ommission, and
conferring the command on Oliver Sinclair, a private gentleman, who was
his favorite. The army was extremely disgusted with this alteration,
and was ready to disband, when a small body of English appeared, not
exceeding five hundred men, under the command of Dacres and Musgrave. A
panic seized the Scots, who immediately took to flight, and were pursued
by the enemy. Few were killed in this rout; for it was no action; but
a great many were taken prisoners, and some of the principal nobility:
among these, the earls of Cassilis and Glencairn, the lords Maxwel,
Fleming, Somerville, Oliphant, Grey, who were all sent to London, and
given in custody to different noblemen.

* Buchanan, lib. xiv.

** Buchanan, lib. xiv.

The king of Scots, hearing of this disaster, was astonished; and being
naturally of a melancholic disposition, as well as endowed with a high
spirit, he lost all command of his temper on this dismal occasion. Rage
against his nobility, who, he believed, had betrayed him; shame for a
defeat by such unequal numbers; regret for the past, fear of the future;
all these passions so wrought upon him, that he would admit of no
consolation, but abandoned himself wholly to despair. His body was
wasted by sympathy with his anxious mind; and even his life began to be
thought in danger. He had no issue living; and hearing that his queen
was safely delivered, he asked whether she had brought him a male or a
female child. Being told the latter, he turned himself in his bed:
"The crown came with a woman," said he, "and it will go with one: many
miseries await this poor kingdom: Henry will make it his own either
by force of arms or by marriage." A few days after, he expired, in the
flower of his age: a prince of considerable virtues and talents; well
fitted, by his vigilance and personal courage, for repressing those
disorders to which his kingdom, during that age, was so much exposed.
He executed justice with impartiality and rigor; but as he supported the
commonalty and the church against the rapine of the nobility, he escaped
not the hatred of that order. The Protestants also, whom he opposed,
have endeavored to throw many stains on his memory; but have not been
able to fix any considerable imputation upon him.[*]

{1543.} Henry was no sooner informed of his victory and of the death
of his nephew, than he projected, as James had foreseen, the scheme of
uniting Scotland to his own dominions by marr