ions with England]

The policy of any small nation situated in dangerous proximity to a
larger one is almost necessarily determined by this fact. In order to
assert her independence Scotland was forced to make common cause with
England's enemies. Guerrilla warfare was endemic on the borders,
breaking out, in each generation, into some fiercer crisis. England,
on the other hand, was driven to seek her own safety in the annexation
of her small enemy, or, failing that, by keeping her as impotent as
possible. True to the maxims of the immoral political science that has
commonly passed for statesmanship, the Tudors consistently sought by
every form of deliberate perfidy to foster factions in North Britain,
to purchase traitors, to hire stabbers, to subsidize rebels, to breed
mischief, and to waste the country, at opportune intervals, with armies
and fleets. Simply to protect the independence that England denied and
attacked, Scotch rulers became fast allies of France, to be counted on,
in every war between the great powers, to stir up trouble in England's
rear.

On neither side was the policy one of sheer hatred. North and south
the purpose increased throughout the century to unite the two countries
and thus put an end to the perennial and noxious war. If the early
Tudors {351} were mistaken in thinking they could assert a suzerainty
by force of arms, they also must be credited with laying the
foundations of the future dynastic union. Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's
sister, was married to James IV of Scotland. Somerset hoped to effect
the union more directly by the marriage of Edward VI and Mary Queen of
Scots. That a party of enlightened statesmen in England should
constantly keep the union in mind, is less remarkable under the
circumstances than that there should have been built up a considerable
body of Scotchmen aiming at the same goal. Notwithstanding the
vitality of patriotism and the tenacity with which small nations
usually refuse to merge their own identity in a larger whole, very
strong motives called forth the existence of an English party. One
favorable condition was the feudal disorganization of society. Faction
was so common and so bitter that it was able to call in the national
enemy without utterly discrediting itself. A second element was
jealousy of France. For a time, with the French marriages of James V
with Mary of Lorraine, a sister of the Duke of Guise, and of Mary Queen
of Scots with Fra