173 For litill enchesone. Balliol was treated as an ordinary vassal, and finally summoned, with the Scottish magnates, to attend Edward on an expedition into France (June 29, 1294). Balliol, however, made a treaty with King Philip IV. In October he wrote Edward renouncing “the homage extorted from him by violence” (Bain, ii., No. 722). This was followed up by a raid into England in the spring of 1296. Meantime the government had been taken out of Balliol’s hands, and was administered by twelve Scottish barons and prelates.
189 And stuffyt all. The list of castles and towns committed to Englishmen and Scottish supporters of Edward is given in Bain, ii., No. 853. Gray says Edward took possession of all the castles of Scotland (Scala., p. 123).
193 He maid off Inglis nation. The offices of Governor, Treasurer, and Justiciar, as well as minor ones, were filled by Englishmen. Some of the appointments of Sheriffs, etc., are given in Bain as above, and in Stevenson’s Historical Documents, II., pp. 90, 91. Barbour overstates the case.
194 That worthyt than sa ryth felloune. Gray says that the revolt of the conquered territories in Scotland under Robert Bruce was in great measure due to “the bad government of the ministers of the King, who governed them with too great harshness for their own personal gain” (qi trop asprement lez governoient pur singuler profit.—Scala., p. 140).
250 in disputacioun. For the “disputations” of clerks, cf. Chaucer, Nun’s Priest’s Tale and Franklin’s Tale, 162.
259 I leve all the solucioun. As Mr. Neilson has pointed out (An English Miscellany, p. 383), this is a quite serious reference to a class of questions discussed by ecclesiastical lawyers. A whole book (ix.) is devoted to the Redditio Debiti Conjugali in the volume by Thomas Sanchez, one of the Salamanca doctors (De Sto. Matrimonii Sacramento; Venice, 1625). Chaucer’s Wife of Bath has some characteristic remarks on the same subject:
“Why sholde men elles in hir bookes sette
That man shal yelde to hys wyf hire dette?”
(Prologue to Tale, 129, 130. Cf. also 154, 155).
282 Put in presoun Sir Wilyham was. Sir William Douglas, “the bold” (le Hardi), joined Bruce and the other lords who followed Wallace in rising, and formed a camp at Irvine in July, 1297. When these submitted and surrendered, Douglas, for not fulfilling his terms of surrender, was confined in Berwick Castle. Thence he was taken to the Tower, where he died before January, 1299. His Scottish lands were given to Sir Robert de Clifford (cf. lines 285-7).
293 that hym ne dred. Cf. note on Bk. XX. 514.
313 James of Douglas. “James is, in general, dissyllabic in Barbour” (Skeat).