pre

well-armed Galwegians, and the still better equipped borderers of Liddesdale and Annandale. While his followers still maintained a desperate conflict, the king, who was no warrior, and apparently no horseman, stuck his spurs into his charger, and galloped from the field. The horse he rode was the gallant grey which had been sented to him by the Lord Lindsay of the Byres, and which probably proved too much for an unskilful or a timid rider. It is possible that James may really have been killed by a fall from this horse; but the following is the singular account given by all the Scottish chroniclers who lived nearest to the time, and also we believe universally adopted by later writers, as well as still attested by popular tradition. As the king crossed the brook of Bannock, close to a small hamlet called Milltoun, a poor woman who was drawing water from the brook, threw down her pitcher in alarm close before him; upon which his bounding steed took fright, swerved in his course, and threw him to the ground with such violence as to deprive him of his senses. The cotters ran to his assistance, and, wholly ignorant of his quality, carried him into the house of the miller, took off his heavy armour, and laid him upon a wretched flock bed, with a coarse rug thrown over him. As soon as he recovered his senses he asked for some priest or monk to whom he might confess before he died. The poor people then asked who he was; and James, as the story goes, said, incautiously, "Alas! this morning I was your king." Then the woman of the house ran forth wringing her hands and crying out for a priest to shrive the king! Attracted by her clamour, a man who was one of a party of stragglers from the victorious army of the prince, went into the house, and, recognising the king, stooped over him as if he were a priest about to administer the last consolations of religion, and stabbed him to the heart with a dagger. What appears to be certain is, that a dead body, ascertained to be that of the king, was found in the neighbourhood, and buried with royal honours in the abbey of Cambuskenneth. James III. was only thirty-five years old when he perished. At the dismal news of his death his undutiful son was overwhelmed with remorse; but though this feeling embittered the remainder of his life, and cast a gloom upon his most festive hours, it did not prevent him from ascending the throne, nor from embarking most ardently in the pursuit of pleasure. He attended his father's funeral, and then proceeded to Perth, and was crowned at Scone Abbey, with the usual pomp and rejoicings, on the 26th of June. He had set an example highly dangerous to kings; but this did not seem to affect Henry, who granted passports to the ambassadors of his " dear cousin," James IV., taking care, however, at the same time, to send strong reinforcements to Berwick, which might be attacked with the vigour which generally characterises a new revolution. Having agreed with the young king for a three years' truce, he then waited events; and the course they took, for some time,

seemed likely to lay Scotland at his feet without his making war, which he disliked, and without his touching his treasures, which he disliked still more. The late King of Scotland had not died unlamented, and there were some bold and desperate men who were quite ready to try another revolution. In the following year the Lord Forbes took up arms, and marched through the country with a bloody shirt, said to be the late king's, fixed upon a spear, as his banner, and this ghastly token had a wonderful effect upon the common people, who had always been rather attached to the deceased sovereign. At the same time, the Lord Lyle occupied the strong castle of Dumbarton, in defiance of the new government; and the Earl of Lennox, the Lord Darnley, and some others, armed their vassals and put their castles in a state of defence. Among their numerous complaints they did not forget the extravagance, dissipation, and immoralities of the young sovereign, which were encouraged by the barons and by some of the bishops of the triumphant faction; and they asserted, upon pretty good grounds, that the dishonoured father and relatives of the Lady Margaret Drummond, the beautiful mistress of the boyking, were grasping at all the honours and offices of the state. But James, who was as active and warlike as his father had been sedentary and pacific, and who was surrounded by men of energy, rapidly collected an army, and, after a few sieges, and a desperate nocturnal fight at Talla Moss, about sixteen miles from Stirling, he completely suppressed this revolt. His clemency in the hour of victory and triumph was still more effective than his arms; and the disaffected nobles were pretty generally reconciled and even attached to his governAbout this time a brilliant naval victory increased the popularity of the new sovereign. When men were constantly fighting upon landas the borderers of both nations were-without any regard to existing truces, it is not surprising that hostilities should sometimes be carried on at sea in the same irregular manner. Without attempting the difficult task of proving who were the aggressors originally, we will merely mention that, soon after the accession of James IV., and in time of peace, five English ships sailed up the Clyde, and, after committing many depredations, gave chase to a vessel belonging to the king, and greatly injured her. Sir Andrew Wood of Largo, who was not only a brave, but a skilful and (for the period) a scientific seaman, had won laurels from the English under the preceding reign; and though he was among those who were warmly attached to the late king, and opposed to the revolution, he forgot these political feelings, obeyed the summons of young James-who was doing his best to encourage the infant navy of Scotland-and at that sovereign's request undertook to chastise the marauders. With two ships of superior size, and well manned-the "Flower" and the "Yellow Carvel" he sailed down the Forth, attacked the five English ships, which were then lying off Dun

