To this stronghold, which was her dower-house, Queen Margaret retired with her infant son after the battle of Flodden. Here in April, 1514, was born Alexander, Duke of Ross, James IV.’s posthumous son, a child that died in the castle of his birth less than two years later. When the Queen-Mother took the impolitic step of marrying the powerful young Earl of Angus in August, 1514, she made almost inevitable the loss of her position as Regent and as guardian of her sons. The Duke of Albany was summoned from France to rule in the land of his fathers, and although Margaret and her brother, King Henry of England, did all in their power to prevent his arrival, he landed in Scotland in 1515. Directly after his elevation to the Regency, Albany sent commissioners to Stirling for the purpose of compelling the Queen to deliver up her sons. Margaret met the nobles in the gateway of the castle; her hand was clasped in that of the young King, while a nurse stood behind bearing the infant Duke of Ross. The Queen commanded the intruders to halt until they should explain the nature of their mission. On hearing that they came to take over the custody of her sons, Margaret ordered the warder to drop the portcullis, and from behind its bars she delivered a speech justifying her conduct in refusing to surrender the castle. It is pleasant to record this dramatic incident in the life of James IV.’s widow, for the bold Tudor spirit displayed on this occasion shows that the character of the Queen-Mother was not entirely ignoble. [Illustration: JAMES IV.’S GATEWAY (WHERE MARGARET TUDOR DEFIED THE COMMISSIONERS).] The defiance of his authority brought Albany with an armed force from Edinburgh. The Queen, therefore, realising the hopelessness of the situation, led the boy King to the gate, and made him with his own hands deliver the keys of the castle to the Duke. The Regent garrisoned the fortress with one hundred and forty men, and gave the charge of it, with the custody of the princes, to the Earl Marischal and Lords Fleming and Borthwick.[29] Queen Margaret, after a brief stay in Edinburgh, returned to her native land, but finding it impossible to relinquish Scottish politics, she recrossed the Border in 1517. Her most memorable residence in Stirling Castle after her reappearance was during the winter of 1522-3, when an attack of smallpox injured her beauty and nearly put an end to her inglorious career.