your king, and will yield it to no power whatever.
But I respect that of the Parliament, and require
six days to consider its demand; for most important
is my charge, and my councillors, alas ! are
now few,? she added, bursting into tears, probably
as she thought of the many
? Who on Flodden?s trampled sod,
Rendered up their souls to God.?
For their king and for their country,
Alarmed at a refusal so daring, Angus entreated
PLAN OF EDINRURGH, SHOWING THE FLODDEN WALL. (Snscd on &rdon of Rothiemy?s Mnp, 1647.)
her brother, Henry VIII., by complaining that she
had been little else than a captive in the Castle
Edinburgh.
Meanwhile the Duke of Albany had taken UP
his residence at Holyrood, and seems to have proceeded,
between 1515-16, with the enlargement
the royal buildings attached to the Abbey House,
in continuation of the works carried on there by
the late king, till the day of Flodden. Throughout
the minority of James V. Edinburgh continued tO
her to obey the Estates, and took an instrument
to the effect that he had no share in it; but she
remained inexorable, and the mortified delegates
returned to report the unsuccessful issue of their
mission. Aware that she was unable to contend
with the Estates, she secretly retired with her sons
to Stirling, and, after placing them in charge of the
Lords Borthwick and Fleming, returned to her
former residence, though, according to Chalmers,
she had no right of dowry therein. Distrusting the
people, and, as a Tudor, distrusted by them, she
remained aloof from all, until one day, escorted
by Lord Home and fifty lances, she suddenly rode
to the Castle of Blackadder (near Berwick), from
be disturbed by the armed contentions of the
nobles, especially those of Angus and Arran ; and
in a slender endeavour to repress this spirit the
salary of the Provost was augmented, and a small
guard of halberdiers was appointed to attend him.
Among those committed prisoners to the Castle
by Albany were the Lord Home and his brother
William for treason; they escaped, but were retaken,
and beheaded 16th October, 1516, and
their heads were placed on the Tolbooth.* Huntly
and Moray were next prisoners, for fighting at the
head of their vassals in the streets; and the next
was Sir Lewk Stirling, for an armed brawl.
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