A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

Second conquest of Scotland.

Bruce murders Comyn, and rebels.

Preparations for fourth invasion.

Edward’s death near Carlisle.

The King had thus much to revenge when, in June, he began his march. On this occasion he was accompanied by a fleet to bring his supplies. He thus avoided the difficulty which the desolate state of the country had hitherto presented. He pushed onward into the far North. On returning he took up his abode for a time in Dunfermline. Most of the Scotch Barons there sought and obtained pardon, and at length Comyn, who had been the leader of the rebellion, made a treaty in Fife, by which the Lords agreed to suffer any pecuniary fine Edward thought fit, and the castles and government were to be in Edward’s hands. One stronghold only refused to obey this treaty. Sir William Oliphant held the fortress of Stirling, and it required three months to reduce its gallant defenders to submission. This was the last opposition Edward had to fear; he at once admitted the Scotch to pardon, and settled the country, placing his chief confidence apparently in Wishart, Bishop of St. Andrews, John de Mowbray and Robert Bruce. It was soon seen how little reliance could be put on the first and last of these Commissioners.

Robert Bruce was the grandson of the claimant of the Scotch throne; his grandfather had been an English judge, his father a constant friend of Edward. It was only by marriage that the family had acquired the estates of Carrick and Annandale. He was therefore to all intents and purposes an Englishman, or rather a Norman Baron, possessed of that peculiar characteristic of the race which rendered it in fact a race of adventurers, with the constant hope of winning great things before their minds. The instances of Norman Barons who had won earldoms, kingdoms and empires, were too numerous not to have had effect upon aspiring members of the race. Bruce had up to this time played a somewhat vacillating game, but on the whole, perhaps because of his feud with Balliol, he had remained faithful to Edward. He seems now to have thought his opportunity had arrived. It may perhaps have been the King’s growing infirmities that encouraged him. At all events, early in February 1306, he murdered in the church of Dumfries Comyn, who, in accordance with the interpretation of the law which Edward had recognized, stood next to the Balliols in succession to the Scotch throne, and who, since he had last submitted to Edward, had been true to him. Bruce then, joined by a few nobles, raised the standard of revolt. He proceeded at once to Scone, and there, in March, was crowned by Wishart and other of Edward’s Commissioners. This unexpected insurrection from those whom he had trusted roused Edward to extreme anger. With great pomp, at a meeting at Westminster, he knighted his son, and took a solemn oath to avenge John Comyn’s death. Carlisle was the point of rendezvous, but already Bruce had been defeated at Methven near Perth by Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, and was wandering barefoot and in misery among the hills and woods of the country. He was reduced to demand the pity of the King, but was refused; and a severe ordinance was issued that all abettors of the murder of Comyn should be hanged, and that all those who assisted Bruce should be imprisoned. The ordinance was carried out with severity. Nigel Bruce, two Seatons, the Earl of Athole and Simon Fraser, were all executed, and the Countess of Buchan, who had crowned Bruce, was imprisoned, with ironical cruelty, in a crown-shaped cage. But Bruce himself was not taken, and issuing from his fastnesses, he inflicted many losses by surprise upon the English. He even in his turn defeated the Earl of Pembroke, and shortly after the Earl of Gloucester; and Edward was rousing himself to attack him, though scarcely able to mount his horse, when he died upon the march.

Constitutional importance of the reign.

