Scotland was thrown open to foreign influence and intrigue, and left to the ferocious feuds of its own turbulent and warlike chieftains, who did not fail to avail themselves of the opportunity which the death of the monarch afforded them, of bringing their various private quarrels to the decision of the sword. It might have been expected, that the overwhelming disaster of Flodden field, which brought grief and mourning into almost every house of note in the land by the loss of some member of its family, would have extinguished, for a time at least, all personal animosities between them, and that a common sympathy would have prevented the few that were left from drawing their swords upon each other; but it had no such effect. Sanguinary contests and atrocious murders daily occurred throughout the whole country. They invaded each other's territories with fire and sword, burned with indiscriminating vengeance the cottage as well as the castle; despoiled the lands of corn and cattle ; and retired only when driven back by a superior force, or when there was nothing more left to destroy or carry away. For us, who live in so totally different and so much happier times, it is not easy to conceive the dreadful and extraordinary state of matters which prevailed in Scotland during such periods as that of the minority of James V., when there was no ruler in the land to curb the turbulence and ambition of its nobles. In their migrations from one place to another, these proud chieftains were constantly attended by large bodies of armed followers, whom they kept in regular pay, besides supplying them with arms and armour. Thus troops of armed men, their retainers being generally on horseback, were constantly traversing the country in all directions, headed by some stern chieftain clad in complete armour, and bent on some lawless expedition of revenge or aggression; but he came thus prepared as well to the feast as to the fray, for he did not know how soon the former might be converted into the latter. There existed always a mutual distrust of each other, which kept them in a constant dread of treachery, and no outward signs of friendship could throw them for a moment off their guard. Thus they were compelled to have frequent recourse to stratagem to destroy an enemy; and numerous instances of the basest and most cowardly assassinations, accomplished by such means, occur in the pages of Scottish history. The number of armed retainers by which the chieftain was attended, was proportioned to his means. The Douglases are said to have seldom gone abroad with fewer than fifteen hundred men at arms behind them; and Robertson of Strowan, a chief of no great note, in the year 1504, was attended by a band of no less than eight hundred followers when he went to ravage the lands of Athol. The earl of Angus on one occasion entered Edinburgh with five hundred men in his train, all "weil accompanied and arrayed with jack and spear," for which they found sufficient employment before they left the city. Angus had come to Edinburgh with this formidable force to prevent the success of an attempt which the earl of Arran, then also in the town, was at that instant making to deprive the queen dowager of the regency. So soon as Arran got notice that Angus was in the city, he ordered the gates to be shut to secure him, but unaware, that he had also shut up with him five hundred well-armed followers. In the morning some of Angus's friends waited upon him, and informed him of the measures which Arran had taken for his apprehension, they also told him that if he did not instantly appear on the open street where he might defend himself, he would be taken prisoner.
Angus lost no time in buckling on his armour, and summoning his followers around him. He then formed in battle array, immediately above the Netherbow, and after a fruitless attempt on the part of Gavin Douglas, archbishop of St Andrews, to prevent bloodshed, the retainers of the two hostile noblemen encountered each other; and after a sanguinary conflict of long continuance,