ment.

bar, and, after a fierce action, brought them all into Leith. According to the Scottish historians, the King of England encouraged one Stephen Bull, an enterprising merchant and seaman of London, to retrieve this disgrace; and notwithstanding the truce, and the illegal proceedings of the five captured vessels, he permitted various knights to embark with him, together with companies of cross-bowmen and pikemen. Bull sailed to the Forth with three ships, and lay to, behind the Isle of May, waiting for Sir Andrew Wood, who had put out to sea in order to escort some trading-vessels to Flanders. Soon after, the two Scottish ships were seen doubling St. Abb's Head, and the English cleared for action. Wood had the advantage of the weather-gage, and he kept it like a good seaman. The battle continued, within sight of innumerable spectators, who crowded the seaward hills, from early morning till dark night, when the ships separated without any intention of retreat on either side. At day-break the battle was renewed: the hostile ships grappled; the men fought hand to hand; and so intent were they upon this occupation, that they let their vessels drive, and they were all drifted by a strong ebbtide into the estuary of the Tay, and into shallow water. Here Bull surrendered: his two ships were carried into Dundee, where the wounded were carefully attended to. Soon after Sir Andrew Wood presented Bull to his master, who received him very courteously, and, after remonstrating against the excesses committed on his coasts and shipping by the English pirates, dismissed him without ransom, and gave liberty to all the prisoners that had been taken with him.*

In the following year (1490), at the very moment when the Scottish king was negotiating with Henry in the most friendly manner for the settlement of some border differences, and for a prolongation of the truce, a dark plot was hatched at the English court for the seizing of his person, together with that of his brother the Duke of Ross, the heir-apparent to the throne. Ramsay, Lord Bothwell, the favourite of the late king, who had fled into England, the Earl of Buchan, who had recently been received into James's favour, and one Sir Thomas Tod of the realm of Scotland, entered into an agreement with Henry to seize the two princes and deliver them both into his hands. For present aid in this treasonable enterprise Henry advanced the sum of 2601.; but, with his accustomed parsimony, he stipulated that the money should be restored to him by a certain day. The bargain was drawn up at Greenwich, and Tod delivered his son as an hostage or security.† although James had no suspicion, and probably never learned that such a plan was on foot, the project came to nothing. In the following year Henry received with open arms the Earl of Angus, one of the most powerful of the Scottish nobles,

Pinkerton.-Tytler.

But

The industrious Rymer first brought this transaction to light. The original agreement is published in his ' Fœdera,'

and concluded another dark agreement with him; and though this conspiracy, which was known, at least in part, to James, failed, like that of Bothwell, Buchan, and Tod, he did not, for that, cease to maintain a secret intercourse with the disaffected portion of the Scottish nobility, nor neglect to keep spies in the court. James, though he was very imperfectly informed of these practices, still knew enough to excite his indignation; and his natural disposition alone made him hate the cold and crafty character of Henry. The young king, moreover, had, from the time of his accession, kept up a friendly correspondence with Henry's implacable enemy the Duchess of Burgundy; and there are good reasons for believing, not only that James knew of Warbeck's coming, but that he had negotiated with him several years before he

came.

