while Sir William Crichton was appointed chancellor, and was charged with the general administration of public affairs. Crichton, however, who was governor of Edinburgh castle, retained possession of the king's person, and refused to recognize the rights of his legal guardians; but the queen contrived to convey her son out of the fortress concealed in a chest, and took refuge with Livingston in Stirling castle. Crichton was besieged in his stronghold and compelled to make his submission. James, however, subsequently fell again into the hands of Crichton; but in the end a reconciliation was effected between the chancellor and the governor. The custody of the king's person was allotted to Livingston, who treated the queen-mother, and her second husband. Sir James Stewart of Leven, with great harshness and injustice. In 1449 the young king assumed the reins of government, and displayed great prudence and vigour in the management of public affairs. He inflicted condign punishment on the Livingstons for their illegal and cruel treatment of his mother, procured the enactment of many new laws for the redress of the grievous abuses which had grown up during his minority; and in order that he might give his undivided attention to the improvement of his own kingdom, he was careful to maintain amicable relations with other countries, and especially with England. Having penetrated the designs of the Douglases upon the crown, he set himself cautiously to carry out a systematic plan for the reduction of the overgrown power of that family. His contest with the earl of Douglas, the foul murder of that turbulent and factious baron by the hand of his sovereign, and the ultimate overthrow of the elder branch of the house, have been related elsewhere.—(See Douglas, Family of.) The Yorkist faction in England having protected and pensioned the Douglases, James, irritated at their conduct, unwisely suffered himself to be entangled in the contest between the rival houses of York and Lancaster, and in retaliation for the expedition of the duke of York against Scotland, he not only gave an asylum to the fugitive queen and son of Henry VI., but invaded England at the head of a powerful army. He commenced operations by laying siege to the castle of Roxburgh, which was at that time in the hands of the English, and was unfortunately killed by the bursting of a cannon, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, in 1460. By his queen, Mary of Gueldres, he left three sons and three daughters.—His successor—
James III., was only seven years of age when he ascended the throne. The guardianship of the young monarch was intrusted to his mother, Mary of Gueldres, and Kennedy, bishop of St. Andrews, a prelate of remarkable sagacity and integrity, while the earl of Angus was made lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Under the management of these able and patriotic statesmen the government of the country was carried on with vigour and success; but the death of Angus in 1462, and of Kennedy in 1466, while the king was still a boy, having left the kingdom a prey to the factious and ambitious nobles. Lord Boyd, the high justiciar of Scotland, seized the person of James at Linlithgow, carried him off to Edinburgh, and for some years wielded the whole power of the government for his own aggrandizement and that of his family. After the downfall of the Boyds in 1469 (see Boyd, Family of), James, though he had not yet reached his majority, began to exercise many of the functions of royalty. But though possessed of an elegant form, excellent talents, extensive accomplishments, and a refined taste, his facile and fickle disposition, his love of pleasure and of money, and his want both of energy and of any consistent principle, soon showed that he was quite unfit to govern a rude and warlike nation like the Scots in those unsettled times. As he advanced in years these defects of character became more apparent. His love of the fine arts, and of ease and flattery, made him neglect not merely the stilling exercises of the chase and the tilting yard, but the most important duties of his office; and withdrawing from the society of his nobles, he spent his time in the society of architects, painters, musicians, astrologers, and other persons of a similar character. The proud and arrogant nobles were indignant at the slight thus put upon them, and attached themselves to the king's brothers, the duke of Albany and the earl of Mar, who were distinguished for their bravery, their generosity, and their skill in warlike exercises. Dissensions in consequence arose, not only between the king and his barons, but among the members of the royal family, which ultimately led to the arrest and exile of Albany, the mysterious death of Mar in prison, and the seizure and brutal murder of Cochrane, Rogers, and other favourites of the king at Lauder, in 1481, by the earl of Angus (Bell-the-Cat) and other malcontent nobles, whose dissatisfaction with the favouritism and effeminacy of James induced them not only to resist the royal authority, but to enter into a treasonable and infamous plot with Albany and Edward IV. of England, to depose the king, and to sacrifice the independence of the country. For some time after the tragic and cruel outrage James was kept a close prisoner in the hands of the conspirators. Ultimately, however, a reconciliation was effected between him and his brother, and he regained his liberty though not his authority. Albany was made lieutenant-general of the kingdom; but having again entered into a treasonable league with England, he and his accomplices were deprived of their dignities and offices, and obliged to flee into England in 1484, and ultimately to France. Four years later the disaffected nobles once more entered into a conspiracy against their sovereign. Their ranks were swelled by the powerful border families of Home and Hepburn, who were offended by some impolitic acts of James; and having obtained possession of the heir to the crown, through the treachery of his guardian, Shaw of Sauchie, they placed the young prince nominally at their head, and suddenly took up arms against the king in 1488. The earls of Buchan, Crawford, Errol, and other northern barons, rallied round their sovereign, and the hostile armies encountered, June 18th, at Sauchieburn, near Stirling. The royalists were defeated, and the king, in fleeing from the field, was thrown from his horse at a place in the vicinity called Beaton's Mill, and having been carried into the mill, was there murdered by one of the pursuers, who is said to have been a priest named Borthwick in the service of Lord Gray. His body was afterwards buried in the abbey of Cambuskenneth. The unfortunate monarch, who thus perished in the thirty-fifth year of his age, had a highly prepossessing appearance. His person was tall and athletic, his complexion dark, and his countenance handsome and intelligent. By his queen, Margaret, daughter of Christian, king of Denmark and Norway, he left three sons, and was succeeded by the eldest—
James IV., who ascended the throne in his sixteenth year. There is no reason to believe, as has frequently been asserted, that James was a mere passive tool in the hands of the conspirators. The probability seems to be that the mingled flattery and misrepresentations of the insurgents had estranged the young prince from his father, and induced him to countenance a movement for his own immediate elevation to the throne. On learning the miserable fate of his father, however, he was seized with overwhelming remorse, which returned at intervals throughout his reign, and made him wear an iron chain round his waist, and submit to various other austerities by way of penance for his crime. His confederates in the rebellion lost no time in turning their victory to their own advantage; they took possession of all the most important offices of state, and had the effrontery to arrest and punish a number of the barons who had remained faithful to the late king, and to deprive them of their estates, which were divided among the leading conspirators. The baseness of their characters was further shown by their infamous conduct in pandering to the passions of the young king, and plunging him in sensual indulgences in order to retain their ascendancy over him. In spite of this bad training, James on reaching maturity exhibited considerable ability and energy in the administration of public affairs. He set himself to remedy the gross abuses which the distracted state of the country had originated and fostered, to promote the impartial administration of justice, to vindicate law, punish crime, and to encourage and develope the agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, the navy, and the fisheries of his kingdom. He gradually withdrew his confidence from the unprincipled faction who had used him as a tool to promote their own selfish purposes, and transferred it to Sir Andrew Wood and other sagacious and trustworthy counsellors. He vigilantly guarded against the encroachments of the papal court, and resolutely asserted the ecclesiastical as well as civil independence of his kingdom. He frequently visited in person the Highlands and Islands, where the royal authority received only a nominal acknowledgment, and by his vigorous measures succeeded in establishing some regard for law and government in those remote districts. His romantic disposition and fondness for adventure, which frequently involved him in hazardous and impolitic enterprises, induced him very unwisely to support the cause of Perkin
