A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

It was the dangerous condition of his affairs which induced the King to yield to the pressure of the Barons; for in the spring of 1297, Wallace had made his appearance in Scotland. The younger son of a small proprietor in Elderslie, and without means of his own, he had established his fame as a guerilla leader. In the woods and mountains he collected a band of outlaws, with whom he attacked isolated parties of English, all of whom were at once put to death. His cruelties especially against the nuns and priests are described as most revolting. Cressingham, Treasurer of Scotland, foolishly despised him, and thus allowed the insurrection to gain head. He was joined by Sir William Douglas; but on the whole was both disliked and despised by the Scotch nobility. At length, as his followers had increased to an army, and threatened the fortress of Stirling, it became necessary to take measures against him. Warrenne, Earl of Surrey, and Cressingham, raised an army, and advanced to the Forth. The armies met early in September at Cambuskenneth, near Stirling. The river is there spanned by a narrow bridge, at the north end of which the Scotch were strongly posted. With overweening folly, Cressingham insisted on an immediate advance across the bridge. The natural consequence followed; when a small portion of the English had crossed, and were thus cut off from support, the Scotch fell on them and completely routed them. Warrenne, an old and feeble man, took to hasty flight, and the army was in fact destroyed. This victory was followed up by a fierce invasion of the north of England. Wallace seems to have collected troops by violent means; he then led them across the English border, and sweeping it lengthwise from Newcastle to Carlisle, “he left nothing behind him but blood and ashes.”[51] His cruelties were indeed beyond description, and could not but have filled the English with horror, something akin to that which the English in India must have felt at the outbreak of the mutiny.

Treaty with France. 1299.

Edward’s expedition to Flanders had been a failure. The people in the cities, angry with his interference in the wool trade, were opposed to him; his allies had been tampered with by Philip, who had also won a victory over them at Furnes; the Pope was urging peace; and Edward, who always regarded his French affairs as secondary, made a truce before the end of the year 1297, which two years afterwards ripened under the arbitration of Boniface to the Treaty of Chartres. By that treaty, Guienne was restored to the English King, who withdrew his support from his Flemish allies; while Philip in return gave up the cause of the Scotch. The treaty was cemented by a double marriage. Edward himself married Margaret, the French King’s sister; while his son Edward was betrothed to Isabella, Philip’s daughter.

Edward returns and invades Scotland.

Defeats Wallace at Falkirk.

Comyn’s regency.

Shortly after his return, Edward advanced to revenge the insults of Wallace, who had meantime unwisely taken the title of the Guardian of the Kingdom, thus still further exciting the jealousy of the nobles. He retired before the English army, laying waste the country behind him, and Edward had almost been starved into a retreat, when two Scotch Earls told him that Wallace was in the woods in his immediate neighbourhood. Edward at once advanced to meet him. Wallace, with his infantry formed into solid squares, awaited his attack. Such horse as he had fled without striking a blow. The arrows of the English archers broke the squares, and the 7000 heavy armed English cavalry had no difficulty in completing the victory. Wallace fled, and resumed his outlaw’s life, nor does he again play a prominent part in history. In 1305, he was betrayed by one of his own followers named Jack Short to Sir John Monteith, by whom he was given up to the English King, and suffered death, with all the extreme penalties of the law.[52] The bitter feeling his outrages had caused in England made any other fate impossible. But though Wallace sinks into obscurity, his work had not been without effect. The southern counties were so ravaged that the King could not maintain an army there, and had to retire from the country, which passed into the hands of a temporary regency, at the head of which was Comyn.

Parliament of Lincoln.

For several years the steps taken for the reduction of Scotland were marked by great weakness. Edward’s energy was paralyzed, partly by the affairs in France, partly by questions arising with regard to the charters in England. Frequent complaints had been raised with regard to infringements of the Charter of Forests. It was to settle these complaints, and to discuss an extraordinary claim raised by Pope Boniface, that a Parliament was assembled at Lincoln in 1301. With regard to the charter the King yielded, and a considerable disafforesting of districts illegally included within the limits of the forests took place. Pleased with the King’s constitutional conduct, the baronage joined heartily in the rejection of the Papal claim. Boniface had issued a mandate desiring the King to abstain from all further attacks on Scotland, “which did and doth still belong in full right to the Church of Rome.” This mandate was delivered while Edward was in Scotland, and Boniface’s position as arbiter between Edward and the King of France prevented him from at once rejecting it. It is probable that Boniface was only asserting his position as guardian of international law, but the English treated the claim as serious. When it was brought before Parliament, the baronage replied that the kingdom of Scotland never had belonged to the See of Rome, and that they, the Barons of England, would not allow Edward, even if he wished it, to surrender the rights of the Crown. It was not till 1303 that Edward was able to resume his conquest of that kingdom. Early in that year he ordered his Barons to assist John Segrave, Governor of Scotland, in marching from Berwick to Edinburgh. But that General mismanaged his march, and as he approached Roslin on the way to Edinburgh, in three divisions, he was fallen upon by Comyn, and his army defeated in detail.

Fresh invasion of Scotland.