Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/43

 and asked him to stand his friend. Edward replied with great bitterness, reminding him of the trouble and humiliation he had brought upon him, and telling him plainly that he wished him out of the kingdom (, p, 16). The letter of suspension that the king had sought for arrived (Concilia, ii. 2S4, 286), and Winchelsey left England, not to return during the king's life. His absence enabled the king and the parliament to give a check to the aggressions of Rome, and led to the famous letter of remonstrance against papal oppressions drawn up by the parliament at Carlisle in the spring of 1307. Nevertheless Edward was forced to make some concessions to the pope, and to draw back in a measure from the position he had taken up in order to secure his triumph over the archbishop (Const. Hist. ii. 156).

Meanwhile, in September 1305, Edward held a council at London, composed of certain bishops and nobles both of England and Scotland, who drew up a scheme for the administration of Scotland, dividing the country into judicial districts, and appointing justices and sheriffs as in England (Flores, p. 462). The scheme was approved by the king, and he fully believed that he had at last secured the submission of the country. In the following year, after taking his pleasure on the borders of Wiltshire and Hampshire, he went to Winchester to keep Lent, and while he was there received tidings of the rebellion of Robert Bruce and the murder of Comyn. He despatched a force to Scotland, under the Earl of Pembroke and two other lords, gave Gascony to his son Edward, and issued a proclamation that all who were bound to receive knighthood should come up to Westminster for that purpose. Then he journeyed to London in a horse-litter, for he was infirm and could not ride. On Whitsunday, 22 May, he held a magnificent festival, knighted his son, and invested him with the duchy of Aquitaine, and the prince knighted about three hundred of his companions in Westminster Abbey. Then, in the midst of the festival, the king vowed 'before God and the swans' that he would punish Bruce, and after that would no more bear arms against christian men, but would go to the Holy Land and die there (ib. p. 462;, p. 408). The prince at once marched to Scotland, and he followed by easy stages towards Carlisle, where he had summoned his army to assemble on 8 July. He was attacked by dysentery, and on 28 Sept. turned aside to Lanercost and joined the queen there (Chron, Lanercost, p. 206). The lenity he had hitherto shown in dealing with the Scottish nobles had failed of its purpose, and he now issued a decree that all concerned in the murder of Comyn, and all who sheltered them, should be put to death, and that all who belonged to the party of Bruce should, after conviction, be imprisoned during pleasure, a decree which, considering the habits of the time, certainly cannot be considered excessively rigorous. The English army was successful; Bruce's adherents were dispersed, and he fled for shelter to Ireland. The war was conducted, as all wars between the English and Scots were conducted, with considerable ferocity, and some Scottish prisoners of rank were tried, condemned, and executed with much barbarity. Edward can scarcely be held guiltless of cruelty in these cases, but his cruelty was not purposeless, and his temper, which had no doubt been soured by age, disappointment, and sickness, was severely tried; for these men had broken the oaths of fealty they had made to him, and their falseness threatened to ruin the work on which he had expended so much labour and treasure, and which he believed had been crowned with success. The Countess of Buchan and the sister of Bruce were subjected to an imprisonment of much severity, though they were not treated so harshly as is often stated [see under, ]. Edward appears to have remained at Lanercost until about 1 March 1307, suffering much from sickness (Chron. de Lanercost p. 207), and before he left gave directions on 26 Feb. for the banishment of Gaveston, the evil counsellor of his son (Fœdera, ii. 1043). He then went to Carlisle to meet his parliament, and remained there. His army was summoned to meet at Carlisle soon after midsummer, and as Bruce had returned and had gained a transient success he determined to take the field in person, and hoping that his health was restored, offered in the cathedral his litter and the horses that drew it, and set out on horseback on Monday, 3 July. His malady returned with increased severity, and that day he only journeyed two miles. Still his spirit was undaunted; he again set out the next day, and again could not ride further than the same distance. On Wednesday he rested, and the next day arrived at Burgh-on-Sands (, p. 413, n. 3). There he took leave of the Prince of Wales; he bade him send his heart to the Holy Land with a hundred knights, who were to serve there for a year; not to bury his body until he had utterly subdued the Scots; and to carry his bones from place to place wherever he should march against them, that so he might still lead the army to victory, and never to recall Gaveston without the common consent of the nation. He died