Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/379

1524.] the ascendant. The young King was twelve years old. It was concerted between Margaret and Henry that the minority should be considered at this point to have expired. No fresh regency should be established, and the Government should be conducted in the King's own name. James was in Stirling Castle, virtually a prisoner in the hands of the Duke of Albany's friends. Henry wrote to him with encouragement and promises of help; and the queen-mother, pressing to know explicitly to what extent she might rely on support from England if she attempted a coup d'état, was told that she might expect unlimited assistance in men, in money, and in advice, which she equally needed. This was enough. On the 26th of July she escaped through Stirling gates, carrying her son with her, and made her way to Edinburgh. A convention of the lords was immediately summoned; and with almost unanimous consent they pronounced the Regent deposed, and swore fealty to the King. The Archbishop of St Andrew's and the Bishop of Aberdeen, who alone remained constant to Erance, were committed to custody in Edinburgh Castle. Negotiations were at once set on foot for the betrothal of James and the Princess Mary, and now at length all obstacles seemed to be removed, and quarrels five centuries old promised to be finally buried.

Scotland has suffered much from vicious queens. The licentiousness of a profligate woman was permitted to spoil the opportunity and obscure the clearing sky. The Earl of Angus, on hearing of the revolution, left