of England, whose life and behaviour reflect little credit either on her country or her lineage, within a year of her husband's death married the young Earl of Angus, the head of the house of Douglas.[1] Her tenure of power had been limited to her widowhood. The Scottish lords could not tolerate in one of themselves the position of husband of the Regent, and a second Parliament immediately pronounced her deposition, and called in as her successor the late King's cousin, 1515.the Duke of Albany, who, in the event of the deaths of the two princes, stood next in blood to the Crown. Albany, who had lived from his infancy on the Continent—French in his character and French in his sympathies—brought with him a revolution inimical in every way to English interests. His conduct soon gave rise to the gravest alarm. The royal children were taken from the custody of their mother, who with her husband was obliged for a time to find refuge in England; and the Duke of Rothsay, the younger of the two, dying immediately after, suspicions of murder were naturally aroused. The prince was openly said to have been assassinated; the remaining brother who lay between Albany and the Crown it was expected would soon follow; and a tragedy would be repeated which England as well as Scotland had too lately witnessed.[2]
- ↑ Flodden was fought September the 9th, 1513. Margaret's second marriage was on the 9th of August, 1514.
- ↑ 'In like manner as one of the royal princes has been put to death, so also will he (the King of France) rid himself of the only one remaining, in order that the Duke of Albany may inherit the kingdom.'—Giustiniani's Letters from the Court of Henry VIII., vol. i. p. 110.
