Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/152

212 sixty or seventy years afterwards, the shell in which the body was deposited, and still containing it, was found in a garret amongst a quantity of lumber by a slater while repairing the roof of a house. The body was still perfectly entire, and emitted a pleasant fragrance from the strong aromas which had been employed in its preservation. Looking on it as a great curiosity, though unaware whose remains it was, the slater chopped off the head, carried it home with him, and kept it for several years. Such was the fate of the mortal part of the noble-minded, the high-souled monarch, James IV. of Scotland. He was in the forty-first year of his age, and the twenty-sixth of his reign, when he fell on Flodden field.

At this distance of time, every thing relating to that celebrated, but calamitous contest—the most calamitous recorded in the pages of Scottish history—possesses a deep and peculiar interest; but of all the memorials which have reached us of that fatal event, there is not one perhaps so striking and impressive as the proclamation of the authorities of Edinburgh. The provost and magistrates were in the ranks of the king's army, and had left the management of the town's affairs in the hands of deputies. On the day after the battle was fought, a rumour had reached the city that the Scottish army had met with a disaster, and the following proclamation—the one alluded to—was in consequence issued. The hopes, fears, and doubts which it expresses, now that all such feelings regarding the event to which it refers have long since passed away, cannot be contemplated without a feeling of deep and melancholy interest. "The 10th day of September the year above written, (1513) we do zow to witt. Forasmeikle as thair is ane grait rumour now laitlie rysin within this toun, touching oure soverane lord and his army, of the quhilk we understand thair is cum in na veritie as yet Quhairfore we charge straitely, and commandis in oure said Boverane lord the kingis name, and the presidentis for the provost and baillies within this burgh, that all manner of personis, nychtbours within the samyn, have riddye thair fensabill geir and wappenis for weir, and compeir thairwith to the said presidents at jowing of the commoun bell, for the keiping and defense of the toun aganis thame that wald invaid the samin. And als chairgis that all wemen, and especiallie vagaboundis, that thai pass to thair labouris and be nocht sene upoun the gait clamorand and cryand, under the pane of banisirig of thair personis, but favouris, and that the uther women of gude repute pass to the kirk and pray quhane tyme requiris for our soverane lord, and his army and nychtbours being thairat, and hald thame at thair previe labouris of the gait within thair housis as efferis."

James left behind him only one legitimate child, James V. His natural issue were, Alexander, born eight months after his father's death, and who died in the second year of his age; Alexander, archbishop of St Andrews; Catharine, wedded to the earl of Morton; James, earl of Murray; Margaret, wedded to the heir of Huntly; and Jean, married to Malcolm, lord Fleming.

JAMES V. of Scotland, son of James IV., and of Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII., king of England, was born at Linlithgow in the month of April, 1512. This prince, on the death of his father, was not more than a year and a half old. The nation had, therefore, to look forward to a long minority, and to dread all the evils which in these turbulent times were certain to attend a protracted regency.

Scarcely any event could have been more disastrous to Scotland, than the premature death of James IV. The loss of the battle of Flodden, the immense number of Scottish noblemen and gentlemen who fell in that fatal field, were calamities of no ordinary magnitude; but the death of James himself was more fatal to the peace and prosperity of the kingdom than all. By the latter event,