," 
 and who " loved no sport save hunting and 
 hawking in their season, but took not so much 
 pleasure in falcons as in hounds. As for ladies 
 he never cared for them." 
 
 Margaret did not find in her new home that 
 conjugal happiness she had been a witness of in 
 Scotland ; the Dauphin never loved her. "When 
 he grew to man's estate," writes Commines of 
 his hero, " he was married against his will to 
 a daughter of Scotland, and as long as she lived 
 regretted it." The King and Queen of France, 
 on the contrary, worshipped her ; Charles made 
 her numerous presents ; we see him give to 
 " Madame la Dauphine on the first day of the 
 year, 1437, a gold mirror and stand set with 
 pearls." There exists a receipt delivered by 
 " us, Margaret, Dauphiness of Viennois," for 
 two thousand livres paid by Jacques Coeur, " we 
 being lately at Nancy in Lorraine, to purchase
 
 A king's life. 69 
 
 cloths of silk and sables, to make robes for 
 our person." Margaret's nature was tender and 
 affectionate ; her husband's neglect, vile slanders, 
 caused her to fall into a decline ; and thus, on 
 the i6th of August in the year 1445, "at ten 
 o'clock of the night, she passed from life to death, 
 in the town of Chalons in Champagne," ^ the 
 childless wife of a heartless ruler of men. 2 
 
 ' " Lettres de Louis XL," Societe ile I'iiistoire de France, 
 1883, voL i. pp. 163, 201, 202. 
 - Appendix XIV. 
 
 «.•*.
 
 VIII. 
 
 " VVTHOSO breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall 
 bite him." James had reigned twelve 
 years, and his iron hand had broken down many 
 a hedge ; he strove to reconstruct and regulate, 
 to reach the unattainable ideal for which his 
 nation was as yet unfitted. After the bold 
 enterprises of earlier years, always crowned with 
 success, alarming symptoms began to show 
 themselves. Dark prophecies flew from lip to 
 lip, hinting that the love-tale, begun among the 
 spring flowers long ago, would have a bloody 
 ending ; omens multiplied in such a fashion that 
 James himself, in spite of his optimism, could not 
 help being struck by them ; a vague anxiety 
 seemed to fill the kingdom. 
 
 Among the leaders formerly imprisoned, then 
 set at liberty, figured Sir Robert Graham, crueller 
 and fiercer than any of the others. Since his 
 
 imprisonment vengeance had become his sole 
 70
 
 THE ROMANCE OF A KINGS LIFE. 7 1 
 
 thought. He first endeavoured to foment a 
 revolution, and to depose the king in the midst 
 of Parliament. No less insinuating than au- 
 dacious, he persuaded the nobles w^hose families 
 had cause to complain of the king, that they 
 ought to appeal to the monarch himself and 
 oblige him to publicly recognise the wrongs of 
 the Scottish aristocracy. He did more ; rising 
 in the assembly w^here he believed his sentiments 
 to be shared by most men, he walked to James 
 " with a grete corage," and " sette handes upon 
 the Kyng saying thes wordes, ' I arrest you yn 
 the name of all the thre astates of your reume, 
 here now assemblid yn this present parliament, 
 for right as youre liege peple be bundun and 
 sworne to obeye your Majeste noble riall, yn 
 the same wise bene ye sworne and ensurid to 
 kepe youre peple, to kepe and guverne youre 
 lawe, so that ye do hem no wronge, bot yn all 
 right mantene and defend hem.' " i It was a 
 solemn moment, and all remembered the example 
 of the Westminster Parliament deposing Richard 
 n. But the two parliaments differed, as did also 
 the two kings ; for when Robert Graham, turn- 
 ing to the Lords, added : " Is hit nat thus as I 
 
 ' " The Detlie of the Kynge of Scotis," translated from the 
 Latin by John Shirley ab. 1440 ; in Pinkerton's " History of 
 Scotland," 1797, vol. i. p. 462.
 
 72 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 say ? " instead of the unanimous assent of the 
 English Houses he received no reply, and his 
 words rang echoless through the assembly. 
 
 James had Graham arrested on the spot, in the 
 sight of the States, and led to a " sure and hard 
 prisone." So he thought at least ; but treason 
 was in the very air. The great families he had 
 wished to crush made his government impossible ; 
 if he arrested a Campbell or a Macdonald it 
 sufficed that the lowest of the prison servants 
 should be a Campbell or a Macdonald for the 
 prisoner to be free. No bargain, no secret 
 understanding, no conspiracy was necessary, for 
 no oath was kept, no commands were obeyed, 
 which clashed with family claims. Following 
 his own impulse, without orders from any one, 
 the meanest of the catervani would risk death and 
 the awful tortures of the time to save the chief, 
 whatever his crime, without an instant's hesita- 
 tion : blood is thicker than water. The " sure 
 and hard prisone " did not long hold Graham, 
 who soon found himself free amons; the hills 
 " ynto the cuntreis of the Wild Scottis," 
 
 At first the king took little heed ; it was an 
 accident like unto many others, and he had too 
 many irons in the fire to be able to watch any of 
 them very closely. A Robert Graham was not 
 more to be feared than a Lord of the Isles, and
 
 A KING S LIFE. 73 
 
 the Lord of the Isles had been recaptured, this 
 time to be carefully guarded in the castle of 
 Tantallon. But Graham was like no one else, 
 and appeared hard even among men of iron. 
 One day letters were brought to the king 
 by a messenger from the remote Highlands. 
 They contained a fresh challenge sent by Gra- 
 ham ; he declared in solemn style, under his 
 hand and seal, that having for his own part 
 deposed the king, he considered him as a fallen 
 monarch, shorn of the prerogatives of royalty ; 
 and seeing in him only a man and a mortal foe, 
 should kill him with his own hand as he would 
 kill any of his foes. Let James Stuart look to 
 himself! This was in 1435. 
 
 About the end of the following year, the king, 
 having held his Parliament at Edinburgh, resolved 
 to spend Christmas in his beloved town of Perth 
 at the Blackfriars convent, where he often stayed. 
 As he was about to cross the Scottish Sea, " the 
 which is vulgarly clepid the water of Lethe," a 
 wild looking woman, " that clepid herselfe a 
 suthsayer," suddenly started up crying : 
 
 " My lord Kyng, and ye pase this water ye 
 shall never turne ayane on lyve." 
 
