The king bade her not stay, but come to the north countrye;
To Brotherton on Wharfe, and there she was
The mother of a son, the child hight Thomas;
And when the king heard say she had so well faren,
Thither he went away, to see her and her bairn.
* * * * *
The queen, with her son, at Cawood leaves he;
To them, on the Ouse, full often came he.”
A month or two was given to this marriage; but Edward soon remembered
that Scotland would need his attention. The seven months’ truce claimed
for Scotland by Philip would soon expire; and the king had friends in
Scotland who needed his aid. He summoned, accordingly, his military
tenants to meet him in York on the 10th of November. But when this
meeting took place, the king found that his barons disliked the idea
of a northern campaign in November and December, and their objections
prevailed. The king postponed any active movements in Scotland until
the coming spring.
Early in the following year, 1300, the king again met his parliament
in Westminster. A new and extensive _Statute on the Charters_ was here
proposed and adopted. It enacted that the charters should be published
by the sheriffs of all counties four times in each year. It ordained
that “no prises” should be taken within the realm, save only the king’s
takers or purveyors; and that these should be bound to exhibit the
king’s warrant, and to pay or make agreement with those from whom the
things were taken. It also made other good and desirable regulations,
all tending to give greater security to property, against violence or
illegal conduct on the part of men in office. In this parliament, as
well as previously in that of 1299, urgent demands were made for a new
perambulation of the forests; and the king promised to take measures
for the accomplishment of that object; which promise he faithfully kept.
And now, as the spring advanced, the king prepared for another march
into Scotland; reaching the border, this year, at an earlier period of
the summer than on most of his former expeditions. The Scotch had now
learnt the simple and generally effectual device of retiring on the
approach of the English army without offering battle. Edward besieged
and took Lochmaben Castle, and then proceeded to Caerlaverock, on
the Solway‐Frith. This castle also capitulated on the second day. An
account of this brief siege, in Norman‐French, from the pen of an
eye‐witness, is among the Cotton MSS. in the British Museum. It is
supposed by Sir Harris Nicholas to be the work of Walter of Exeter, a
Franciscan friar, who is believed to have written the history of Guy,
earl of Warwick, in 1292. The garrison, he tells us, threw themselves
on the king’s mercy. “They were kept and guarded till the king
commanded that life and limb should be given them; and also ordered
that each of them should have a new garment.”
From Caerlaverock the king marched on to Galloway, where the bishop of
that place came to speak of peace. It was not Edward’s wont to treat
with rebels with arms in their hands; but it seems probable that he
gave the bishop a safe‐conduct for John Comyn and the earl of Buchan;
inasmuch as we find that these nobles, on the part, probably, of the
regency, had an interview with him at this period. They rather absurdly
proposed that he should let them have John Baliol back again, as king;
and should restore the forfeited estates on payment of reasonable
fines. Now, Baliol, when he was actually their king, was imprisoned by
them in order that they might rule without him; and he, Baliol himself,
as we have just seen, had recently declared that he would never again
set foot in Scotland. This proposal, too, was made to a sovereign to
whom they had taken, more than once, oaths of allegiance; and whose
army they feared, at that very time, to meet in the open field. And
upon what pretence, on what rational ground, could they make such an
application? It was but some three or four years before, that all the
nobles and gentry of Scotland had thronged around Edward, to offer him
their homage as king of Scotland. And what had he done, since 1296,
to forfeit their allegiance? Had his rule been tyrannical? Let the
Scottish historians bear witness. “His conduct,” says Lord Hailes,
“in all things bore the semblance of moderation.” “The measures he
adopted,” says Mr. Tytler, “were equally politic and just. No wanton
or unnecessary act of rigour was committed; no capricious changes
introduced.”[106] On the whole, this singular request, preferred to
a victorious general at the head of his army—that he would quietly
relinquish all the fruits of his victories, seems one of the most
irrational of the measures of the Scottish leaders.
