It came with a lass
King James V of Scotland died at Falkland Palace on 14 December 1542, aged just 30. He had received news of the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss — a humiliating rout by English forces — and then learned that his wife Mary of Guise had given birth to a daughter rather than the male heir he desperately needed. According to tradition, on hearing the news he uttered the famous words: "It came with a lass, it will pass with a lass."
The phrase referred to the Stuart dynasty, which had gained the Scottish crown through Marjorie Bruce, daughter of Robert the Bruce. James was predicting that the dynasty would end with a girl — his newborn daughter Mary. In this, he was partly wrong: the Stuart line would continue through Mary and her son James VI. But the prophecy had an eerie resonance — the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne, was indeed a woman, and with her death in 1714, the direct Stuart line ended.
James V had been a complex king. He was cultured, building the magnificent Renaissance palace at Falkland and the additions to Stirling Castle. He was also authoritarian and acquisitive, crushing the power of the Douglas family and enriching the crown. His two French marriages strengthened the Auld Alliance but alienated Henry VIII, who wanted Scotland as a satellite rather than a French ally. James's death left Scotland in the worst possible position: a week-old queen, a regency government riven by faction, and Henry VIII preparing to seize the infant Mary by force.
The regency that followed was chaotic. Scotland was torn between pro-English and pro-French factions, with the infant queen as the prize. The Rough Wooing — Henry VIII's military campaign to force a marriage alliance — devastated southern Scotland. Mary was eventually sent to France for safety, beginning the extraordinary journey that would take her from the cradle to the scaffold. Falkland Palace, where James V died, still stands in the village of Falkland in Fife — one of Scotland's finest Renaissance buildings and one of the most atmospheric royal residences in the country.