 " Sheo nys bot a drunkine fule and wot not 
 what sheo saith," observed one of the attendants 
 of the king, who went on his way. 
 4
 
 74 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 The Christmas festivities were very brilliant, 
 the king was surrounded by his family, the queen 
 being present, and all his court. Threatening 
 clouds gathered outside. A prophecy was cur- 
 rent which declared that in less than a year a 
 king should be slain in Scotland. James was 
 playing chess one evening with one of his 
 knights, surnamed for his pleasing manners 
 " The King of Love " ; and alluding, with his 
 unflagging gaiety, to the gloomy prediction, he 
 said : 
 
 " Sir Kyng of Love, hit is not long agone 
 sith I redd a prophecie . . . that this yere shuld 
 a kyng be slayne yn this land. And ye wote 
 well. Sir Alexander, there be no mo kynges yn 
 this reume bot ye and I ; and therfor I cownsell 
 you that ye be well ware, for I let you wit that 
 I shall ordeyne for my sure kepyng sufficiently, 
 I trust to God, so am I undir youre kynghood 
 and yn the service of Love." i 
 
 The company fell to talking of omens. One 
 had dreamed of the terrible Graham ; the king 
 confessed he too had had a dream — this time it 
 was not of the star-goddesses ; — he had been 
 attacked by a " cruell serpent and an horribill 
 tode " ; and being in his bedroom at night with- 
 
 ' "The Dethe of the Kynge of Scotis," ihid. p. 466 ; see 
 belowj Appendix XVI.
 
 A KINGS LIFE. 75 
 
 out any weapons, had fought against the reptiles 
 with the tongs. 
 
 Several weeks went by, and the Christmas 
 talk was forgotten. In spite of his boast the 
 king was no better protected than before. " He 
 never had guards near him," writes the chroni- 
 cler, John Major, " by day or night, and it was 
 a great risk for a king who had put so many 
 nobles to death for their crimes." One evenin?-, 
 the 20th of February in the year 1437, James 
 was once more seated at the chess-board, near 
 the fire ; the queen read a book of romance ; 
 others sang and harped. A knocking was heard 
 at the door, not the outer door of the convent, 
 but the door of the royal apartment. Who 
 could have gained admittance so late ? It was 
 the " suthsayer " woman, who had slipped by 
 unseen. " Let me yn Sire," said she, " for I haf 
 sumwhat to say and to tell unto the Kyng, for I 
 am that same woman that noght long agone 
 desirid to haf spokyn with hym at the Lith, 
 whan he shuld passe the Scottish sea." The 
 usher told the king of her coming ; but James, 
 who was playing, answered " Yea, let hir 
 cume to-morrow." The woman insisted, but in 
 vain. " ' Wele,' she said, ' hit shall repent yow 
 all, that ye wil nat let me speke nowe with the 
 Kyng.' Therat the usher lughe and held her
 
 76 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 bot a fule, chargyng her to go her way. And 
 therwithal sheo went thens." 
 
 The night drew on ; the game being finished, 
 the king dismissed his friends, and, wearing 
 only a loose gown, stood before the fire, talking 
 with the queen. Without, all was dark and 
 still. 
 
 Suddenly torches flare at the windows, strange 
 noises are heard in the courtyard, hasty footsteps 
 on the stairs, the tramp of armed men, the mur- 
 mur of a throng. The hour is arrived, the 
 prophecies are come to pass, the sorceress had 
 spoken truth : the king was betrayed. Graham 
 was at the door with his rebel crew. 
 
 No means of defence, the king was unarmed ; 
 they rush to the windows, they had been 
 previously fastened, " strongli sowdid yn the 
 stonys with moltyne lede," the locks of the 
 doors were broken and the bolts removed. In 
 this emergency one of the queen's maids of 
 honour, Catherine Douglas, with a courage 
 worthy her name and race, thrust (it is said^) 
 her arm through the staples of the door, and 
 while Graham was forcing his way in, crushing 
 her bones and flinging her bleeding on the 
 ground, James had seized the tongs, raised the 
 flooring, and slid into a dark hiding-place under 
 
 ' Appendix XV.
 
 A KINGS LIFE, 77 
 
 the apartment. This vault gave access to the 
 moat, and through it the king might have 
 escaped. But Fate was on the alert ; three 
 days before, James, vv^ho often played tennis in 
 the moat, had caused the passage to be walled 
 up, because the balls were lost there : " Fortune 
 was to hym adverse." Endowed with great 
 muscular strength, he knocked down and half 
 strangled his first two assailants, but his hands 
 being cut by the daggers he attempted to 
 ward off, he remained defenceless, and soon 
 fell before Graham pierced by sixteen mortal 
 wounds. I 
 
 Thus ended the romance begun among the 
 spring flowers on a May morning. The queen 
 was wounded in trying to save the king, and 
 only escaped death by a miracle. 
 
 It has since been noticed that in the " Kingis 
 Quair," composed so many years before in 
 memory of happy days, James, as though moved 
 by a presentiment, had written these lines : 
 
 Anri thus this floure, I can seye no more, 
 So hertely has unto my help attendit 
 That from the deth hir man sche has defendit. 
 
 Jane gave the king a last proof of her love, in 
 
 ' Appendix XVI.
 
 78 THE ROMANCE OF 
 
 accordance with the customs of the period. 
 Having seized, after a hot pursuit, Graham and 
 all the as^ssins, she caused them to perish in 
 torments so atrocious that they were deemed 
 almost too cruel even in that age. 
 
