36 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
expected manner ; they no doubt regretted that luxury and taste for improvement had led
them so far out into the unprotected country.' But they certainly did afterwards retrieve
their native character of prudence, as scarcely a house arose beyond the second wall for
two hundred and fifty years; and if Edinburgh increased in any respect, it was only by
piling new flats on the Ancient Royalty, and adding to the height rather than to the
extent of the city.'
The utmost energy was immediately displayed in supplying the needful defences ; the
farmers of the Lothians lent their labourers and horses to the national work ; the citizens
rivalled one another in their zeal for the fortification of the capital against the dreaded
foe, '( our auld inymis of Ingland." ' So that, in an incredibly short time, the extended
city was enclosed within defensive walls, with ports, and battlements, and towers, an
effective protection against the military engineering of the age.
Considerable portions of this wall have remained to the present time, exhibiting abundant
tokens of the haste with which it was erected, as well as preserving, in the name of
the Flodden wall, by which it is still known, another proof of the deep impression that
disastrous field had left on the popular mind.
Fortunately for Scotland, Henry VIII. was too deeply engrossed with the French war
to follow up the advantage he had gained; and Queen Margaret, who now assumed the
government in name of her infant son, having appealed to his generosity, towards a sister
and nephew, he willingly secured the neutrality of the Scots by a peace. Shortly after
this truce, a legate arrived at Edinburgh from the Pope, bearing his congratulations to the
young King on his accession to the crown,s and presented him with a consecrated cap
and sword from his Holiness-the latter of which is still preserved among the Regalia
in Edinburgh Castle.
C1515.1 The nation now experienced all the evils of's long minority; the Queen
having speedily accepted Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, in marriage, was thereby
held to have forfeited the Regency; a6d from this time, till the young King
asserted his independence, the people knew Rcarcely any other rule than the anarchy
of rival factions contending for power, in all. which the capitaT had always a principal
share.
The Earl of Arran, upon the marriage of the Queen, marched to Edinburgh, numerously
attended by his kinsmen and friends, and laid claim to the Regency, as the nearest of
blood to the King. The Earl of Ang-us immediately followed him thither, attended by
above 500 armed retainers, ready to assert his claims against every opponent. So soon as
Arran, who, '' with the chief of the nobility of the west, had assembled at the Archbishop
of Glasgow's house, in the foot of Blackfrier Wynd,'" had learned of his arrival, he ordered.
the gates to be secured, little aware of the formidable host he was thus enclosing within the
walls. On the following morning, Angus received early intimation of the rash scheme of
his rival, for making him prisoner, and lost no time in mustering his followers, whom he
drew up, well armed and in battle array, above the Nether Bow, and thereupon a fierce and
sanguinary conflict ensued between them, which was not stayed till Sir Patrick Hamilton,
Montgomery, and above seventy men had fallen in the affray. Though the Regent pub-
Chambers's Traditions, vol. i p. 3.
Balfour's Ann. vol. i. p. 239.
1 Diurnal of Occurrents. ' Crawford's Live#, vol. i. p. 69.
BATTLE OF FLODDEN TO DEATH OF YAMES V. 37
lished an edict prohibiting any of the name of Douglas or Hamilton to interfere in the
election of provost, the Earl of Arran, who had held that high office during the previous
year, 1519, attempted to control the citizens in their free choice. They immediately shut
their gates upon him, and a scu€0e ensued, in which one of the deacons of the crafts was
slain. . A fierce and sanguinary tumult followed this, in consequence of the attempt of
Arran and the nobles of the west to surprise the Earl of Angus; in which Gawin
Douglas, the Bishop of Dunkeld, tried in vain to act as mediator. “he following is the
graphic account which Drummond furnishes of this famous contest :-Angns with an
hundred resolute followers, armed with long spears and pikes, which the citizens, as he
traversed the streets, furnished them from their windows, “invested a part of the town,
and barricado’d some lanes with carts and other impediments, which the time did afford,
The adverse party, trusting to their number, and the supply of the citizens (who, calling
to mind the slaughter of their deacon, showed them small favour), disdaining the Earl
should thus muster on the streets, in great fury invade him. Whilst the bickering continued,
and the town is in a tumult, William Douglas, brother to the Earl of Angus, Sir
David Hume of Wedderburn, George Hume, brother to the late Lord, with many others
by blood and friendship tyed together, enter by violence the east gate of the town, force
their passage through the throngs, seek the Earl’s enemies, find them, and scour the
streets of them, The Master of Montgomerp, eldest son to the Earl of Eglinton, sir
Patrick Hamilton, brother to the Earl of Arran, with almost fourscore more, are left
dea.d upon the place. The Earl himself f&ideth an escape and place of retreat through a
marsh upon the north side of the town ; the Chancellor and his retinue took sanctuary in
the Dominican Friars. Some days after, the Humes, well banded and backed with many
nobles and gentlemen of their lineage, took the Lord Hume’s and his brother’s heads
from the place where they h h been fixed, and with the funeral rites of those times
interred them in the Black-Friars.” James Beatoun, Archbishop of Glasgow and mancelIor
of the kingdom, who was a zealous adherent of Arrmn, and had taken an active
share both in planning and executing the scheme, on the discomfiture of his party &d
.to the Black Freir Kirk, and thair was takin out behind the alter, and his rockit rivin aff
him, and had beine slaine, had not beine Mr Gawin Douglas requeisted for him, mying,
it was shame to put hand on ane consecrat bischop.” ’
It was at the commencement of this affray, which took place on the 30th April 1520,
and is khown by the name of Cleanse tAe Causey, from the scene of contest, that the
well-known repartee of Gawin Douglas to the Archbishop of Glasgow occurred. Douglas,
who was uncle to the Earl of Angus, and now Bishop of Dunkeld, having appealed to the
Archbishop to use his influence with his friends to compromise matters, and prevent, if
possible, the bloodshed that must otherwise ensue ; the Archbishop excused himself, on
many accounts, adding, 6‘ Upon my conscience, I cannot help it; ” at the same time,
striking his breast in the heat of his asseveration, he betrayed the presence of a concealed
coat of mail, whereupon Douglas retorted, ‘‘ How now, my lord, methinks yonr conscience
clatters.” *
Hawthornden, p. 88. * Pitscottie, vol. ii p. 288.
?I Crawford’s Lives, vol. i p. 62. The term ckzttms is peculiarly expreeaive here, as it signitlea either & a
mise, or tdUea, and may be rendered thus :-Methinks ~10urQOnrcientae lls anothcr talc !
