VI. SCOTTISH AFFAIRS—THE ARBITRATION—THE WAR. A.D. 1291–1296.

The year 1290, as we have already observed, was the disastrous one which ended Edward’s peaceful career, and involved him, without any purpose or desire of his own, in troubles and strife for the rest of his days. The death of a young princess, at a distance of five hundred miles from Edward’s dominions, involved the northern part of the island in troubles which he alone had power to quell. His interposition, earnestly and loudly called for, became, apparently, inevitable. But, when once engaged in the attempt, there seemed no option left him in any of the after‐proceedings. Step followed step, by absolute necessity, until the annexation of the Scottish realm became the natural and unavoidable close; and in this way, without having any alternative, he became an object of enmity to almost every Scotchman, and drew down on his memory in after times, the bitter and unjust animadversions of a long series of prejudiced historians.

A controversy had existed between England and Scotland for centuries before Edward was born. Various kings of England had received the homage alike of the princes of Wales and of the kings of Scotland. We have seen that when Edward was to be crowned, his brother‐in‐law, Alexander of Scotland, came to Westminster and paid his homage; while Llewellyn of Wales, not denying his liability, tried to evade that ceremony by various excuses.

But two different meanings were attached in England and Scotland to this fealty due from the Scottish king. The English lawyers and statesmen always maintained that it was due to the king of England for the realm of Scotland. The Scots, on the other hand, insisted on another view—that the king of Scotland owed homage for the honour or earldom of Huntingdon, a possession held by him within the realm of England; but that for Scotland itself he owed no fealty, and ought not to come under any obligation. This quarrel, or difference of opinion, had existed for two or three hundred years. It came to the surface at Edward’s coronation, when his brother‐in‐law, the king of Scotland, appeared at Westminster in great state to pay his homage. He came attended by a hundred knights, and, as we have already narrated, “each knight, as he dismounted from his horse, cast the steed loose, and whosoever could catch them, had them to their own behoof.” But still, when the homage was to be paid, the usual question arose. The English lawyers and statesmen demanded an unconditional homage for the realm of Scotland. The Scotch persisted in limiting it to “the lands their king held of king Edward in England.” No quarrel ensued; the question seems to have been postponed, for we find that three years after, Edward writes to the bishop of Wells, that “his beloved brother, the king of Scotland, had agreed to perform an unconditional homage at the ensuing feast of Michaelmas.” Alexander then appeared before the parliament at Westminster, and offered his homage in these words: “I, Alexander, king of Scotland, do acknowledge myself the liegeman of my lord Edward, king of England, against all his enemies.”

This Edward accepted;41 and it is abundantly evident that, as the two brothers‐in‐law had no intention of quarrelling, the real point in dispute—the allegiance claimed “for the realm of Scotland”—was left undecided—Edward not conceding, Alexander not admitting, the alleged rights of the English crown.

This position of postponement, declining to bring the matter to a quarrel, continued during the whole of Alexander’s life. Edward and he remained in amity; but Edward in this and all other disputed questions, always used the reservation—”saving the rights of my crown;” i.e., “whatever properly belongs to the king of England, that I do not concede.”

In 1261 a daughter had been born to Alexander of Scotland in the castle of Windsor, and in due time this daughter was married to Eric, king of Norway. Her brother, the only surviving son of Alexander, was also married, about the same time, to a daughter of the count of Flanders. But the lapse of a few years saw the removal of almost the whole family by death. Margaret, Alexander’s wife and Edward’s sister, died in 1274, her son in 1282 or 1283, and her daughter, the queen of Norway, in the following year. Alexander himself was killed by a fall from his horse in 1286; and thus the only successor to his house remaining was the young princess, his daughter’s child, who was styled “the maiden of Norway.”

When Alexander suffered the loss of both his children in 1283–4, a meeting of the estates of the realm was held at Scone, at which meeting the succession was declared to belong to “the maiden of Norway.” When, two years later, the unexpected calamity of Alexander’s own death occurred, another meeting was held, and recourse was had to Edward, whose niece, the late queen of Norway, had been the young maiden’s mother. He was in Gascony at the time, and he contented himself with counselling the Scotch to choose a regency, and to carry on the government in the young queen’s name. The intelligence does not seem to have hastened his return from the continent, which did not take place until two or three years afterward.42

A council or parliament was accordingly held at Scone on the 11th of April, 1286, at which a regency, consisting of six “guardians of the realm,” was appointed. The persons chosen were, the bishop of St. Andrew’s, the earl of Fife, the earl of Buchan, the bishop of Glasgow, the lord of Badenoch, and James, the steward of Scotland.

