Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/325

 son, the Duke of Ross, led to suspicion of poison, with which Margaret did not hesitate to charge Albany. In February 1516 he was at Linlithgow, and from 19 April to 20 June at Falkland. Between these dates he appears to have come to the north of England and to have made an offer to visit Henry VIII, which Wolsey declined. Henry addressed a letter to the Scottish estates, asking them to dismiss Albany, but the parliament of Edinburgh, on 1 July 1516, sent an emphatic and spirited refusal. On 24 July 1516 Albany agreed with Wolsey to prolong the truce with England to St. Andrew's day, 1517, and this was ratified in January 1517 by the commissioners of the estates.

Parliament again met at Edinburgh in the end of September 1516 (24th according to Buchanan), but its record has not been preserved. Albany was present, and Hume, the chamberlain, and his brother were condemned to death for treason, and executed on 8 and 9 Oct. Immediately after these executions Albany went to the borders and took possession of their estates. Returning early in November, on the 12th of that month parliament confirmed the divorce of his father from his first wife, Catherine Sinclair, daughter of the Earl of Orkney [see ], and declared Albany next heir to the kingdom and only heir of his father, thus bastardising his elder brother Alexander, who, in compensation, was made bishop of Moray and abbot of Scone. At the same time he got the reluctant consent of the estates to his return for six months to France. Before he left a regency, consisting of the two archbishops and the earls of Huntly, Argyll, Angus, and Arran, was appointed. Lord Erskine and the earl marshal were named guardians of the king, De la Bastie warden of the marches, and Lord Fleming of Cumbernauld chamberlain. The fortresses of Dunbar, Inchgarvie, and Dumbarton were placed in the hands of French garrisons. On 6 June 1517 Albany sailed from Dumbarton to France, taking with him as hostages the sons of several leading nobles. During this first period of his regency Albany had been singularly successful. He had removed or conciliated his chief adversaries, baffled Henry VIII, and restored peace on the borders. His expenditure had been lavish, as the exchequer accounts show; but it was repaid by the tranquillity of the realm. So far from being ‘a coward and a wilful and furious fool,’ as Wolsey called him, he had proved an active commander and a prudent governor. His weakness was that his heart was not in Scotland, and he returned to France with his work only half accomplished.

The attempt to conduct the government in Albany's absence by dividing the power between the chief Scottish nobles and De la Bastie and the French commanders failed. No sooner had the duke left Scotland than the old dissensions broke out among the nobles. On 15 June Queen Margaret returned to Scotland, little more than a week after Albany's departure. Towards the end of July or beginning of August De la Bastie was slain by David Hume of Wedderburn in revenge for Albany having put his chief to death. There was a surcease both of the courts and parliament, and the nobles soon became jealous of the growing influence of Angus.

Albany had full power while absent to represent Scotland in foreign affairs, and did not neglect his commission. He promoted the interests of the Scottish merchants who traded with France, and negotiated the treaty of Rouen on 26 Aug. 1517, by which France and Scotland entered into an offensive and defensive alliance against England; and Francis I promised his eldest daughter in marriage to James V if the marriage to the king of Spain or his brother did not take place; or failing her, his second daughter, if he had another. In the spring of 1518 his sister-in-law, Madeline de la Tour d'Auvergne, was married to Lorenzo, duke of Urbino, the nephew of Leo X, who wrote to Francis I he could deny Albany nothing. Through the influence of France and his affinity with the pope, Albany procured on 5 March 1518 from Leo X a confirmation of all the privileges already granted to the kings and kingdom of Scotland by the Holy See. In 1519 a writer called Gremond or Dremond Dornat translated into French for Albany's use the chronicles of Fordun and Bower, a proof of his desire to become acquainted with the history of Scotland. In June 1519 the Scottish estates wrote to the pope, requesting him to use his influence with Francis I to procure the return of Albany to Scotland, and Lord Fleming of Cumbernauld was sent to France as ambassador of James V to solicit the French king's permission; but Francis had, by a secret article of his treaty with England, promised not to allow Albany to leave France while James V was a minor.

Meantime the quarrel between Margaret Tudor and her husband Angus had reached a crisis, and the rivalry between Arran and Angus led to a contest for the possession of Edinburgh. Angus gained the upper hand in April 1520. Arran fled to France, and probably returned with Albany in the following year. The distracted state of Scotland, which made the Scots more than ever anxious to