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money for his expenses, that, when he came to the
great ferry over the river Tay, he had nothing to give
to the boatmen who took him across, excepting the
loaf of bread which he had taken from the King's
table. The place was called, for a long time after-
wards, the Ferry of the Loaf.

his mind the desire of becoming a king. It is to be
supposed, that he offered them presents, and that they
were cunning enough to study how to give him some
answer, which should make him continue in the be-
lief that they could prophesy what was to happen in
future times. So they answered to him that he
should not be conquered or lose the crown of Scot- When Macduff got into his province of Fife, which
land, until a great forest, called Birnam Wood, should is on the other side of the Tay, he rode on faster than
come to attack him in a strong castle situated on a before, towards his own castle of Kennoway, which,
high hill called Dunsinane. Now, the hill of Dunsi- as I told you, stands close by the sea-side; and
nane is upon the one side of a valley, and the forest when he reached it, the King and his guards were
of Birnam is upon the other. There are twelve miles not far behind him. Macduff ordered his wife to shut
distance betwixt them, and besides that, Macbeth | the gates of the castle, draw up the drawbridge, and
thought it was impossible that the trees could ever on no account to permit the King or any of his sol-
come to the assault of the castle. He therefore re-diers to enter. In the mean time, he went to the
solved to fortify his castle on the hill of Dunsinane small harbour belonging to the castle, and caused a
very strongly, as being a place in which he would ship which was lying there to be fitted out for sea in
always be sure to be safe. For this purpose he caused all haste, and got on board himself, in order to escape
all his great nobility and Thanes to send in stones, from Macbeth.
and wood, and other things wanted in building, and
to drag them with oxen up to the top of the steep hill
where he was building the castle.

Now, among other nobles who were obliged to send oxen, and horses, and materials, to this laborious work, was one called Macduff, the Thane of Fife. Macbeth was afraid of this Thane, for he was very powerful, and was accounted both brave and wise; and Macbeth thought he would most probably join with Prince Malcolm, if ever he should come from England with an army. The King, therefore, had a private hatred against the Thane of Fife, which he kept concealed from all men, until he should have some opportunity of putting him to death, as he had done Duncan and Banquo. Macduff, on his part, kept upon his guard, and went to the King's court as seldom as he could, thinking himself never safe unless while in his own castle of Kennoway, which is on the coast of Fife, near to the mouth of the Frith of Forth.

It happened, however, that the King had summoned several of his nobles, and Macduff, the Thane of Fife, amongst others, to attend him at his new castle of Dunsinane; and they were all obliged to come, none dared stay behind. Now, the King was to give the nobles a great entertainment, and preparations were made for it. In the mean time, Macbeth rode out with a few attendants, to see the oxen drag the wood and the stones up the hill, for enlarging and strengthening the Castle. So they saw most of the oxen trudging up the hill with great difficulty, for the ascent is very steep, and the burdens were heavy, and the weather was extremely hot. At length Macbeth saw a pair of oxen so tired that they could go no farther up the hill, but fell down under their load. Then the King was very angry, and demanded to know who it was among his Thanes that had sent oxen so weak and so unfit for labour, when he had so much work for them to do. Some one replied that the oxen belonged to Macduff, the Thane of Fife. "Then," said the King in great anger, since the Thane of Fife sends such worthless cattle as these to do my labour, I will put his own neck into the yoke, and make him drag the burdens himself."

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In the mean time, Macbeth summoned the lady to surrender the castle, and to deliver up her husband. But Lady Macduff, who was a wise and a brave woman, made many excuses and delays, until she knew that her husband was safely on board the ship, and had sailed from the harbour. Then she spoke boldly from the wall of the castle to the King, who was standing before the gate still demanding entrance, with many threats of what he would do if Macduff was not given up to him.,

"Do you see," she said, "yon white sail upon the sea? Yonder goes Macduff to the Court of England. You will never see him again, till he comes back with young Prince Malcolm to pull you down from the throne, and to put you to death. You will never be able to put your yoke, as you threatened, on the Thane of Fife's neck."