 In the quiet retreat of the Library at Sienna, 
 adjoining the cathedral, can be admired the most 
 beautiful of Pinturicchio's paintings. Francis 
 Piccolomini, nephew of JEne^s Sylvius, destined 
 in his turn to wear the tiara, ordered these 
 rescoes to be painted by the greatest artist of 
 his day. They represent the chief events of the 
 life of Tineas ; we behold him on his mission to 
 the King of Scotland ; James is there, portrayed 
 as an ideal monarch, wise and mild, with flowing 
 garments. A court of elegant noblemen sur- 
 rounds him ; kings of Love, who differ from the 
 one of Perth. And behind the throne, far as eye 
 can see, stretch the green hills and blue lochs of 
 an imaginary Scotland. The artist does not 
 show us the wild country where the pilgrim of 
 Whitekirk suffered so much ; unwittingly he 
 has painted the enchanted land where James
 
 A KINGS LIFE. 79 
 
 wandered in his dream, the river whose fish had 
 ruby scales, the infinite blue of the Paradise 
 where the King of Scotland had met Jane 
 Beaufort.
 
 APPENDIX.
 
 I. 
 
 THE WILD SCOTS. 
 
 l-JERE is another testimony (of a later date) 
 concerning the " Wild Scots." The 
 southern inhabitants of Scotland are " assez 
 civils " and they speak English ; " mais ceux 
 qui sont septentrionaux sont plus rudes, agrestes 
 et fascheux, et pour cette raison sont appelez 
 sauvages. lis portent comme les Irlandois une 
 grande et ample chemise safFranee, et par dessus 
 un habit long jusques aux genoux, de grosse 
 laine, a mode d'une soutane, lis vont teste nue 
 et laissent croistre leurs cheveux fort longs et ne 
 portent chausses ne souliers sinon quelques uns 
 qui ont des botines faictes a I'antique qui leurs 
 montent jusques aux genoux. 
 
 "Leurs armes sont Tare et la flesche et 
 quelques javellotz qu'ils tirent fort dextrement, 
 et une large espee avec le poignard pointu, qui
 
 84 APPENDIX. 
 
 lie taille que d'un coste. lis sont fort legers a 
 la course . . . Tous ces sauvages parlent 
 Irlandois." " Navigation du roy d'Escosse 
 Jaques cinquiesme du nom autour de son 
 royaume . . . soubz la conduicte d'Alexandre 
 Lyndsay excellent pilote Escossois, recueilHe 
 . . . par Nicolay d'Arfeville . . . premier cos- 
 mographe du Roy," Paris, 1583. Nicolay, 
 whose work is partly translated from "un petit 
 livret escrit a la main en langage Escossois," 
 received by him from " milord Dudley " in 
 1546, describes himself as having spent part of 
 his life " abandonne a mille manieres de dangers 
 es contrees estranges par mer et par terre." 
 
 II. 
 
 THE TRUCE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND, 
 1404-5. 
 
 A TRUCE had been concluded in 1404 "atte 
 castel of Pountfreyt, the sixte day of Juyl, 
 the yeer of our lord Jesu Crist a Thousand 
 foure hundred and four," between English and 
 Scottish commissioners who decided " that fro the 
 twentyth day of this presente moneth of Juyl,
 
 APPENDIX. 85 
 
 the sunne rysyng, until the day of Pasque next 
 folowand, the sonne goinge doun, shall be kept 
 trewly and efFectuali Trieues generales by land 
 and by see, between our foresaid Liege lord the 
 kyng of Scotland, for hym and his Roiaume of 
 Scotland, his landes, lordshippes, lieges and soub- 
 gitz on that on part, and his adversaire of 
 Engeland, his Roiaume of Engeland, lands, 
 lordshippes, lieges and soubgitz on that otheir 
 part." Ratifications were granted by the King 
 of Scotland on the 20th of August and by the 
 King of England on the i8th of September, 
 1404. "Foedera," 3rd. ed,, vol. iv. pp. 68 ff. 
 Same statement in Andrew of Wyntoun, who 
 affirms, as well as Bower, that the capture took 
 place during the truce : 
 
 Trewis bath on se anfl land 
 Wes takyn for to be lestand 
 Tyll evyn on the next Pasch day 
 Fermly festnyt on all gud fay. 
 
 " Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland," ed. Laing, 
 Edinburgh, 1879, vol. iii. p. 96. Bower says : 
 " Et quamuis paulo ante trevae erant tunc inter 
 regna tam per mare quam per terram captae, in 
 Anglia nihilominus per octodecim annos prin- 
 ceps detentus erat et captivatus apud eos." 
 Continuation of Fordun's " Scotichronicon ,"
 
 86 APPENDIX. 
 
 1759, vol. ii. p. 439. Walsingham refers the 
 event to the year 1406 ; he says that there was 
 a truce then ; but only a truce on land, not by 
 sea. He vv^ants obviously to exculpate Henry 
 IV. as much as possible : if the date of the 
 capture w^as really 1406 he had a better excuse 
 to offer in favour of the English king, for there 
 was no truce at all then. This seems to point to 
 1405 being the real date. Though some excel- 
 lent authorities such as Sir W. Hardy accept the 
 statement of Walsingham, the question remains, 
 to say the least, an open one ; we have no 
 charter or positive evidence to settle it, and 
 Walsingham does not seem to have been par- 
 ticularly well informed in this special case. 
 Some of the circumstances he relates, and the 
 order ot his facts (death of Fleming) are 
 undoubtedly erroneous. It is not unlikely that 
 Wyntoun will in the end prove right. 
 
 III. 
 
 KING JAMEs's POEMS. 
 
 A VARIETY of poems have been attributed to 
 King James ; the authenticity of them all 
 has been disputed. The principal minor works
 
 APPENDIX. 87 
 
 with which he has been credited are "Christis 
 Kirk on the Green," " Peebles to the Play," 
 "Song on Absence," and a "Ballad of Good 
 Counsel" : this last, a short poem of 21 lines, 
 is considered as authentic by Mr. Skeat (see his 
 " Kingis Quair," Scottish Text Society, 1883-4, 
 the best edition of that work). All the others 
 are certainly not by King James. The "Kingis 
 Quair" had, up to a very recent date, escaped 
 the fate of the other poems attributed to him 5 
 but that time is over, and Mr. J. T. T. Brown 
 has just tried to establish in his " Authorship of 
 the Kingis Quair," 1896, that this poem is also 
 an apocryphal work. His thesis, though very 
 cleverly defended, is, I believe, untenable ; I 
 have given my reasons for this belief in a letter 
 to the Athenaum^ Aug. 15, 1896. See the corre- 
 spondence between Mr. Brown, Mr. Skeat, Mr. 
 A. H. Millar and myself in the Athenceum^ July 
 II to Aug. 29, 1896. 
 
