In King James, his skill in music was no abuse of time. A genius as he was, taught, or rather inspired, by Nature, arrives at perfection without labour. Besides, James had improved his mind with every branch of the learning of the age; and, whoever considers his long captivity of eighteen years, during many of which he was under strict confinement, will not blame him for relaxing from the severer studies of literature and philosophy, and sweetening his hours of solitude and confinement by such refined and rational amusement.* James did not remain a recluse during all the time of his captivity; that martial Prince Henry V. having revived the claim of Edward III. to the crown of France, invaded that kingdom in August, 1405, and gained the famous victory over the French * The King, in the following plaintive verses, tells us how he passed part of his solitary hours in prison. Quhare as in ward, full oft I wold bewaille The long dayis and the nightis eke I wold bewaille my fortune in this wise, My custum was, on mornis for to ryse, at Azincourt. From the beginning of this war, King Henry saw the importance of having the Scottish Prince in his hands, as a pledge, for preventing his countrymen either from making incursions on the border, while he was in France, or sending troops to the assistance of their French allies. As Henry, soon after the battle of Azincourt, was obliged to return to England, the Scots remained quiet. Henry having recruited his forces, landed his army a second time in Normandy,* and being joined by the forces of the weak King Charles VI. and the Duke of Burgundy, carried all before him. The valorous actions of that heroic Prince are well known. The unfortunate Dauphin Charles, by the insanity of his father, the resentment of his vitious mother, and the valour of the English Monarch, It fell me to mynd, of many diverse thing Of this and that, can I not say quharefore Happy Prince, who could dispel the gloom of a prison by the manly and elegant exercises of philosophy, poetry, and music! 2 must have been driven from the throne of his ancestors, but for the assistance he got at that critical time from his ancient allies the Scots, under the banners of their brave leaders the Scottish nobility. The political system of the Scots in those days was extremely simple. Their first principle was independence; in maintaining of which they ever were lavish of their blood. Jealous of their powerful southern neighbours, who frequently had attempted their conquest, the Scots naturally turned their eyes to France, the rival of England, who, at all times, was ready to assist them, and to cultivate the ancient alliance which had subsisted between the two kingdoms from the time of Charlemagne. During King Henry's first expedition to France, the Scots had remained quiet, and given little or no aid to their allies. The rapid success, however, of the English Monarch in his second expedition, (which at length, by the famous treaty of Troye, settled the crown of France upon King Henry and his issue with Catherine of France), awakened at once the Scots to the impending ruin which threatened the independence of their country, by the weight of such an accession to the King of England. A choice body of 7000 Scots, commanded by John Stuart, Earl of Buchan, son to the Regent of Scotland, landed at Rochelle, to the assistance of the Dauphin, accompanied by many of the Scottish nobility. The French war was now the path to glory and greatness. Never did the Scots make a more conspicuous figure than at that period, nor any set of warriors ever acquire more distinguished honours and fame. The Earl of Buchan, the leader of the Scots, arose, by his valour, to the dignity of Constable of France, and led the van of the French army; Douglas, Earl of Wigton, was created Marischal of France; the Earl of Douglas was created Duke, and invested in the Dukedom of Touraine; and Stuart, son to the Earl of Lennox, was created Viscount d'Aubigné. The first check given to King Henry's career, was the signal victory obtained by the Scots at Baugé,* under the Earl of Buchan, in which the Duke of Clarence, King Henry's brother, was killed, and his kinsmen, the Earls of Somerset+ and Dorset, were taken prisoners. This event made King Henry sensible, that his detaining the young King of Scots a prisoner, prevented not his subjects from fighting for their allies. He changed his plan; James was carried to France, * 1420. + Grandson to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and brother to the Lady Jane, afterwards James's Queen. in order to detach the Scots from the Dauphin's army. An offer is said, by the Scottish historians, to have been made by King Henry to his prisoner, of restoring him to his liberty, on condition of drawing off his subjects, by summoning them, upon their allegiance, to attend his standard. In James's situation, the offer was trying and alluring. The young King's answer was remarkable: As a prisoner,' replied he, and in your hands, I have no power over my subjects; nor are they under any allegiance to obey my command.** 6 King Henry, though nowise pleased with the answer, is said, upon the King of Scots retiring, to have exclaimed, Happy shall be the subjects of a King, who, in such tender years, shews himself 'to be endowed with so much wisdom!' This prevented not James from giving his personal assistance, and signalizing himself under the banner of that heroic and martial Prince, particularly at the siege of Dreux, where the King of Scots commanded, and whose surrender was chiefly owing to his valour and conduct.+ James being of a firm and vigorous constitution, expert in athletic and warlike exercises, distinguished himself in several military * Boet. lib. 16. Hauthornden, &c. + Hauthornden. |