YAMES V. TO ABDICA TION OF QUEEN MAR Y. 55
In the beginning of October, in this same year, the Scottish forces were mustered on
the Borough Muir of Edinburgh, to the number of ten thousand men ; the English having
been-at length fairly starved out of the country, For the pest and hungar was rycht evil1
amangis tham, quha mycht remayne na langer thairin ; ” * and so, having no -enemy to
contend with, they and their allies immediately quarrelled. “ There chanced,” says Bishop
Leslie (who has furnished the most detailed account of the transaction), “ to fall out not
a little piece of trouble in Edinburgh, betwixt the Scotch and Frenchmen, by reason that
a French soldier fell at quarelling with a Scotsman upon the High Street, and after words
they came to blows, so that divers Scotsmen coming to the fray, would have had the
Frenchman to prison; but divers of the French soldiers being also present, would not
suffer them to take him with them ; whereupon the captains being advertised, come with all
speed to the highway. The Laird of Stenhouse (James Hamilton), being the Captain of
the Castle and Provost of the town, comes likewise with a company to put order thereto.
The French soldiers being so furious that they shot their harquebusses indiferently at all
men, wherewith there were sundry slain, both men, weomen, and children ; among the
which the foresaid Provost of Edinburgh was slayn, and Master William Stewart, a gentleman
of good reputation, with sundry others ; whereby the whole people conceived B great
grudge and hatred against the Frenchmen, and for revenge thereof there was many Frenchmen
slain at Edinburgh at sundry times thereafter.” * Calderwood further states, that
the Frenchmen were driven by the citizens from the Cross to Niddry’s Wynd-head, where
they rallied and were joined by a number of their fellow-soldiers ; they were again compelled
to retreat, however, till on their reaching the Nether Bow, the whole body of French
troops encountered the Provost and citizens; and there the Provost, and his son, and
various other citizens, women as well as men, were slain. The French troops kept possession
of the town from five to seven at night, when they retired to the Canongate.* To
appease the matter, the Frenchman, chief beginner of the business, was hanged the same
day at the market place of Edinburgh, where the quarrel first began. A very unpropitious
state of things, as the only alternative seemingly left to the Scots from another English
harrying.
In the month of April 1550, a final peace was concluded with England, the latter
abandoning all those unjustifiable projects of forced alliance, which had been attempted to
he enforced with such relentless barbarity during a nine years’ war.
In the year 1551, the Queen Dowager returned from a visit she had made to the
French Court, and immediately thereafter, on the 29th of May, a Parliament was held at
Edinburgh, and another in the month of February following, at both of which enactments
were passed, which furnish, at once, evidence of the state of the county at the period,
and afford curious insight into the manners of the age. One of these is <‘anent the
annuelles of landes burnt be our auld enemies of England, within the burgh of Edinburgh
and other burghs,”‘ and bears a special reference to Edinburgh, having been
enacted at the suit of the Provost and Bailies thereof, to settle disputed claims by the
clergy.
Others, again, are addressed against many prevailing vioes or extravagances of the age,
* DCiauldrenrawl ooof dO’ac Hcuirsrtoenryts,, vpo.l . 4i8. p. 258. . ’’ S Bcisohtao pA cLtaes, lvieo,l .p .i 2p1 .7 2. 71,
56 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
interfering with a high hand, even to the ‘t ordouring of everie mannis house,” and regulating
with a most rigid economy the number of dishes at each man’s table, according to
his degree. But the most interesting is, that against printing without licence, furnishing
an insight into the variety and character of the writings then issuing from the press, and
already strongly influencing the public mind. ‘‘ l%at na prenter presume to prent ony
buikes, ballattes, sanges, blasphemationes, rime, or tragedies, outher in Latine or English
toung,” without due examination and licence granted, under pain of confiscation of goods,
and banishment of the realm for ever.’ Sir David Lindsay had already published his
Tragedie of tAe Cardinal, and it seems to have been about this time that he put forth
The Historie and Testament of Spuyer Meldrum, one of his most pleasing poems, though
in parts exhibiting a licence, as to incident and language, common to the writers of that
age. This poem is the versification of a romantic incident which occurred under his own
observation during the unsettled period, in the earlier years of the minority of James V.
(August 1517.)’ The rank of Sir D a d Lindsay, and the influence he had enjoyed
during the previous reign, had continued to preserve him from all interference ; nor was
’ it till the accession of Elizabeth to the throne of England, and the steps in favour of the
Protestant party that followed thereon, that the Catholic clergy at length denounced his
writings as the fruitful source of movement in the popular mind.
The object of the Queen Dowager, in her recent visit to France, had been mainly to
secure the interest of that Court in procuring for herself the office of Regent. The Earl
of Arran, who still held that office, seems to have been altogether deficient in the requisite
talents for his responsible position ; swqyed alternately by whichever adviser chanced to
hold his confidence, his government was at once feeble and uncertain.
No sooner had the Queen Dowager secured the approbation and concurrence of the
French King, than her emissaries departed for the Scottish capital, empowered to break
the affair to the Regent, with such advantageous offer as should induce him to yield up
the office without difficulty. Threats were held out of a rigid reckoning being required as
to the dilapidation of the revenue and crown-lands, which had taken place during his
government.
Chatelherault, with ample provision for his eldest aon at the French Court, while like
liberal promises secured to the Queen’s party many of the nobility.
The kchbishop of St Andrews, who had latterly influenced all the motions of the
Regent, chanced at this time to be dangerously ill, so that Arran was left without counsel
or aid, and yielded at length a reluctant consent to the exchange.
On the return of Mary of Guise from France, she accompanied Arran in a progress
through the northern parts of the kingdom, in which she exhibited much of that prudence
and ability which she undoubtedly possessed, and which, in more fortunate times, might
have largely promoted the best interests of the country: while such was the popularity
she acquired, that the Regent became highly jealous of her influence, and when reminded
of his promise, indignantly refused to yield up the government into her hands.
The Queen Dowager, however, already possessed the real power ; and while the Regent,
with his few adherents, continued to reside at Edinburgh, and maintain there the forms of
government, she was holding a brilliant court at Stirling, and securing to her party the
.
On the other hand, he was offered the splendid bribe of the Dukedom of .
l Scots Acta, vol. i. p. 286. * Pitscottie, vol. ii. p, 305.
