THE SCOTCH WARS OF EDWARD I. II., III.,

IN the year 1286, Alexander III. of Scotland, who had married a sister of Edward I., died, leaving a little grandchild the heiress to his throne. But the infant queen never saw her kingdom, for she died on the voyage thither from her Norwegian home. With the Maid of Norway died all hope of peace for Scotland, as her death overthrew the arrangement by which Edward had sought to unite the whole of Britain under one sceptre, by her marriage with his own son.

Now, looking back as far as the time of Alfred's son, Edward the Elder, we find that he received homage from the Scottish king; and, however vague it might be, or however often withheld, it was certain to be jealously demanded, after having been once yielded, by any monarch who was strong enough to enforce his claim. This was the case with Edward I. When he met a grand assembly at Norham, on the banks of the Tweed, to settle the inheritance of the crown of Scotland, for which there was a host of claimants, he obtained a general acknowledgment of his feudal superiority from all, and then gave his decision in favour of John Baliol, a decision quite in accordance with modern ideas on the subject.

Baliol soon found out that he was in a humiliating position. At last, the Scotch nobles seeing that their national independence was in peril, encouraged him to resist Edward's vexatious requirements; and war speedily followed. In 1296 the English king led an army across the border, and victory followed in his train. He laid large tracts of country waste, received submission in all directions, forced Baliol to resign the kingdom to him, and on his homeward way carried off from the cathedral of Scone the famous stone on which the Scottish monarchs used to be crowned, and which is still to be seen in Westminster Abbey, under the old coronation chair of Edward the Confessor

But the people of Scotland bent only for a moment before the storm. They soon raised their heads again under the leadership of Sir William Wallace. There are many legends of his early prowess, when, as a strong, handsome, skilful soldier, he kept up a skirmishing sort of warfare with the English. But in 1297 he saw men of high rank ready to serve under him. Edward was then abroad, and Wallace seized the opportunity to surprise several fortresses garrisoned by the English; afterwards he advanced to meet their army, and the battle of Stirling was fought. He and his troops rushed down like a torrent on the enemy, while the latter were in the act of crossing a narrow bridge, and utterly routed them. For the time Scotland was free again.

Wallace carried the pursuit into England, and ravaged the country as far as Newcastle. When he returned he was made governor of Scotland in the absence of Baliol. Meanwhile Edward had heard the news, and he hurried home. As quickly as possible he marched at the head of an army into Scotland, and at the battle of Falkirk the Scotch sustained a crushing defeat. Wallace escaped from the field, and for some years but little is heard of him. Others ruled the kingdom, and the war went on in a desultory manner, with long intervals of truce.

In 1303 Edward led into Scotland an army too powerful for the exhausted kingdom to withstand, and it was once more desolated with fire and sword. Stirling Castle was the last to yield. In that strong fortress, which grandly crowns a lofty height, Sir John Oliphant with a handful of men defied for three months the multitude of their foes who filled the plain below on the banks of the winding river. The women in the beleagured castle were as strong-hearted as the men, and none thought of surrender until famine left them no choice.

Soon afterwards the brave Wallace was taken captive, being basely betrayed to his enemies. He was tried in

London as a traitor to the King of England, but he met the charge with scorn, saying that he could be no traitor where he owed no allegiance. He was put to death with every mark of insult and ignominy; but his countrymen, far from being intimidated by his cruel fate, were roused by it to more vehement resistance.

Baliol was now dead, and Robert Bruce, who inherited pretensions to the throne, led the struggle for Scotland's freedom. He was at the English court when, it is said, a friend sent him a pair of spurs, as a hint that it was time to fly; and he left without delay. He had hitherto held a doubtful course, and his early career had given no promise of devotion to his country's cause. But henceforth he never wavered, though a dark blot-the death of Comyn-stains the commencement of his leadership. Comyn was a rival, and is accused of having played falsely. However this may be, they had an interview in a church, where a fierce altercation rose between them, and when at last Bruce rushed out, exclaiming with agitation, “I doubt I have killed Comyn," his followers ran in and made the deed sure. We should give very hard names to such an act now; but in those days life was held very cheap, and offences were constantly washed out in blood, and it was not so much the murder of Comyn, as the fact that he was slain in a church, which shocked the public opinion of that day.

Soon afterwards, Bruce was crowned at Scone, with a hastily prepared substitute for the real crown, which was in Edward's possession. After this homely coronation the new-made king had to maintain his rights on the battle-field. At first he met with nothing but misfortune, being defeated at Methven, so that he had to seek refuge in the mountains, where his prudence and courage in conducting a retreat through a narrow pass saved his little army from being cut off to a man.

Presently we hear of his party crossing Loch Lomond in a poor little boat that could only hold three persons, so that the passage occupied twenty-four hours. The

next winter was spent in the Isle of Rachrin, off the Irish coast, where the familiar incident of the spider's perseverance is said by some to have happened. In the spring he took the field again, but after a gleam of success was forced to retreat.

career.

Now occurred the most extraordinary event in his He had but sixty men with him, and the people of Galloway resolved to hunt him down. For this purpose about two hundred of them set out with bloodhounds to track him to his lair. Bruce was warned of their design, and ordered his followers to a spot where there was a bog on one side, and on the other a little river which could only he crossed at one place. Telling his men to rest, he went forward alone to the narrow ford. The bloodhounds with unerring scent led his enemies thither, but the first who tried to cross fell by the hand of Bruce. Thirteen more shared the same fate; and though enraged to be driven back by one man, yet hearing the shouts of his followers advancing to his help, his foes retreated, leaving Bruce victor in a struggle with two hundred men.

From this time he was almost always prosperous, and the death of the mighty Edward removed his most formidable antagonist. At last, in June, 1314, was fought the battle of Bannockburn, when the incompetent Edward II., with a vast army of about 100,000 men, was completly defeated by a far smaller force, and the liberty of Scotland was happily secured.

It is true that Edward III. did not at once abandon the idea of carrying out his grandfather's policy. He invaded Scotland just after his accession, but with so little result that he concluded a treaty with Bruce, recognising its absolute independence, in 1328. It was also part of the bargain that Bruce's little son David should marry Edward's little sister Joanna. Only a year later the Scottish hero died, having lived to see the complete triumph of the cause for which he had so bravely toiled and suffered.

A few years afterwards Edward found a pretext for renewing hostilities, and won a decisive victory at Halidon Hill, which for a while placed Baliol's son, who had made the fullest submission as a vassal to Edward, on the throne of Scotland. But a larger scheme, the conquest of France, withdrew the English king from interference in Scotch affairs, and David was restored.

During two centuries more war broke out at intervals between North and South Britain, but it was a peaceful bond which united them at last; and that forced union was averted which would have been an equal curse to England and to Scotland.

Questions.-How did Edward I. try to unite England and Scotland? What led to his interference in that country? What was the result of his interference? Give some account of Wallace, Baliol, and Bruce? What battles were fought between the English and Scotch during this period? What was the result of each?

THE great continental territory which William the Norman united with England, was handed on undiminished to his youngest son Henry I., whose daughter and heiress Matilda, married Geoffrey Plantagenet, Earl of Anjou, and thus this province, with Maine and Touraine, was added to the possessions of their son Henry II. By his miserable marriage with Eleanor, the divorced wife of the French king, he still further increased his dominions, acquiring Aquitaine and Poitou. Indeed, his rule extended over a fifth part of France, and for these vast fiefs he did homage to the monarch of that country.

A few years after his accession, Henry, on various pleas, laid claim to other portions of France, and by the