Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/147

Rh By such means he was not only without a single enemy amongst the aristocracy, but all of them would have shed the last drop of their blood in his defence, and a day came when nearly all of them did so. In short, the wisest policy could not have done more in uniting the affections of prince and peers, than was accomplished by those warlike pastimes, aided as they were by the amiable manners of the monarch.

Not satisfied with discharging his duty to his subjects, from his high place on the throne, James frequently descended, and disguising his person a practice to which his successor was also much addicted roamed through the country unarmed and unattended, inquiring into his own reputation amongst the common people, and endeavouring to learn what faults himself or his government were charged with. On these occasions he lodged in the meanest hovels, and encouraged the inmates to speak their minds freely regarding their king; and there is little doubt, that, as his conduct certainly merited it, so he must have been frequently gratified by their replies. The young monarch, however, was charged with stepping aside occasionally in his rambles from this laudable though somewhat romantic pursuit, and paying visits to any of his fair acquaintances whose residence happened to be in his way; and it is alleged that he contrived they should very often be so situated.

Unfortunately for his courtiers, James conceived that he possessed, and not improbably actually did possess considerable skill in surgery and medicine, but there is reason to believe, that the royal surgeon's interference in cases of ailment was oftener dreaded than desired, although Lindsay says, that "thair was none of that profession (the medical) if they had any dangerous cure in hand but would have craved his adwyse." Compliments, however, to a king's excellence in any art or science are always suspicious, and this of Lindsay's is not associated with any circumstances which should give it a claim to exemption from such a feeling.

One of the greatest faults of the young monarch was a rashness and impetuosity of temper. This frequently led him into ill-timed and ill-judged hostilities with the neighbouring kingdom, and, conjoined with a better quality, his generosity, induced him to second the pretensions of the impostor Perkin Warbeck to the crown of England. That adventurer arrived at James's court (1496), attended by a numerous train of followers, all attired in magnificent habits, and sought the assistance of the Scottish king to enable him to recover what he represented as his birth-right. Prepossessed by the elegant manner and noble bearing of the impostor, and readily believing the story of his misfortunes, which was supported by plausible evidence, the generous monarch at once received him to his arms, and not only entertained him for some time at his court, but, much against the will of his nobles, mustered an army, and, with Warbeck in his company, marched at the head of it into England, to reinstate his protege in what he believed to be his right, at the point of the sword, a project much more indicative of a warm and generous heart, than of a prudent head, The enterprise, as might have been expected, was unsuccessful. James had counted on a rising in England in behalf of the pretender, but being disappointed in this, he was compelled to abandon the attempt and to return to Holyrood. The king of England did not retaliate on James this invasion of his kingdom; but he demanded from him the person of the impostor. With this request, however, the Scottish king was much too magnanimous to comply ; and he not only refused to accede to it, but furnished Warbeck with vessels and necessaries to carry him to Ireland, whither he now proceeded. James is fully relieved from the charge of credulity which might appear to lie against him for so readily confiding in Warbeck's representations, by the extreme