SCOTLAND, ENGLAND AND FRANCE Union of the Thistle and the Rose.—James IV. aimed at acquiring for Scotland a place in European politics. The causes which, for nearly two centuries, had compelled his kingdom to follow the policy of France had ceased to operate, he was him self related to the rulers of Denmark and Burgundy, and he was ambitious of a marriage alliance with Spain, then under Ferdi nand and Isabella. He built a Scottish navy and challenged Eng land on the seas. In alliance with the Emperor Maximilian and the duchess of Burgundy, he supported Perkin Warbeck's pre tensions to the throne of Henry VII., and made a half-hearted invasion on his behalf. The Spanish sovereigns were in frequent communication with James and sent to Scotland an envoy who has left an interesting account of the social condition of the country in the last years of the 15th century. Failing to obtain a Spanish bride, he accepted Henry VII.'s offer of the hand of his elder daughter, Margaret, whom he married in 1503. The marriage, celebrated by the poet Dunbar as the Union of the Thistle and the Rose, implied a fresh orientation of Scottish policy and dealt a blow to the tradition that Scotland must always be on hostile terms with its great neighbour, and a period of some 15 years of peace brought a great increase of commercial prosperity to Scotland. But James, on more than one occasion, indicated to Henry VII. that he had no intention of being ruled by his father in-law, and he continued to build a great navy. Peace was main tained while Henry VII. lived, but the accession of Henry VIII. soon placed before James the old alternative of friendship with England or with France.
The formation of the Holy League against France alarmed the Scottish king, who dreaded the effect upon Scotland of the destruction of France by a great European combi nation. That France was in no such danger as he imagined is proved by the circumstance that, a year later, Henry VIII. mar ried his sister to Louis XII., but it is easy to understand James's alarm. He was willing to yield to his brother-in-law on other points of dispute which had arisen between the two sovereigns, but he resolved to maintain the traditional Scottish policy of helping France in her hour of need. It is, however, significant that the royal decision was persistently opposed by the older and wiser councillors, who, though themselves trained in the French tradition and bound to France by many personal ties, realized that circumstances had changed, and that what had been wisdom less than a century earlier was likely to be folly in the new conditions.
This view found expression, a few years later, in the History of Greater Britain, by a famous Franco-Scottish scholar, John Major, who urged the expediency of a union of Scotland with England. James took his own way and in Sept. 1513 he was de feated and killed in the battle of Flodden. His heir was an in fant, and Scotland, overwhelmed by a great national disaster, was again subjected to the intrigues of a minority. The navy, upon which James IV. had lavished care and money, was sold to France, and the country did not recover, for at least a century, the prosperity which had marked his reign.
James, by will, had left his English wife as the guardian of his infant son, James V. (1513-42), and she might have secured the regency if she had not married a Scottish nobleman, the earl of Angus, in 1514. Her second marriage rendered her position impossible and the Scots invited Alexander, duke of Albany, the son of the traitor duke of the reign of James III., to become regent. Albany, who had been born and educated in France, spoke no language but French and he spent a considerable portion of his regency (1515 24) in Paris. If Margaret and Angus had set themselves resolutely to champion English influence in Scotland, they could have smoothed the way of English diplomacy. But Margaret, a true sister of Henry VIII., quarrelled with her second husband and tried to obtain an annulment of her marriage, disregarding Henry's remonstrance that she had chosen her husband and, by the laws of God and man, was bound to stick to him. Angus maintained the Douglas tradition of intrigue with England, but Margaret, dominated by hatred of her husband, frequently acted in the in terests of France and checkmated English designs in Scotland. In July 1524, Margaret, in conjunction with the earl of Arran, heir-presumptive to the throne, declared the young king to be old enough to rule in person, but Arran deserted her and made friends with Angus, who governed the kingdom until 1528, when James, Who hated his stepfather, made a romantic escape from his control.