[210] Letter in Radewic says, 'Regnum nostrum vobis exponimus.... Vobis imperandi cedat auctoritas, nobis non deerit voluntas obsequendi.'
[211] The alleged instances of homage by the Scots to the Saxon and early Norman kings are almost all complicated in some such way. They had once held also the earldom of Huntingdon from the English crown, and some have supposed (but on no sufficient grounds) that homage was also done by them for Lothian.
[212] Selden, Titles of Honour, part i. chap. ii.
[213] Edward refused upon the ground that he was 'rex inunctus.'
[214] Sigismund had shortly before given great offence in France by dubbing knights.
[215] Sigismund answered, 'Nihil se contra superioritatem regis prætexere.'
[216] Selden, Titles of Honour, part i. chap. ii. Nevertheless, notaries in Scotland, as elsewhere, continued for a long time to style themselves 'Ego M. auctoritate imperiali (or papali) notarius.'
[217] It is not necessary to prove this letter to have been the composition of Frederick or his ministers. If it be (as it doubtless is) contemporary, it is equally to the purpose as an evidence of the feelings and ideas of the age. As a reviewer of a former edition of this book has questioned its authenticity, I may mention that it is to be found not only in Hoveden, but also in the 'Itinerarium regis Ricardi,' in Ralph de Diceto, and in the 'Chronicon Terrae Sanctae.' [See Mr. Stubbs' edition of Hoveden, vol. ii. p. 356.]
[218] Liutprand, Legatio Constantinopolitana. Nicephorus says, 'Vis maius scandalum quam quod se imperatorem vocat.'
[219] Otto of Freising, i.