Whether James entered into these relations with his eyes open to the fact, that Perkin was not what he gave himself out to be, or whether he, at this or at any later time, believed him to be an impostor, must remain matter of doubtful speculation. What is certain is, that he and his people had long entertained the notion of breaking with Henry, as with a man who could never be trusted, and who had the art of making peace more dangerous than war. When, therefore, the wanderer presented himself, he found the Scots in a humour which would not dispose them to be very critical in the examination of his proofs of royal birth; but such was the wonderful tact, such the winning manners of Perkin, that he soon convinced people through their feelings to himself personally, and most of them seem to have proceeded in the honest belief that their interesting guest was really the person that he reported himself to be. There was certainly no real prince at the time more beautiful, and graceful, and accomplished than this extraordinary pretender; and his abilities, at least in certain difficult lines, must have been still superior to his personal advantages. The inimitable way in which he played his part for the long term of seven years, added to the dark, ambiguous mode of proceeding which Henry adopted in everything relating to him, long left it a doubt in many inquiring minds whether he could be an impostor. Bacon says, that the king's manner 66 of showing things by pieces and by dark lights had so muffled the story," that it remained almost mystery to his day. Believing him to have been an actor, this competent judge expresses a high admiration at the skill with which he played his part,—at his princely behaviour,-at his never-failing address; and he makes the curious remark, that, with long and continual counterfeiting, he was turned by habit almost into the thing he seemed to be.

Immediately after his arrival in Scotland James IV., who always addressed him as cousin," entertained him with tournaments and other great festivals; and when these were over he took him with him on a royal progress through Scotland, by which means he was seen and enthusiastically ad

mired by all classes. As if to prove the warmth of his attachment, and the sincerity of his conviction that Perkin was the real Duke of York, he married him in a short time to the Lady Catherine Gordon, the beautiful daughter of the Earl of Huntley, who, on the mother's side, was nearly related to the royal House of Stuart.

Henry was much disquieted by these transactions; nor were his apprehensions abated when he learned that James had summoned all his lieges to meet him in arms at Lauder, near the borders, and that communications had been opened with some Anglo-Irish barons. The first thing he did was to renew an old friendship with Ramsay, Lord Bothwell, the discontented favourite of the late king; to send a present to the reigning king's brother; and to employ one Master Wyat, an Englishman, and an old servant in this kind of business, as a secret envoy in Scotland. Henry's bosom friend Fox, now Bishop of Durham, was commissioned to negotiate in a more open manner; but he was less successful than Wyat, for James would not consent to abandon Warbeck, except on conditions which were considered too burdensome and dangerous. The English bishop was soon succeeded at the Scottish court by a French knight, a more welcome ambassador, from Charles VIII. This was the Sire de Concressault, who had been captain of the French guard of honour assigned to Perkin by King Charles in 1493. In public, the accomplished diplomatist showed himself as a mediator anxious to reconcile the differences existing between the French and English sovereigns; in private, he favoured Perkin and the war-party, and pressed for the invasion of England; for his master Charles was irritated and alarmed by the conduct of Henry, who had now formed a league with the pope, the King of the Romans, the King of Spain, the Duke of Milan, and the Doge of Venice, in order to prevent the French establishing themselves as conquerors beyond the Alps. In a short time Ramsay, Lord Bothwell, wrote secretly to Henry, informing him that the Earl of Buchant took it upon himself to fulfil what was meant, and that he hoped to be able "in the long nights" to surprise Warbeck in his tent, and take him prisoner, seeing that there was no guard, but such as King James had appointed, near his person; and the English exiles and the foreign adventurers who had accompanied or followed Perkin from Flanders would be fixed at a distance, in order to facilitate the nocturnal adventure. He went on to tell his employer that he had spoken to the king's brother, who engaged to do his grace service, and not to join the army against his grace for aught the king might do, and that the Bishop of Moray undertook to solicit the young prince to go over to his grace, in

At the memorable execution in 1482, when James III.'s favourites were hanged by the barons on the bridge of Lauder, this Ramsay was the only one that escaped. As the plot for seizing King James and his brother seems to have originated with him, he must have had a genius for this kind of undertaking.

