Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/145

James II signally defeated at Arkinholm, now Langholm, on the Esk, by the king's lowland forces. The head of Moray was brought to James at Abercorn; Ormonde was captured and executed. Douglas Castle and other strongholds surrendered, and Threave, the chief seat of the earl, in Galloway, alone remained untaken. Against it James directed the whole strength of his artillery, including the great bombard, perhaps Mons Meg, which he had imported from Flanders. The Earl of Orkney at first commanded the siege, but James went in person before the surrender of the castle.

Parliament met at Edinburgh on 9 June 1455, and Douglas, his mother the Countess Beatrice, and his three brothers were attainted, and their whole estates forfeited. The sentences show that the rebellion extended from Threave in Galloway to Darnaway in Elgin, and included the fortification of castles in nearly every county. The following parliament of 4 Aug. passed an act of attainder, which, besides uniting to the crown the earldoms of Fife and Strathearn, forfeited in his father's reign, renewed the grant of the whole customs; declared the king's right to the royal castles of Edinburgh, Stirling, Dumbarton, Inverness, and Urquhart, and annexed the forfeited Douglas lordship of Galloway and castle of Threave, and the lordship of Brechin, which the Earl of Crawford had held, as well as a number of highland baronies, several of them in Ross. By these great accessions of territory James became more powerful than any former king, and for the short remainder of his reign was, in fact, almost an absolute monarch in Scotland. Parliament was summoned to Stirling on 13 Oct., for the third time in 1455, a proof how greatly the king relied on its support. The parliament of Stirling was almost exclusively occupied with measures to secure the kingdom against the English, with whom war had already broken out in the course of the summer, as a sequel of the suppression of the Douglas rebellion. In November an embassy under the Bishop of Galloway was sent to France pressing for immediate assistance, and suggesting that the French should attack Calais, and the Scots Berwick, simultaneously. Henry VI, or those who governed in his name, addressed, on 26 July 1455, a threatening letter to James, ‘asserting himself to be king of Scots,’ and announcing the intention of the English king to chastise him for his rebellion. The falsehoods as to Scottish homage collected by Edward I were about this time resuscitated, and added to by the forgeries of John Hardyng [q. v.] and Palgrave's ‘Documents illustrating the History of Scotland,’ pp. cxcvi–ccxxiv. James answered these threats by a raid in the autumn of 1456, advancing as far as the Cale or Calne, a tributary of the Teviot. Interrupted by what Boece calls the fraudulent promise of the English ambassadors, who appear to have represented themselves as having authority from the pope to prohibit wars between Christian powers, James retreated, but returned within twenty days, and ravaged Northumberland with fire and sword, destroying, according to the ‘Auchinleck Chronicle,’ seventeen towers and fortalices, and remaining in England six days and nights. Between 26 Sept. and 1 Oct. he was hunting in the neighbourhood of Loch Freuchie, north of Glenalmond. On 19 Oct. he was back again in Edinburgh, where the parliament made further provision for the defence of the realm. Regulations were also laid down as to the pestilence in burghs and the administration of justice in certain places by a committee of the three estates. It is noticeable that the two last acts seem to have passed, at the king's instance, with the special consent of the clergy. The burghs probably at the same time imposed on themselves a large tax, to be paid in Flemish money, and raised it by a Flemish loan. These measures for self-defence were the more necessary as the French king, Charles VII, though making professions of attachment to James, had pleaded the more urgent necessities of his own kingdom, and declined to aid in the English war.

On 6 July 1457 a truce was concluded between James and Henry VI, to last till 6 July 1459 by land, and 28 July by sea. It was important for James to have time to reduce the northern parts of his kingdom to order, and for Henry that Scotland should preserve at least an armed neutrality in view of the probable renewal of Yorkist intrigues. There are no charters under the great seal between 25 July 1457 and 30 April 1458, which may perhaps correspond to the period James spent in the highlands. While there he was busily occupied with building castles; he repaired that of Inverness, completed the great hall of Darnaway which Archibald Douglas, the earl of Moray, had begun, and placed that castle under the charge of the sheriff of Elgin. About the same time he gave a life-rent right of Glenmoriston and Urquhart, with the custody of its castle, to the young Earl of Ross. Ross's half-brother, Celestine, was made keeper of the castle of Redcastle, and his ally, Malcolm Mackintosh, chief of the clan Chattan, was gratified with gifts of land and the commutation of a fine. These favours were granted through the influence of Lord Livingstone, Ross's father-in-law,