But in the absence of any visible sovereign, it was not surprising that the Bruces, and Baliols, and other families which claimed to be in the line of succession, should draw together, consult, and form confederacies, having in view the contingency which afterwards did actually arise—that the young “maiden of Norway” might die before she could ascend the throne. These rivalries and confederacies increased, and the parties strove with each other, until, at length, as the historian of Scotland confesses, “open war broke out between the adherents of Baliol and Bruce; and, for two years after the death of the king, continued its ravages in the country.”

Such was the state of affairs during the last portion of Edward’s stay on the continent; and assuredly, for this sad predicament of Scotland, he was in no way answerable. But the natural and inevitable consequence was, that so soon as he arrived in England, he was compelled, by appeals directed to him from all sides, to begin to concern himself with the troubles of that kingdom. Sir Francis Palgrave has shown, by a reference to the original documents, that such appeals were addressed to him by the earl of Mar, by Robert Bruce, lord of Annandale, and by a body called “the seven earls of Scotland.” These parties all “appealed to the king of England and his royal crown.” So invoked, the king invited them to send commissioners to meet him at Salisbury in November, 1289, there to treat of “certain matters of import;” and to which meeting the king of Norway would also send an ambassador of his own. The Scotch readily acceded to his proposal, and they sent to this meeting at Salisbury the bishop of St. Andrew’s, the bishop of Glasgow, Robert Bruce, and John Comyn.

The “matters of import” which Edward propounded to this meeting, concerned a plan, the best which human skill could have devised, for restoring and securing the tranquillity of Scotland. The young prince of Wales was now in his sixth year—the maiden of Norway was of nearly the same age. If these two children were betrothed to each other, the kingdom of Scotland would at once be placed under the joint protection of England and Norway. Thus all would be security and order; and, in course of time, on the succession of the young prince to the throne of England, the unity and harmony of the two kingdoms, under one head, would be secured in the best and most unobjectionable manner. Even the Scottish historians, with one consent, admit the wisdom and prudence of this plan, which Hume himself describes as “favourable to the happiness and grandeur of both kingdoms.”

They also concede, that the negociation was conducted with the greatest fairness and liberality on Edward’s part. Appealed to on all sides, he could not question his own position, as, practically, the superior lord. The king of Norway had instructed his ambassadors to treat with the Scottish commissioners “only in the presence of the king of England.” And, referring to a claim which he had upon the Scots for a sum of about 3,000 marks, he requests the king “to issue his commands to the guardians of Scotland” to pay him the money. The young queen, also, while she was the daughter of the king of Norway, was also the daughter of Edward’s niece. In every way, therefore, the interposition of these two kings was the reverse of officiousness or assumption.

Nevertheless, Edward, with his usual liberality of feeling and practical wisdom, allowed the Scottish commissioners to make almost their own terms. He treated with them, says one Scottish writer, “quite on a footing of equality.” “The terms agreed upon,” says another, “were strictly honourable to the weaker party.” And thus was framed and completed, so far as human beings could accomplish it, “a project,” which Hume describes as “so happily formed and so amicably conducted.”

But everything human is uncertain, and this wise and prudent plan was wholly subverted in a few short months by the death of the young queen on her voyage from Norway in the autumn of 1290. “This fatal event,” says Mr. Tytler, “which may justly be called a great national calamity, struck sorrow and despair into the heart of the kingdom.” Obviously, that state of anarchy and civil war which had recently called for the interposition of the two kings, might now be expected to return. The pretensions of the rival candidates so nearly resembled each other, and the difference between them was so slight, that neither could be expected to give way; and a bloody, and perhaps a long‐protracted strife, seemed almost inevitable.

