land or with France?
later came to mean, Was Scotland to break with Rome or to cling to Rome?
Owing mainly to the selfish and unscrupulous perfidy of Henry VIII.,
James V. was condemned, as the least of two evils, to adopt the Catholic
side in the great religious revolution; while the statesmanship of the
Beatons, Archbishops of St Andrews, preserved Scotland from English
domination, thereby preventing the country from adopting Henry's Church,
the Anglican, and giving Calvinism and Presbyterianism the opportunity
which was resolutely taken and held.

The real issue of the complex faction fight during James's minority was
thus of the most essential importance; but the constant shiftings of
parties and persons cannot be dealt with fully in our space. James's
mother had a natural claim to the guardianship of her son, and was left
Regent by the will of James IV., but she was the sister of Scotland's
enemy, Henry VIII. Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow (later of St Andrews),
with the Earl of Arran (now the title of the Hamiltons), Huntly, and
Angus were to advise the queen till the arrival of Albany (son of the
brother of James III.), who was summoned from France. Albany, of course,
stood for the French alliance, but when the queen-mother (August 6, 1514)
married the new young Earl of Angus, the grandson and successor of the
aged traitor, "Bell the Cat," the earl began to carry on the usual
unpatriotic policy of his house. The appointment to the see of St
Andrews was competed for by the Poet Gawain Douglas, uncle of the new
Earl of Angus; and himself of the English party; by Hepburn, Prior of St
Andrews, who fortified the Abbey; and by Forman, Bishop of Moray, a
partisan of France, and a man accused of having induced James IV. to
declare war against England.

After long and scandalous intrigues, Forman obtained the see. Albany was
Regent for a while, and at intervals he repaired to France; he was in the
favour of the queen-mother when later she quarrelled with her husband,
Angus. At one moment, Margaret and Angus fled to England where was born
her daughter Margaret, later Lady Lennox and mother of Henry Darnley.

Angus, with Home, now recrossed the Border (1516), and was reconciled to
Albany; against all unity in Scotland Henry intrigued, bribing with a
free hand, his main object being to get Albany sent out of the country.
In early autumn, 1516, Home, the leader of the Borderers at Flodden, and
his brother were executed