JAMES V., King of Scotland, son of James IV., was little more than a year old when the crown devolved upon him; but so equally poised was the balance of power in Europe at this time that, as the favour of Henry VIII. of England was anxiously sought by the rival monarchs of Germany and France, so all three courted the favour of James's government The state of the papal see was also peculiar at this timo ; for besides the risks which it ran from the collision of temporal interests, it was now raising up for itself determined enemies within its own dominion.. The reforming spirit of Martin Luther and his followers spread into Scotland, and introduced new elements of discord into a couotry then in a singularly distracted state. The regency of the young king was long an object of ambition, and in the struggle everything was forgotten by the contending parties but sue cm. The king was besieged, captured, and retaken ; and personal rencontres between nobles and their vassals in the streets of the metropolis were of frequent occurrence. The loss of laymen however at noddies had given a decided advantage to the clergy, and the ecclesiastical interest at last bore undisputed sway. Gavin Dunbar, who bad been the king's preceptor, was made Archbishop of Glasgow in 1524; in 1528 he was appointed lord chancellor ; and in four years afterwards the Court of Session was erected—a court of general and supreme jurisdiction under the chancellor. The latter was now at
the head both of the church and common law, and when Cardinal Beaton became chancellor his vast powers were exercised with such force and rapidity as threatened, and well nigh accomplished, the extermination of every power In the kingdom but his own and the papal. It was a matter of course that all attempts at an alliance with the king by King Henry VIII., who had become embroiled with the papacy, should be rejected. A war was thus provoked, and James was obliged to court those nobles whom it had been the policy of his court to humble. They joined him, but in a spirit of determined revenge. In an attack on the Scottish border the English were repelled, and an opportunity offered to the Scots of cuttiug off their retreat. The king accordingly gave orders to that end, but his barons refused to advance; and in a subsequent engagement 10,000 of the Scots deliberately sur rendered themselves prisoners to the enemy. The spirit of James sunk under his contending passions, and he died of a broken heart in the thirty-third year of his age.