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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] James V Biography JAMES V (1512-42). King of Scotland from 1513 to 1542. The son of James IV and Margaret of England, he was born April 10, 1512. The period of his long minority is one of the gloomiest in Scottish history. Such was the lawless state of the country that it was impossible to travel safely except in armed companies. The Duke of Albany, representing the interests of France, was chosen Regent by Parliament, but his government was almost powerless owing chiefly to the jealousy and enmity of the Earl of Angus, who was friendly to England and had married the Queen mother. Ultimately Angus prevailed, and the Duke retired to France. For a while the Angus branch of the Douglas family ruled Scotland in the same manner as the elder branch had ruled it in the beginning of the reign of James II. In his seventeenth year the King, resolving no longer to brook the authority of the Earl, escaped from his custody. Angus and his family were banished, and their estates declared forfeited. In 1536 James visited the court of France, and next year married Madeleine, daughter of Francis I. She lived but a few weeks. Soon after her death the King married Mary of Lorraine, daughter of the Duke of Guise. Henry VIII, after declaring his independence of the Pope, wished his nephew to support him in the movement; but James remained true to his ancestral faith and strengthened the laws against heresy. Far from coming to an agreement on the subject of religion, the two Kings went to war against each other. In 1542 the English, while making an incursion across the border, were attacked and defeated with great loss by the Earl of Huntly and Home. To avenge this disaster, Henry sent the Duke of Norfolk into Scotland with an army of 20,000 men, who, however, retired on the approach of James with a superior force. The Scottish King desired thereupon to invade England, but the nobles would not follow him. There had long been strife between the crown and the nobility, but the breach was widening with the progress of the Reformation; for while the Lords adopted the new ideas, the King clung to the Church. He antagonized the nobles further by championing the Commons against them. Finally, Lord Maxwell and a few other western nobles consented to lead an army of 10,000 men across the border, but they were enraged at seeing Sinclair, the King's favorite, set over them as commander. In the disorder which followed this appointment the army was disgracefully beaten by a few hundred Englishmen. This dishonor to his arms seems to have broken the heart of James and to have affected his mind. He shut himself up in Falkland Palace, where he died, Dec. 14, 1542, a few days after the birth of his unfortunate daughter Mary. He was a protector of the poor and an excellent administrator, who made his power felt for good throughout Scotland; at the same time he was avaricious and licentious and unable to bear up against misfortune. The New International Encyclopaedia Vol. XII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 549. |