Some say that Macbeth was so much incensed at this bold answer, that he and his guards attacked the castle and took it, killing the brave lady and all whom they found there. But others say, and I believe more truly, that the King, seeing that the Castle of Kennoway was very strong, and that Macduff had escaped from him, and was embarked for England, departed back to Dunsinane without attempting to take Macduff's Castle of Kennoway. The ruins of the Castle are still to be seen.

There reigned at that time in England a very good King, called Edward the Confessor. I told you that Prince Malcolm, the son of Duncan, was at his court soliciting assistance to recover the Scottish throne. The arrival of Macduff greatly aided the success of his petition; for the English King knew that Macduff was a brave and a wise man. As he assured Edward that the Scots were tired of the cruel Macbeth, and would join Prince Malcolm if he were to enter Scotland at the head of an army, the King ordered a great warrior, called Siward, Earl of Northumberland, to enter Scotland with an army, and assist Prince Malcolm in the recovery of his father's crown.

Then it happened as Macduff had said, for the Scottish thanes and nobles would not fight for Macbeth, but joined Prince Malcolm and Macduff against him; so that at length he shut himself up in his castle of Dunsinane, where he thought himself safe,

There was a friend of Macduff who heard these angry expressions of the King, and hastened to communicate them to the Thane of Fife, who was walk-according to the old women's prophecy, until Birnam ing in the hall of the King's castle while dinner was preparing. The instant that Macduff heard what the King had said, he knew he had no time to lose in making his escape; for whenever Macbeth threatened to do mischief to any one, he was sure to keep his word.

So Macduff snatched up from the table a loaf of bread, called for his horses and his servants, and was galloping back to his own province of Fife before Macbeth and the rest of the nobility were returned to the castle. The first question which the King asked was, what had become of Macduff? and being informed that he had fled from Dunsinane, he ordered a body of his guards to attend him, and mounted on horseback himself, to pursue the Thane, with the purpose of putting him to death.

Macduff, in the mean time, fled as fast as horses' feet could carry him; but he was so ill provided with

Wood should come against him. He boasted of this
to his followers, and encouraged them to make a
valiant defence, assuring them of certain victory. At
this time Malcolm and Macduff were come as far as
Birnam Wood, and lay encamped there with their
army. The next morning, when they were to march
across the broad valley to attack the castle of Dunsi-
nane, Macduff advised that every soldier should cut
down a bough of a tree and carry it in his hand, that
the enemy might not be able to see how many men
were coming against them.

Now, the sentinel who stood on Macbeth's Castle-
wall, when he saw all these branches which the sol-
diers of Prince Malcolm carried, ran to the King, and
informed him that the Wood of Birnam was moving
towards the castle of Dunsinane. The King at first
called him a liar, and threatened to put him to death;
but when he looked from the walls himself, and saw

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SCOTTISH HISTORY.

the appearance of a forest approaching from Birnam, he knew the hour of his destruction was come. His followers, too, began to be disheartened, and to fly from the Castle, seeing their master had lost all hopes.

Macbeth, however, recollected his own bravery, and sallied desperately out at the head of the few followers who remained faithful to him. He was killed after a furious resistance, fighting hand to hand with Macduff in the thick of the battle. Prince Malcolm mounted the throne of Scotland, and reigned long and prosperously. He rewarded Macduff by declaring that his descendant should lead the vanguard of the Scottish army in battle, and place the crown on the King's head at the ceremony of Coronation. King Malcolm also created the Thanes of Scotland Earls, after the title adopted in the Court of England.

The Feudal System, and the Norman Conquest. THE Conduct of Edward the Confessor, King of England, in the story of Macbeth, was very generous and noble. He sent a large army and his general Siward to assist to dethrone the tyrant Macbeth, and to place Malcolm, the son of the murdered King Duncan, upon the throne; and we have seen how, with assistance of Macduff, they fortunately succeeded. But King Edward never thought of taking any part of Scotland to himself in the confusion occasioned by the invasion; for he was a good man, and was not ambitious or covetous of what did not belong to him. It had been well both for England and Scotland that there had been more such good and moderate kings, as it would have prevented many great quarrels, long wars, and terrible bloodshed.