 The "Kingis Quair " exists in only one MS. 
 (Arch. Selden, B. 24 in the Bodleian Library, 
 second half of the XVth century, written by a 
 Scotch scribe). It is there attributed, both at 
 the beginning and end of the poem, to " King 
 James of Scotland ye first" ; to " Jacobus primus 
 Scotorum rex illustrissimus." The testimony of 
 the MS. is fully borne out by John Major, the
 
 88 APPENDIX. 
 
 historian and professor of logic, the most critical 
 and best informed of the old historians of Scotland, 
 who says in his " Historia Majoris Britanniae," 
 printed in Paris, 1521 : " Artificiosum libellum 
 de Regina, dum captivus erat composuit, ante- 
 quam eam in conjugem duceret" (fol. cxxxv.). 
 
 Bower does not mention the poem, which 
 seems not to have been publicly known in the 
 lifetime of the king ; but he speaks of the 
 intellectual attainments of James, and says the 
 king followed all sorts of literary pursuits : 
 "operi artis literatoriae . . . complacenti insta- 
 bat curae" (below App. VII.). The words 
 used by Bower had in the Middle Ages a very 
 comprehensive meaning and included all that we 
 cojisider now as belonging to literature, be it 
 poetry or prose. John of Salisbury, wanting to 
 extol the manifold virtues of Grammar, and 
 show that it is the source and nurse of all 
 philosophy and all literature uses the same 
 expressions: " Eadem [Grammatica] quoque est 
 totius philosophiae cunabulum et (ut ita dixerim) 
 totius literatorii studii altrix prima." — " Opera 
 Omnia," ed, Giles, v. p. 34.
 
 APPENDIX. 89 
 
 IV. 
 
 James's treaties with Norway and 
 
 HOLLAND. 
 
 " Fecit enim multa bona in vita sua, regno 
 perpetue profutura. Unde cum sibi consti- 
 terat regnum Noricis obligari pro insulis in 
 inaestimabilem summam, a multis retroactis 
 temporibus insolutam, misit rex suum militem 
 intimum dominum Willelmum de Creichton et 
 magistrum Willelmum Fowles, custodem sui 
 sigilli privati, cum honorabili familia, regi Nor- 
 wegian in ambassata ; ubi sic per instructionem et 
 industriam regis actum est quod de praeteritis 
 quitantiam reportarunt, et ab hinc solveretur 
 tantum annuatim nisi summa centum librarum 
 sterlingorum. 
 
 " Fecit etiam pacem inter regnum nostrum et 
 HoUandos, qui, ante reditum ejus de Anglia, 
 mercatoribus Scotiae intulerunt innumerabilia 
 damna." Bower, in his continuation of For- 
 dun's "Scotichronicon," ed. Goodall, Edinburgh, 
 1759, vol. ii. p. 509.
 
 90 APPENDIX. 
 
 SOME OF KING JAMES S LAWS. 
 
 On Private JVars. — " Tha na man talc on 
 hande in tyme to cum to amuff (excite) or 
 male weire aganst other under payne that may 
 folowe be course of common lawe." — Parlia- 
 ment of Perth, 1424-5. 
 
 On the Help to be provided for the King. — " Gif 
 ony disobeyis till inforse the kyng aganst 
 notoure rebellouris aganis his persone quhen thai 
 be requiryt be the kyng and commandit thai 
 shalbe chalangit be the kyng as fautouris of sic 
 rebellyng bot gif thai haif for thame resonable 
 excusacion." — Same Parliament. 
 
 Against numerous Retinues. — " Item it is 
 statut that na man of quhat estate, degre or 
 condicioun he be of rydande or gangande in the 
 cuntre leide nor haif ma personis with him na 
 mai suffice him or till his estate and for the 
 quhilkis he will mak full and redy payment." — 
 Ibid. 
 
 On Salmon. — " Item quha sa ever be convickit 
 of slauchter of Salmonde in tyme forbodyne be 
 the lawe he sail pay x\s. for the unlaw and 
 at the thride tyme gif he be convickit of sic
 
 APPENDIX. 91 
 
 trespasse he sail tyne (lose) his lif or than by 
 hr—Ibid. 
 
 Against Football. — " Item it is statut, and the 
 kyng forbiddes that na man play at the fut ball 
 under the payne of iiiji^^. to be raysit to the lorde 
 of the lande also as oft as he be tayntyt (con- 
 victed) or to the sheref of the land or his 
 ministris gif the lordis will not punishe sic tres- 
 passouris." — Ibid. 
 
 On the Practice of Archery. — " Item it is 
 ordanyt that all men busk thame to be archaris 
 fra thai be xij yeris of eilde. And that in ilk 
 X ^i worth of lande thar be maid bowmerkis and 
 specialy nere paroche kirkis quhare upon haly 
 dais men may cum and at the lest schute thrise 
 about and haif usage of archary." — Ibid. 
 
 Against Rooks. — " Item forthy that men con- 
 sideris that rukis bigande (building) in kirkis- 
 yardis orchardis or treis doith great skaith apone 
 cornis it is ordaynt at thai that sik treis pertenys 
 to lat thame to byge and suffer on na wyse that 
 thar birdis fle away, and quhar it be tayntyt that 
 thai bige and the birdis be flowin and the nestis 
 be fundyn in the treis at beltane the treis salbe 
 forfaltit to the king. . . ." — Ibid. 
 
 On the Royal Law. — " It is ordanit be the 
 king with the consent and deliverence of the 
 thre estatis that all and sindry the kingis liegis
 
 92 APPENDIX. 
 
 of the realme leif and be governyt undir the 
 Icingis lawis and statutis of this realme alanerly 
 (/.£'., all anerly, only) and undir na particulare 
 lawis na speciale prevalegis na be na lawis of 
 uther cuntreis nor realmis." — Parliament of 
 Perth, 1425-6. 
 
