Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/279

 between Angus and Arran had really reached the point of a civil war, all the more injurious that it never came to a decisive battle. There were minor feuds, but the central one was a contest for supreme power between the two earls. Each had his party among the bishops and the nobles, and a certain local connection, as in the civil war of England, may be traced. The east and north favoured Angus, who held Edinburgh, of which he was at one time provost, an office he resigned in favour of his uncle, Douglas of Kilspindie. His other uncle, Gavin, was provost of St. Giles. Arran, with Glasgow as his stronghold, dominated in the west. Of the bishops, St. Andrews, Dunkeld, Orkney, Dunblane, Aberdeen, and Moray; of the earls, Huntly, Morton, Errol, Crawford, the Earl Marshal Glencosse, and Argyll, as well as the great barons of Forfar, Ruthven, Glamis, Hay, and Gray, were for Angus, whose own strength lay now in the midland district of Scotland more than the borders, the older seat of his ancestors. Arran had on his side Beaton, the archbishop of Glasgow and chancellor, and the bishops of Argyll and Galloway, the Earls of Cassilis and Lennox, Lords Maxwell, Fleming, Ross, and Semple. In 1518 Arran had tried to force an entrance into Edinburgh to secure the office of provost, and was repulsed with bloodshed on both sides. The capital itself was not free from partisan fights, in which the killed were generally men of birth, whose deaths made blood feuds. On the last of April 1520 Arran determined to expel Angus and his partisans from Edinburgh. Angus offered to leave if unmolested, and his uncle Gavin tried to secure the mediation of Beaton. That prelate, protesting on his conscience he knew nothing of the matter, struck his hand on his breast. The rattling of his armour under his cassock gave Douglas the retort which became a proverb, ‘My lord, I perceive your conscience clatters.’ Sir Patrick Hamilton, Arran's brother, would have effected a truce, but the bastard James Hamilton upbraided him with cowardice. The retainers of the rival earls then poured out of the narrow wynds in which they lodged into the broadest part of the High Street, and a fierce fight followed. Arran lost the day. Sir Patrick fell, it was said by the hand of Angus, for which he was never forgiven by the Hamiltons. The earl and the bastard with difficulty escaped across the north loch. Seventy-two corpses were left in the street, and the name of ‘Cleanse the Causeway’ preserves the memory of the combat. William Douglas, prior of Coldingham and brother of Angus, and Hume of Wedderburn came with eight hundred horse to Edinburgh before the struggle was ended, and the whole of Arran's party were expelled. Though Arran still had supporters in the country, Angus had now the control of the capital, and, as a mark of triumph, buried Lord Hume and his brother, whose heads had remained in the Tolbooth since their execution. But he failed to surprise his rival at Stirling in August.

The arrival of Albany on 21 Nov. changed the aspect of affairs. He called a parliament, deposed the officials Angus had appointed, and summoned Angus and the prior to answer for their conduct. The Bishop of Dunkeld was sent to the court of Henry VIII to protest against the intimacy of Albany with the queen, which was so close as to give colour to the probably groundless charge of a guilty connection. Another unexpected change followed in the shifting scenes of the Scottish drama. Angus in March went to France, or, as Pitscottie states with more probability, was seized and sent thither by Albany. He would scarcely have selected France as an asylum, but one of the rumours which make too much of the history of this time points to some ostensible reconciliation between him and Albany brought about by the queen, who was glad to be quit of his presence in Scotland on any terms. Angus was hospitably received in France, although, it is noted, he could not speak a word of French. But he was treated as a prisoner on parole, allowed freedom of movement, but not to cross the borders. He chafed at this restraint, and, after an unsuccessful attempt to pass through Picardy to Calais, succeeded in effecting his escape, probably by the Low Countries, and from Antwerp to Berwick, where, however, he did not stay, but went straight to the court of Henry VIII. He reached London on 28 June 1524. In the preceding month Albany, who had lost what popularity he had by the failure of the siege of Wark, left Scotland and returned to France. The queen obtained the recognition or erection of her son, now a boy of twelve, as sovereign in the end of July, and for a short time herself governed under the influence of Arran and Henry Stuart, a young lieutenant of the guard, son of Lord Avondale, to whom she openly showed her affection in a manner that alienated the nobles and disgusted her brother and his councillors. The Scots commons, with whom Angus had always been a favourite, also reproached her for her ‘ungodly living.’ The time was ripe for Angus to return to Scotland, and, after making an agreement with Wolsey for an offensive and defensive alliance with England, and promising to do his utmost to avoid open quarrel with the queen and Arran, but