It is abundantly clear that the arbitration of some eminent and powerful personage was the only conceivable way by which the Scottish nation could escape from this fearful peril. And to whom, but to Edward, should they appeal in this emergency? To him they had already gone, more than once or twice, in their recent troubles. Bruce, one of the claimants, had been so far connected with Edward in times past, that had any other referee been named, he would probably have refused to acquiesce. But to an appeal to the king of England no objection seems to have been made in any quarter.

The bishop of St. Andrew’s, whose name has just been given, as the first on the list of the “guardians of the realm,” and the first of the commissioners sent to Salisbury, wrote to Edward on the 7th of October, 1290, “entreating him to approach the border, to give consolation to the people of Scotland, to prevent the effusion of blood, and to enable the faithful men of the realm to preserve their oath, by choosing him for their king, who by right ought to be so.43” For so calling upon Edward, the bishop is severely handled by many Scottish historians. But surely, with a civil war impending, the bishop deserves little blame; especially when we see that the prince to whom he thus applied was afterwards accepted as the arbitrator by all the competitors, and by the assembled nobles of Scotland.

On the fact, that Edward was called upon by the chief men in Scotland at this juncture, there is no dispute, even among the Scottish historians themselves. Dr. Henry says, “The regents, the states, and even the competitors, agreed to refer this great controversy to the king of England;” and “the bishop of St. Andrew’s was sent into England to inform Edward of this reference, and to entreat him to take upon him the office.”44 And Mr. Tytler adds, that “there is also reason to suspect, from documents recently discovered, that Bruce and his adherents had not only claimed his (Edward’s) protection at this moment, but secretly offered to acknowledge his right of superiority.”45

Thus invoked by the leading men in Scotland, who wrote to him—“We shall be involved in blood, unless the Most High provide a remedy by your interposition”—Edward, so soon as he had recovered from the depression occasioned by the loss of his queen, wrote to the chief men in that country, desiring them to meet him at Norham, on the English side of the Tweed, on the 10th of May, 1291. Hume adds that the king, “carrying with him a great army, advanced to the frontiers.” But this statement is shown by the existing records to be utterly untrue. Edward, knowing that he was about to meet all the nobles and chiefs of Scotland, who, in the existing state of things, would assuredly come armed and well attended, issued writs to about fifty‐eight of his military tenants in the northern counties, desiring them to meet him at Norham in the beginning of June. This was obviously a measure of precaution. He went to the place of meeting with the Scottish chiefs, attended by his ordinary retinue. But, foreseeing that some troubles might arise, and that it would be most inexpedient that the umpire or superior lord should be powerless in the presence of the Scottish barons, he took measures to have in attendance, in about three weeks after the commencement of the proceedings, a few thousand men, being merely such a force as two or three counties could easily raise. Hume again speaks of Edward’s “powerful army,” and represents the Scottish barons as having been “betrayed into a situation, in which it was impossible for them to make any defence.” But, of any “powerful army” there is not the slightest trace in history; and if Hume had consulted Rymer, he would have seen, that among the fifty‐eight military tenants who were summoned to meet in June, there appeared the names of John Baliol, Alexander Baliol, John Comyn, and Robert Bruce, all of whom held lands of Edward, as English barons. Thus the Scottish leaders, so far from any “betrayal,” were fully apprised several weeks before of Edward’s plans, and were quite at liberty, if they thought fit, to adopt measures for resistance.46

We reach now, then, the 10th of May, 1291. The military retainers whom the king had summoned to meet in June were scarcely yet assembling at their homes. Edward stood, surrounded by his nobles and lawyers, without any other than his usual retinue. He began, therefore, without any thought of force, by proceeding to explain in what capacity he came among them.

Scotchmen now often strive to assume that he had been invited,—had been selected, merely as an umpire, to decide upon a single point, by agreement of all parties. In such arbitrations, however, we generally hear of some document, some contract or treaty; as when Louis of France arbitrated between Henry and his barons in 1264. But of such an agreement or contract there is no trace in the present instance. The lords and great men of Scotland had begged his interposition, and they now simply “appeared,”—as men are usually wont to appear when any court sits in which they have a question depending.

