Thairfore Wallace, without any demand,
Syne for thair treasoun hangit tham ilkane” [every one].
We know not whether words could more plainly express the fact that a tyranny was established in Scotland in this earlier portion of the year 1298. And the most singular feature of the case is, that a man who, in April, 1297, was utterly unknown, establishes, before a twelvemonth had passed over, such a despotic power that “the greatest lordes in the land” were forced to bow down to him, or else to go to the prison or the gallows!
But now the end of this extraordinary kind of rule was approaching. It had been, from first to last, an empire of the sword; and when that sword was broken, it instantly collapsed and disappeared. Edward was duly informed, in October, of the disastrous affair of Stirling; and, relying on the speedy termination of the war with France, he sent over, in November, a summons for a military rendezvous at York, on the 14th of the coming January. Such a summons, to be answered at such a period of the year, was no ordinary one. To call men, by tens of thousands, to leave Kent, and Devon, and Warwickshire, in the very middle of the winter, and to march to York, with the declared intention of thence proceeding to Scotland, was of itself a proof of the depth and earnestness of the king’s purpose. But the manner in which this call was answered, showed that the people of England sympathized with their sovereign. The story of Wallace’s invasion, with all its horrors, had been carried through the length and breadth of the land; and the feeling which it had aroused was shown in the astonishing fact, that, in the short dark days of January, there marched into York no fewer than 100,000 foot‐soldiers and 4,000 cavalry. England has now six times the population it had then; but who would expect that, if our government were, in the present day, to call for a voluntary armament, and to issue that call in November, the result would be the appearance at York, on the 14th of January, of a force of 600,000 infantry, and of 24,000 horse? And yet the means of locomotion known in our day would make it far easier to do this now than it was in 1298, to send the smaller number. But could such a mighty gathering be seen, in England’s northern metropolis, on the 14th of the coming January, would not the natural, the reasonable exclamation be, “England is stirred to its very depths”?
The king, however, found it impossible to leave the Flemish coast so soon as he had intended. He learned, too, that the Scottish invasion was over, and that Wallace and his followers had returned to Scotland. He would not run the risk of a second “battle of Stirling,” and he therefore sent orders to his generals at York to engage in no important action till he returned. Hence, they contented themselves with relieving the castles of Kelso, Roxburgh, and Berwick, which had been threatened by Wallace, and then, keeping a small force in Scotland, dismissed the remainder to their homes. Of the movements of the Scottish leader himself at this period, we hear nothing.
It was not until the spring was opening, that Edward was able to get clear of his continental entanglements. On the 21st of March he landed at Sandwich, where he was received with great acclamations;—all men feeling that on his sagacity, judgment, and military skill, the peace and safety of the realm of England at that moment greatly depended. His first thought on landing, was, to remember his governing principle, Pactum serva. He had promised his people, when he left them in the preceding autumn, that for any wrongs done, or goods taken, by his officers or purveyors for the service of the war, he would make them full amends. At once, therefore, immediately on landing, he directed commissions to issue to two knights and two churchmen in each county—one to be named by the crown and the other by the people, who were to inquire in each district what goods had been taken by the royal purveyors for victualling the king’s fleet or army. These commissions were issued in the first week in April; that is, in a very few days after the king’s landing.
The next step was, to issue summonses, on the 10th of the same month, for a parliament to be held at York in Whitsun week. These summonses were promptly obeyed. A great meeting took place, and thither came the two earls, Hereford and Norfolk, as they had done the year before; not to help forward the great question, of how Scotland should be quieted, but to prefer, as they had preferred in the preceding year, their demands for a fresh confirmation of the charters. Their own personal grievances had precedence in their minds over all the pressing exigencies of the state. The king, after reigning with perfect justice and equity for twenty years, had recently been forced to make “requisitions” for the carrying on of the war. The validity of such demands seemed to these two great lords a matter of more importance than French aggressions or Scottish inroads.
The king refused to enter upon such discussions at that moment, but he authorized the earls of Gloucester, Warenne, and Warwick, and the bishop of Durham, to pledge his honour and their own, that so soon as Scotland had been quieted, he, the king, would do all in his power to give them satisfaction. This sort of mediation succeeded, and the two discontented earls agreed to postpone the charter‐question till the rebellion should have been suppressed. It was agreed, therefore, to fix the 25th of June for a military rendezvous, on which day all the earls and barons engaged to bring their forces to Roxburgh, the appointed place of meeting.