year. At the same time he endeavoured to secure the
reversion for Alexander in case James Stewart died.
The practice which exists in the Church of Scot-
land, when the holder of a benefice becomes old and
feeble, of appointing an "assistant and successor," is
older than the Reformation. But it was not then
limited to the case of old incumbents.
Long rever-
sions and contingent interests were greedily seized
upon, and benefices were plucked up long before they
were vacant; "they tyne1 the virtue," it was said, " if
"they touch ground." While therefore James sought
to provide an abbey for the one brother, he requested
that the other should be named his assistant and
successor.

Such demands upon the court of Rome in those His negodays could hardly have been considered irregular, tiations They were never objected to or thought to reflect and other upon the character of the prince who made them. On states. the contrary James bore, and not undeservedly, the repute of a religious king. He had applied to the Pope for a licence to visit the Holy Sepulchre; and his estimation at Rome was so high, that in 1507 he received from Julius II. a sword and hat, blessed by the pope at Christmas. And having, like other sovereigns, engaged one of the Cardinals to protect the interests of his kingdom, he easily procured whatever he chose to ask for as to the disposal of benefices. He obtained for his Secretary, Patrick Paniter, the elegant scholar, whose composition most of these letters are, a dispensation to hold three benefices; for his treasurer, Beton, uncle of the notorious cardinal, the bishopric of Galloway, and afterwards that of Glasgow. He was constantly writing to the Pope and the Cardinal of St. Mark's about

abbeys and bishoprics, that he wished to give away, to unite, to incorporate with others, or to exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, and the only difficulties he met with in such matters appear to have arisen from the opposing counsels of his own advisers.

I need say nothing here of the important light these documents afford on the relations between Scotland and foreign powers, such as France, Denmark, and Gueldres I will only observe, that they show in a remarkable manner the importance attached by James in his alliances to the ties of blood relationship; and among other matters, of which they are the only evidences, are his steady friendship for his uncle of Denmark, the constancy with which he supported him against the rebellious Swedes, and the wisdom with which he counselled him to moderation. His correspondence with England is scanty, but there is much in his other letters which has an important bearing on the kingdom of his father-in-law. I have already referred in the first volume, to one important letter in which he remonstrates with the duke of Gueldres on his support of Edmund de la Pole. Another, which I have accidentally omitted to print, is important as being the only notice of an intended meeting between James and Henry VII. Unfortunately, it is without a date; but being short, I shall insert it here :

Jacobus, Dei gratia Rex Scotorum, illustri principi Karolo duci Gelriæ ac comiti Zutphanicæ consanguineo et confœderato nostro charissimo, salutem. Præsentium tabellarios foras direximus ut quoque eundum sit equos pro nostra sententia inquirant, eligant, ac modo venales fuerint nobis comparent, ac ad nos inferant. Tuam præterea celsitudinem si istuc diverterint adire jussimus ut de alterno rerum statu uterque certior fieret; simul per te edocti certius ac securius irent. Patris nostri serenissimi Anglorum regis et noster speratur in proximo congressus, et mutuam amborum præsentiam futura prætendit æstas. Quod usui tibi foret admonitos nos prius oportet. Id factum commodissimum si literas hic transmitti curaveris. Illustris, etc.

One of the most singular letters of the series was addressed by James to the King of Denmark in favor of a tribe of gypsies going to that country, who had imposed upon his credulity as pilgrims traversing the Christian world by order of the Holy See. James says they had shown themselves good Catholics during their stay in Scotland; but he had no doubt his brother of Denmark, whose kingdom was so much nearer Egypt, must be much better acquainted with the race and their mode of life!

The correspondence with Middelburg and the Treasurer of Zealand requires a word of explanation. Middelburg was the station of the Scotch merchants in the Low Countries, until James, conceiving there had been an unreasonable delay or denial of justice to some of his subjects, ordered them to repair to Veere instead. The case related to the goods of Donald Crum, a Scotch merchant at Middelburg, who died in his own country. One Margaret Manuel detained them from the executors, pretending a claim to onehalf. It was decreed that the goods should be delivered till judgment to the reddituarius or Treasurer of Zealand. Margaret was afterwards married to one Patrick Mercheniston, whose uncle James Mercheniston gave securities to the executors for the satisfaction of their claims. But even to her husband she would not give up the goods; and shortly after he was murdered at Middelburg, and the goods were still detained.1

The Scotch

navy.

One of the principal points of interest in his correspondence with France is James's anxiety to form a navy. His own country was very bare of wood, and he was mainly dependent on French and Norwegian timber. But Sir Andrew Wood had already made Scotland something of a naval power, and James did his best to raise its reputation. In 1506, having just launched a large new vessel, he went out on a trial trip to the Isle of May, but was forced to return by stress of weather. In 1511, we are told, the building of his immense ship, the Michael, "wasted all the woods "in Fife, except Falkland wood," besides what came from Norway. His Treasurer's Accounts bear frequent witness to the activity of his dockyards and the personal interest he took in them. He built a new harbour near Edinburgh, which is still called Newhaven; and, to give further security to his navy, he erected a tower upon Inch Garvie, a rock in the Frith of Forth, which, owing to the narrowness of the estuary at that particular point, completely commands the entrance to the higher part of it. This was just before he went to war with England, in 1513. The tower remains at this day.

3

In 1506 Robert Barton was engaged in France, getting timber for James out of Normandy. Of this notable sailor and his brother Andrew, whose death was a pretext of James IV.'s war with England, in 1513, there occur several notices, some of which we have already adverted to in connexion with Perkin Warbeck. In 1506 the king of Denmark sent Thomas Sieland to James with instructions to proceed to London touching an affair of some German merchants in England, who, apparently, had a dispute with Andrew Barton, and got him arrested and put in prison. Barton, however, had regained his liberty, and James did not suffer the ambassador to proceed to England, but sent him back along with Montjoy, the French king-at-arms. Very soon after this he was sent out in the new ship in which the king had sailed to the Isle of May in pursuit of some Dutchmen who had been guilty of depredations and violence; in revenge for which, says Lesley, "Andro Bartone did tak mony

shippis of that cuntrey and fillit certane pipis with "the heidis of the Holandaris and send unto the king " in Scotland, for dew punishment and revenge of thair "crueltie." The next we hear of him is of his being in France, from which he had just returned, when, in April, 1508, he was sent to Denmark, to give assistance, if necessary, against Lubeck. About the same time Robert was arrested at Veere, in Zealand, accused of piracy by some Portuguese traders, and would have undergone the punishment of death had not James written to the emperor and duchess of Savoy, certifying that he had given him letters of reprisal against the Portuguese for injuries done to his father, John Barton, more than thirty years before, for which he had repeatedly failed in obtaining compensation. One other notice of Robert is derived from the Treasurer's Accounts, where, in the year 1508, is an entry of the following payment:

66

66

"Item, the secund day of Maii, payit to Robert Bertoun quhilk he laid down for ane schip of silver weyand xxxj. unce, quhilk he offerit for the king in Sanct James in Spanze in the zeir of grace, for ilk unce xlij. sous, summa lxvj. " frankes iij. sous, and for ilk frank x.s. Summa, 331. 18d."

Shipbuilding was a passion indulged by James to a most dangerous extent. It exhausted his exchequer and offered a continual inducement to gratify his own

The year is omitted in the MS.