hich hampered the
efforts of English diplomacy. The Scots, on the other hand, were
separated from the English by the memories of two centuries of constant
warfare, and they were bound by many ties to the enemies of England. The
only King of Scots, since Alexander III, who had been on friendly terms
with England, was James III, and his enemies had used the fact as a
weapon against him. His successor had already twice refused the
proffered English alliance, and when he at length accepted Henry's
persistent proposal and the thrice-offered English princess, it was only
after much hesitation and upon certain strict conditions. No Englishmen
were to enter Scotland "without letters commendatory of their own
sovereign lord or safe conduct of his Warden of the Marches". The
marriage, though not especially flattering to the dignity of a monarch
who had been encouraged to hope for the hand of a daughter of Spain, was
notable as involving a recognition (the first since the Treaty of
Northampton) of the King of Scots as an independent sovereign. On the
8th of August, 1503, Margaret was married to James in the chapel of
Holyrood. She was received with great rejoicing; the poet Dunbar, whom a
recent visit to London had convinced that the English capital, with its
"beryl streamis pleasant ... where many a swan doth swim with wingis
fair", was "the flower of cities all", wrote the well-known poem on the
Union of the Thistle and the Rose to welcome this second English
Margaret to Scotland. But the time was not yet ripe for any real union
of the Thistle and the Rose. Peace continued till the death of Henry
VII; but during these years England was never at war with France. James
threatened war with England in April, 1505, in the interests of the Duke
of Gueldres; in 1508, he declined to give an understanding that he would
not renew the old league with France, and he refused to be drawn, by
Pope Julius II, into an attitude of opposition to that country. Even
before the death of Henry VII, in 1509, there were troubles with regard
to the borders, and it was evident that the "perpetual peace" arranged
by the treaty of marriage was a sheer impossibility.

Henry VIII succeeded to the throne of England in April, 1509; three
years and five months later, in September, 1513, was fought the battle
of Flodden. The causes may soon be told. They fall under three heads.
James and Henry were alike headstrong and impetuous, and they were alike
ambitious of