Edward, however, was pre‐eminently a man of order and of respect for law. He therefore began by leaving no doubt as to this part of the case. He at once told them, without the least reserve or delay, by the mouth of Roger Brabazon, his chief justiciary, “that the disturbances which had arisen, in consequence of the late king’s death, were grievous to him, and that, in consequence thereof, and for the restoration of peace, he had travelled a great distance, in order, as lord paramount, to do justice to all.” And first, he asked them, in the most distinct manner, whether they heartily recognized him as lord paramount of the kingdom of Scotland?

This was, unquestionably, the most frank and open way of proceeding, and it was also rendered necessary by the position of the question. It would have been manifestly absurd for the king to have undertaken the decision of the controversy, without first having it distinctly settled and understood in what capacity or character he was acting.

Edward here advanced no new pretensions. The English claim for centuries had been the same—a claim always advanced when England had a powerful sovereign, though often carelessly abandoned when she had a weak or worthless one. Thus, in 1189, the two kingdoms came into violent collision, and, after a great defeat, William the Lion of Scotland consented to make peace on the following terms:—

“William was to become the liegeman of his lord the king Henry, for Scotland, Galloway, and all his other lands, and to perform fealty to his liege lord in the same way as other vassals. His brother, his barons, his clergy, and all his other vassals, were to become the liegemen of the English crown, acknowledging that they held their lands of the English king, and swearing to support him, their liege lord, against the king of Scotland, if the latter ever failed in his fidelity.”47

And yet, not many years after, Richard I. of England, caring much more for Palestine than for Scotland, easily relinquished this fealty. Thus was it always. England, having many records of Scottish homage, always claimed it when she was strong, but easily relinquished it when she was weak, or had some other quarrel on her hands.

Was it, then, noble or generous in Edward to seize this opportunity of Scotland’s greatest weakness to assert this obnoxious claim? This is a question which may deserve a moment’s consideration.

In affairs of state, questions will sometimes arise which require to be handled with reference not to feelings or sentiments, but to the general utility. Spain might say to England now, “Is it kind or generous in you to retain possession of a corner of Spain, merely because the fortune of war gave it to you a century ago?” But before England evacuated Gibraltar, her sovereign and government would feel bound to consider the matter, not in the light of sentiment, but with a view to the general good of the English realm and people. And so with Edward in that day. He had been called to the banks of the Tweed in May, 1291, not by any occasion or desire of his own, but by the urgent need of Scotland. Placed in that position, he must act, he felt, with a constant eye to England’s good. Not aggressively, but firmly maintaining that same position which, nearly twenty years before, like former English kings, he had asserted to be England’s right.

The superiority which he claimed, was no vain or ostentatious pre‐eminence. It was a thing of vast importance to England; while to Scotland itself, though resisted, it was a positive good. The object sought was, that this island of Britain should be at peace with itself—should be preserved from intestine dissensions. If the king of England was really the lord paramount, then the king of Scotland, paying fealty to him, was bound to be always on his side, and thus war between the two was precluded. But if, as the Scots were fond of maintaining, the two kingdoms were wholly independent of each other, then the smaller might, whenever it pleased, make war upon the larger. And hence it was always found, that whenever France quarrelled with England, she sent to Scotland, and persuaded the Scottish king to take part in the contention. And thus this island of Britain, instead of being, as at present, united and strong, was frequently divided against itself, the northern part attacking the south, and inflicting heavy injuries upon it. It was this state of disunion which Edward tried to terminate, as he had previously tried in Wales. To both he said: “Pay to me that homage which you owe; vow to be my true man against all enemies. Pay this vow and keep it; so will this island know no more internal contention.” Had Llewellyn of Wales and Baliol of Scotland, making this vow, “kept their covenant,” neither of them would ever have been disturbed in his seat by the covenant‐keeping king of England.

Edward met the assembled lords of Scotland, then, and began by plainly avowing the position in which he deemed himself to stand. He had invented no new claim; he asserted no right, now, which he had not asserted many years before. To justify his position he had desired his law‐officers to gather from the records of the kingdom, proofs that his claim was neither new nor destitute of foundation. A collection of these proofs was now presented to the Scottish lords, going back to the days of Edward the Elder, the son of Alfred. Many of the instances alleged were merely incidental:—that England’s leave was asked before Scotland did this or that. But some more positive testimonies were on record.