 On the Repairing of Castles.- — " It isordanit be 
 the king and the parliament that ever ilk lorde 
 hafande landis be yonde the mownthe (/.^., the 
 Grampian mountains) in quhilk landis in aulde 
 tymes thare was castellis, fortalycis and manis 
 placis, big, reparel and reforme thar castellis and 
 maneris and duele in thaim be thaim self or be 
 ane of thare frendis for the graciouse governall 
 of the landis be gude polising and to expende 
 the froyte of thai landis in the cuntre quhare the 
 landis lyis." — Perth, 1426. " Acts of the Parlia- 
 ment of Scotland," 1814, fol. vol. ii. 
 
 VI. 
 
 A FIGHT BETWEEN HIGHLANDERS. 
 
 " CoNFLiCTUM est acritcr apud Stranavern 
 inter Angusium Duffi et Angusium de Mur- 
 rave, qui paulo ante carceres regis evase-
 
 APPENDIX. 93 
 
 runt, libertati donati. Cum utrolibet summa- 
 batur de catervanis mille et bis ducenti, et hi 
 omnes una die mutuo se mactabant, De tanto 
 numero vix vivi novem personre evaserant. De 
 quo non modicum multis est mirandum, quod 
 ita animose sese impeterent, quod nullus ad 
 salvandam vitam suam fugne beneficio se muniret. 
 Quod fit ideo, quia nostri Scoti transmontani in 
 confine sive marchia mundi constituti, parum 
 sentiunt de torrida restate sive solis ?estu quo 
 sanguis amicus naturae siccaretur : et ideo inter 
 casteras nationes mundi audaciores naturaliter sunt 
 reperti." — Bower, ihid.^ p. 491. 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE PASTIMES OF JAMES I. 
 
 " Hic etenim in musica, non solum in sono 
 vocis, sed et in artis perfectione, quemad- 
 modum in tympano et choro, in psalterio et 
 organo . . . natura ipsum decoravit, prassertim 
 in tactu citharae tanquam alterum Orpheum. . . . 
 In hoc patuit ipsum naturalem fore Scotum, ipsos 
 etiam Hibernienses in modulationibus lyricis 
 mirabiliter praecellentem. . . . Nunc operi artis
 
 94 APPENDIX. 
 
 literatoriae et scripturae, nunc protractioni et 
 picturae, nunc in jardinis herbarum et arborum 
 plantation! et inserturae, nunc honestis ludis 
 et solatiis, ad refocillandum suorum sequacium 
 animos, sine ofifendiculo, complacenti instabat 
 curae. . . . Incredibili a;stu amabat scientiam 
 scripturarum. Amabat et exercitium diver- 
 sarum et laboriosarum practicarum. Unde 
 translatus in Angliam, tanquam alter Josephus 
 ductus in y^^gyptum, etsi linguam quam non 
 noverat audivit, artes tamen mechanicas et 
 scientias morales quas non noverat, didicit et 
 intellexit." — Bower, ibid.^ pp. 504, 505, 506. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 CONCERNING CARTHUSIANS. 
 
 *' Sunt, sicut audivi, nonnuUi, qui derogant 
 isti sanctissimo ordini ; quia, ut allegant, non 
 audiverunt de miraculis eorum de ordine, 
 sicut et de aliis Sanctis aliorum ordinum. Nee 
 mirum : quia, in quantum possunt, hujusmodi 
 celant, soli Deo placere desiderantes ; et ideo 
 dubitare de sanctitate vel puritate ordinis, non 
 solum est sacrilegium, sed blasphemum. Quia
 
 APPENDIX, 95 
 
 si istud est dubitare, est etiam dubitanduni an 
 beatus Johannes Baptista qui banc vitam eligit 
 et duxit, sit sanctus. . . . Unde sciendum est, 
 quod miracula communiter fiunt ad probandum 
 sanctitatem illius qui ea fecit, quando aliquod 
 dubium potest insurgere circa sanctitatem ejus. 
 . . . Non legimus Johannem Baptistam in vita 
 sua aliquod fecisse miraculum ; cum tamen inter 
 natos mulierum major eo non surrexit." — " De 
 fundatione Cartusientium apud Perth in Valle 
 virtuosa." Bower, in his continuation of For- 
 dun's " Scotichronicon," Edinburgh, 1759, 2 
 vols, fol., vol. ii. p. 492. 
 
 IX. 
 
 ^NEAS SYLVIUs's IMPRESSIONS OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 " Scotia ejus insulae in qua est Anglia suprema 
 portio est, in Aquilonem versa, fluminibus 
 baud magnis et monte quodam ab Anglia dif- 
 creta : hie nos brumali tempore fuimus, cum 
 sol paulo ampHus quam tres horas terram 
 illuminaret. Jacobus eo tempore regnabat quad- 
 ratus et multa pinguedine gravis. . . ." 
 
 James, after his return from England, " com- 
 plures regulos gladio percussit. . . ."
 
 gb APPENDIX. 
 
 " Audieramus nos olim arborem esse in Scotia, 
 quae supra ripam fluminis enata, fructus produ- 
 ceret [anserum] formam habentes, et eos quidem 
 cummaturitati proximi essent,sponte sua decidere, 
 alios in terrain alios in aquam, et in terram 
 dejectos putrescere, in aquam vero demersos mox 
 animates errare sub aquis, et in aere plumis 
 pennisque evolare. De qua re cum audivimus 
 investigaremus, didicimus miracula semper re- 
 motius fugere, famosamque arborem non in 
 Scotia, sed apud Orcades insulas inveniri. Illud 
 tamen nobis in Scotia miraculum reprassentatum 
 est. Nam pauperes pene nudos ad templa 
 mendicantes, acceptis lapidibus eleemosynas 
 gratia datis, laetos abiisse conspeximus : id genus 
 lapidis sive sulphurea sive alia pingui materia 
 praeditum, pro ligno, quo regio nuda est com- 
 buritur." " JEne?e Sylvii Piccolominei. . . . 
 Opera qure extant omnia." — Basileae, fol. " De 
 Scotia," p. 443.
 
 APPENDIX. 97 
 
 X. 
 
 JOURNEY OF ^NEAS SYLVIUS TO SCOTLAND. 
 
 (Mneas speaks here in the thh'd person.) 
 
