JAMES IV. (1472-1513), king of Scotland, son of James III., was born March 17, 1472, and on the death of his father in 1488 was crowned king at Scone, probably on June 26th. As he not only adopted an entirely opposite policy with the nobles from his father, but also showed great affability towards the lower classes of his subjects, among whom he delighted to wander incognito, few kings of Scotland won such general popularity or passed a reign so untroubled by intestine broils. His libertinism was overlooked on account of his open and friendly bearing, and was to some extent atoned for by his hardiness and courage and his just and temperate rule. So slight were the attempts at insurrection on his accession to the throne that they scarcely required repression; and, although in 1491 Lord Bothwell and others entered into an agreement with Henry VII. to seize his person, the circumstances were always such as either not to require or not to favour the carrying out of the project. Indeed, Henry seems throughout to have greatly preferred the friendship of the Scotch monarch either to his active hostility or his enforced submission; and accordingly, although James-had welcomed “Perkin Warbeck,” the pretender to the English throne, and made a futile invasion of England in support of his claims, Henry after Warbeck left Scotland in 1497 was willing to forget all old causes of enmity. In September of that year a truce of seven years was negotiated between the two monarchs, and in August 1503 the alliance was confirmed by the marriage of James with the princess Margaret of England,—a union which led eventually in default of the Tudors to the accession of the Stuart dynasty to the English throne. Of the peace with England James took advantage to establish order in the ...