1537, and the relations between James and Henry VIII (now a widower by the death of Jane Seymour) were further strained by the fact that nephew and uncle alike desired the hand of Mary of Guise, widow of the Duke de Longueville, who preferred her younger suitor and married him in the following summer. These two French marriages are important as marking James's final rejection of the path marked out for him by Henry VIII. The husband of a Guise could scarcely remain on good terms with the heretic King of England; but Henry, with true Tudor persistency, did not give up hope of bending his nephew to his will, and spent the next few years in negotiating with James, in trying to alienate him from Cardinal Beaton--the great supporter of the French alliance,--and in urging the King of Scots to enrich himself at the expense of the Church. As late as 1541, a meeting was arranged at York, whither Henry went, to find that his nephew did not appear. James was probably wise, for we know that Henry would not have scrupled to seize his person. Border troubles arose; Henry reasserted the old claim of homage and devised a scheme to kidnap James. Finally he sent the Earl of Angus, who had been living in England, with a force to invade Scotland, and this without the formality of declaring war. Henry, in fact, was acting as a suzerain punishing a vassal who had refused to appear when he was summoned. The English ravaged the county of Roxburgh in 1542; the Scottish nobles declined to cross the border in what they asserted to be a French quarrel; and in November a small Scottish force was enclosed between Solway Moss and the river Esk, and completely routed. The ignominy of this fresh disaster broke the king's heart. On December 8th was born the hapless princess who is known as _the_ Queen of Scots. The news brought small comfort to the dying king, who was still mourning the sons he had lost in the preceding year. "'Adieu,' he said, 'farewell; it came with a lass and it will pass with a lass.' And so", adds Pitscottie, "he recommended himself to the mercy of Almighty God, and spake little from that time forth, but turned his back unto his lords, and his face unto the wall." Six days later the end came. With "a little smile of laughter", and kissing his hand to the nobles who stood round, he breathed his last. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 60: Gregory Smith, p. 123.] CHAPTER VIII THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 1542-1568