Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/510

Rh 488 SCOTLAND [HISTORY. 1298-1328. the instances of homage collected for use at Norham but the fable of Brute the Trojan, from whose eldest son Locrinus he claimed descent, and therefore superiority over the Scottish kings sprung from Albanactus the second as well as those of Wales descended from Camber the third. Baldred de Bisset, the Scottish commissioner at Rome, in his answer admitted the pope's right, but replied to Edward's fiction by another as bold, the descent of the Scots from Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh. A more solid Mgument was founded on the treaty of Brigham. The pope delayed judgment, and in 1302 suddenly changed sides and exhorted the Scots, by several bulls, to submit. Edward had not waited for this sanction ; the period be- tween the battle of Falkirk and the taking of Stirling was a continuous and bloody struggle. In person he laid waste Galloway and took Caerlaverock (1300); in 1302, his general Sir John Segrave, having fought a battle of doubt- ful issue with Comyn and Fraser at Roslin, Edward re- turned (1303), marched as far as Caithness, and reduced the whole east of Scotland by the capture of Stirling (24th January 1304). Scotland was subdued, yet Wallace lived, and we catch glimpses of him, in the woods of Dunferm- line, in the forest of Ettrick, in the neighbourhood of Lanark. A price was set on his head, and at last he was betrayed by a servant of Sir John de Menteith near Glasgow and taken to London, where, after a mock trial in Westminster Hall, he received the traitor's doom (23d August 1305), though he denied with truth that he had taken any oath to Edward. Settle- This time Edward, in order to make the conquest of ment of Scotland permanent, proceeded to incorporate it in the Scotland em pi re o f England. With apparent fairness an assembly ward I. was summoned to Perth to elect ten representatives to attend a parliament at Westminster to treat of the affairs of Scotland. Nine commissioners came to London, where they were associated with twenty Englishmen. The result was the " Ordinacio facta per dominum regem pro stabili- tate terrae Scotiae" (1305). Though never fully carried out, this document, on the model of similar ordinances for Wales and Ireland, discloses Edward's designs. English nobles were appointed to administer the government of the country, and eight justices to administer the law. The law and usages of Scotland (except those of the Brets and Scots, which were abrogated) were to be observed in the meantime ; but the lieutenant (John of Brittany, the king's nephew) and council were to amend what was contrary to God and reason, or in case of difficulty refer to Edward at Westminster. The whole country was divided into sheriff- doms, the sheriffs being removable at the discretion of the lieutenant. The office of coroner, more important then than now, was also regulated ; certain persons were nomi- nated constables of the chief castles; and many nobles were fined and others banished. Bruce (the competitor's grandson) was ordered to put Kildrummy Castle (Aberdeen) in charge of an officer for whom he should be responsible. The ordinance was suitable to its object, moderate, even humane. The banishment of the nobles was limited as to time. Relief was given in the payment of fines. Many old officers were continued. Edward's aim at this time was to pacify the country he had conquered, to put down resistance, but to encourage submission. It is as wrong to call him a tyrant as Wallace a rebel : the one was a statesman king with imperialist aims, the other a patriot leader with keen popular sympathies. The king triumphed ; but before his death his well-laid plans were shattered : Scotland again rose in arms, and this time the nobles joined the people, under the leadership of Robert the Bruce. Robert The position, as well as the character, of Bruce con- the trasted with that of Wallace. Instead of being a cadet of fa e ordinary landed gentry, Bruce represented a family in Bruce. which for more than two centuries the purest Norman blood had flowed. The English branch of Skelton in Cleveland and the Scottish branch of Annandale divided their large possessions ; but those of the latter sufficed to make its head one of the most powerful nobles in Scotland, who still retained, as so many did, English fiefs. More than one of his ancestors had intermarried with the royal house of Scotland (see ROBERT THE BRUCE, vol. xx. p. 592). On his father's death Bruce succeeded to Annandale. He held besides several manors in England. During the early part of the War of Independence, like many barons with conflicting interests, he had wavered, sometimes supporting Wallace, more frequently the English king. In 1 303-4 he assisted Edward in the preparation for the siege of Stirling. He had been consulted with regard to the ordinance of 1305. But there were already signs of mutual distrust. The provision in the ordinance as to Kildrummy shows that Edward was aware special precautions had to be taken to secure the loyalty of Bruce, and on llth June 1304 Bruce secretjy met near Cambuskenneth Lamberton, bishop of St Andrews, and entered into a bond referring to future dangers from Edward. Of all the Scottish clergy Lamberton had been most friendly to Wallace, and this bond was a link between the two periods of the War of Independence and their leaders. Bruce had attended at Westminster when the ordinance was settled, but left sud- denly, arriving at Dumfries on the seventh day. There he met in the church of the Friars Minor John (the Red) Comyn of Badenoch, Baliol's nephew, and slew him before the high altar (10th February 1306). The die was cast, and indecision vanished from the character of Bruce. Collecting his adherents at Lochmaben and Glasgow, he passed to Scone, where he was crowned by the bishop of St Andrews. It at first seemed likely that a saying of his wife would prove true, that he was a summer but would not be a winter king. His defeat at Methven (19th June 1306) was followed by another at Strathfillan (llth August), and Bruce took refuge in the island of Rathlin (off Antrim, Ireland). The tales of his hairbreadth escapes, his courage and endurance in all changes of fortune, were gathered by Barbour from the mouths of the people, who followed the life of their champion with the keenest in- terest. Meanwhile Edward came north and gave a fore- taste of his vengeance. But his severity strengthened the party of Bruce, which grew daily. All classes now made, with few exceptions, common cause against the enemy of all Edward's death at Burgh-on-Sands (7th June 1307) at once changed the whole aspect of the invasion. Edward II. wasted in the ceremony of a funeral and the diversions of a youthful court the critical moment of the war. Bruce seized his opportunity, and by the close of 1313 Berwick and Stirling alone remained English. The independence of Scotland was finally determined by the ever-memorable victory of Bannockburn (24th June 1314). Bruce reigned fifteen years after Bannockburn and (if the Irish expedition of his brother Edward be left out of account) with almost uninterrupted success. On his return from Ireland he reduced Berwick (March 1318) and con- verted it from an English to a Scottish frontier town. His recognition by the pope was followed by the acknow- ledgment of Flanders and France ; and the long truce which Edward II. had been forced to agree to before his death became in the new reign a formal treaty known as that of Northampton (April 1 328). By its leading article Treaty " Scotland according to its ancient bounds in the days of North Alexander III. shall remain to Robert, king of Scots, and ' 1I " 1> 01 his heirs, free and divided from England, without any sub- jection, servitude, claim, or demand whatsoever." In pur- suance of another article Johanna, Edward's sister, was married to David, the infant son of Bruce, at Berwick on