 " Navem ingressus, dum Scotiam petit, in 
 Norvegiam propellitur, duabus maximis jactatus 
 tempestatibus, quarum altera quatuordecim 
 horas mortis metum incussit, altera duabus 
 noctibus et una die navim concussit, atque in 
 fundo perfregit, adeoque in Oceanum et Septen- 
 trionem navis excurrit ut nulla jam coeli signa 
 nautae cognoscentes spem omnem salutis 
 amitterent : sed afFuit divina pietas, quae sus- 
 citatis aquilonibus navim ad continentem repulit, 
 ac duodecimo tandem die terram Scotiam 
 patefecit : ubi apprehenso portu, iEneas ex voto 
 decem millia passu um ad beatam Virginem 
 quam de Alba Ecclesia vocitant, nudis pedibus 
 profectus, cum illic horis duabus quievisset, 
 assurgens moveri loco non poterat debilitatis 
 atque obstupefactis hiemali frigore pedibus. 
 Saluti fuit nihil edendum illic invenisse, atque 
 in aliud rus migrandum fuisse : quo dum famu- 
 lorum ope magis portatur quam ducitur, pede- 
 tentim terram quatiens calefactis pedibus ex 
 S
 
 qB appendix. 
 
 inspcrato sanitate recepta ambulare occepit. Ad 
 regis denique praesentiam intromissus, nihil non 
 impetravit ex his quae petitum venerat ; sumptus 
 ei viarum restituti sunt, et in reditum quinqua- 
 genta nobilia, ac duo equi quos gradarios appel- 
 lant, dono dati. 
 
 " De Scotia haec relatu digna invenit. . . . 
 Subterraneum ibi esse lapidem sulphureum, quern 
 ignis causa defodiunt ; civitates nullos habere 
 mures, domos magna ex parte sine calce con- 
 structas, villarum tecta de cespitibus facta . . . 
 equos natura gradarios omnes . . . neque fricari 
 equos ferro aut ligno pecti, neque fraenis regi 
 . . . nihil Scotos audire libentius quam vitu- 
 perationes Anglorum . . . silvestres Scotos lingua 
 uti di versa . . . hiemali solstitio (tunc enim illic 
 fuit) diem non ultra quatuor horas in Scotia 
 protendi." 
 
 He returns home by way of England : — 
 "... Ad Novum Castellum pervenit, quod 
 Cssaris opus dicunt : ibi primum figuram orbis 
 et habitabilem terrse faciem visus est revisere : 
 nam terra Scotia et Anglise pars vicina Scotis, 
 nihil simile nostrae habitationis habet, horrida, 
 inculta atque hiemali sole inaccessa."- — " Pii 
 Secundi . . . Commentarii rerum memora- 
 bilium." — Frankfort, 1614, fol., p. 4.
 
 APPENDIX. 99 
 
 XL 
 
 ALAIN CHARTIEr's SPEECH TO JAMES I. 
 
 " DuM ad me ipsum reversus, sensus penuriam, 
 inopiam sermonis et mee tenuitatis indigni- 
 tatem meditatus sum, qua audatia in tantam 
 majestatem oculos convertam, quibusve vocibus 
 loqui aggrediar nescio. Os in celum ponam et 
 candelulam inter solis splendores efferam, dum 
 regiam sapienciam et doctissimorum audienciam 
 rudi et indocto sermone fatigabo ? Jam ego dif- 
 fusus viribus, operis resilirem si non mittentis dig- 
 na gratitude ac rei de qua agitur honestas, daret 
 fiduciam, vestra regalis dementia, serenissime 
 princeps et rex illustrissime, audaciam confortaret 
 . . . Cogitavi idcirco ex verbis ordiri que non 
 loquentis studio, sed sua pi-opria suavitate grata 
 sint, indignumque os loquentis dignificent. Ejus- 
 modi sunt verba salutis, quibus nichil excellentius 
 proferri, nichil alcius potest hominum intelli- 
 gencia meditari. . . . Nomine igitur christian- 
 issimi Francorum regis, fratris, consanguinei et 
 confederati carissimi, serenitatem vestram ex- 
 cellentissimam alloquor verbo salutis quo Achi- 
 mias nuntius allocutus est David, dicens : Salve 
 Rex. (R. xviii.) Hec brevis oratio duo com-
 
 100 APPENDIX. 
 
 plectitur : verbum quod inter spirituales actus 
 sanctus resonat cum dicitur Salve, et nomen 
 virtutis in terris celsitudinem enuncians tem- 
 poralem, dum subjungitur Rex," etc. — (MS. Lat. 
 8757, fol. 47, in the National Library, Paris ; 
 the MS. contains various dialogues, letters, and 
 discourses, "venerabilis viri magistri Alani 
 Quadrigarij," and other w^orks, e.g.^ a " De 
 Curia Fortunas " by i^neas Sylvius. 
 
 XII. 
 
 REGNAULT GIRARD AT SEA. 
 
 " Item ct ledict jour quant feusmes prestz et 
 appareillez, mondict seigneur de Vendosme et 
 ledict Jehan Chasteigner nous feirent I'honneur 
 de nous venir conduire par terre jusques au 
 droict de Chef de Boys estant de ladicte ville 
 une lieue ou environ et tous les gens d'estat de 
 ladicte ville de la Rochelle jusques au nombre 
 de cent ou six vingtz chevaulx, et a tant 
 priasmes a mondict seigneur de Vandosme qu'il 
 luy pleust nous recommander a la bonne grace 
 du Roy, et illec prismes nostre conge pour aller 
 a nostre navire et ne fut pas sans deul ne sans
 
 APPENDIX. 10 1 
 
 grans pleurs de part et d'autre. Puis entrasmes 
 en ung bateau pour aller en ung baleiner nomme 
 Marie qui estoit a moy Regnault Girart, dont 
 estoit maistre, empres Dieu, Tassin Petel, et 
 estions en nombre tant de gens de terre que de 
 mer soixante et trois personnes ; et aussi vint 
 avecques nous Puver et sa nef chargee de mar- 
 chandise, lequel Puver estoit du navire pour 
 amener madicte dame. 
 
