Publications of the Clan Lindsay Society - Electric Scotland

248 TllK I-AIUDS OF DOWHII.I..
In the politics of his day, and mainly through his
politics was hu brought into the public records, he
seems to have been on the side of those who, if they
had any policy other than their own interest, favoured
alliance with England, as opposed to those who stood
for the maintenance of the old league with France.
When King James IV. died at Flodden in 1513 he
left an infant son, afterwards James V. ; and another
sou, named Alexander, and created Duke of Ross, was
born after the fathers death. The Queen, Princess
Marfjaret of Enorland, a sister of Henry Vlll., before
the end of her first year of widowhood married the
young Earl of Angus, and by the Estates of the Realm
was deprived of tlie custody of the children and of the
regency which had been conferred on her. Thereupon,
in 1515, there was a plot to kidnap the young princes
and convey them to England.* It was unsuccessful, if
indeed there was any real attempt to put it into execu-
tion. In this plot Adam Lindsay of Dowhill was
concerned, and thereby he incurred the penalty of high
treason.
In another way he is identified with the English
party. Of that party Lord Home was an adherent,
the most powerful after the Earl of Angus, he who had
married the widowed Queen. Home was seized, tried,
and executed. What led up to this is of little conse-
quence to the present narrative. What followed was
the appointment of the distinguished French knight
de la Bastie to the wardenship of the March, which
had become vacant by the death of Home. What
followed that again in a sequence very characteristic of
* Balfour's Awxaltt of Scotland, anno. 1515.