But good King Edward the Confessor did not
leave any children to succeed him on the throne.
He was succeeded by a king called Harold, who
was the last monarch of the Saxon race that ever
reigned in England. The Saxons, you recollect,
had conquered the Britons, and now there came a
new enemy to attack the Saxons. These were the
Normans, a people who came from France, but
were not originally Frenchmen. Their forefathers
were a colony of those northern pirates, whom we
mentioned before as plundering all the sea-coasts
which promised them any booty. They were fre-
quently called Northmen or Normans. A large body
of them landed on the north part of France, and
compelled the King of that country to yield up to
them the possession of a large territory, or province,
called Neustria, the name of which was changed to
Normandy, when it became the property of these
Northmen, or Normans. This province was go-
verned by the Norman chief, who was called a
Duke, from a Latin word signifying a general. He
exercised all the powers of a king within his domin-
ions of Normandy, but, in consideration of his being
possessed of a part of the territories of France, he
acknowledged the king of that country for his sove-
reign, and became what was called his vassal.

This connexion of a king as sovereign, with his
princes and great men as vassals, must be attended
to and understood, in order that you may compre-
hend the history which follows. A great king, or
Sovereign prince, gave large provinces, or grants of
land, to his dukes, earls, and noblemen, and each of
them possessed nearly as much power, within his
own district, as the king did in the rest of his domin-
ions.
But then the vassal, whether duke, earl, or
lord, or whatsoever he was, was obliged to come
with a certain number of men to assist the sove-
reign, when he was engaged in war; and in time of
peace, he was bound to attend on his court when
summoned, and do homage to him-that is, acknow-
ledge that he was his master and liege lord. In like
manner, the vassals of the crown, as they were
called, divided the lands which the king had given
them into estates, which they bestowed on knights
and gentlemen, whom they thought fitted to follow
them in war, and to attend them in peace; for they,

too, held courts, and administered justice, each in his
own province. Then the knights and gentlemen,
who had these estates from the great nobles, distri-
prietors, some of whom cultivated the land them-
buted the property among an inferior class of pro-
selves, and others by means of husbandmen and
peasants, who were treated as a sort of slaves, being
bought and sold like brute beasts, along with the
farms which they laboured.

Thus, when a great king, like that of France or
England, went to war, he summoned all his crown
vassals to attend him, with the number of armed
men corresponding to his Fief, as it was called, that
is, the territory which had been granted to each of
them. The prince, duke, or earl, in order to obey
the summons, called upon all the gentlemen to
with their followers in arms. The gentlemen, in
whom he had given estates, to attend his standard
their turn, called on the Franklins, a lower order of
gentry, and upon the peasants, and thus the whole
force of the kingdom was assembled in one array.
This system of holding lands for military service,
that is, for fighting for the sovereign when called
upon, was called the FEUDAL SYSTEM. It was gene-
But as many of these great crown vassals, as, for
ral through all Europe for a great many ages.
example, the Dukes of Normandy, became extremely
powerful, they were in the custom of making peace
and war at their own hand, without the knowledge
or consent of the King of France, their sovereign.
In the same manner, the vassals of these great
dukes and princes frequently made war on each
other; for war was the business of every one; while
the poor bondsman, who cultivated the ground, was
subjected to the greatest hardships, and plundered
and ill-treated by whichever side had the better.
arrayed m armour of steel, richly ornamented with
The nobles and gentlemen fought on horseback,
gold and silver, and were called knights or squires.
They used long lances, with which they rode fiercely
against each other, and swords, and clubs or maces,
to fight hand to hand, when the lance was broken.
Inferior persons fought on foot, and were armed with
bows and arrows, which, according to their form,
were called long-bows or cross-bows, and served to
kill men at a distance, instead of guns and cannon,
which were not then invented. The poor husband-
men were obliged to come to the field of battle with
such arms as they had, and it was no uncommon
thing to see a few of these knights and squires ride
over and put to flight many hundreds of them; for
the gentry were armed in complete armour, so that
they could receive little hurt, and the poor peasants
had scarce clothes sufficient to cover them. You
may see coats of the ancient armour preserved in the
Tower of London and elsewhere, as matters of
curiosity.

