to contain as complete an enumeration of the Poets of Scotland, and as ample information respecting their history and works, as has been yet presented to the public. · · London, March 25, 1822.

LIVES

OF

EMINENT SCOTSMEN.

Poets.

JAMES THE FIRST.

Amid the bards whom Scotia holds to fame,
She boasts, nor vainly boasts, her James's name;
And less, sweet bard! a crown thy glory shews,
Than the fair laurel that adorns thy brows.

G. DYER.

FEW characters in history present greater claims to admiration and sympathy, than James the First, King of Scotland. With a right by birth to supreme rule, he possessed all the qualities by which it is most deservedly, but rarely, acquired. Far advanced beyond the lights of the age in which he lived, in knowledge and refinement; of a creative genius and cultivated taste; of talents fitted equally to charm and to command-to brighten the sunshine of repose, and to rule amid the whirlwind and the tempest; wise, genePART 1.]

B

rous, and beneficent, in all his views; at once, the most learned prince and the most accomplished cavalier of his day; no man was ever better entitled to take the lead of an infant people in the path to glory and prosperity. Yet with all these blossoms of a high and happy destiny, the story of James's life is but one chapter of misfortunes, so severe and so unmerited, that they might fill with tears the sternest eye that ever scanned the ways of heaven to man.

James the First was born in 1393. He was the second son of Robert the Third of Scotland, and the fourth monarch in descent from the renowned Robert Bruce, the restorer of the Scottish monarchy.

James had an elder brother, David, who fell a victim in the dawn of life to the murderous ambition of his uncle, the Duke of Albany, who wished to secure the throne for himself and family. Some emissaries of the duke waylaid the young prince in the neighbourhood of St. Andrew's, and seizing forcibly on his person, conducted him to the Palace of Falkland, where he was shut up in a strong tower and starved to death.

The melancholy fate of his first born filled the Scottish monarch with dismay for the safety of his only remaining boy, James; and, in order to place him beyond the reach of a faithless kindred, until he should attain to the vigour of manhood, he resolved to send him, for the completion of his education, to the court of France, the most antient and devoted ally of the Kings of Scotland. The young prince, now in his eleventh year, was accordingly embarked, with all possible secrecy, on board of a vessel under the care of the Earl of Orkney; and as a truce sub

sisted at this time between England and Scotland, which wanted some weeks of its stipulated termination, they left the Scottish shore with the full assurance of crossing the seas, secure from all dangers but those of the winds and waves. When off Flamborough Head, however, they were intercepted by an English squadron, and, in violation of all the laws and usages of nations, carried prisoners to England. The tidings of this disaster are said, by Buchanan, to have sunk his father with sorrow to the grave. "The news," he says, "was brought to him while at supper, and did so overwhelm him with grief, that he was almost ready to give up the ghost unto the hands of the servants that attended him. But being carried to his bed-chamber, he abstained from all food, and in three days died of hunger and grief at Rothsay."

On the death of Robert, James was proclaimed king; but, on account of his minority and absence, the regency of the kingdom devolved on his uncle, the perfidious Albany, who, intoxicated by the sweets of power, instead of making any serious effort for the redemption of his royal nephew, contributed all in his power, by evasive and heartless negociations, to protract the period of his exile.

The first two years of the young prince's captivity were passed in the Tower of London. In 1407, he was removed to Nottingham Castle. In 1413, he was brought back to the Tower, but, in the course of the same year, was transferred to Windsor Castle. In 1414, the English king, Henry IV. took James along with him in his second expedition to France, but, on his return, committed him anew to Windsor Castle, where he remained till his final liberation.