is conceivable, converting the whole British island into one integral empire, and the people of each section of it into possessors of the privileges and advantages of both.
But in the accomplishment of this great national end the miserably penurious character of Henry showed most contemptibly. With his coffers crammed with millions of useless gold, he could only find in his heart to bestow upon his eldest daughter, in making her Queen of Scotland, the paltry sum of 30,000 nobles, and that to be paid in three annual instalments.
The White Rose of Scotland.
It might have been supposed that the poor king was getting a good interest for his money, instead of hoarding it in barren chests, or that he had to scrape it up, year by year, from his reluctant subjects. James of Scotland agreed to settle upon his wife £3,000 a year in lands; but instead of paying that amount of income during his life, he contracted to defray her household expenses, and allow her for her private expenditure 500 marks. On the 29th of January, 1502, the parties were solemnly affianced in the queen's chamber, the Earl of Bothwell having come to London as proxy for James. Tournaments were celebrated for two days in honour of the marriage. Twelve hogsheads of claret were tapped in the streets for the gratification of the populace, and twelve bonfires kindled. And never did the people rejoice on a more genuine occasion; for this union was, in fact, the termination of centuries of those bloody and barbarous wars betwixt the two kingdoms, which, however they had shown the martial spirit of both races, had been productive of little other benefit, and of infinite mischief and misery to the inhabitants on both sides the Borders.
Margaret, at the time of this affiancing, was but just turned twelve years of age, and it was agreed that she should remain twenty months longer under the roof of her parents. Accordingly, it was not till the 8th of July, 1503, that she set out on her journey to Scotland. She quitted on that day the palace of her grandmother at Colliweston, attended by a long and brilliant train of the
