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through the kingdom, and the frequent instances in his reign, and in those of his successors, where we see the serfs and bondsmen recovering their liberty, either by grant or purchase, we can discern the same object of humbling and reducing the excessive powers of the nobles, giving security to the rights and property of the middle classes of the people, and additional strength to the royal authority. Under the reign of Malcolm IV., the struggle between the king and the encroachments of the barons becomes again discernible.* They assaulted, we know, and attempted to make themselves masters of his person. It is even asserted by the same historian, that, dissatisfied with the administration of the king, they compelled his brother William to assume the regency. On the death of Malcolm, during the reign of William the Lion, a monarch of great energy and determination, the barons appear to have kept within due bounds; and the increasing consequence of the commercial classes is seen by a remarkable grant of six thousand merks paid down by the boroughs, as their portion of a sum due to England.† Under his successor, Alexander II., Roger de Quincy, one of the most powerful of the feudal barons, who had married the heiress of Alan, Lord of Galloway, carried his oppressions and extortion to such a height, that his vassals grew infuriated, and, besieging him in his castle, would have torn him to pieces; but, clothing himself in complete armour, he cut his way, sword in hand, through the midst of them. This happened in 1247. We are not to suppose, however, that a regular and

Fordun à Goodal, book viii. c. 4.
† Ibid. book viii. c. 73.

continuous system can be discerned in progress, which wrought an increase of power to the crown, and of consequence to the lower orders, along with a proportionate loss of authority by the nobles, under each successive reign. On the contrary, when the sceptre chanced to fall into a hand naturally weak, or infirm with age, under the frequent minorities which occur in the history of Scotland, and during the captivity of some of its sovereigns, the nobles were ever on the alert to regain their ancient strength, or to acquire new privileges.

In this manner it happened that the personal character of the king, his courage, firmness, and wisdom, exercised a very evident influence upon the public happiness-an observation which is strikingly confirmed by the history of Scotland during the reigns of David I. and Alexander II. Alexander III., as we have seen, vol. i. p. 4, succeeded when yet a boy; and we instantly see the violent commotions between the different parties of the nobles which occurred during his minority, the various plots for the purpose of seizing the person of the king, and thus possessing themselves of a royal warrant to oppress and domineer over all classes of the country-a history which, in a greater or lesser degree, applies to every feudal government when it has experienced the misfortune of a minority. We have seen, however, that the character of Alexander, by its early energy and sagacity, put an end to these abuses, and established the government, as his reign proceeded, upon the foundation of just laws, administered with a wholesome severity. Against these laws, indeed, and their due execu

tion, the spirit of the feudal system offered the utmost opposition. The enormous estates of the barons, their right of private war, and of holding their own courts, and their almost unlimited authority over their vassals and retainers; the eustom of deadly feud, or of transmitting their fierce and implacable quarrels along with their inheritance to their children; and that indomitable pride, which broke out in contentions for precedence in the field, or in the councils of their sovereign, too often at times of the utmost emergency and danger;-all these marked and predominating circumstances were just so many barriers in the progress of the country to security, liberty, and the blessings of good government. It is impossible, indeed, to study the history of Scotland during this remote period without being forcibly struck with the correctness of this observation; and it applies with particular force to the annals of the long war of liberty, to the struggles of Wallace, and the early difficulties encountered by Bruce. To the immense body of the lower feudal vassals and retainers the service of their lord was the only road to distinction; their neglect of it was sure to be visited with punishment, if not with ruin. In reading the history of these dark times, it is easy to see that personal security and comfort being involved in the issue, this great body, which composed, in truth, the whole strength of the country, regarded the desertion of the king, or their loss of national independence, as an affair of less moment than a single act of disobedience to their liege lord. It was by the iron laws of this cruel system that Wallace at last found him

self compelled to abandon the attempt to lead the Scottish barons and their vassals against England, and yet without it Bruce, perhaps, could not have succeeded.

VII. TOURNAMENT FOR THE BLACK LADY, BY JAMES IV.

It appears from the unpublished extracts from the accounts of the High Treasurer of Scotland, collected by the Rev. Mr. M'Gregor Stirling, a gentlemen of rare but unobtrusive talent in the investigation of the sources of Scottish history, that, amongst the various curiosities, animate and inanimate, which James IV. was fond of amassing, were a party of blackamoors. These sable ornaments of his court he treated with great kindness and distinction; and the expenses upon their clothing and entertainment occupy a prominent place in the books of the Treasurer. They were captured in a Portuguese ship, which brought other curiosities; amongst the rest, a musk cat, and "Portingale horse, with a red tail."* James ordered one of the Moor lasses to be christened; upon which occasion, such is the minuteness of the accounts, that we are informed his Majesty put nine shillings in the caudle.† A tournament appears afterwards to have been held in honour of the "black ladye," in which this sable beauty was

*Nov. 8, 1504. To Mossman Polingaire, to red (settle) the More's expenses, the Portingail horse and beasts, and folk with them, 30sh.-MS. Accounts of the High Trea

surer.

Item, when the More lasse wes cristinit, given to put in the caudill, 9 shillings.

His

introduced in a triumphal chariot, and gallant knights contended for the prize which she was to adjudge; nay, such was the solemnity and grave importance with which these feudal amusements were prepared, that articles of defiance were sent to France, in which a Scottish champion, under the name of a wild or savage knight, (probably the king himself,) challenged the chivalry of that court to break a spear in honour of the black lady.* On this occasion, Sir Anthony D'Arsy, a French cavalier of great skill in all warlike exercises, who was afterwards cruelly murdered in Scotland, appears to have gained much distinction. He arrived at the Court of Scotland, accompanied by a numerous suite, and was received by James with high honour. mission, probably, was not solely of a chivalrous nature, but involved subjects of political importance, which could be readily concealed from common observation under the gorgeous disguise of the tournament. Whatever was its nature, the consideration in which he was held may be inferred from the generosity of his reception and the splendid presents with which he was dismissed. I copy some of the items as a specimen of those valuable documents from which we may derive so much information upon the manners of the country. When Sir Anthony arrived, his horse's feet seem to have been swelled and beat by the journey, and Robert Galloway was ordered to bathe them with wine:'Item, to Robt. Galloway, for wyne to baiss the

66

Item, to two quires of gold to illumyne the articles sent to France for the justying of the Wild Knight for the black lady.

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