It was not a very happy time this, when there was scarcely any law, but the strong took every thing from the weak at their pleasure; for as almost all the inhabitants of the country were obliged to be soldiers, it naturally followed that they were engaged in continual fighting.

The great crown-vassals, in particular, made constant war upon one another, and sometimes upon the sovereign himself, though to do so was to forfeit their fiefs, or the territories which he had bestowed upon them. But they took the opportunity, when they were tolerably certain that he would not have strength sufficient to punish them. In short, no one could maintain his right longer than he had the power of defending it; and this induced the more poor and helpless to throw themselves under the protection of the brave and powerful-acknowledge themselves their vassals and subjects, and do homage to them, While things were in this state, William, the Duke in order that they might obtain their safeguard. of Normandy, and the leader of that valiant people, whose ancestors had conquered that province, began, upon the death of good King Edward the Confessor, to consider the season as favourable for an attempt to conquer the wealthy kingdom of England. He pretended King Edward had named him his heir; but his surest reliance was upon a strong army of his

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brave Normans, to whom were joined many knights and squires from distant countries, who hoped, by assisting this Duke William in his proposed conquest, to obtain from him good English estates, under the regulations which I have described.

more wise, more civilized, and more powerful country, than it had been before; and you will find many such cases in history, my dear child, in which it has pleased the providence of God to bring great good out of what seems, at first sight, to be unmixed evil. The Duke of Normandy landed in Sussex in the This chapter may seem to have little to do with year one thousand and sixty-six, after the birth of Scottish history, yet the Norman Conquest of Engour blessed Saviour. He had an army of sixty land produced a great effect upon their neighbours. thousand chosen men for accomplishing his bold In the first place, a very great number of the Saxons enterprise. Harold, who had succeeded Edward the who fled from the cruelty of William the Conqueror, Confessor on the throne of England, had been just retired into Scotland, and this had a considerable engaged in repelling an attack upon England by the effect in civilizing the southern parts of that country; Norwegians, and was now called upon to oppose for if the Saxons were inferior to the Normans in this new and more formidable invasion. The armies arts and in learning, they were, on the other hand, of England and Normandy engaged in a desperate superior to the Scots. But afterwards a number of battle near Hastings, and the victory was long obsti- the Normans themselves came to settle in Scotland. nately contested. The Normans had a great advan- King William could not satisfy the whole of them, tage, from having amongst them, large, bands of and some, who were discontented, and thought they archers, who used the long-bow, and greatly annoyed could mend their fortunes, repaired to the Scottish the English, who had but few bow-men to oppose Court, and were welcomed by King Malcolm, called them; yet the victory remained doubtful, though the Cean-More, that is, Great-Head, the son of King the battle had lasted from nine in the morning until Duncan. He was desirous to retain these brave men the close of the day, when an arrow pierced through in his service, and for that purpose, he gave them King Harold's head, and he fell dead on the spot. great grants of land, to be held for military services. The English then retreated from the field, and Duke And thus the Feudal System was introduced into William used his advantage with so much skill and Scotland as well as England, and went on gradually dexterity, that he made himself master of all Eng-gaining strength, till it became the general law of the land, and reigned there under the title of William the country, as indeed it was that of Europe at large. Conqueror. He divided great part of the rich country Now a dispute arose out of this feudal law, which of England among his Norman followers, who held occasioned a most dreadful quarrel between England lands of him for military service, according to the and Scotland; and though Master Littlejohn be no rules of the feudal system, of which I gave you some great lawyer, it is necessary he should try all he can account. The Anglo-Saxons, you may well suppose, to understand it, for it is a very material point in were angry at this, and attempted several times to history. rise against King William, and drive him and his soldiers back to Normandy. But they were always defeated; and so King William came to be more severe upon these Anglo-Saxons, and took away their lands, and their high rank and appointments, until he left scarce any of them in possession of great estates, or offices of rank, but put his Normans above them, as masters in every situation.

Thus the Saxons who had conquered the British, as you have before read, were, in their turn, conquered by the Normans, deprived of their property, and reduced to be the servants of those proud foreigners. To this day, though several of the ancient nobility of England claim to be descended from the Normans, there is scarcely a nobleman, and very few of the gentry, who can show that they are descended of the Saxon blood, William the Conqueror took so much care to deprive the conquered people of all power and importance.