 " Item, le jour suivant avecques la benysson 
 de Dieu prismes nostre temps et feismes voyle 
 de la maree du soir, et le xviij"^ jour dudict 
 moys nous trouvasmes a I'isle de Sorlingues a 
 heure de deux heures apres minuyt ; et illec 
 soubdainement nous prist si grande et mervil- 
 leuse tormente que ne peusmes recouvrer I'avre 
 de ladicte isle ne aussi recouvrer la terre d'll- 
 lande. Si nous convint, par le conseil des mar- 
 cans prendre la grand mer oscean. Et nous 
 dura ladicte tormente cinq jours et cinq nuyctz, 
 et nous jecta par dela les Ilandes selon la carte 
 plus de cent lieues. Et par force de ladicte 
 tormente escartasmes la nef dudict Puver. Et 
 ladicte tormente cessee retournasmes vers Illande 
 et le xxiiij^ jour dudict mois de novembre, par 
 la grace de Dieu arrivasmes au bout d'lllande a 
 ung tres hault et merveilleux rocher nomme 
 Ribon qui est le bout de toutes terres devers ouest
 
 102 APPENDIX. 
 
 et est terre inhabitable, et illec getasmes I'ancre 
 a I'abri dudict rocher. La tormente nous reprist 
 ct demeurasmes cinq jours a nous defendre centre 
 la tormente, mais nos ancres et nostre cordage 
 furent trop grandement endommagez. Et le 
 xxix""= jour d'icelluy moys de novembre, par le 
 conseil des marcans, prismes I'adventure de nous 
 couler et maroyer selon la couste d'lllande." — 
 MS. fr. 17330, No. 9, in the National Library, 
 Paris, fol. 216. 
 
 A hundred years later another Frenchman, 
 famous since, Pierre de Ronsard, came as a 
 young man to Scotland and experienced the 
 same dangers from the adverse elements. He 
 mentioned in several of his poems his journeys 
 to Scotland and the breaking of his ship. He 
 was sent, he says, in one of his elegies by the 
 Duke of Orleans to Flanders, 
 
 Et encore en Escosse, ou la tempeste grande 
 
 Avecques Lassigni cuiila faire toucher, 
 
 Poussee aux bords anglois, ma nef centre un rocher, 
 
 Plus de trois jours entiers dura ceste tempeste, 
 
 D'eau, de gresle et d'esclairs nous menacant la teste. 
 
 A la fin arrivez sans nul danger au port 
 
 La nef en cent morceaux se rompt contre le bord, 
 
 Nous laissant sur la rade, et point n'y eut de perte, 
 
 Sinon elle qui fut des Acts salez couverte, 
 
 Et le bagage espars que le vent secouoit, 
 
 Et qui servoit flottant aux ondes de jouet. 
 
 D'Escosse retourne, je fus mis hors de page. 
 
 (Elegy XX., to Remy Belleau).
 
 APPENDIX. 103 
 
 XIII. 
 
 REGNAULT GIRARD LEAVES SCOTLAND — A FARE- 
 WELL BANQUET AND AN EXCHANGE OF GIFTS. 
 
 " Et pendant ledict temps ledict Roy d'Escoce 
 feit ung banquet et nous y manda et, pour 
 honneur du Roy, nous feit seoir a sa table et la 
 Royne pres de luy sit en una cheyre. Et fut 
 ordonne que nous Regnault Girard, Aymery 
 Martineau et Joachim (son of Regnault Girard) 
 yrions a Dombertrain pour ordonner sur le faict 
 du navire et ledict Hue Crennedy demourroit 
 pour adviser et advancer le faict de I'armee. 
 
 '' Le jour suyvant empres ladicte ordonnance 
 ainsi faicte audict lieu de Sainct Jehan Stoun 
 (/.<?., Perth), lesdicts Roy et Royne d'Escosse 
 feirent venir en nos presences madicte dame la 
 daulphine et luy dirent plusieurs beaux motz et 
 notables eu luy remonstrant I'honneur du prince 
 avec lequel elle devoit estre esposee et en la in- 
 hortant de bien faire ; et Dieu sait les grans 
 pleurs que d'une part et d'autre estoient faictz 
 en cette matiere. Et ce faict, prismes nostra 
 conge, et ledict Roy, pour honneur du Roy da 
 France sondict frere, commanda a moy Regnault 
 Girart bayser la Royne, laquelle de sa grace et
 
 104 APPENDIX. 
 
 humilite me baysa, que je repute le plus grand 
 honneur qui oncques m'advint. Et a tant nous 
 despartismes. 
 
 " Item, le jour suyvant, en nostre logis dudict 
 lieu de St. Jehan Stoun, ledict Roy nous envoya 
 de grans dons, et si ne faict pas a oblier que 
 depuis que nous arivasmes audict Royaulme 
 d'Escosse devers luy en sa ville de Edembourg, 
 qui fut le xxv^ jour de Janvier, I'an mil 
 iiij'' xxxiiij jusques a ce que prismes nostre conge 
 de luy audict lieu de St. Jehan Stoun, qui fut ou 
 mois de fevrier mil iiij" xxxv, nous feit defFrayer 
 et paier nostre despense ordinaire quelque part 
 que feussions en sondict Royaulme. 
 
 " Item, pendant le temps que je estoye sur la 
 mer, sur I'ancre, vint une nef de France laquelle 
 me apporta des vitailles et par dedans y avoit ung 
 mullet bien gent lequel j'avoye faict venir par 
 le conseil de mondict seigneur de Vandosme qui 
 le me conseilla quant il me mist a la mer, car 
 il avoit veu le mulet a la Rochelle, et pour le 
 donner audict Roy d'Escosse, lequel mulet je 
 luy feys presenter et en fut molt joyeulx et fut 
 chose bien estrange de par dela, pour ce qu'il 
 n'en y a nulz. Et aussi feys presenter a ladicte 
 Royne d'Escosse trois pipes plaines de fruict,
 
 APPENDIX. 105 
 
 tant grosses chastaignes, poyres et pommes de 
 diverses manieres, et aussi six pipes de vin, de 
 quoy la Royne fut bien contente, car de par dela 
 il y a bien pen de fruict." — Ibid.^ fol. 141 and 
 142. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 DEATH OF MARGARET, DAUGHTER OF JAMES I., 
 DAUPHINESS OF FRANCE. 
 
