Edward I. England, he summoned a Parliament to meet him at A.D. 1300. Lincoln, in the following January, to deliberate on A.D. 1301. assembles to consider the Pope's claims. the matter. At the meeting of this Parliament, before the Parliament Pope's insolent claims were considered, it was necessary for the King to answer the complaints of his people. The King's Secretary, Roger Brabazon, therefore, opened the proceedings by saying, that whatever the King had done in these late wars had been done by their consent; that they had thus put him to great expense, and that he consequently desired a grant of a fifteenth. At this there was great murmuring, partly on account of the King's frequent demands of money, but mainly because the question as to the forests was still unsettled. Dissatisfaction of the barons. The King agrees to settle the Forest question. After some days' hesitation, the King was obliged to yield. A list of the forests was presented to Parliament, and the King confirmed the perambulations from which the lists were made; agreeing, that whatever, by these last perambulations, was disforested should remain so, and what was then allowed to be forest, should be so for ever. It was also agreed that twenty-four knights should be chosen, to distinguish the ancient from the new forests, and that those which were found to be made forests since the first coronation of Henry the Third, should forthwith be disforested. The King then caused the sentence of excommunication to be again pronounced "against all violators of the said great Charters, which he himself, by means of evil counsellors, had too much violated before."8 The Great Charters also were confirmed, confirmed. and ordered to be sent down and proclaimed in all the counties of England. The nobles and commons then granted one-fifteenth of all movables, but Great Charters the clergy still refused to give anything without the Edward I. Pope's leave. A.D. 1301. The King then laid before the assembly the Pope's letter claiming the sovereignty over Scotland, to which, it was agreed, an answer should be sent, utterly repudiating the Pope's claims, and expressing, Parliament in the strongest terms, their determination to protect the Pope's the rights of the English Crown, even if the King claims." himself should be inclined to give them up. repudiates Scotland. avoid a general ment. The truce with Scotland ended at Whitsuntide, Whitsunwhen the King prepared for a fifth expedition into Fifth inScotland. He created his eldest son, Prince of Wales vasion of and Earl of Chester, as the King's eldest sons have remained to this day, and he gave him the command of one part of the army, reserving the other to himself. No great results followed this expedition. The The Scots Scots pursued Wallace's tactics, avoiding general engagements. The King, therefore, knowing that he engagehad always lost, during his absence in winter, what he had gained in summer, determined to winter in Edward Scotland. While there, he received letters from his winters in brother-in-law, the King of France, asking him to grant the Scots another truce, till the beginning of November. To this, he thought proper to agree, and returned to England. At Stamford, in Lincolnshire, he held a council, at which the complaints against the King for not observing the perambulations of Truce the forests were again renewed, and again he pro- on, and mised to observe his promises. Edward's obstinacy in evading the destruction of the new forests is very England. remarkable, and quite contrary to the general up- complaints rightness of his character. Scotland. agreed Edward returns to Renewed about the forests. again The following year, the King of France offered to The King convert his truce with Edward into a permanent makes promises. Edward I. peace. He had been defeated by the Flemings at A.D. 1302. Cambray on July 11, A.D. 1302, and was therefore Scots re sume the war when truce expires. Sixth in yasion of Scotland. anxious to be relieved of a chance of war with England. He proposed, at first, that his old allies the Scots should be included in the treaty of peace, but, on Edward's refusal, he gave up this point, and peace was concluded between the two nations. Gascony was restored to England. When the truce between Scotland and England was at an end, the Scots at once took to arms, and gained a great victory over John de Segrave, whom Edward had appointed Governor of Scotland. This happened while Edward was settling the treaty of peace with France, but, as soon as he heard of it, he prepared for a sixth expedition to Scotland, which he determined to invade in person. He separated his army into two divisions; and gave the command of one to the Prince of Wales, who marched to the West of Scotland, while the King himself marched northwards. He reached Edinburgh without challenge or interruption. The whole course of the King, as well as that of the Prince, was marked by smoke and devastation, by the plunder of towns and villages, the robbery of granges and garners, the flames of woods, and the destruction of the small tracts of cultivated ground which yet remained. Wherever he turned his arms, the inhabitants submitted to a power which it was impossible for them to resist; and the Governor Comyn, Sir Simon Fraser, and Wallace, were driven into the wilds and fastnesses, where they still continued the war by irregular predatory expeditions against the conThe Scotch voys of the English. Comyn, the Governor apentirely pointed by the Scotch nobles, and Wallace, whom the nobles had deposed, still kept up a resistance; but it submit. was all in vain. In February, A. D. 1304, Scotland Edward I. submitted, the only condition which the Governor A.D. 1304. made, being, that the lives, liberties, and lands of February. himself and his followers should be saved. from amnesty. From this condition, those only were excepted who Wallace had been the most formidable to the English. Among excepted these, to the eternal disgrace of Edward, was William general Wallace, who was summoned to surrender unconditionally. Wallace well knew what was meant by an unconditional surrender, and concealed himself in the woods and mountains. At length, finding himself sur- Escapes to rounded by his enemies, he tried to make conditions the woods with the King. Edward, in whose breast mercy seems mountains. now to have found no home, broke out into an ungovernable rage, cursing him as a traitor (which he never was), and setting a reward of 300 marks on his head. Wallace of course again fled to the wilds. still resists All the fortresses in Scotland had now opened Stirling their gates to the conqueror, except Stirling, which the Enwith a small but brave garrison resisted Edward for glish, three months. In vain were thirteen warlike engines brought to bear on the fortifications: "Thirteen great engines, of all the realm the best in vain were huge leaden balls, great stones, and but is taken at length. Edward's cruelty to the garrison. Edward I. terrible implement of destruction called the Greek A.D. 1304. fire, the use of which Edward had probably learned in the East, was added to his weapons of attack. New and larger engines were constructed, and at length the garrison were obliged to give in; when it was found that the brave men who for three months had resisted the might of the King of England, were not more than 140 in number. The leaders, stript to their shirts, their hands and feet bare, with ropes round their necks, sued for mercy. Edward was too angry at their long resistance to be generous, or even merciful, and he sentenced them all to be imprisoned. There now remained only one man, who still defied the power of Edward, who still eluded his vengeance. This was Wallace. Soon he too came within the conqueror's grasp; betrayed by his fickle, faithless, jealous countrymen.* He was tried for treason and condemned to suffer death, by a cruel and ignominious process; which was put in execution on August 23rd, A.D. 1305. It is sad that a monarch, who, for nearly his whole life, kept and deserved a character for wisdom and for justice, should thus, at eternal dis- its close, wipe out, with a bloody hand, the almost unqualified praise which would otherwise have been his due. Wallace was not guilty of treason; for although Edward claimed to be King of Scotland, he was never recognised as such by the Scottish nobles. Edward was master of Scotland, and might have made himself its King; but his right was only that of conquest, and the right of resistance remained to the Wallace at last betrayed by his countrymen, August 23rd, A.D. 1305, and con demned to death, to the grace of Edward. *Sir John Menteith is said to have been the betrayer: "John of Menteith, in his dayis, Dissavit good Willame Walays." Andrew Wyntown's "Orygynall Chronykill of Scotland." |