The early Plantagenets

by William Stubbs

Scottish
war.

Surrender
of Balliol to
Edward.

Truce between
England
and
Scotland.

John Balliol had from the beginning of his reign felt himself in a false position, distracted between his duties to Edward as his suzerain and patron, and his duties to his subjects. By a curious coincidence Edward had summoned him to appear as a vassal in his court to answer the complaints of the Earl of Fife, in the very year that he himself was summoned to appear at Paris to answer the complaints of the Normans. The neglect and contempt with which Balliol was treated may have embittered his feelings towards Edward, yet in 1294 he had been the foremost of the barons in offering help against France. But it is clear that he was not a man of strong will or decided views; that he could not easily bring himself to break with Edward, and so throw himself on the support of the Scottish baronage, and that even Edward’s support did not make him strong enough to defy them. He halted between the two and lost his hold on both. In 1295 the Scottish lords determined, in imitation of the French court, to institute a body of twelve peers who were practically to control the action of Balliol, and opened negotiations for an alliance with France. Such an alliance was then a new thing, but in its consequences it was one of the most important influences of mediæval history, for it not only turned the progress of Scottish civilization and politics into a French channel, leading the Scots to imitate French institutions, as they had hitherto copied those of England, but gave to the French a most effective assistance in every quarrel with England, down to the seventeenth century. As soon as Edward learned that such a negotiation was in progress he demanded that, until peace should be made between Philip and himself, the border castles of Scotland should be placed in his hands. This was at once refused, and war broke out. In March, 1206, Edward took and sacked Berwick, and the Scots threatened Carlisle. The unfortunate Balliol seeing himself at last compelled to choose between the two evils, renounced his allegiance to Edward, and almost immediately paid the penalty of his temerity. The Earl Warenne won a great victory at Dunbar in April, and took Edinburgh; Balliol surrendered in July, and was obliged to resign the crown to his conqueror. The Scottish regalia were carried to England. The coronation-stone, which tradition identified with the stone on which the patriarch Jacob had rested his head at Bethel, was removed from Scone to Westminster. The chief nobles of Scotland were led away as hostages, and Scotland, if not subdued, was so far cowed into silence that during 1297 Edward thought it safe to leave it under the government of the Earl Warenne. Sir William Wallace, the somewhat obscure and mythical hero of Scottish liberation, remained, however, in arms against him, and he in September defeated the Earl Warenne at Cambuskenneth, and drove the English out of the country. Edward’s expedition to France, so long delayed, terminated in March 1298 in a truce of two years, which was renewed in 1299 and turned into a peace in 1303. As a pledge of the arrangement Edward married Margaret, the sister of Philip, in 1299. The Scots thus lost at first the active help of their new ally. Immediately on his return Edward resumed the attack upon them, and the victory won at Falkirk in July 1298 proved his continued superiority, while it served to stimulate the national aspirations of the Scots, and, what was even more important, taught them that, if they were still to be free, they must learn to act as a united people.

Affairs in Scotland
after the
fall of Balliol.

Wallace’s victory at Cambuskenneth had earned for him the jealousy instead of the confidence of the Scottish nobles; the defeat at Falkirk was made an excuse for declining his leadership and clinging to the shadowy royalty of the imprisoned Balliol. They chose a council of regency to govern Scotland in his name. Three regents were elected; the bishop of St. Andrew’s was one; the other two were John Comyn, lord of Badenoch, and Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick; sons of two of the lords who had competed for the crown when Balliol was chosen. Wallace was not even named. Some small successes now fell to the Scots: in 1299 they compelled the English garrison in Stirling Castle to capitulate; in 1300 they foiled the invading army by avoiding a pitched battle, and, at the close of the campaign, obtained by the mediation of the French a truce which lasted till the summer of 1301. It was just then that Boniface VIII., had laid claim to the suzerainty of Scotland, and Edward’s time was spent during the truce in obtaining from his barons a unanimous declaration against that claim. This, as we saw, was done in the parliament of Lincoln. Although the papal argument was one to which Edward could not refuse to listen, Boniface’s influence with Archbishop Winchelsey gave him more trouble than the illusory claim.

The Scottish campaign of 1301 was a repetition of that of the preceding year; Edward spent the winter in the country and built a castle at Linlithgow; and another truce was made, which lasted to the winter of 1302.

Campaign of
Edward in
Scotland.

Capture and
execution of
Wallace.

The conclusion of peace with France in 1303 left Edward free to direct all his strength against Scotland; and the Scots, under Comyn as regent, were now in better condition to resist. They had defeated the English army under Sir John Segrave in February, and were preparing for greater exertions, when the news arrived that not only the Pope but the French had deserted them. No provision in their favor was contained in the treaty of peace; and Edward was already in the country in full force. The year 1303 appeared to be a fatal year to the hopes of Scotland. Edward marched the whole length of the country as far north as the Moray Frith, and within sight of Caithness. Stirling alone of all the castles of the land was left in the possession of the native people, and after a futile attempt under the walls of Stirling to intercept the invader, they seem to have given up all idea of resistance. The so-called governors of the Scots surrendered and submitted on condition of having their lives, liberties, and estates secured; a few patriotic men were excepted from the benefit of the act, the chief of whom was Wallace, against whom as the leading spirit of liberty Edward’s indignation burned most hotly, and whom the selfish and jealous lords cared least to protect. Stirling, after a brave resistance, surrendered in July, and Scotland seemed to be at last subdued. The hero Wallace, taken by treachery in 1305, was sent to London to be tried and put to death as a traitor. The execution of this sentence is one of the greatest blots upon Edward’s character as a high-minded prince. Only the profound conviction that his own claims over Scotland were indisputably legal and that all the misery and bloodshed which had followed the renewal of the war must justly be charged upon Wallace—a conviction akin in origin to the other mistakes which we have traced in Edward’s great career—can have overcome the feeling of admiration and sympathy which he must have felt for so brave a man.