The king naturally parted from Comyn and the earl in anger, and marched
to Irvine, where he waited for the arrival of his supplies by sea. The
Scottish army showed itself on the opposite side of the river; but
on preparations being made for an attack, it fled to the mountains
and morasses. The king then fixed his head‐quarters at Dumfries, and
employed himself in taking possession of the towns and castles of
Galloway, and receiving the submission of the inhabitants of that
district.
But now a fresh obstacle arose to an immediate settlement of the
affairs of Scotland. The regents, as they were called—Comyn, Soulis,
and the bishop of St. Andrew’s—had, as we have already remarked, taken
measures to solicit the interposition both of the king of France and
of the pope. Walsingham, himself a Benedictine monk of St. Alban’s,
writes, that “about the beginning of this year, 1300, the Scotch,
_knowing all things to be saleable at Rome_, sent over rich presents
to the pope,” praying him to interfere in their behalf, and to stop
the king of England in his proceedings against them. Such applications
were generally successful at Rome, especially when, as in the present
instance, they gave the papal court an opportunity for the assertion
of some new claim. A mandate was, therefore, sent over to England, and
consigned to the care of Winchelsey, the primate, who was charged with
its delivery to the king in person; which mandate desired the king to
abstain from all further proceedings against the realm of Scotland:
which realm, said pope Boniface, “_did, and doth still, belong in full
right to the church of Rome_.” Such a pretension, now for the first
time advanced, might, and doubtless did, appear to all parties to
savour of audacity; but Boniface well knew that he might advance it
without fear. He had been, and still was, the umpire between Edward and
Philip. The questions placed before him had not been finally decided,
and Gascony was not yet actually restored. Hence, he knew full well,
that however indignant Edward might feel, his practical sagacity
would prevent him from actually defying the Roman see. For a certain
“consideration,” the pope had promised to do the Scotch a certain
service, and that compact he thus observed, caring little about the
validity of the pleas advanced, which were only intended to serve the
purposes of the hour.
In Winchelsey the pope found a prompt and willing agent. This able
and artful prelate was always forward in any scheme for exalting the
power of the church, and reducing that of the crown. He therefore
very naturally undertook the commission assigned to him with evident
pleasure; and his letter to the pope, recounting his zealous labours,
in obedience to the papal instructions, is a most edifying document.
He writes to Boniface, that, immediately on receiving his mandate, he
prepared his baggage and carriages, and money for his expenses, and
set forth to deliver the pontifical mandate to his lord the king, who
was then twenty days’ journey from the place where he, Winchelsey,
received the papal instructions. He then recounts the difficulties of
the journey, and finally states, that he arrived in the presence of the
king, who was then in the midst of his army, and at dinner. The king,
he adds, was too much occupied with business to receive him that day,
but appointed him an audience on the next day at noon.
Winchelsey, in proceeding to give an account of this audience,
omits one characteristic incident which is related by Walsingham.
The archbishop, on being introduced to the king, according to his
appointment, first read, and presented, the papal mandate. But, to
manifest his zeal still further, he proceeded to give the king, in
addition, some admonitions of his own, garnished with certain flowers
of ecclesiastical rhetoric, which, to a clear‐sighted and plain‐spoken
man like Edward, must have been peculiarly nauseous. He counselled the
king to yield a prompt and entire obedience to the commands of the Holy
Father, inasmuch as “Jerusalem would not fail to protect her citizens,
and to cherish, like Mount Zion, those who trusted in the Lord.” To
which Edward replied, with evident disdain, that “neither ‘Mount Zion’
nor ‘Jerusalem’ should prevent him from maintaining what all the world
knew to be his right.” At the same time, having regard to the peculiar
nature of the application, and to the dignity of the pontiff, he first
desired the archbishop to retire while he consulted his nobles, and
then, recalling him, gave him, by the lips of his chancellor, a more
formal reply: “That, since it is the custom of England, that in such
matters as relate to the state of that kingdom, advice should be had
with all whom they may concern; and since the present business not only
affects the state of Scotland, but the rights of England also; and
since many prelates, barons, and other principal men are now absent;
it is my purpose, as soon as possible, to hold a council with my
nobility, and by their joint advice and determination, to transmit an
answer to his holiness by messengers of my own.”
