Papal
claims over
Scotland.
Quarrel of
Edward
with Archbishop
Winchelsey.
Again he was in grievous want of money. The Pope had claimed the overlordship of Scotland, and it was of the utmost importance that he should receive a united and unhesitating answer from the assembled nation. In spite of all the concessions that Edward had made so reluctantly, showing by his very reluctance that he intended to keep them, a new list of articles was presented as conditions on which money would be granted. Nay, even if the king agreed to the articles, the Archbishop, on the part of the clergy, would consent to no grant that the Pope had not sanctioned. Again Edward yielded, although he refused to admit the article in which the Pope’s consent was mentioned. It was by thus yielding probably, that he obtained from the whole assembled baronage a distinct denial of the Papal claims over Scotland. But the prelates and clergy did not join in the letter addressed in consequence to the Pope; and Edward, putting the two things together, chose to regard the archbishop as a traitor in intention if not in act. The knight who had presented to him the articles at Lincoln, was sent for a short time to prison, as a concession perhaps to Walter Langton, whose dismissal had been asked for. Winchelsey’s punishment was delayed as long as Pope Boniface lived; but, when Clement V. in 1305 succeeded him, the Archbishop was formally accused, summoned to Rome, and suspended, nor was he allowed to return to England during the remainder of the reign. This quarrel is a sad comment on the conduct of two great men, both of whom had at heart the welfare of England; but if the balance must be struck between them, it inclines in favor of Edward. He may have been somewhat vindictive, but his adversary had taken cruel advantages of his needs, had credited him with unworthy motives, and with a guile of which he knew himself to be innocent; and the archbishop had, in order to humiliate him, laid him open to the most arrogant assumptions on the part of the Pope. Winchelsey wished to be a second Langton; Edward was not, and was incapable of becoming, a second John.
Edward and
the foreign
merchants.
The New
Custom.
The Parliament of Lincoln closes the constitutional drama of the reign; but two or three minor points in connection with what has gone before may be mentioned here. In 1303 and 1304 Edward was again in great straits for money, and he did not wish to be again subjected to the treatment which he had endured at Lincoln. In searching for the means of raising a revenue he recurred to the same source from which he had obtained the custom of wool at the beginning of his reign—the assistance of the merchants. He called together the foreign merchants in 1303 and offered them certain privileges of trading, on the condition that they should consent to pay import duties. They agreed; and, although an assembly of English representatives from the mercantile towns refused to join in the arrangement, the institution held good. The “New Custom,” the origin of our import duties, was established without the consent of parliament, although not in direct contravention of the Act of 1297, for it was a special agreement made with the consent of the prayers and in consideration of immunities received. In 1304 he adopted an expedient even more hazardous, and collected a tallage from the royal demesne; yet even here he avoided breaking the letter of his promise. Such tallage was not expressly renounced in 1297, and it was now sanctioned by the consent of the baronage, who raised money from their vassals in the same way. In 1305 he did a still more imprudent and dangerous act, in obtaining from Clement V. a formal absolution from the engagements taken in 1297. Except in a slight modification of the forest regulations, which was perhaps made rather as a demonstration of his power than as a real readjustment of the law, he took no advantage of this absolution. These three facts, however, remain on record as illustrations of Edward’s chief weakness, the legal captiousness, which was the one drawback on his greatness. The last was too grievously justified by the morality of the time, and proves that in one respect at least Edward was not before other men of the age.
Rebellion
in Wales
under
Madoc.
We turn now to trace the course of events which had so powerfully affected the king’s action during these critical years. We saw him in 1294 preparing for an expedition to France, which was delayed until 1297 by troubles in Wales and Scotland, and by the political crisis on which we have dwelt so long. The Welsh revolt under Madoc, a kinsman of the last princes, involved an expedition which Edward himself in the winter of 1294 led into Wales. It was an unseasonable undertaking, and attended with no great success. Madoc was, however, taken prisoner in 1295, and the rebellion came to an end. The Scottish troubles were more general and lasted much longer.
Summons of
Edward to
Balliol.
Alliance of
Scotland
with France.