The mere narration of the political facts of the reign, although it brings out prominently much of Edward’s greatness, gives no idea of the real constitutional importance of his work. Not only was he the first truly English King, both by his circumstances and political views, but he became, in virtue of his love of order and legal arrangement, the completer of the English Constitution. In the first place, it is to him that we owe the perfection of the Parliamentary system, of the complete representation in Parliament of the three Estates of the realm, the Lords, Commons, and Clergy. For it is plain that it was his intention to combine the three, although the clergy refused to accede to his wish, and preferred to tax themselves separately in Convocation; a body which however, as will be afterwards seen, also owes its representative arrangements to him. The gradual introduction of the representative system of the counties has been mentioned. Again and again, on special occasions, knights, to represent the shire and to give information with regard to their counties, had been summoned. Simon de Montfort had even introduced representation of the boroughs; but this was regarded as wholly exceptional. Nevertheless, Edward was not long in seeing both the justice and advantage of the system. In the first Parliament of his reign, when enacting the first great Statute of Westminster, a healing and restorative measure applicable to the whole country, he said that he made it with the consent of the commonalty; there were possibly representatives of the counties present; more probably their consent was arrived at in some other way. At the same time, the high view which he took of his own constitutional position is marked by a change in the ordinary form of enactment. Statutes had hitherto been enacted “by the counsel and consent of Parliament.” The alteration of a few letters changed the meaning of this phrase. The present statute was said to be enacted “by the King by the advice of his Council and the assent of Parliament.” The legislative power was thus made to reside in the King and his Council. It is the power thus claimed which gave rise to the legislative, or rather the ordaining power claimed by the King in Council, which was afterwards frequently complained of by the Parliament. But Edward, in spite of these pretensions, accepted the view that all should be consulted where the interests of all were at stake. This was of course chiefly in the matter of taxation, and the convenience as well as the justice of the method which Simon de Montfort had set on foot soon became evident to his mind. From the beginning of this reign, the method of taxation had been changed. Instead of an aid, raised from the land, it had become a subsidy raised by an assessment on the moveables of the people. Most frequently the proportion granted was a tenth or fifteenth, but in these early times every variety of proportion was granted. As yet, however, these taxes had been collected locally in accordance with arrangements made by Exchequer officers, sheriffs, or the county court. In 1282, the King, being in want of money for his Welsh wars, proceeded by his ordinary method. The sums raised locally were insufficient; while his Barons were with him at the wars it was inconvenient to hold a Parliament; writs were issued therefore to the sheriffs and archbishops to collect their two Estates, the Commons and the clergy, at two centres, York and Northampton. At these meetings were present four representative knights from each county, and all freeholders of more than one knight’s fee. The Commons made their grant of a thirtieth. The assemblies of the clergy declined, until the parochial clergy were represented. For this purpose the election of Proctors was then ordered, and they have since formed a regular part of the Convocation. These negotiations were not completed when what is called the Parliament of Acton Burnell was summoned to settle the affairs of Wales. At that meeting there were present no clergy, and representatives of twenty towns only, summoned separately. In 1290, a further proof is given that for taxation by subsidy the representation of the Commons was beginning to be considered necessary. In that year an old-fashioned feudal aid was granted for the marriage of the King’s daughter. It was granted by the baronage for the whole commonalty, and was in the old form of land-tax, but the Commons being subsequently present, it was changed at their request to a fifteenth. It was possible for the baronage to grant the aid upon military tenants, but the rest of the people could not be reached. Two principles had by this time been established,—that the clergy should be fully represented, and that for subsidies upon the whole kingdom it was both convenient and just that the Commons should in some way be represented; but it was not yet held necessary for feudal matters, or for questions touching the baronage only, that the Commons should be present. Indeed, at this very Parliament, the statute “Quia Emptores” was passed by the Barons before the Commons assembled. All these preparatory steps found their completion in the Parliament of 1295, when writs were issued to the Archbishops to appear themselves, and to send Proctors to Westminster; to the Prelates and Barons, as Peers, and to the sheriffs, summoning the knights of the counties, and two burghers from each town.[53] There was thus a Parliament complete in all its parts, such as it has since remained. We must not suppose, however, that the Estates acted in common, or that the Commons had much voice in the deliberation. At this very Parliament of 1295, the grant of each order was different, nor was it till 1318, in Edward II.’s reign, that the Commons can be considered as perfectly incorporated in the Legislative Assembly. The constitutional view at present was, that the King, with the assent of his Barons, granted the petitions of the Commons and the Clergy.

Great statutes of the reign.

The great statutes which were passed in these various Parliaments must now be mentioned. Those which were of most general national interest were the First Statute of Westminster, which, as has been before said, revived and re-established the old constitutions of the country, and limited the employment of feudal aids; and the Statute of Winchester, passed in 1285, which was a re-enactment and completion of the Assize of Arms established by Henry II., and aimed at once at the defence and police of the country. It laid upon the counties, under heavy penalties, the duty of indicting felons and robbers, ordered the police arrangements of walled towns, the enlargement and clearing of the edges of public roads, and further defined the arms which each class of the population was bound to procure for the preservation of the land. Constables and justices were to be appointed to see to the proper observance of this statute, from whom subsequently grew the justices of the peace. Some such statute was indeed very necessary, and even its stringent provisions were not sufficient to establish order. In 1305, England was full of riotous outlaws, who were willing to hire themselves out for purposes of private outrage when they were not plying their own trade of robbery; these were known by the name of “trail-bâtons.” To suppress them it was found necessary to issue commissions to travelling justices, empowering them to act summarily towards such breakers of the peace. Their strictness is mentioned in the political songs of the day. It was impossible, it was said, any longer to beat your children, you were at once punished as a trail-bâton.[54] Even the stringency of these measures of suppression mark Edward’s love of order. Lastly, must be mentioned the great Acts for the confirmation of the charters, which are sometimes regarded as the statute “De tallagio non concedendo.” From this time forward arbitrary tallages, though occasionally used, began to be regarded as illegal.