The archbishop, in his report to the pope, is glad to be able to add
some tokens of the success of his mission. He says, “I afterward heard
that my lord the king, within four days after my departure, returned
with his army into England; and his forces being dispersed, he purposes
to stay at a certain abbey called Holme Cultram, on the border. And
thus have I reverently executed your commission in every respect, with
all the diligence that I was able to use.”
We have already stated, that from the peculiar position of his affairs,
it would have been most undesirable for Edward to have any serious
quarrel with Boniface at this moment. The negociations for peace,
which had been carried on for two or three years past, were still
unconcluded. Treaties had been signed; but other treaties were still
under discussion. The decision of many important points was still
in Boniface’s hands. Hence to have dealt with the Papal claims in a
prompt and peremptory manner, might have driven the pope into Philip’s
hands, and thrown many important questions into the greatest confusion.
Edward, therefore, could only deal with these new pretensions in a
respectful and temperate manner. He restored the bishop of Glasgow
to his see, on his taking a fresh oath of fealty to him and his
successors, kings of England. He complied with a request of Philip’s,
and granted the Scots a new truce, until the Whitsuntide of 1301;
and he issued writs, summoning a parliament to meet at Lincoln on
the 20th of January of that year. Before that parliament he proposed
to lay the letter or monition of Boniface; and to that parliament he
also desired reports to be brought by the commissioners appointed to
inquire into the boundaries of the forests. He also sent letters to
the two universities, and to the principal religious houses, desiring
them to send to Lincoln some of their most learned men, with copies
of any archives or other records which might be in their possession,
bearing upon the questions agitated in the papal mandate. Having thus
taken every proper and expedient measure for meeting this new attack
upon his position, the king retired to Northampton, where he spent the
Christmas of 1300, surrounded by his queen and family; proposing early
in the new year to remove to Lincoln; there to discuss and settle, if
possible, both the affairs of Scotland, and also that more domestic
question, which had latterly assumed an almost threatening aspect, “the
perambulation of the royal forests.”
The parliament of Lincoln, A.D. 1301, deserves a high place among the
notable events of English history. In it we find the parliamentary
system firmly established, in all its dimensions, features, and
characters. To its principal act—the reply to pope Boniface—we find
appended the names and seals of no fewer than one hundred and four
earls and barons; and as the prelates, and the Scottish barons, were,
for obvious reasons, excused from taking part in this proceeding, we
may safely estimate the attendance of the higher orders, or, what we
now term “the house of lords,” at more than one hundred and fifty. To
this parliament, also, there were summoned representatives from one
hundred and thirty‐seven cities and boroughs. Probably, in the existing
state of society, these merchants and traders,[107] in the presence of
the great barons of the realm, were generally modest and silent; but we
cannot imagine so large a body of Englishmen—many of them independent
in property and position[108]—executing a public trust in a spirit of
absolute subjection and passiveness.
Lincoln, the scene of this great gathering, must have presented a
lively and singular spectacle in the months of January and February,
1301. The royal court itself would have created a throng in any city
of the second class. But the splendid trains which always attended the
great barons and prelates must have far exceeded, in the aggregate, the
officers and attendants on the court. And when to all these were added
some two or three hundred borough‐representatives, all requiring both
lodging and provisions, we may feel sure that this city of the fens
must have been the scene of a turmoil, bustle, and commotion, which
none of its inhabitants were likely ever to forget. Langtoft tells us
that—
“At the park afterwards his parliament set he,—
The good king Edward, at Lincoln his citie:
At St. Katherine’s house the earl marshal lay;
In the Broadgate lay the Bruse, erle was he that day;
The king lay at Nettleham; it is the bishop’s towne:
And other lords there came, in the countrie up and downe.”
