Some writers have awarded a large meed of praise to the two earls, for their courage and patriotism in wresting such a concession from such a king. But it should be remembered that Edward himself was absent when the two earls are said to have shown so much courage; that his return was uncertain and improbable, and that the perils of the state from the Scottish rebellion, were such as to render it impossible that any reasonable request should be denied. It should also be added, that the two earls, who are praised for their courage, took care to send over for Edward’s signature, along with the charter—an act of grace, securing their own full pardon for what they had done. It would have been a better and a more befitting proof of courage, had they, after preferring their request or demand, proceeded to raise a few thousand men, and to chase Walays out of Cumberland, where all this autumn he was committing the most fearful ravages.
However, the demands of Norfolk and Hereford were immediately conceded. On the 10th of October the parliament at Westminster framed a new confirmation of the charters, with fresh clauses prohibiting the levying of talliages or prises, without the assent of the prelates, barons, knights, and burgesses; and another statute or order, whereby the king granted a full pardon to the two earls, “for all manner of offences which they may have committed.” These statutes were sent over to the king, and within three days they were signed by him and returned. Some historians have actually argued, that this short delay in the adoption of a decision, is to be taken as manifesting Edward’s great reluctance and his many internal struggles. It rather shows, that which we may observe in many other important junctures in the king’s life—that no question of moment was decided by him without protracted and anxious deliberation. On this concession, however, the laity granted the king an aid of an eighth, the clergy of Canterbury a tenth, and the clergy of York a fifth.
But it is time that we turned to the state of affairs in Flanders. This expedition and this war proved one of the most fruitless efforts of the king’s life. A regard to his own pledges and obligations carried him there, at a time when it would have been far more desirable for him to march into Scotland; a disregard of their pledges and obligations on the part of his allies, made all his efforts and sacrifices nugatory. “All Edward’s measures in Flanders,” says Rapin, “were broken by the treachery of his allies, who forsook him after taking his money.” “His embarkation,” says Hume, “had been so long retarded by the various obstructions thrown in his way, that he lost the proper season for action.” He was merely able to stop Philip’s career; and Philip, finding his resources exhausted, and dreading a reverse, began to wish for an accommodation, which Edward, disgusted with his faithless allies, and anxious about the state of Scotland, was quite willing to agree to. A reference of all matters of dispute to the arbitration of the pope was proposed and accepted, and on the 23rd of November a truce for five years was signed, immediately after which Edward directed writs to be issued to the earls and barons of England, calling upon them to meet him at York, on the 14th of the following January.
IX.
WILLIAM WALAYS, A.D. 1297, 1298.
We come now to a passage in this history which is beset with more than ordinary difficulties. Romance has entered the field, and has nearly thrust truth out of it. “Wallace,”[82] as he is called in modern times, has been elevated to a similar place in Scottish story that Arthur holds in English, and Patrick or Brian Boru in that of Ireland; but with this difference, that while nobody in England takes “the romaunt of Arthur” to be a history,—in Scotland “the romaunt of Wallace” has by degrees occupied and taken possession of the place which history ought to hold.
Nor has this strange error been confined to Scotland.
Into England, by the industry of Scottish historians, it has been largely introduced, so that now the descendants of those who regarded Walays as a mere marauder and cut‐throat, have been taught to look upon him as “the renowned Sir William Wallace, his country’s deliverer.”