th, a
truce was arranged between Scotland and England, by the Peace of Aytoun.
There was, in the following year, an unimportant border skirmish; but
with the Peace of Aytoun ended this attempt of the Scots to support a
pretender to the English crown. The first Scottish interference in the
troubles of Lancaster and York had been on behalf of the House of
Lancaster; the story is ended with this Yorkist intrigue. When next
there arose circumstances in any way similar, the sympathies of the
Scots were enlisted on the side of their own Royal House of Stuart.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 52: George Dunbar, Earl of March, must be carefully
distinguished from the child, Edmund Mortimer, the English Earl of
March, grandson of Lionel of Clarence, and direct heir to the English
throne after Richard II.]

[Footnote 53: In the summer of 1405 the English ravaged Arran, and the
Scots sacked Berwick. There were also some naval skirmishes later in the
year.]

[Footnote 54: Cf. App. B.]

[Footnote 55: _The Clan Donald_, vol. i, p. 154. The Mackenzies were
also against the Celtic hero.]

[Footnote 56: There is great doubt as to whether these events belong to
the year 1448 or 1449. Mr. Lang, with considerable probability, assigns
them to 1449.]

[Footnote 57: James's army contained a considerable proportion of
Islesmen, who, as at Northallerton and at Bannockburn, fought _against_
"the Saxons farther off".]

[Footnote 58: He had married, in 1469, Margaret, daughter of Christian I
of Denmark. The islands of Orkney and Shetland were assigned as payment
for her dowry, and so passed, a few years later, under the Scottish
Crown.]

[Footnote 59: Cf. _The Days of James IV_, by Mr. G. Gregory Smith, in
the series of "Scottish History from Contemporary Writers".]

CHAPTER VII

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE

1500-1542

When, in 1501, negotiations were in progress for the marriage of James
IV to Margaret Tudor, Polydore Virgil tells us that the English Council
raised the objection that Margaret or her descendants might succeed to
the throne of England. "If it should fall out so," said Henry, "the
realm of England will suffer no evil, since it will not be the addition
of England to Scotland, but of Scotland to England." It is obvious that
the English had every reason for desiring to stop the irritating
opposition of the Scots, which, while it never seriously endangered the
realm, was frequently a cause of annoyance, and w