[47] Robertson’s Scotland under her Early Kings, vol. i., p. 373.
[48] Palgrave’s Documents, vol i., p. 25.
[49] Mr. Tytler, in his account of these transactions at Norham, introduces two quotations, which convey a false idea of their character. From Fordun, he cites these words: “Now,” said Edward to the most confidential of his ministers, “the time is at last arrived when Scotland and its petty kings shall be reduced under my power.” But Fordun wrote in Scotland just one hundred years after, and pretends to give a confidential communication of Edward to one of his ministers, made half a century before he, Fordun, was born.
But (2) the “Annals of Waverley,” says Mr. Tytler, tell us, in 1291, that “the king of England, having assembled his privy council and chief nobility, told them that he had it in his mind to bring under his dominion the king and the realm of Scotland, in the same manner that he had subdued the kingdom of Wales.”
This would be something like evidence, though of a loose kind, if Mr. Tytler had quoted it fairly. But he has given only so much as suited his purpose. The passage in the “Annals of Waverley” runs thus:—
“The king of England, having assembled his privy council and chief nobility, told them that he had it in his mind to bring under his dominion the king and the realm of Scotland, in the same manner that he had subdued the kingdom of Wales. He therefore moved his army into those parts, where in a short time he gained possession of the said kingdom of Scotland.”
Thus we see that this passage is only one instance out of hundreds which might be adduced, showing that the old chroniclers often put down under the date of one year facts which properly belong to another. There was, in 1291, no “king” in Scotland to be subdued. Neither did Edward move an army into Scotland, or gain possession of Scotland, until 1296. It is probable enough, that shortly before this, he stated to his council such views as are described in the “Annals.” But then, this all happened, if at all, in 1296, after Baliol had broken faith with him, not in 1291, when the conferences as to the succession were still going on.
[50] Pearson’s Hist., vol. ii., 292.
[51] Tytler’s History of Scotland, vol. i., p. 88.
[52] Wyntoun and Fordun, the earliest Scottish historians, writing at the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries, bring in a fiction at this part of the story, telling us that Edward, during the arbitration, offered to give the crown to Bruce, if he would agree to hold it of him as feudal lord. But the fact is, as sir F. Palgrave has shown, that Bruce had already accepted the king as his feudal lord long before this meeting at Norham.