Page:Robert the Bruce and the struggle for Scottish independence - 1909.djvu/333

1322 A.D.], had been released on doing fealty to King Robert, but was so deeply affected by the fate of his friend de Brechin that he begged and obtained permission to return to England. This is inconsistent with the fact that, on April 20th, four months before de Brechin's trial, King Edward issued a safe conduct in favour of Sir Ingelram, to enable him to pass through England beyond the seas with a chaplain, 12 squires, 4 vallets, and 24 grooms; and further, that on January 26, 1321, five months after the trial, Edward issued another warrant, restoring Sir Ingelram to his possessions in England, "as he had escaped from imprisonment in Scotland, and shown that he had never left his allegiance."

The manifesto addressed by the Scottish barons to the Pope had not failed to make some impression on him, if we may judge from the tenour of a letter which he now addressed to King Edward, directing him to make a lasting peace with Scotland. In this letter he referred to Robert as Regentem regni Scotiæ (Regent of the Kingdom of Scotland), which was a marked advance on the term gubernantem which he had used earlier in the year. At the same time he excused himself for having received Sir Edward de Mambuisson and Sir Adam de Gordon, sent as ambassadors from the King of Scots to sue for the repeal of the sentence of excommunication. Edward complied so far as to appoint the Archbishop of York and three others as commissioners to treat with the Scots for a permanent peace, and on September