Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/514

Rh 492 SCOTLAND [HISTORY. James I. 1413-1427. Bishop Wardlaw, who had been his tutor. The higher education had already been to some extent supplied by cathedral and monastic schools; but Scots who sought a complete curriculum had to resort to Oxford or Paris. One of their number, Major, expresses his wonder that the Scottish prelates had not earlier thought of a national university. That now founded was destined to play an important part in promoting the Reformation and along with the later universities in civilizing Scotland. Little of note occurred during the remaining years of Albany's regency. His futile siege of Roxburgh (1415), soon abandoned, got the name of the Fool's Raid. Greater credit attended the Scottish arms in France, where the earls of Douglas, Buchan, and Wigtown won battles for the French king, and lands and honour for themselves ; but the defeats of Crevant and Verneuil effaced the honours of Beauge (in Anjou), and, though the remnant of the Scots remained as the king's bodyguard, no considerable num- ber of troops from Scotland afterwards went to France. Albany died at Stirling in his eightieth year (3d September 1419). His son Murdoch assumed the regency as if heredi- tary ; but, himself indolent and with lawless sons, he did not retain the influence of his father. In 1423 ambassadors sent by the Scottish parliament to England at last arranged terms for the return of James from his long exile (12th May 1423). Educa- Exile had its uses, and, except at the beginning and f r a g a i n after the accession of Henry V., his captivity had not been rigorous. Sir John Pelham was his governor, and he was instructed in Latin grammar, oratory, and poetry, as well as in bodily exercises, wrestling and the use of the spear. Though distinguished for physical strength, his bent was to the Muses, and he became pro- ficient in dancing, music, and poetry. Buchanan blames this taste as carried beyond what became a king, but no- thing in his after life showed he was ever led by amuse- ments to neglect graver studies. When thirty he was taken by Henry V. to France with the view of detaching the Scottish allies of the dauphin, but refused to be made a tool of, saying he had as yet no kingdom and they owed him no allegiance. He proved his soldiership by the capture of Dreux. On his return to England he married (llth February 1423) Johanna Beaufort, daughter of the earl of Somerset and grand-daughter of John of Gaunt. In the Kingis Quhair he describes his love at first sight in the language of his master Chaucer, but with original genius. The marriage facilitated his release, which was negotiated for a sum of 60,000 marks. He confirmed the treaty at Melrose and was crowned with his bride at Scone (21st May 1423) by Wardlaw, Albany, as earl of Fife, placing him on the throne. He lost no time in addressing himself to the task of restoring the royal authority and the obedience to the law which the long regency had weakened. From this time dates the conflict between the king and the nobles, the latter not maintaining, as in England, constitutional rights, but contending for exorbitant privileges. The experiment of government without a king had been tried too long not to make those who had exercised unrestrained power desire its continuance. The nature of the country divided by rivers, mountains, and arms of the sea the absence of great cities and the number of strong castles, the close con- nexion of the principal nobles by marriage and bonds of alliance, the large jurisdiction within their territories, the clanship not only in the Highlands and on the borders but in some measure throughout the whole country, which made fidelity to the chief a natural duty, strengthened the aristocracy and weakened the crown. The sovereign had to rely on the people and the clergy, on foreign alliances, on the influence due, partly to the virtues of his predecessors, partly to the magic which in that age encircled the name of king. The first parliament of James at Perth passed quietly, but with indications of a policy long meditated and now to be put into operation. One Act forbade private Jar war ; another imposed the penalty of forfeiture of life and an(1 goods for rebellion ; and a third directed an inquest by the sheriff what lands " pertain to the king or has per- tained " in the time of the last three kings and in whose hands they now are. The choice of the privy council was significant. It was headed by Lauder, bishop of Glasgow, who had negotiated the king's release, but none of the greater nobles were included. In their stead appear an unusual number of minor gentry, some holding high offices. The parliament held at Perth in the following year was the scene of a coup d'etat (12th March). Albany, his younger son Alexander, Alan of Otterburn his secretary, and Sir John Montgomery were seized on one day, and immediately after Isabella, Albany's wife, whose father, the earl of Lennox, had already been arrested. The only one of Albany's, kin still at large, his youngest son James, made a short resistance, burnt Dumbarton, and slew the Red Stuart of Dundonald, the king's uncle, but, being hotly pursued, fled to Ireland. Parliament, at an adjourned sitting at Stirling, proceeded to the trial of Albany and his adherents, which was held with feudal solemnity before an assize. Albany, his two sons, and Lennox were con- demned and executed on the Heading Hill. Clemency was shown to those who had not been his intimate sup- porters. Historians are divided as to the policy or neces- sity for such severity. But it secured its immediate object ; it was felt that Scotland had again a king to defend his rights. James for twelve years carried out, not without murmurs, but without successful opposition, his projects of reform. Foreign states recognized his power. At the request Jai of the Flemish estates Middelburg was restored as the for market for Scottish trade ; in return the privileges of po the Scots were guaranteed and Flemish merchants under- took to raise part of James's ransom. Flemish artisans and manufacturers settled in Scotland. More than one embassy passed to and from Rome with regard to the affairs of the Scottish Church, which James, while strictly repressing heresy (a Bohemian doctor, Crawar, being burnt as a disciple of Hus), showed his intention of reforming. The new pope Martin V. had put an end to the schism. The bitter enemy of the English king on account of the regulations which culminated in the Statute of Praemunire, he welcomed James's advances. James, while showing his attachment to the church by founding a Carthusian monastery at Perth and a Franciscan in Edinburgh, asserted his right to remedy abuses of the ecclesiastical courts, and addressed a letter to the Bene- dictine and Augustinian monks reproaching them for laxity. To Erik of Norway he sent an embassy and obtained a commutation of the arrears due for the Hebrides under the treaty of Largs. A marriage between the dauphin and Margaret, his infant daughter, previously arranged, was celebrated shortly before his death. He thus estab- lished friendly relations with the Continent, and, though his position as regards England could not be the same, the truce was only twice broken towards the end of his reign by a raid of the English, who were defeated at Peferden (1425) by the earl of Angus, and his own attempt to recover Roxburgh. During the fourteen years of his actual reign James held thirteen parliaments, prov- ing his desire to obtain the support of the nation in his reforms. In 1426 he introduced the session, a royal court for civil causes sitting in the principal towns, to provide the justice too often denied in the baronial courts. Next year he summoned a parliament to Inverness an unusual