Stirling had been paying his addresses to a girl
possessed of great attractions, daughter of Richard
Lawson of the Highriggs, Provost in 1504 (and
whose house there was removed only in 1878),
but proving less successful than Meldrum of the
Binns-whose feats of chivalry have been sung
by Lindesay of the Mount-he attacked the latter
at the head of fifty horse, near the Rood Chapel
in Leith Loan, though his rival had only eight followers,
and a mortal combat with sword and axe
ensued. Meldrum unhorsed Sir Lewis, and would
have slain him had not his faithful henchman, by
interposing, received the sword-thrust in his own
heart. The prowess of Meldrum?s troopers is
evinced from the fact that they slew twenty-six oi
Stirling?s men, but the former was left for dead,
covered with wounds ; ?yet,? saith Pitscottie, ?be
the mychtie power of God he escaped death, and
lived fiftie years thairaftir.? The Chevalier de la
Bead, the detested Lieutenant-Governor under
Albany, at the head of the mounted French gendarmerie,
pursued Stirling to the Peel of Linlithgow.
He stormed it, and sent this fiery lover to
the Castle of Edinburgh, where he was sentenced
to death, but was pardoned and set free, while
the chevalier was soon after slain by Home of
Wedderburn, who knitted his head to his saddlebow.
During this time little James V. resided permanently
in the Castle, pursuing his studies under the
tuition of Gawin Dunbar, afterwards Archbishop
of Glasgow, all unconscious of the turmoils in progress
everywhere, and so completely forgotten by
the actors in them, that his sister, the Countess
of Morton, with her friends, had, more than once,
to repair the royal apartments and replenish his
wardrobe. Though . placed in the fortress for
security, he was permitted to ride abroad on a
little mule that was kept for his use, but always
under escort of Albany?s guards, clad in scarlet
doublets slashed with black, and armed with
partisan and dagger. Dread of a pestilence &hich
broke out in the garrison caused his removal to
Craigmillar, where, by the courtesy of Lord
Erskine, his mother was permitted to visit him,
till the other guardians, hostile to English influence
and suspicious of her power, removed him to
his fonner residence. James is said to have delighted
in conversing with the soldiers, and when
handling their swords and hackbuts his cheeks
were seen to flush and his eyes to sparkle with the
ardour of a brave boy when contemplating military
objects.
When Albany returned from visiting France, in
1521, the queen-dowager, Beaton, and so many
Dthers came in his train to Holyrood, that Angus,
who had quarrelled with Margaret, and was the
sworn foe of them all, quitted the city, and was
exiled for tumults he had excited during the
absence ot the Regent. As the only means 06
terminating the frightful anarchy that prevailed, it
was resolved to invest James, now in his twelfth
year, with full sovereign power ; and thus, on the
zznd August, 1524, he made his solemn entry into
the Tolbooth, preceded by the crown, sceptre, and
sword of state.
The irrepressible Angus, backed by the Douglases,
seized the government in the following year,
scaled the city walls on the night of the 24th
November, beat open the ports, and fairly capturing
Edinburgh, made a Douglas Provost thereof.
And such was the power he possessed, that the
assassins of M?Lellan of Bombie-who was slain
in open day at the door of St. Giles?s churcliwalked
with impunity about the streets; while the
queen herself deemed his safe-conduct necessary
while she resided in Edinburgh, though Parliament
was sitting at the time ; and so the king returned
again to honourable durance in the dilapidated
palace of the Castle, or only put in an appearance
to act as the puppet of his governor.
At this crisis Arran and his faction demanded
that Parliament should assemble in the Castle-hall
as a security against coercion ; but Angus vowed
that it should continue to meet in its usual place ;
and as the king was retained within the Castle, he
cut off all communication between it and the city
with 2,000 men, on whom the batteries opened;
but eventually these differences were adjusted, and
the luckless young king was permitted to attend
Parliament in state.
On All Saints? Day a thunderbolt struck a turret
3f David?s Tower, and hurled some fragments down
the rocks, setting fire to the apartments of Margaret,
who narrowly escaped with her life.
In 1526, John Earl of Lennox, at? the head of
numerous forces, marched towards Edinburgh,
intent on rescuing the king from the intolerable
thraldom of Angus; but the latter caused his
namesake the Provost to ring the alarm bell,
display the banner of the city, and put? it on its
defence. He did more. He tompelled James to
Lead out the citizens against his own friends. He
issued forth by the West Port, at the head of
all the men of Edinburgh and Leith, but came in
time only to witness the death of Lennox in the
battle of Linlithgow Bridge, where he was cruelly
slain by Sir James Hamilton, after he had surrendered
his sword to the Laird of Pardowie.
Queen Margaret, who had now divorced Angus,