Going back as far as to the times of Athelstan, A.D. 926, Roger de Hoveden, and William of Malmesbury, and Henry of Huntingdon, describe the king’s victory over Constantine, king of the Scots, and how Constantine submitted and swore fealty to him. In Edred’s reign, say William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon, the Scots were again defeated, and again made to take the oath.

Under Edward the Confessor, say Hoveden and Malmesbury, Siward of Northumberland defeated Macbeth, king of Scotland, and gave the crown to Malcolm, as king Edward had commanded. In 1091, say Hoveden and Huntingdon, William Rufus marched against the Scots; and Malcolm, being afraid, made peace, “paying homage to him as he had done to his father.” And in 1097, say the same writers, William sent Edgar into Scotland, where he defeated an usurper in a great battle, and made the son of Malcolm king.

Of the treaty of 1189, between William the Lion and Henry II., we have already spoken. Still, however, amidst all these proofs, it should never be forgotten, that whenever England was weak or perplexed, Scotland had always been ready to throw off the yoke, and to declare that she was, and always had been, entirely independent.

Edward had now been called, by the general voice of Scotland, to come forward and decide an important question, and so to save the realm from a civil war. Was it to be expected that in doing this he could forget his own position, or the claim which England had asserted for the last three or four hundred years? Would it have been right or commendable if he had done so, seeing that upon the decision of this claim depended the unity and harmony, the internal peace and strength, of the two sister kingdoms in all succeeding ages?

Was it to be expected, either, that he could overlook the circumstances attending the present appeal? What meant the application made by the Scotch to him while in Gascony, or the repeated appeals to him since by the bishop of St. Andrew’s, by the seven earls of Scotland, by Robert Bruce, by the earl of Mar, and others, all “appealing to the king of England and his royal crown,” if Scotland was as independent of England as it was of France or of Norway? Sir Francis Palgrave has well observed, that “We have now full evidence that the interposition of Edward was neither wanton nor aggressive, and that it little deserved the terms by which it has been described. Kings have hard measure meted out to them by historians. Let the English monarch be tried by the test and example of an English gentleman: If, on the death of the copyhold tenant, all the persons claiming the right of admission unite in applying to the lord of the manor for a new grant, will it be easy for him to doubt that he is the lawful owner of the domain?”48

Such, then, was the first question opened at Norham. It was, clearly, a necessary one; for how could Edward commence his duties as judge, or arbiter, until he knew whether, and upon what grounds, he was admitted by the contending parties to occupy that position. Hence he said to them, at the very outset, “I come here as lord paramount; do you receive me in that character?”

Their first reply seems to have been, that they were not prepared to give an answer to such a question; and that they wished for time to deliberate. The king expressed surprise that they should be unprepared to give an answer, since they were not ignorant of his intentions. We gather from this expression, that the king had made no secret of his views or purposes; and that there was nothing sudden or unexpected in the demand which he made. Still, as they desired time to deliberate, he adjourned the meeting to the next day; and on their then appearing still undecided, he gave them a further delay of three weeks.49

The lords of Scotland, therefore, had the fullest liberty, the most entire freedom to choose their course. Edward, as he told them, had made no secret of his intentions. Called by them to the meeting at Norham, he had never purposed to go there in any doubtful character. The position he assumed was identically the same which he had assumed throughout his whole reign. He was lord paramount of Britain, just as Philip was lord paramount of France. He found in divers ancient records, English kings acting in this character in Scotland, even as far back as the time of Alfred’s sons. More recently, he found William of Scotland, just one hundred and three years before, consenting to “become the liegeman” of his great grandfather, Henry II., “for Scotland, Galloway, and all his other lands.” His own principle through life had been to maintain the just claims of the crown of England, and “while he was careful in performing his obligations, to be similarly jealous in exacting his rights.”50 He therefore frankly told them, at the very outset, in what character he came there, and he claimed of them an equally frank recognition of his place and dignity. They hesitated, they asked for time. He gave it as soon as asked. He dismissed them, desiring them to return in three weeks with their decision. Had they chosen to resist his claim, this delay gave them ample time to assemble their forces, and to return to Norham in June at the head of an army. The charges, therefore, which Hume and Mackintosh and others have brought, of a “circumvention,” or a “surprise,” are wholly unfounded, and more than usually unjust. Edward’s whole conduct in this part of the transaction was frank, deliberate, and manly.

