Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

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THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 125
English part^ that they seem actually to have set up pretensions
to the victory.* The same temper of mind letl them
eagerly to ascribe the loss of their monarch, and his army, to
any cause, rather than to his own misconduct, and the supe-
rior military skill of the English. There can be no doubt,
that James actually fell on the field of battle, the slaughterplace
of his nobles. Pinkerton, ibid. His dead body was interred
in the monastery of Sheen, in Surry ; and Stowe men-
tions, with regard to it, the following degrading circumstances:
" After the battle, the bodie of the said king, being found,
" was closed in lead, and conveyed from thence to London,
" and to the monasterie of Sheyne, in Surry, where it remain-
" ed for a time, in what order I am not certaine ; but, since
" the dissolution of that house, in the reigne of Edward VI.,
" Henry Gray, Duke of Xorfolke, being lodged, and keeping
" house there, I have been shewed the same bodie, so lapped
" in lead, close to the head and bodie, throwne into a waste
" room, amongst the old timber, lead, and other rubble. Since
" the which time, workmen there, for their foolish pleasure,
" hewed off his head ; and Lancelot Young, master glazier to
" Queen Elizabeth, feeling a sweet savour to come from thence,
" and seeing the same dried from all moisture, and yet the
* " Against the proud Scotte's clattering,
That never wyll leave their trattlying ;
Wan they the field and lost theyr king ?
They may well say, fie on that winning !
Lo these fond sottes and tratlying Scottes,
How they are blinde in theyr own minde.
And will not know theyr overthrow.
At Branxton moore they are so stowre,
So frantike mad, and say they had.
And wan the field with speare and shielde :
That is as true as black is blue, &c.
Skclton Laureate against the Scotics,