INTRODUCTION.

I. THE KINGS AND QUEENS OF SCOTLAND

THE authentic history of Scotland is generally held 1057. to commence with the reign of MALCOLM III., surnamed CANMORE, in 1057.

MALCOLM married, about 1070, MARGARET, sister of EDGAR ÆTHELING, the last of the Anglo-Saxon princes, who was expelled from his kingdom by the Norman conquest of England.

The posterity of MALCOLM and MARGARET has continued to reign over Scotland ever since his death, except during usurpations of short endurance.

Much advantage was gained by the Scottish nation, from the taste for learning, the arts of refinement, and the spirit of devotion, that Queen MARGARET introduced and encouraged.1

MALCOLM CANMORE died in 1093, and, after a brief 1097. usurpation, his son EDGAR began to reign in 1097.

1 Fordun, lv. ch. 23, 24. HAILES'S Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 36, &c.

α

1106-7.

1124.

1153.

1165.

1214.

1249.

1285-6.

On the death of EDGAR in 1106-7, his brother ALEXANDER, also son of MALCOLM, began to reign.

On the death of ALEXANDER I. in 1124, his brother DAVID, the youngest son of MALCOLM (who had passed his youth in England at the court of his sister MATILDA, Queen of HENRY I.), ascended the throne of Scotland.

On the death of DAVID I. (whose virtues have been. greatly extolled) in 1153, the crown of Scotland devolved on his grandson MALCOLM, son of HENRY, Prince of Scotland, who had predeceased his father DAVID.

On the death of MALCOLM IV. in 1165, he was succeeded by his brother WILLIAM, surnamed THE LION, who died at Stirling 4th December 1214, in the 72d year of his age, and 49th of his reign.

ALEXANDER II., a youth in his seventeenth year, succeeded his father WILLIAM THE LION, and reigned over Scotland 35 years, leaving the character of having been one of its wisest princes.

ALEXANDER II. was succeeded, in 1249, by his only son ALEXANDER III., then a child in his 8th year, who was killed by a fall from his horse between Burntisland and Kinghorn, 16th March 1285-6, in the 45th year of his age, and 37th of his reign.

MARGARET, called the MAIDEN OF NORWAY, the

daughter of MARGARET, Princess of Scotland, who was only daughter of ALEXANDER III., and who had married ERIC, King of Norway, succeeded her grandfather when an infant, and died at Orkney in 1290, in the 5th year of her reign.

Various competitors for the Crown of Scotland then appeared, all of whom withdrew or renounced their pretensions before the right of succession was determined by EDWARD King of England, who claimed to act as umpire, except JOHN BALLIOL Lord of Galloway, and ROBERT BRUCE Lord of Annandale. EDWARD declared in favour of BALLIOL, who was son of DERVORGUIL, who was the daughter of MARGARET, eldest daughter of DAVID Earl of Huntington, brother of WILLIAM King of Scots, in preference to BRUCE, who was the son of ISABELLA the second daughter of the Earl of Huntington.

JOHN BALLIOL began to reign in 1292, and resigned the crown in 1296.

An interregnum followed, during which Sir WILLIAM WALLACE assumed the title of Governor of Scotland.

1292.

ROBERT BRUCE (grandson of the competitor with 1306. BALLIOL), who was born 11th July 1274, began to reign in 1306, and died in 1329, after securing the independence of Scotland by his successful struggles with England.

DAVID II. succeeded his father ROBERT BRUCE, and 1329.

died in 1370-1, in the 47th year of his age, and 42d of his reign.

1370-1. The succession to the throne then opened to ROBERT II., the High Steward of Scotland, who was the only child of the Lady MARJORY BRUCE, the eldest daughter of ROBERT I. and of WALTER, the High Steward of Scotland. ROBERT II. died in 1389, in the 74th year of his of his age, and 19th year of his reign.

1389.

1406.

His eldest son JOHN Earl of Carrick was then crowned king, under the name of ROBERT III. He died on 4th April 1406, in the 16th year of his reign, immediately after hearing that the prince his son had, on his voyage from Scotland to France, during a time of truce with England, been captured by an armed vessel of that country, and detained as a prisoner by HENRY IV.

Scotland thereupon fell under the regency of the Duke of ALBANY, brother of the late king; and on the 1419. death of the regent in 1419, his son Duke MURDOCH assumed the authority and name of Governor of the Kingdom.

1424.

After much protracted negotiation for the release of the young King of Scots, JAMES I., from his captivity in England, the object was finally effected, and he and his Queen were crowned at Scoone on the 21st May 1424.

JAMES was in his 14th year when he was seized by the English. During the whole period of his unjust detention he was treated as a prince by the English mo

narchs, and every opportunity afforded him of acquiring a knowledge of science and literature, of instructing himself in the art of war, and likewise of learning the most approved rules of government and for the administration of justice. His natural endowments, both of mind and person, enabled him to take extensive advantages of his opportunities of improvement at the English court, and his return to his country in the prime of life was a most desirable event for his subjects.

Before JAMES I. ascended the throne, the monarchs of Scotland had seldom been in use to convene the Parliament, or Great Council of the Nation, for legislative purposes, and the laws which they did pass, being written in Latin, were unintelligible to the great body of the people, and imperfectly understood by many of the Judges themselves. JAMES, on the contrary, held frequent Parliaments, and effected the greatest improvement in the law of Scotland, by introducing the custom of embodying and publishing the acts and proceedings of Parliament in the native language. JAMES I. may therefore justly be considered the father of the Statute Law of Scotland.

JAMES I. was murdered in the Dominican Convent near Perth, in the 44th year of his age, and the 13th of his reign.

JAMES II., an infant of seven years of age, succeeded 1437. his father JAMES I. to the throne of Scotland in 1437, and was killed by the bursting of a cannon at the siege of Roxburgh, in the 30th year of his age, in the year 1460.