Scotland is portrayed less through scenes within its territory than through the pressure it exerts on England from across a difficult, disputed border. A threat in Arthur’s plans for preserving peace, it becomes a test of Katherine’s political judgment and military leadership: Scottish raids grow into war while the English king and army are abroad, and the forces she raises ultimately defeat the King of Scotland and a large part of his political and religious elite.

A Neighbor Defined by the Border

Scotland’s importance in the narrative begins with its position as England’s northern neighbor. Arthur identifies the Scots as the principal danger to the peace he hopes to secure. To him, the end of conflict between Yorkists and Lancastrians has settled England’s internal rivalry, but does not make the realm safe: the north must still be protected. His concern is not, at first, a desire for conquest. He distinguishes fighting to gain territory from fighting to defend a border, and anticipates that England may have to resist Scottish aggression.

That frontier is not an easily secured line. Katherine later studies maps of the northern lands in the council chamber and sees a border made up of disputed territories and difficult country. A long, rough boundary gives an invading force opportunities and makes comprehensive defense hard. The narrative thus gives Scotland strategic force even when it is not physically present in a scene: the land between the kingdoms complicates decisions about where troops should go, how castles should be supported, and whether a campaign can be undertaken safely.

Arthur’s Defensive Vision

Arthur imagines peace as something that must be actively maintained. He expects to strengthen the border, inspect and repair its castles with Catalina, and draw on her experience of growing up amid an army fighting over borderlands. His plans make her an intended adviser in matters of defense, not merely a witness to them. The anticipated work is practical: understand the terrain, keep the fortifications effective, and prevent a threat from becoming an invasion.

His wider political vision links defense to the building of a durable kingdom. He and Catalina envisage roads, markets, churches, schools, coastal forts, and ships, alongside courts where people can have their cases heard. The border is one part of a larger project: a state whose security depends on infrastructure and justice as well as military force. Arthur’s approach is cautious but not passive. He is willing to fight in defense of England, while resisting war for the sake of territorial gain.

The fear is not confined to the young couple’s future plans. Henry VII has reinforced castles and kept the Great North Road open so soldiers can be sent north if necessary. He relies on the Howard family and the trust of northern landlords to hold the region. His policies recognize that the border cannot be treated as a distant, self-contained problem; it must be connected to royal authority, local power, and the movement of troops. Arthur’s concern therefore continues a strategic outlook already embedded in the government he is expected to inherit.

Katherine’s Strategic Reading

As queen, Katherine studies her father-in-law’s papers and learns how he managed the northern lords. Henry VII allowed them greater freedom, wealth, and status than other lords because he needed them as a bulwark against Scotland. Katherine understands both the value and the danger of that arrangement. Powerful nobles can help secure the border, but their wealth and independence can also make them a threat to the Crown. When Henry VIII considers giving a wealthy man an additional pension, she warns against strengthening his position unnecessarily. Border defense and the management of aristocratic power are, in her view, connected questions.

Katherine also inherits Arthur’s attention to Scotland. The English Privy Council keeps spies along the border, while Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, has northern lands and responsibilities that bind his interests to the kingdom’s defense. Katherine considers this an intentional design by Henry VII: rather than simply trusting a lord to serve the Crown, the old king tied that lord’s success to the security of the north. Reports from the earl, English merchants in Scotland, and travelers help Katherine judge the immediate risk. At one point she concludes that England is safe from a major invasion for the summer, allowing the army to be sent against France while Henry learns to campaign.

This judgment depends on information that later changes. After Katherine’s grief, London hears that Scottish privateers have attacked an English merchant ship. Andrew Barton is identified as the privateer, sailing under authority from James IV of Scotland. The belief among London’s dockside community is that the Scottish king has licensed attacks on English shipping. Meanwhile, the Percys and Nevilles report that raids in the northern lands have grown bolder. Katherine weighs the possibility that the Scots may seize Northumberland, take Berwick, and continue toward Newcastle against the difficulty of an English campaign across rough border country. She does not mistake anger for a military plan: distance, terrain, and the reluctance of soldiers to fight far from home all matter.

From Raids to War

Katherine’s perception of Scotland is also shaped by Arthur’s unrealized military promise. She remembers his interest in warfare, his reading and study, and his questions about border castles and the shape of the land. In her assessment, he understood how to command men and might have led an army against the Scots. His death leaves that imagined defense unrealized; the young Henry, by contrast, must still learn tactics. Scotland consequently becomes a measure of the military knowledge England has lost with Arthur and of the experience its new king has yet to acquire.

The danger becomes immediate when England is committed to a campaign in France. With Henry and the English army away, the Scots declare war and begin marching south. Wolsey asks Katherine whether she needs some of the king’s troops recalled. She judges that she can meet a border skirmish, but acts on the possibility of a larger threat by calling a fresh muster from towns across the country, using lists already prepared. She orders the London militia assembled and inspects it in armor, mounted on her white horse, before it marches north. The response is both a consequence of her earlier attention to intelligence and evidence that she is prepared to assume command when the king is absent.

Defeat and Narrative Significance

The news of victory makes the outcome unmistakable. A messenger reports that the King of Scotland has been killed alongside twenty Scottish lords, as well as bishops, earls, and abbots. Katherine first asks whether England has won; the answer stresses that the victory belongs to her. The men she raised, trained, and armed have carried out the orders she gave, and the earl credits her with making England safe. The account presents the result not as an abstract triumph over a neighbor but as the direct consequence of the queen’s preparations and command.

Across these episodes, Scotland shifts from a predicted danger in Arthur’s discussions to a strategic problem Katherine must assess, and finally to an invading enemy defeated by forces she has mobilized. The border’s contested territories and hard country remain central to the stakes: they make defense difficult, constrain the options available to rulers, and give intelligence and preparation their value. Scotland also exposes the limits of peace secured by diplomacy or marriage alone. In the narrative, England’s safety requires institutions, fortified frontiers, political alliances with northern lords, and a ruler able to act when the threat becomes real.