Alba Historical

  Regency of Mary of Lorraine. First Marriage of Mary Stewart. . In 1554, Arran, who had been created  Duke of Chatelherault  by the French king, went back to France, and  Mary of Lorraine  became  Regent . The league with France was drawn still closer by the marriage of the Queen with  Francis the Dauphin . Francis became  King of France  in 1559. The crown-matrimonial of Scotland was then granted to him, so that the two countries were for a short time united under one crown. On the strength of this the French began to give themselves airs of superiority which the Scots could ill bear from strangers, and before long they became well-nigh as unpopular as the English had been.  The Regent was unconsciously doing her best to foster this feeling of dislike by placing foreigners in offices of trust, above all by making  [Pg 93] Frenchmen keepers of the strongholds. But there was another influence now at work, the desire of religious ref...

  Mary, 1542-1554. Arran's Regency. (Part 1 of 2) James Hamilton, Earl of Arran , next heir to the throne by his descent from James the Second, was chosen Regent, but, as it was the Scots custom that the nearest of kin on the mother's side should have the care of the minor, the infant Queen was left in charge of her mother,  Mary of Lorraine . The defeat at  Solway Moss , and the death of the King, had left the people nearly as dispirited and defenceless as they had been after Flodden, and Henry the Eighth determined to get the kingdom into his power by marrying  Mary  to his son  Edward, Prince of Wales . To carry out his plans the better, he sent Angus back to Scotland, and with him the Lords  Cassilis  and  Glencairn , and several other nobles, all pledged to do their best to place the Queen and the strongholds in the hands of Henry. These nobles were called by the English the  Assured Scots , because Henry thought he could be sure of...

  James V., 1513-1542 The news of the defeat at  Flodden  spread grief and terror through the country. The citizens of Edinburgh built a wall round their city, but its strength was not tried, for the English army dispersed instead of advancing. The Estates met at  Perth , and the Queen-mother was appointed Regent, for the King was an infant only two years old. But within a year the Queen married  Archibald , the young  Earl of Angus , and the Estates then transferred the regency to  John, Duke of Albany , High Admiral of France, son of the brother of James the Third. Peace was made with England; Scotland being taken in as the ally of France in a treaty between that country and England. Albany's government was at first very unpopular, for the national jealousy was roused by the number of his  French  followers. The Queen at first refused to give up the King, but she was besieged in  Stirling Castle  and obliged to yield. The cou...

  James IV., 1488-1513 The first thing to be done after the affair of Sauchieburn was to find out what had become of the King, and, when his death was made sure of, an inquiry was set on foot as to the cause of it. The offices of state were transferred to the party in power, and an act of amnesty was passed, to take in all persons who had taken part with the late King in the struggle which the nobles pleased to call the late rebellion. Two ineffectual risings to avenge the murder of the King were made by the Lords  Lennox  and  Forbes , and three years later, to pacify the clamours of the people, a reward of one hundred marks was offered for the discovery of the actual murderers. Just at this time Henry the Seventh of England had his hands too busy at home to allow of his making open war upon Scotland, but he carried  [Pg 80] on secret schemes with  Angus ,  Ramsay , and others for the capture of the King. James, on the other hand, upheld that  Pe...

 The Battle of Flodden King James was determined to invade England.  Though the cause was not popular, the King was, and a large army was soon mustered. The King himself led the host across the Border, and encamped on the  Till , but, as he would not take the advice of  Angus  and others who  knew more of border fighting than he did, he mismanaged the whole affair.  He idled away the time till his own army began to disperse and the English had time to gather; then he let them cross the river unopposed, and finally left his strong position on the hill to meet them hand to hand in the plain.  The result was an utter defeat, and the King, who was more eager to display his own valour than to act the part of the general in command, was slain in the thickest of the fight.  Twelve earls and thirteen barons fell round him, and every noble house in Scotland left some of its name on the fatal field of  Flodden  Sept. 9, 1513.  ...

 King James III  (10 July 1451/May 1452 – 11 June 1488) During the first part of this reign,  Kennedy, Bishop of St. Andrews , had the chief part in the government. He died in 1466, and on his death the  Boyds  got hold of the King and of the chief power. These  Boyds  were originally simple lairds, but they strengthened themselves by bonds with more powerful families, won the King's favour and finally got possession of his person, by making him come with them, partly by persuasion, partly by force, from  Stirling  to  Edinburgh . They then obtained  [Pg 76] an act of the Estates declaring that this step had been taken with the full consent and good pleasure of the King. The  Lord Boyd  was appointed guardian of his person and of the royal strongholds, his son  Thomas  was created  Earl of Arran , and with the earldom the King's sister  Mary  was given him in marriage. For many years the rent of th...

  THE COVENANTING MINISTER OF THE BARONY. One of the four central prominent preachers around whom traditions of the Covenanters are clustered was the minister of the Barony parish of Glasgow. Cameron, Cargill, Peden, and Renwick uttered no uncertain sound at that crisis of Scotland's history. Whilst Peden barely escaped a bloody death, the other three were called upon to lay down their lives for the cause, Cargill and Renwick on the scaffold, and Cameron on the battlefield. Donald Cargill had no other charge than the Barony; and by his brave unflinching testimony during the darkest hour, not only served his own day and generation, but it is to him and such as he, that his fellow-citizens of Glasgow and of Scotland owe their civil and religious liberty. Cargill was born about 1610, of a respected family in the parish of Rattray. Schooled at Aberdeen and St Andrews College, he was called to be minister of the Barony parish of Glasgow. Upon the 26th May following, the day appointed to...

 The Auld Alliance Part 1 On July 12, 1503, King James IV of Scotland wrote to his new ally and future father-in-law, Henry VII of England. The English king, reflecting on the grandly named Treaty of Perpetual Peace concluded between Scotland and England the previous year, had demanded that James IV repudiate the Franco-Scottish alliance. In his reply, the Scottish king courteously informed Henry VII that, though he had at that time no intention of renewing the Franco Scottish alliance, nevertheless 'we and our predecessors have always been accustomed to it'. James was exaggerating, but not by much. At the outset of the 16th century, the 'Auld Alliance' had already endured for more than two centuries and would last for a further 60 years. Why should an alliance between Scotland, a small kingdom on the northwestern fringes of Europe, and France, a major European power, endure for so long? And why should many modern Scots, and some French, still regard the "Auld Alli...