It probably would not be easy to ascertain how the victualling of all
these hundreds, or rather, thousands, was accomplished; or in what
way it became an affair of state. But the existing records show, not
only that great provision was made beforehand; but that these matters
were thought of by the king himself. From Dumfries, in the previous
October, the king, so soon as he had determined on holding this
parliament, sent writs to the sheriff of Lincolnshire, enjoining him
many weeks beforehand, to provide, for the intended meeting, four
hundred quarters of corn, four hundred quarters of barley, one thousand
quarters of oats, and hay for four hundred horses for a month. The
sheriff was also to provide one hundred cows and oxen, one hundred
pigs, and three hundred sheep. And all this was, distinctly, for the
parliament; while for the royal household a separate order was given,
of four hundred quarters of corn, one hundred beeves, sixty pigs, and
four hundred sheep. The king was probably able to procure the provender
for his stables, by orders addressed to some of his own tenantry.
As the time of meeting drew near, other necessary matters were thought
of. A writ, dated Worksop, December 2, 1300, enjoins the sheriff to
procure sixty dozens of good parchment, for records of the matters to
be agreed upon. Other orders of the same kind follow. Samuel Stanham,
who was himself a representative of the city of Lincoln in this
parliament, had at its close a demand against the king’s treasurer for
£96 14s. 5d. for sugars, figs, etc.; and for £54 10s. for fish. He also
claims £6 16s. for herrings and stock‐fish supplied to prince Edward,
then scarcely seventeen years of age. Multiplying these sums by fifteen
for the altered value of money, we shall perceive that they imply a
liberal expenditure in the royal establishments.
The parliament being opened in the accustomed form, it appears that
the two earls obtained precedence for their favourite questions—the
perambulations and the disafforesting. These topics, urged by the
constable and the marshal—Winchelsey being their prompter and secret
adviser—led to prolonged and vehement debates. As these discussions
form part of the great disafforesting controversy, we shall pass them
over for the present, only observing that Edward’s skill, firmness, and
moderation were taxed to the utmost on this occasion. He succeeded,
however, after many days of fierce debate, in calming the troubled
waters, and bringing the parliament to a practical result. What were
termed “the reports of the commissioners of perambulation” were
adopted, and orders for extensive disafforesting were given. Thus
pacified, the barons consented to a grant of a fifteenth, to be paid by
the feast of St. Michael next ensuing.
And now, these internal dissensions being for a time set at rest, the
parliament took up the question of pope Boniface’s letter. Upon its
audacious and baseless claims there seems to have been no difference
of opinion. Edward’s law‐officers, aided by all the documentary
evidence that could be discovered, had, there can be no doubt, prepared
a complete answer to the papal assumptions; but it was prudently
suggested that, in the king’s present circumstances, it was not
desirable that he should appear as a personal rejector and oppugner of
the pontiff’s pretensions. Hence, doubtless, arose the idea of the plan
which was finally adopted. The whole array of the barons of England
stepped between the pope and their king, and told the pontiff that he
had asked more than his right; and that they could not permit their
sovereign, even were he so inclined, to surrender the rights or the
dignity of the crown of England. In this important document—after first
denying the historical statements of the papal rescript, and wholly
repudiating the idea that the kingdom of Scotland had ever, in any way
or manner, belonged to the see of Rome—they go on to deal with the
question, whether the king of England shall or may appear before the
papal tribunal to defend his right, or in any way to acknowledge the
pope as an arbiter or judge in this matter. On this point the hundred
and four barons thus express themselves:—
“By a custom which has always been inviolably observed—a privilege
arising from the pre‐eminence of the regal dignity—the kings of
England have never pleaded, or been bound to plead, respecting their
rights in the fore‐mentioned kingdom, or any other their temporal
rights, before any judge, ecclesiastical or secular. Wherefore, after
discussion and deliberation respecting the contents of your letters,
it was our common and unanimous resolve, and by the grace of God shall
for the future remain such, that with respect to the rights of his
kingdom of Scotland, or other his temporal rights, our aforesaid lord
the king shall not plead before you, nor submit in any manner to your
judgment; nor suffer his foresaid right to be brought into question