The lords of Scotland, however, were in no mood for fighting. Several of the chief of them indulged hopes of the crown, and expected a favourable sentence at the hands of Edward. To unite in an indignant rejection of the English claim was, therefore, a thing out of the question. With one consent they submitted to the necessity which seemed inevitable. The three weeks elapsed; no measures for resistance had been taken; they returned to Norham in the beginning of June, unprepared to withstand, and consequently prepared to admit, the English claim.

A second time assembled in full conclave, the king’s able minister, chancellor Burnel, opened the business. He reminded them that the king his master had conceded to them a sufficient time to prepare any objections they might have to offer to his claim of superiority; and, as they had produced none, he would now proceed in the capacity of lord paramount, to do justice in the matter.

“The chancellor then turned to Robert Bruce, and demanded whether he was content to acknowledge Edward as lord paramount of Scotland, and willing to receive judgment from him in that character; upon which this baron expressly answered, that he recognized him as such, and would abide by his decision. The same question was then put to the other competitors, all of whom returned the same answer. Sir Thomas Randolph then stood up, and declared that John Baliol, lord of Galloway, had mistaken the day, but would appear on the morrow, which he did, and then solemnly acknowledged the superiority of the English king.”51

The king himself then addressed the assembly. He declared his intention to pronounce a speedy decision in the controversy; and, meanwhile, to maintain the laws and re‐establish the tranquillity of the country. The several claimants then affixed their signatures to two important instruments—the first declaring their consent to receive judgment from the king as lord paramount; and the second, delivering the land and the castles of Scotland into Edward’s hands, he engaging to re‐deliver them to the person who should appear to be justly entitled. Then a list of eighty commissioners was formed by the candidates themselves, to which list the king was to add twenty‐four names; and these commissioners were to receive the claims of the several candidates, and to report them to the king.

On the 11th of June, the regents of Scotland delivered the kingdom, and the governors of the castles gave up those fortresses, into the hands of king Edward, who immediately re‐delivered them to the regents, promising to give full possession to the rightful claimant, so soon as the question as to the succession should be decided. The guardians of the kingdom then swore fealty to Edward, as lord paramount, and were followed in the same oath by Robert Bruce, by his son, by John Baliol, and by the earls of Buchan, Mar, Athol, Angus, Lennox, Menteith, and many other barons and knights. The peace of king Edward, as lord paramount, was publicly proclaimed, and the assembly was adjourned until the 2nd of August, then to meet at the town of Berwick‐upon‐Tweed. On that day it again met; and the claimants were invited to present their petitions. These, which were twelve in number, were read; and the king recommended them to the attention of the commissioners; enjoining them to give in their report to him, at Berwick, on the 2nd of June, in the next year. Edward was at that time called to England by the illness of his mother, who was then on her death‐bed. He had also the disagreeable task before him of suppressing a violent feud which had broken out between the earls of Hereford and Gloucester. He probably also anticipated that the investigation of the claims of so many as twelve candidates, by a large body of commissioners, would necessarily occupy much time. On these grounds he postponed the decision until the following summer, and soon took his departure for England.52

In June, 1292, the commissioners assembled, the king and all the claimants being present. There can be no doubt that it began to be generally understood by this time that the question must lie between Robert Bruce and John Baliol, both of whom were descended from daughters of David, earl of Huntingdon, who was brother of William the Lion, king of Scotland. The table of affinity is given below.53

Some difficulties arising, the king desired further information to be obtained, and adjourned the further hearing until the 15th of October. On that day all parties again met, and the king proposed to the commissioners two questions: first, by what laws or customs the judgment ought to be regulated? and, secondly, was the kingdom of Scotland to be regarded as a common fief, and the succession to be regulated by the same principles which were applicable to earldoms and baronies? The commissioners replied, that the laws and usages of the two kingdoms must rule the question; but if none existed to regulate the case, the king must make a new law for a new emergency; and that the succession must be decided in the same manner as the succession to earldoms, baronies, and other indivisible inheritances.

