Scotland's Crisis
King James IV of Scotland. By R. L. Mackie. (Oliver and Boyd, 25s.) `OUR army was not handled with sufficient care. . . Our dearest father, made impatient by the sight of the enemy, rushed too boldly on them, without putting his men into order, encountered them on ground that was unfavourable and posi- tively dangerous, and . . . threw away his own life and the lives of most of his nobles.' Those words were put into the mouth of James IV's infant son to explain the disaster of Flodden Field. The Spanish Ambassador had anticipated the judgment on James sixteen years earlier :
is not a good captain, because he begins to fight before he has given his orders.' James used no stir' rup when mounting his horse, and used the spurs to such effect that his retinue trailed hopelessly be' hind. He was as pious as he was headstrong. Fle, wanted, more seriously than most who professed it, to lead a crusade against the infidel; he heard two masses before transacting any important business; and he was an inveterate pilgrim. But here his motives may have been mixed, since be kept a mistress at each of the main shrines.
But the significance of his reign lies less in the Janus-like personality of the king than in the 'too brief golden age' of Scottish culture which it savb It is one of the great periods of Scottish poetry' which saw Dunbar, Henryson, Gavin Douglas, and many unknown masters. James founded Aberdeen University, thus giving Scotland three universities to England's two. He established the, first Scottish printing press; the beginnings at Edinburgh's school of medicine date from lite reign. An Act of 1496 provided for the education of the landed class in latin and law, so that lustiet; may reign universally through all the realm' James himself dabbled in science. It was, perhaPs, reprehensible that he made one of his illegitimate sons an Archbishop at the age of eleven; but at least he engaged Erasmus as his tutor.
During the Hundred Years War and the War'
of the Roses England's crisis had been Scotland's opportunity. No English army crossed the Border between 1385 and 1482, and Scotland prospered accordingly. The marriage alliance of 1502, from which James VI and I ultimately descended, wag Scotland's recognition that the Tudor regime ha, come to stay; and Flodden was conclusive proot that the stronger power had reasserted itself' James's feckless irresponsibility was symbolic. RAI. England won because she had better arms and better discipline: the two things with which the, economically more advanced State can always defeat the more backward. Worst of all, Engl.' won with her left hand : Henry VIII was conti manding a large army in France whilst the Earl ° Surrey routed the Scots. Henceforth, for two CO; turies, Scottish politics were in the last rest'', determined by French or English influences rattle' than by internal factors.
Mr. Mackie, already known as editor of Jar°f IV's letters, has accomplished the difficult task °' weaving a continuous story from scattered and fragmentary sources. Two chapters on the ecua°, mic and cultural life of Scotland rise above met" narrative, and the book is a useful quarry of fact', But one could wish that the author had given °' a concluding chapter of reflections on his thenta°
CHRISTOPHER
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