Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/367

1513.] strengthened with time, and each generation added fresh injuries to the accumulation of bitterness.

Fortunately for mankind the relations between nations are not eventually determined by sentiment and passion. The mutual sufferings inflicted by the existing condition of things produced its effect in minds where reason was admitted to influence; and after the accession of the Tudors to the English throne there grew up in the princes and ministers of the new dynasty a desire to prepare the way for a union of the kingdoms. As more roads were opened, and intercourse between place and place became more easy, the geographical position of the two countries was more sensitively felt. Two nations in one small island must either be friends or they would eventually destroy each other; and in an intermittent period of quiet.which followed the exposure of Perkin Warbeok's imposture, Henry VII. succeeded in arranging a marriage between the fourth James Stuart and his daughter Margaret. A commencement was thus happily formed, and a better feeling began to make its way. But the fair weather was of brief duration. On the breaking out of the war of 1513 between France and England, the usual overtures were made to the Scottish King from the Court of Paris. The old associations were appealed to with the usual success. Fatally for himself—fatally for his country—James invaded Northumberland in the absence of his brotherin-law, and Scotland paid for his fault in the defeat of Flodden, in which the King and the flower of the nobility perished miserably.