 " Heu proh dolor ! quod me operteat scribere 
 quod dolenter refero de ejus morte, cum 
 mors . . . eandem dominam . . . brevi dolore 
 eripuit . . . Nam ego qui scribo haec vidi eam 
 omni die vivam, cum rege Franciae et regina 
 ludentem, et per novem annos sic continuantem. 
 Postea . . . vidi eam ... in casula plumbea 
 in ecelesia cathedrali dictae civitatis Calonensis, 
 ad cornu magni altaris ex parte boriali, in qua- 
 dam tumba posita[m] ; rege dicente quod post 
 pauca tempora levare faceret eam, et apud Sanc- 
 tum Dionisium inter reges et reginas universas 
 ibidem coUocari. Cujus epitaphium sequitur, con- 
 sequenter hie, quod super ejus tumbam positum 
 fuit post mortem, in lingua Gallicana ; modo hie 
 in lingua Scoticana translat[um], ad praeceptum
 
 I06 APPENDIX. 
 
 inclitae memorije regis Jacobi secundi fratris 
 ejusdem dominae. Incipit . . ." (Here follows 
 a poem of several pages). F. J. H. Skene, 
 "Liber Pluscardensis," Edinburgh, 1877, vol. i. 
 
 p. 381. 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE " BAR-LASS." 
 
 Contemporary writers are silent concern- 
 ing the famous deed of the " bar-lass," the 
 best known, but least certain, of all the inci- 
 dents in the king's eventful life. Bower never 
 mentions her ; the account translated by John 
 Shirley (see following note) credits a lady of the 
 name of Douglas with great intrepidity ; but she 
 is called Elizabeth, and the part she plays in the 
 drama is different. Hector Boece, who wrote 
 in the following century (and who allowed room 
 for many fables in his book) gives the often 
 repeated story : " Itaque is extemplo interfectus, 
 eam tamen moram praebuit ut ostium accurrente 
 Catharina Douglas nobili adolescentula, quae 
 postea Alexandre Louel a Bolumme nupsit, 
 clauderetur. Verum pessulo magno, opera 
 Johannis illius aulici cujus modo m.eminimus,
 
 APPENDIX. 107 
 
 ablato, quum ad manum nihil esset, manum in 
 foramen praestantissimo animo inseruit. Sed 
 confracto brachio tenello videlicet ac fragili, 
 atque virgine repulsa in cubiculum invasere." 
 " Scotorum Historias . . . Libri," Paris, 1574, 
 fol. 353 (ist ed., Paris, 1527). Drummond 
 of Hawthornden commemorated in the same 
 way the deed of "a maid of honour of the name 
 of Dowglass " ("History of Scotland," London, 
 1655, fol. p. 31). Most historians since have 
 done the same. Catherine w^as the subject not 
 only of Rossetti's well-know^n poem, but also of 
 a drama : " Catharine Douglas, a tragedy " 
 (verse and prose), by Sir A. Helps, 1843. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE DEATH OF JAMES I. 
 
 The most detailed account w^e have of King 
 James's murder is to be found in the little 
 tract entitled, "The dethe of the Kynge of 
 Scotis." It was translated from the Latin in or 
 about 1440, by John Shirley, the famous book 
 collector and admirer of Chaucer. It has been 
 printed by Pinkerton in his " History of Scotland,
 
 I08 APPENDIX. 
 
 from the Accession of the House of Stuart," Lon- 
 don, 1797, 2 vols. 4to, vol. i. p. 462, and by J. 
 Stevenson, " Life and Death of King James L," 
 Glasgow, Maitland Club, 1837, 4to. It ends thus : 
 "And thus novice here endethe this most pitevous 
 cronicle of th' orribill dethe of the kyng of 
 Scottes, translated oute of Latyne into oure 
 moders Englishe tong bi youre symple subget 
 John Shirley, in his laste age, after his symple 
 understondyng." Shirley was then over seventy. 
 Pinkerton says the " Latin relation " translated 
 by Shirley was " probably published in Scotland 
 by authority." This does not seem very likely. 
 The writer, of course, pities the king very much, 
 and calls Graham a traitor ; but he seems to find 
 in his heart a good deal of admiration for the 
 pluck of the traitor, and to discover many things 
 to blame in the king. Graham is " a man of 
 grete wit and eloquence " ; he accuses James 
 " with a grete corage " ; he defends himself 
 " with manly hart " ; while James is de- 
 scribed as " noght stanchid of his unsacionable 
 and gredi avarice," and as levying undue taxes. 
 The conclusion and moral of the story is thus 
 recorded : " Therfore prynces shuld take hede, 
 and drewe it to thare memorie of maistre 
 Johanes de Moigne (/.^., Meung, the author 
 of the " Roman de la Rose " ) counsele, thus
 
 APPENDIX. 109 
 
 suid yn the Frenche langage : ' II n'est pas 
 sires de son pays, quy de son peple n'est amez.' " 
 The writer, in fact, concludes against James ; 
 so that if the pamphlet was "published by 
 authority," that authority was certainly not a 
 very friendly one. 
 
 Long before becoming the subject of Rossetti's 
 " King's Tragedy," the death of James was 
 poetically told in the " Myrroure for Magis- 
 trates," 1559. There the feeling runs very 
 high against him and against Scotland ; the 
 object of the poem is to show " how King 
 James the first, for breaking his othes and bondes 
 was by Gods sufferauns miserably murdred of 
 his owne subjectes." He is represented as taking 
 a very optimistic view of his capture by " good 
 King Henry," and of his captivity : 
 
 For ere I had been a prisoner eyghtene yere, 
 
 In which short space two noble princes dyed , . . 
 
 he was released. He swore fidelity to England, 
 but allowed himself to be persuaded — 
 
 To helpe the Frenchmen then nye overtrode 
 By Englishmen. 
 
 He v/?.s, therefore, forsaken by God and 
 killed by " Robert Gram."
 
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 ,A
 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
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 U'^: -^ li* 
 
 ''^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CAVLORO 
 
 
 
 PRINTCDINU.B.A.
 
 Jusserand, Jean Adrien 
 
 Antoine Jules, 1855-1932. 
 Tne romance of a king's life 
 
 jpi.sj PfcCiLlT'/ 
 
 AA 001 327 552 4 
 
 1210 00406 7979