15. Relations with England.—In 1400, soon after the end of the truce, Henry the Fourth, who by a revolution had been placed on his cousin Richard's throne, revived the old claim over Scotland in order to make himself popular with the English. He announced his intention of coming to Edinburgh to receive the homage of the King and of the nobles, and to enforce his demand he marched as far as Leith at the head of an army. This was the most harmless invasion on record, for, as usual, the Scots had got out of the way, and the English had to retreat without finding an enemy to fight with. About this time George of Dunbar, Earl of March, shifted his allegiance to Henry. He was offended because Rothesay married a daughter of his great rival Douglas, instead of his own daughter Elizabeth, to whom he was betrothed. In 1402 he joined Sir Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, and defeated an invading body of the Scots under Douglas at Homildon. This was much such an affair as Otterburn, only this time the English won and Douglas was taken prisoner. He afterwards joined the Percies in their rebellion against Henry and fought with them at Shrewsbury. Albany had an army on the Border ready to help the rebels, but their defeat and dispersion brought his plan to nothing. But Albany hit on another way of threatening Henry. He entertained at the Scottish court a person whom he received as the dethroned Richard, who had been discovered in disguise, so the story ran, a fugitive in the Western Isles. In 1405, however, chance threw into Henry's hands an important prize. This was James, Earl of Carrick, second son of the King, and heir to the throne. He was captured by the English, in time of truce, while on his way to France, whither he was sent, nominally to be educated, but really to be out of the reach of his dangerous uncle. Thus, as the head of each government had a hostage for the good behaviour of the other, there was no open war between the two nations. In 1406 Robert died.
16. Albany's Regency.—The death of Robert made no change in the government, though the young King was acknowledged as James the First. There was nominal peace with England, but the work of winning back the Border strongholds still went on. Jedburgh was retaken and destroyed, as the best means of securing it against foreign occupation in future.
17. Battle of Harlaw.—The kingdom was now threatened on the other border, the northern march which parted the Saxons of the north-eastern Lowlands from the Celtic clans of the mountains. The hatred between the hostile races had been growing more and more bitter, and was fostered by constant inroads on the one hand and cruel laws upon the other. The time seemed now to have come when there must be a trial of strength between them. The head of the Celts was Donald, Lord of the Isles, who, though he had sworn fealty to David the Second, again claimed sovereign power over all the clans of the West, and entered into treaties with England as though he had been an independent monarch. He claimed the Earldom of Ross in right of his wife, as her niece, the heiress, had taken the veil. By getting this earldom, the Lord of the Isles became lord over half the kingdom, and he resolved to invade the territory of the King, whom he looked on as a rival. Now the district that lay nearest him, the Lowlands north of the Forth, as it had not been touched by the Border wars, was at this time at once the richest part of the kingdom and the part least accustomed to self-defence. Great therefore was the terror of the burghers and husbandmen at the news that a horde of plundering savages would soon be let loose upon them. They took up arms in their own defence, and they were fortunate in finding a leader whose experience, gained in similar warfare on his own account, well fitted him to withstand the ambitious Donald. This was Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar, the illegitimate son of the Wolf of Badenoch. He had won his reputation by valour in the French wars, and his earldom by carrying off and marrying an heiress, who was Countess of Mar in her own right. The rival races met at Harlaw, in Aberdeenshire, July 24, 1411. Here, as at Bannockburn, the determination and stedfastness of each man in the smaller force decided the fortune of the day. For, though the Highlanders, reckless of life, charged again and again, they made no impression on the small compact mass that kept the way against them, and they were at last forced to retreat. This battle was justly looked on as a great national deliverance, greater even than the victory at Bannockburn, and many privileges and immunities were granted to the heirs of those who had fallen.
18. The Scots in France.—During the Regency the Scots did good service to their old allies of France, who were sorely pressed by the English. Henry the Fifth of England had conquered nearly all France, and had been proclaimed heir of the French king. A company of 700 Scots, led by John Stewart, Earl of Buchan, second son of Albany, went to the help of the French. They arrived safely in France, in spite of the careful watch upon the seas kept up by the English in order to prevent them. By their aid the French gained their first victory in this war at the battle of Beaugé in 1421. Buchan was made Constable of France. He was then sent back to Scotland on an embassy to seek the help of Douglas on the part of the King of France. An alliance was made between them in 1423, and Douglas came to France, where the rich Duchy of Touraine and many other lands were conferred upon him. But Douglas was slain not long after at the battle of Verneuil in 1424. Most of the Scots fell with him, for the English refused them quarter, as Henry had James of Scotland in his camp, and he gave orders that all the Scots bearing arms on the French side should be looked upon as traitors fighting against their King. The remnant that were left were formed into a royal bodyguard, the beginning of the famous Scots Guard of the French kings. Archibald, Earl of Douglas, who fell at Verneuil, was called "Tine-man," or lose-man, because in every battle in which he took part he fought on the losing side.
19. Death of Albany.—Albany died in 1419. His son Murdoch succeeded him as Governor, but there is no record of his being confirmed in that office by the Estates. As he had not the talents of his father, he had no control over the barons. Every man was his own master, and the land was filled with violence. The obvious remedy was to bring home the King, and Douglas and some of the other nobles treated with the English government for his release.
20. Summary.—Under the immediate successors of Robert the First, Scotland nearly lost all the advantages which he had won for her. The country was torn by civil strife; the kings were weak and useless; the nobles became so strong and overbearing that their power more than equalled that of the Crown, and they set at nought the King's authority. All social improvement was at a standstill. Still we find during this period the first stirrings of a desire for increase of knowledge and greater liberty of religious thought. Two events mark this: the burning of John Reseby, with his books, on a charge of heresy, at Perth in 1408; and the opening of the first University in Scotland, founded at St. Andrews by Henry Wardlaw, the bishop, in 1410. The history of Scotland was now first written by two natives of the country; John of Fordun, who wrote the "Scotichronicon," and Andrew Wyntoun, who wrote a metrical chronicle.
CHAPTER V.
THE JAMESES.