BATTLE OF FLODDEN TO DEATH OF JAMES V. 41
address and vigour, and with only two attendants, made his escape from t.he Douglas faction,
at Falkland, to Stirling Castle. Shortly after this, he repaired to Edinburgh, whither he
summoned his barons to advise with him, and, with a degree of decision far beyond his
years, proceeded to assert his own independence and authority. One of the acts of this
Parliament against them, “ quha cummis and burnis folkes in their howis,”’ exhibits in no
very pleasing light the rude violence prevailing at the period.
The year 1530 is assigned as the date of Lindsay’s famous satire, The Complaint of
the Papingo,’ which may be regarded as the first note of the reforming movement by him,
of whom Pinkerton has said, ‘‘ In fact, Sir David was more the reformer of Scotland than
John Knox ; for he had prepared the pound, and John only sowed the seed” The farewell
of the papingo to the capital is couched in terms the more flattering, as coming
from so keen 8 sathi&,-
“ Adew Edinburgh, thou heich triumphand toun,
Within quhose boundia, richt blgthful have I bene,
Of trew merchandin, the rute of thie regioun,
Most reddy to resaave Court, King, and Queue;
Thy policie, and justice, may be sene,
Were devotioun, wysedom, and honestie,
And credence, tint, they micht be found in thee.”
Various notices occurring ahout this period, exhibit the first symptoms of the reforming
doctrines showing themselves in the capital, e.g., in the Diurnal of Occurrents for 1532,
“ In this zeir was ane greit objuratioun of the favouraris of Mertene Lutar, in the Abbay
of Halymdhous.” About the same period, it records the destruction of nearly the whole
town by an accidental fire. This same year, the nobles assembled at Edinburgh, at the
King’s summons, with their followers, to the number of twelve thousand, for the famous
hunting match, in which Johnnie Armstrong, the Border reiver, renowned in song and
story, was hanged, ‘( to daunton the theives of Tividaill and Annandaill.”
Notice has already been taken of Dunbar’s allusions to the Court of Session, in the
former reign, but now, in 1537, the King instituted the College of Justice, and established
the Court on a pernianent footing, with the confirmation of Pope Clement VII.
This event is one of the most important in the history of Edinburgh, on which, from that
time, both its prosperity and its metropolitan claims have more depended than on any occurrence
in its history ; and which, from the aecurity and the ready means of redress it afforded
to the inhabitants against the turbulent nobles of the period, made the town a place of
greater resort than it had ever before been.
The King now, with that self-reliance and energy that marked his entire character, after
negotiating for the hand of various noble ladies in marriage, set sail from Leith, accompanied
by a large fleet and a numerous retinue; and, arriving at the French Court, he wooed
and won for himself the Princess Magdalene, eldest daughter of Francis I. On the 29th
of May the royal pair landed at Leith, amid every display of welcome; and after tarrying
for a few days at the Palace of Holyrood, till the preparations of the citizens were
completed, the Queen made. her entry in atatc into the capital, with processions of great
Scots Actg 1Zmq TO]. i. p. 201. ’ Parrot. ‘ Hawthornden, p. 99. Scots Ads, 12m0, vol i. p. 217,
Diurnal of Occurrents, p, 15. ’ Pitscottie, voL ii. p. 342.
