This did not end the war in Scotland; for another Robert Bruce, who had come to be king after Baliol, determined to do what Sir William Wallace had begun; I mean, to drive the English out of Scotland; and he made ready for a long and troublesome war, and King Edward did the same; but when Edward had got to the border of Scotland with his great army, to fight King Robert, he died.
If King Edward I. had been content to rule over his own subjects, and to mend their laws, and encourage them to trade and to study, he would have made them happier; and we who live now should have said he deserved better to be loved.
Indeed, he did so much that was right and wise, that I am sorry we cannot praise him in everything.
His greatest fault was ambition,—I mean, a wish to be above everybody else, by any means. Now, ambition is good when it only makes us try to be wiser and better than other people, by taking pains with ourselves, and being good to the very persons we should wish to get the better of.
But when ambition makes us try to get things that belong to others, by all means, bad or good, it is wrong.
Ambition caused wise King Edward to forget himself, after conquering the Prince of Wales, and to take Wales as if it were his own country, that there might never be greater men in Wales than the kings of England.
The ambition to be King of Scotland made Edward go to war with the Scots, and made him so cruel as to cut off the head of Sir William Wallace, because he wanted to save his country from being conquered by Edward.
So you see ambition led Edward to do the two most cruel actions he was ever guilty of.