+ Buchan, it will be remembered, had also been concerned in the Greenwich plot for seizing James and his brother.

VOL. II.

case his brother King James should persist, against the will of his baronry and his whole people, in making this war. This villanous spy, who was trusted by King James all the time, certainly worked hard to earn Henry's money, and scrupled at no measures, however base. In the same letter he informs Henry that, on the 28th day of August, there came a gentleman out of Carlisle to Perkin, who introduced him to the king, upon which he, Bothwell, remained to understand the matter. I was informed secretly," adds he, "that this man should have come from Randell of Dacre, brother to the Lord Dacre, and from the Skeltons: . . . . and undoubtedly the Northumberland men come shrewdly at days of meeting, and at days secretly appointed betwixt them and Scotsmen; and every day through them their vagabonds come to Perkin, and sundry writings come, and now newling (recently) one Hatfield that was wont to dwell with my Lord of Oxford, and he tells many tidings." In another letter he mentions the names of the Nevils, Lovels, and Herons, and some other gentlemen of the north of England, as being in correspondence, or having stolen interviews, with King James and Warbeck. All this was precisely the kind of service required by Henry, upon whom not one of the hints was thrown away.*

The Dowager-Duchess of Burgundy contrived to send to Scotland sixty picked men-at-arms and a supply of crossbows, arms, armour, and other military stores; and Perkin soon found himself at the head of fourteen hundred men of all manner of nations. We are not informed who sent the rest of the foreigners or the money (for the Pretender had money), but both, in all probability, came from the duchess and the French king. James now concluded a treaty with Warbeck as with a

A silver coin supposed to have been struck by the Duchess of Burgundy for distribution among Warbeck's followers. Drawn from the original in the British Museum.

sovereign prince-the latter agreeing to advance the king a certain sum, to deliver over to him the castle and town of Berwick, and to pay him fifty thousand marks within five years, as a grateful acknowledgment for James's assistance in placing him on the English throne. Many of the Scottish nobles besides Bothwell and Buchan were sold to Henry, and ready to betray the army; others, out of prudence and good policy, were against the war, for Scotland had been much weakened by the re

! Original Letters illustrative of English History, by Sir Henry Ellis. 2 R

cent internal dissensions; but James, who was young and ardent, knew not the treachery of one party, and rejected the advice of the other. By some means, not explained, Buchan failed in his plan of seizing Warbeck in his tent; and on the 8th of September Bothwell informed Henry that, on the 15th day of the same month, James would be at Ellam Kirk, within ten miles of the marches of England, with Perkin and his followers, and all the Scottish troops he could muster." The spy made a trifling mistake in point of date; but early in the winter James crossed the borders, being preceded by a declaration of war, and an address on the part of Perkin to his faithful subjects the people of England. The latter document was drawn up with considerable skill: it gave an account of his escape from the Tower and of his long travels in foreign parts; it exposed the deficiency of hereditary right in Henry Tudor; it taxed the usurper with selling the honour and trampling upon the rights and liberties of the nation; it charged upon him as murders, the executions of Sir William Stanley, Sir Simon Montfort, and others of the ancient nobility; it called upon every true Englishman to take up arms; and it promised, at the very least, a reward of a thousand pounds in money, and lands to the yearly value of one hundred marks, to the man that should take or distress Henry Tudor." Another important and well-considered clause in this proclamation was, that the King of Scotland took up arms in his quarrel without any motive of ambition, and that he would retire with his army as soon as a proper force of native English was on foot. But this assurance did not satisfy the inhabitants of the northern counties, whose old animosities against their neighbours were still unabated, and whose affection for the Frenchmen, Germans, Flemings, and others was not greater than that which they felt for the Scots. Had Perkin come alone, or with the few Englishmen who had joined his standard, his chance would have been better, though in no circumstances could that chance have been a good one. Warned in good time by Bothwell, Henry had adopted measures to indispose men's minds to insurrection. The same informer had told him, that the invading army was badly provided with artillery and "other stuffs," and that for "lack of victuals" they would soon call on the king to return home.†