The claimants were then called upon, and each endeavoured to maintain his own right. The language used by John Baliol, who ultimately obtained the kingdom, is worthy of notice. He urged “that the claimants were in the court of the lord paramount, of whose ancestors, from time immemorial, the realm of Scotland was held by homage; and that the king of England must give judgment in this case as in the case of other tenements held of the crown, looking to the laws and established usages of his kingdom”54

The king then required of his great council a final answer to this question: “By the laws and customs of both kingdoms, ought the issue of an elder sister, but more remote by one degree, to exclude the issue of a younger sister, although one degree nearer?” The council replied, that the issue of the elder sister must be preferred. Another adjournment then took place, until the 6th of November. On that day the king declared his judgment, that Bruce’s right must yield to the superior claim of Baliol. Whereupon a new question was raised: John de Hastings, descended from the third daughter of David earl of Huntingdon, alleged that the kingdom of Scotland was partible, and ought to be divided among the descendants of the three daughters. Bruce followed, maintaining the same view; and the king referred the question to his council—“Is the kingdom of Scotland divisible; or are its escheats and its revenues divisible?” The council replied, that neither could be divided. One more adjournment then took place, to the 17th of November, when all parties were commanded again to meet in the castle of Berwick‐on‐Tweed.

“On that great and important day, the council and parliament of England, with the nobility of both countries, being met, and the various competitors appearing, the king solemnly decreed, ‘That the kingdom of Scotland, being indivisible, and the king of England being bound to judge of the rights of his subjects according to the laws and usages of the people over whom he reigns, by which laws the more remote in degree of the first line of descent is preferable to the nearer in degree of the second; therefore, John Baliol ought to have seizin of the kingdom of Scotland, with reservation always of the right of the king of England, and of his heirs, when they shall think proper to assert it.’

“After having delivered judgment, Edward exhorted Baliol to be careful in the government of his people, lest, by giving any just cause of complaint, he should call down upon himself an interference of the lord paramount. He then commanded the regents to give him seizin of his kingdom, and directed orders to the governors of the castles throughout Scotland to deliver them into the hands of Baliol. The great seal of Scotland was then broken into four parts, and the pieces ordered to be deposited in the treasury of the king of England.”55

On the following day, Baliol, in the castle of Norham, swore fealty to Edward, who gave a commission to John St. John to proceed to the coronation of the new king. This ceremony took place on St. Andrew’s day; and towards the end of December the king of Scotland visited Edward in England, and paid homage to him at Newcastle‐on‐Tyne.

So ended this great transaction, and even Hume is obliged to admit, that “the conduct of Edward, both in the deliberate solemnity of the proceedings, and in the justice of the award, was so far unexceptionable.” Other Scotch writers, however, have endeavoured to impeach Edward’s honour in this affair on two grounds: They have alleged that he would have decided in Bruce’s favour if Bruce would have consented to acknowledge his feudal superiority; and they have surmised, that he gave the preference to Baliol as being mentally the weaker of the two candidates, and therefore the fitter for his purpose.

The first of these fictions is sufficiently refuted by Hume’s own statement, that “Bruce was the first that acknowledged Edward’s right of superiority over Scotland; for even in his petition, in which he set forth his claim to the crown, he applied to him as liege lord of the kingdom, a step which was not taken by any other of the competitors.” So far, then, as submission to Edward’s claims could merit his favour, Bruce had gone farther than Baliol or any of his other rivals. And the supposition that Edward’s preference for Baliol was dictated by selfish motives, is equally opposed to the known facts of the case. Bruce and Baliol were both English barons, as well as lords in Scotland; but Bruce was the more English of the two. He, the competitor, had for many years sat as a judge in Westminster Hall. His son, the earl of Carrick, had accompanied Edward in his expedition to Palestine; and in Rymer, under the date of 1281, we find the following letter:—

“The king, to Bonrunonio de Luk,56 et sancto Merc´ de Luk, greeting: Whereas our beloved Robert de Brus, earl of Carrick, is in present need of money, we request you that you will cause to be advanced or lent to the said earl or his attorney, for his occasion, forty pounds, and we will cause them to be repaid to you. And when you have lent to him the aforesaid money, you shall take from him his letters patent, testifying his receipt of the same. Witness our hand. Windsor, 10th September, 1281.”57

So far, therefore, as we can judge at this distance of time, we should be inclined to think that the king’s preference was for Bruce, but that his sense of justice compelled him to give judgment in Baliol’s favour. No mental weakness, supposed to exist in Baliol, could be more favourable to Edward’s views than the personal friendship of Bruce and his son.

