a visit to Henry VIII. Meanwhile, in Scotland, Albany was finding many
difficulties. Arran was now in rebellion against him, and now in
alliance with him. In May, 1516, Angus himself, leaving his imperious
wife in England, made terms with the regent. The infant Duke of Ross had
died in the end of 1515, and only the boy king stood between Albany and
the throne. In 1517 Albany returned to France to cement more closely the
old alliance, and remained in France till 1521. Margaret immediately
returned to Scotland, and, had she behaved with any degree of wisdom,
might have greatly strengthened her brother's tortuous Scottish policy.
But a Tudor and a Douglas could not be other than an ill-matched pair,
and Margaret was already tired of her husband. In 1518, she informed
her brother that she desired to divorce Angus. Henry, whose own
matrimonial adventures were still in the future, and to whom Angus was
useful, scolded his sister in true Tudor fashion, and told her that,
alike by the laws of God and man, she must stick to her husband. A
formal reconciliation took place, but, henceforth, Margaret's one desire
was to be free, and to this she subordinated all other considerations.
In 1519, she came to an understanding with Arran, her husband's
bitterest foe, and in the summer of the same year we find Henry
marvelling much at the "tender letters" she sent to France, in which she
urged the return of Albany, whose absence from Scotland had been the
main aim of English policy since Flodden. While Francis I and Henry VIII
were on good terms, Albany was detained in France; but when, in 1521,
their relations became strained, he returned to Scotland to find Angus
in power. Scotland rallied round him, and in February, 1522, Angus, in
turn, retired to France, while Henry VIII devoted his energies to the
prevention of a marriage between his amorous sister and the handsome
Albany. The regent led an army to the borders and began to organize an
invasion, for which the north of England was ill-prepared, but was
outwitted by Henry's agent, Lord Dacre, who arranged an armistice which
he had no authority to conclude. Albany then returned to France, and
the Scots, refusing Henry's offer of peace, had to suffer an invasion by
Surrey, which was encouraged by Margaret, who was again on the English
side. When Albany came back in September, 1523, he easily won over the
fickle queen; but, after an unsuccessful attack on Wark, he left
Scotland for ever in