Instead of a general rising in his favour, Perkin saw that he, and the border gentlemen who had joined him, were regarded with detestation, as being in close league with the natural enemies of England. At the same time, the French adventurers could not agree with the Germans and Flemings, and the Scots quarrelled with all the foreigners alike. Then, to convert Warbeck's last faint hope into despair, the ill-disciplined invaders, with or without James's consent, began to plunder the country, and thereby to convert every

yeoman and every peasant into a determined enemy. Warbeck said (or at least it is reported, to his honour) that he would rather lose the throne than gain it by the sufferings of Englishmen; but James, it is added, taunted him with being over tender to the nation which would acknowledge him neither as their king nor as their fellowsubject. It should appear that the cattle and stores had been removed betimes from the open country, and that this marauding expedition was not very productive in the article of victuals; for the invaders soon felt the want of provisions, and thereupon retreated across the borders without fighting a battle or waiting for a sight of an English army, just as Bothwell had foretold.*

This incursion, though little better than a foul raid, was productive of serious consequences; for the people of Cornwall, considering themselves over-taxed by Henry to meet the expenses of the war,† rose in open rebellion, and crying for the execution of the Archbishop Morton, chancellor and chief minister, and of Sir Reginald Grey, they poured into Devonshire to the number of sixteen thousand men. From Devonshire they advanced into Somersetshire, where they were joined by the Lord Audley and many other persons of less note. They then marched through Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Surrey, into Kent, and encamped on Blackheath. Henry, whose great sagacity did not preserve him from superstition, believed that Saturday was his lucky day; and, accordingly, he ordered battle to be given on a Saturday. While the Lord Daubeney moved from London to attack in front, the Earl of Oxford made a circuit to attack in rear; and the king, with a great body of reserve and most of the artillery, kept his person out of danger at St. George's Fields, in the suburbs of London. "Within the city there was great running to and fro of people; some to the gates, some to the walls, some to the water-side; all giving themselves alarms and panic fears continually." But these unreasonable alarms were soon dissipated. Lord Daubeney, after a sharp conflict, in which the Cornish archers did great execution, drove in the advanced post of the insurgents at Deptford-Strand, carried the bridge, ascended the hill, and established himself on the heath. At the same time, Oxford showed himself in their rear. Though without horse or artillery, or any good officers to command them, the Cornish men fought bravely, until two thousand of them were slain. Fifteen hundred were taken with arms in their hands; and among the pri soners were Lord Audley, and Flammock, an attorney, and Joseph, a blacksmith, who had inflamed them at the first by their harangues against the tyranny of the king and the archbishop. The Lord Audley was beheaded at Tower Hill; FlamBacon.-Hall.-Stow.-Tytler's Hist. Scot.-Sir Henry Ellis's

Letters.

On the 13th of February, 1497, soon after receiving news that James and Warbeck had crossed the borders, parliament passed a grant of two tenths and two fifteenths. The Cornishmen pretended that the men of the north alone ought to pay for the defence of their provinces.

mock and Joseph were hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn. The blacksmith died like a hero. All the rest were pardoned by proclamation, and the prisoners were permitted to compound for their liberty with the men that had taken them. "It was a strange thing," says Bacon, "to observe the variety and inequality of the king's executions and pardons; and a man would think it, at the first, a kind of lottery or chance. But, looking into it more nearly, one shall find there was reason for it, much more, perhaps, than, after so long a distance of time, we can now discern. In the Kentish commotion, which was but an handful of men, there were executed to the number of one hundred and fifty; but in this so mighty a rebellion, but three: whether it were, that the king put to account the men that were slain in the field; or that he was not willing to be severe in a popular cause; or that the harmless behaviour of this people (that came from the west of England to the east, without mischief almost, or spoil of the country) did somewhat mollify him, and move him to compassion; or, lastly, that he made a great difference between people that did rebel upon wantonness, and them that did rebel upon want."