Our English king, then, had preserved his integrity throughout this whole transaction. If any sinister or concealed purposes had been entertained by him, opportunities of furthering them had not been wanting. If the subjugation and annexation of Scotland had been then in his mind, the unwise proposal of some of the competitors—to divide the kingdom into three—offered him a signal opportunity of advancing his plans. Hume admits that “his interests seemed to require the partition of Scotland.” Yet he promptly rejected the proposal. Rapin, another historian, who is by no means partial to Edward, admits his purity in these transactions. He says, “It appears from Edward’s whole conduct, that his intent at first was not to become master of Scotland, but only to render that kingdom dependent on England, in which he did but follow the steps of most of his predecessors,” “If he had designed a conquest, he might have found pretences to place English governors and garrisons in the fortresses that were put into his hands; or by acceding to the demand for the partition of the kingdom, he might have so weakened it as to render its wretchedness and ultimate fall inevitable.”

The judgment of Mr. Sharon Turner, who is a severe critic of Edward’s whole life, is thus given on the transaction which we have just been describing:—

“In justice to one of the greatest sovereigns that has swayed the English sceptre, it is important to remark that, although the incorporation of Scotland with England became at last his determination, there are not sufficient grounds to impeach his probity with this plan before the conduct of the Scotch led him to adopt it. All that he claimed at the outset was the feudal sovereignty of Scotland. But so had the king of France been the feudal sovereign of Normandy and Gascony; and yet the kings of England, who did homage for these possessions, had enjoyed the government of those countries with sufficient independence. There is no evidence that when Baliol was crowned, the king of England projected to abolish the Scottish royalty or parliament. To be the lord paramount, the feudal sovereign of the whole island, as the king of France had been of Normandy, Bretagne, Flanders, and Aquitaine, while these provinces were enjoying their independent hereditary governments, was the honour to which Edward aspired; and the great political object which he would have attained by it would have been, a termination of the predatory wars, which had always desolated the borders of the two kingdoms. It was a species of impiety and perjury for the liegeman to make war on his feudal lord; and it exposed him to the loss of life and territory. Scotland becoming a royal fief of the English crown, a new and sacred bond of amity was established between the countries. The facts, that for four years Edward did nothing incompatible with the continuance of the Scottish royalty, and that it was the wilful hostility of Scotland itself which forced him into the field against it, afford reasonable evidence that the line which we have drawn was the limitation of his ambition.”58

More recently, Sir Edward Creasy has justly said, that “throughout this memorable transaction there is not the slightest trace of unfairness or rapacity on the part of the king.”59

We leave Edward, then, at this important crisis of his history, blameless. No charge can be advanced against him, even by the most vehement of his Scottish assailants, except that of having embraced an opportunity which came without his seeking, to assert what he deemed to be “the rights of the crown of England.” This Hume terms “iniquitous.” But let it be remembered, that this measure, if successful, involved consequences of the most beneficial kind, alike to both kingdoms. Chiefly, it would have terminated “those predatory wars which had so often desolated the borders of the two kingdoms.” And the opportunity offered to Edward of accomplishing this great work, must have seemed one which it would be criminal to neglect. Long before he had approached Scotland, its chief men directed to him many applications, in which they treated him as their superior lord. He was sensible of the prodigious advantages which would result from any scheme which rendered this state of things permanent. He therefore accepted that which the Scotch seemed eager to offer. At their request he assumed the place and the functions which they tendered. Meeting the assembled barons of Scotland, he frankly and explicitly stated his views. Allowing them an abundant space for deliberation, he again proposed the question. And then, without a dissentient voice, Scotland accepted him as her superior lord. That she, or that some of her barons, afterwards repented of their deed, and wished to retract it, occasioned many calamities to both countries. In fact, this unfaithfulness threw the two realms back into that condition of enmity, from which it had been Edward’s aim to rescue them. It led to the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of lives, and to the long postponement of that union which, after all, was inevitable. But, for all this, it remains indisputable that Edward’s aim was a noble and patriotic one; and that the means he employed were direct, straightforward, and suitable to the occasion.