the king's person then in early youth, he
was able, by means of that advantage, and by employing the power of
his own family, to retain the reins of government. The queen dowager,
however, his consort, bred him great disturbance. For having separated
herself from him on account of some jealousies and disgusts, and having
procured a divorce, she had married another man of quality, of the name
of Stuart; and she joined all the discontented nobility who opposed
Angus's authority. James himself was dissatisfied with the slavery to
which he was reduced, and by secret correspondence he incited first
Walter Scot, then the earl of Lenox, to attempt by force of arms the
freeing him from the hands of Angus. Both enterprises failed of success:
but James, impatient of restraint, found means at last of escape *ing
to Stirling, where his mother then resided; and having summoned all the
nobility to attend him, he overturned the authority of the Douglases,
and obliged Angus and his brother to fly into England, where they were
protected by Henry. The king of Scotland, being now arrived at years of
majority, took the government into his own hands; and employed him self
with great spirit and valor in repressing those feuds, ravages, and
disorders, which, though they disturbed the course of public justice,
served to support the martial spirit of the Scots, and contributed
by that means to maintain national independency. He was desirous of
renewing the ancient league with the French nation; but finding Francis
in close union with England, and on that account somewhat cold in
hearkening to his proposals, he received the more favorably the
advances of the emperor, who hoped, by means of such an ally, to breed
disturbance to England, He offered the Scottish king the choice of three
princesses, his own near relations, and all of the name of Mary; his
sister, the dowager of Hungary; his niece, a daughter of Portugal;
or his cousin, the daughter of Henry, whom he pretended to dispose of
unknown to her father. James was more inclined to the latter proposal,
had it not, upon reflection, been found impracticable; and his natural
propensity to France at last prevailed over all other considerations.
The alliance with Francis necessarily engaged James to maintain peace
with England. But though invited by his uncle Henry to confer with
him at Newcastle, and concert common measures for repressing the
ecclesiastics in both kingdoms, and shaking off the yoke