by any inquiry; nor send agents or procurators for that purpose into
your presence. For such proceedings would be to the manifest disherison
of the rights of the crown of England and the royal dignity, the
evident subversion of the state of the kingdom, and the prejudice of
the liberties, customs, and laws which we have inherited from our
fathers—to the observance and defence of which we are bound by our
oaths; and which we will maintain to the best of our power; and by the
help of God will defend with all our might. Neither do we, nor will we,
permit—as we neither can nor ought—our aforesaid lord the king to do,
or attempt to do, even if he wished it, the things before mentioned;
things so unwarranted by custom or obligation, so prejudicial, and
otherwise so unheard of.”[109]
This was the substantial reply given to pope Boniface, and it was
a fitting and worthy reply. That it was counselled and framed by
the king’s ministers cannot be doubted, and we see in it a fresh
proof of that remarkable feature in Edward’s character—his desire
at every step to act _in concert_ with his people, to move with
them in every important step which required to be taken. But to
this, the substantial reply, Edward thought it wise and expedient to
add a private and friendly letter of his own. He sent this second
communication, as he expressly says, “not in the form or shape of a
judicial pleading,” but as an entirely unofficial communication from
one equal to another. Its object, both professedly and really, was to
obviate any possible ground of complaint or aggrieved feeling. In this
letter the king touched upon the chief points in the history of the
two countries, showing that a superiority had existed, and that homage
had been paid from kings of Scotland to kings of England for centuries
past, and he ended thus: “As, from the above‐named consideration, it
is plain and notorious that the said kingdom of Scotland belongs to
us in full right, and as we have never done anything which could in
any way derogate from our rights over the same, we humbly entreat your
holiness that you, weighing the arguments above stated, will deign to
decide upon them according to the promptings of your own mind, in no
way giving credit to the contrary suggestions of those who are jealous
of us in this respect, but preserving and approving of our state and
our royal rights, if it so please your paternal affection.”
The practical result, then, of the whole was, that Edward, firmly
rejecting the papal claim, refused even to send commissioners for the
purposes of discussing it. He was a sincerely religious man according
to the obscured Christianity of his day, and he probably had never
heard the pope’s claim to an universal primacy so much as questioned;
but his own powerful and sagacious mind often enabled him to detect
the unwarrantable pretensions of the ecclesiastics of all degrees,
and when “he felt himself to be in the right,” as he told Winchelsey
at Salisbury, he was “ready to go to the death” in defence of his
position.
Having thus parried and averted the blow aimed through the papal power,
the king that summer mustered his forces and entered Scotland; but the
unsettled state of his affairs, and the negotiations still pending
with France and with Rome, seem to have distracted his attention
and weakened his efforts. He captured one or two strong places, but
the Scotch still adhered to their former system of retiring at his
approach, and laying waste everything before him. An early winter
set in and cut short the campaign, and the king resolved to fix his
residence for the winter at Linlithgow, so as to be ready to commence
a spring campaign in 1302; but this plan was defeated by an absurd
concession made by his agents in France. In prolonging the truce with
Philip until November 30, 1302, they foolishly permitted the French
ministers to claim the inclusion of the Scotch in this cessation of
arms. Thus one whole year more was lost to Edward in his Scottish
operations—a loss which, at his time of life, was of great and
permanent importance. The final and entire reduction of Scotland was
thus once more postponed until 1303-1304, when, as we shall presently
see, it was entirely effected.
In the course of the year 1302 we observe the meeting of three
parliaments. The first was held in London in March, and of it we
have few particulars; another was held in July; and in September and
October a third was held in London, at which there attended seventeen
prelates and forty‐four abbots, nine earls and eighty‐two barons,
two knights from each shire, and two citizens or burgesses from each
city or borough, with full power to do “quod tunc de communi consilio
ordinabitur.”
Footnotes:
[102] All the claimants at the great arbitration of 1292 derived
their title from David, earl of Huntingdon, the grandson of David
I. His descendants were these—