The battle of Blackheath was fought on the 22nd of June, 1497. A short time before it happened King James again crossed the Tweed, and swept the country as far as the Tees; but he retreated when the Earl of Surrey marched northward with a powerful army. The English then ravaged a part of the Scottish borders; but after gaining or losing a few insignificant conflicts they retired, and the war languished. Henry's correspondents were not slow in informing him that James wished for peace: whereupon the English king repeated an offer he had already made of the hand of his eldest daughter Margaret to his cousin, the King of Scots. Don Pedro Ayala, the Spanish ambassador, interposed as a mediator; commissioners met at Ayton in the Merse, and the preliminaries were easily arranged, though some time elapsed before the treaty was signed, and the marriage was not concluded till more than five years after. James, though young, thoughtless, dissipated, and extravagant, was too honourable to think of selling Perkin Warbeck, for whom he had coined his plate, and even converted the great chain of gold which he was accustomed to wear into money. Before dismissing his army, or concluding anything with Henry, he permitted Perkin to depart; being no longer able to assist him, and seeing that if he remained his presence would only embarrass the negotiations. It has been suspected by some, that James foresaw, or even recommended, the course he afterwards pursued; but there is no existing proof to this effect. A ship, commanded by Robert Barton, was privately got ready at Ayr, and a delicate attention was paid to whatever might contribute to the comfort of the passengers. Warbeck was escorted to the seaport by a guard of horse, and he embarked with a

few followers who were much attached to him, and who would on no account leave him. Though he had nothing to offer her but a wandering and perilous life, his wife resolved to share his fortunes to the last-for, prince or impostor, he had won the heart of that beautiful woman. At the end of July the " Duke and Duchess of York"-as they were still called-left Scotland for ever.* .* They stood over to Ireland, and, landing at Cork, Warbeck tried once more to raise the Irish. Failing in this attempt, he acted on the bold resolution of trying his fortunes in Cornwall.† According to some accounts, the Cornishmen-" some of the subtilest of them"-hearing of his being in Ireland, found means to send to him to let him know, that if he would come over to them they would faithfully serve him. At the beginning of September he arrived in Whitsand Bay, with four small barks and some six or seven score fighting men. From the coast he marched inland to Bodmin, the native place of Joseph the blacksmith, whose eloquence was still remembered,' and whose fate at Tyburn seemed to his townsmen to call for vengeance. In other parts of the country there were many thousands who had lost relations and friends in the fierce fight at Blackheath, and who were equally eager for revenge. Warbeck soon found himself at the head of a host. Having assumed the title of Richard IV., King of England and France and Lord of Ireland, and having sent his wife "for present safety" to Mount St. Michael, he advanced into Devonshire, and, being joined by many disaffected persons, appeared before the city of Exeter on Sunday, the 17th of September, with an irregular force, estimated by those within the walls at ten thousand men. nobility and gentry of all the neighbouring country had flocked into that city, where, headed by the Earl of Devonshire, and seconded by the wealthier burghers, they bade defiance to the insurgents, who had no artillery nor any kind of engines proper for a siege. The Cornishmen, however, boldly assaulted the east and north gates, endeavouring to break them open with such instruments as they had; but they failed at both gates, and lost about three or four hundred men. On the following morning they repeated their assaults upon the same two gates, and "especially at the north gate, which was again well and truly defended, and put Perkin from his purpose there; in so much, as when Perkin and his company had well assayed and felt the guns, they were fain to desire to have licence to gather their company together, and so to depart and leave the city." This failure disheartened such of the men

The

Tytler's Hist. Scot. Mr. Tytler's curious extracts from the Treasurer's Books' establish several interesting points.

It appears, from a letter of King Henry to Sir Gilbert Talbot, that he could not have remained any longer in Ireland in safety. The king says, " Whereas Perkin Warbeck and his wife were lately set full poorly to the sea by the King of Scots, he after landed within our land of Ireland in the wild Irisherie, where he had been taken by our cousins the Earls of Kildare and Desmond if he and his said wife had not secretly stolen away.'-Ellis's Letters.

Letter from the Earl of Devonshire to the king, dated the 18th of September, the same day on which this second attack was made. -Ellis's Letters.