occupied, the Scots, under the Earl of Fife, second son of Robert II (better known as the Duke of Albany), and the Earl of Douglas, made great preparations for an invasion.  Fife took his men into the western counties and ravaged Cumberland and Westmoreland, but without any important incident.  Douglas attacked the country of his old enemies, the Percies, and won the victory of Otterburn or Chevy Chase (August, 1388), the most romantic of all the fights between Scots and English.  The Scots lost their leader, but the English were completely defeated, and Harry Hotspur, the son of Northumberland, was made a prisoner.  Chevy Chase is the subject of many ballads and legends, and it is indissolubly connected with the story of the House of Douglas: 

  “Hosts have been known at that dread sound to yield,
   And, Douglas dead, his name hath won the field”.

From the date of Otterburn to the accession of Henry IV there was peace between Scotland and England, except for the never-ending border skirmishes.  Robert II died in 1390, and was succeeded by his eldest son, John, Earl of Carrick, who took the title of Robert III, to avoid the unlucky associations of the name of John, which had acquired an unpleasant notoriety from John Balliol as well as John of England and the unfortunate John of France.  Under the new king the treaty with France was confirmed, but continuous truces were made with England till the deposition of Richard II.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 50:  Douglas disappeared from the scene immediately after King Robert’s death, taking the Bruce’s heart with him on a pilgrimage to Palestine.  He was killed in August, 1330, while fighting the Moors in Spain, on his way to the Holy Land.]

[Footnote 51:  Minot.  Tr.  F. York Powell.]

CHAPTER VI

SCOTLAND, LANCASTER, AND YORK

1400-1500

When Henry of Lancaster placed himself on his cousin’s throne, Scotland was divided between the supporters of the Duke of Rothesay, the eldest son of Robert III and heir to the crown, and the adherents of the Duke of Albany, the brother of the old king.  In 1399, Rothesay had just succeeded his uncle as regent, and to him, as to Henry IV, there was a strong temptation to acquire popularity by a spirited foreign policy.  The Scots hesitated to acknowledge Henry as King of England, and he, in turn, seems to have resolved upon an invasion of Scotland as the first military event of his reign.  He, accordingly, raised the old claim of homage, and marched into Scotland to demand the fealty of Robert III and his barons.  As usual, we find in Scotland some malcontents, who form an English party.  The leader of the English intrigue on this occasion was the Scots Earl of March,[52] the son of Black Agnes.  The Duke of Rothesay had been betrothed to the daughter of March, but had