The _Dreme_, the _Satire of the Three Estates_, and the _Monarchy_, are his best poems. =39. Summary.=--During this period, which extends over more than a century, the country made little progress either socially or politically. Of the five kings, all bearing the same name, who in turn wore the crown, four died violent deaths; and of these four, two were treacherously murdered by their own subjects. Most of them came to the throne in childhood; not one attained old age. Their reigns were chiefly passed in struggles to put down their lawless and turbulent nobles, who in each succeeding minority waxed more powerful and more independent. In the reigns of James the Second and of James the Fifth, this contest between the Crown and the Baronage took the form of a struggle between the House of Stewart and the House of Douglas. In both cases the King compassed the fall of his rival only by placing a dangerous amount of power in the hands of the other nobles. The foreign policy of Scotland under the Jameses was very simple. It consisted in maintaining a close alliance with France and a constant quarrel with England. But the French never gave the Scots any real help, and the English were so much taken up at home with the Civil Wars of the Roses that they made no serious attacks on the independence of Scotland. Though during this period there were four long minorities, there was no attempt made to break the regular line of succession. This was due partly to the attachment of the people to the royal line, and partly to the weakness of the royal authority, for the King had so little real power that the great nobles did not think the crown worth taking. The reign of James the Fourth was the most peaceful and prosperous, but James the First did the most for the welfare of the people. CHAPTER VI. THE REFORMATION.