It must have been a sad state of matters in England, when the Normans were turning the Saxons out of their estates and habitations, and degrading them from being freemen into slaves. But good came out of it in the end; for these Normans were not only one of the bravest people that ever lived, but they were possessed of more learning and skill in the arts than the Saxons. They introduced the custom of building large and beautiful castles and churches, whereas the Saxons had only miserable houses made of wood. The Normans introduced the use of the long-bow also, which became so general, that the English were accounted the best archers in the world, and gained many battles by their superiority in that military art. The Normans lived also in a more civilized manner than the Saxons, and observed among each other the rules of civility and goodbreeding, of which the Saxons were ignorant. The Norman barons were also great friends to national liberty, and would not allow their kings to do any thing contrary to their privileges, but resisted them whenever they attempted any thing beyond the power which was given to them by law. Schools were set up in various places by the Norman princes, and learning was encouraged. Large towns were also founded in different places of the kingdom, and received favour from the kings, who desired to have the assistance of the townsmen, in case of any dispute with their nobility. Thus the Norman Conquest, though a most unhappy and disastrous event at the time it took place, rendered England in the end, a

While the English were fighting among themselves, and afterwards with the Normans, the Scottish Kings had been enlarging their dominions at the expense of their neighbours, and had possessed themselves, in a great measure, of the northern provinces of England, called Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland. After much fighting and disputing, it was agreed that the King of Scotland should keep these English provinces, not as an independent sovereign, however, but as a vassal of the King of England; and that he should do homage for the same to the English King, and attend him to the field of battle when summoned. But this homage, and this military service, were not paid on account of the kingdom of Scotland, which had never since the beginning of the world been under the dominion of the English King, but was, and had always remained independent, a free state, having sovereigns and monarchs of its own. It may seem strange to Master Littlejohn, how a king of Scotland should be vassal for that part of his dominions which lay in England, and an independent prince when he was considered as King of Scotland; but this might easily happen, according to the regulations of the feudal system. William the Conqueror himself stood in the same situation, for he held his great Dukedom of Normandy, and his other possessions in France, as a vassal of the king of France, by whom it had been granted as a fief to his ancestor Rollo; but he was, at the same time, the independent Sovereign of England, which he had gained possession of by his victory at Hastings.

The English Kings, however, occasionally took opportunities to insinuate, that the homage paid by the Scottish Kings was not only for the provinces which they at this time possessed in England, but also for the kingdom of Scotland. The Scottish Kings, on the contrary, although they rendered the homage and services demanded, as holding large possessions within the boundaries of England, uniformly and positively refused to permit it to be said or supposed, that they were subject to any claim of homage on account of the kingdom of Scotland. This was one cause of the wars which took place betwixt the countries, in which the Scots maintained their national independence, and, though frequently defeated, were often victorious, and threatened upon more than one occasion, to make extensive acquisitions of territory at the expense of their neighbours. The Scottish King William, called the Lion, because

he bore that animal painted on his shield, being taken prisoner at a battle near Newcastle, in the year 1174, was obliged, before he could obtain his freedom, to surrender his claim of independence, and agree to pay homage for Scotland. But Richard the First of England gave up the claim fifteen years afterwards, as having been unjustly extorted from William during his captivity, and reserved to himself only the homage due for the lands which the King of Scotland held out of the boundaries of his own kingdom, and within those of England.

This generous behaviour of Richard of England was attended with such good effects, that it almost put an end to all wars and quarrels betwixt England and Scotland for more than a hundred years, during which time, with one or two brief interruptions, the nations lived in great harmony together. This was greatly to the happiness of both, and might in time have led to their becoming one people, for which Nature, which placed them both in the same island, seemed to have designed them. Intercourse for the purpose of traffic became more frequent. Some of the Scotch and English families formed marriages and friendships together, and several powerful lords and barons had lands both in England and Scotland. All seemed to promise peace and tranquillity betwixt the two kingdoms, until a course of melancholy accidents having nearly extinguished the Scottish royal family, tempted the English monarch again to set up his unjust pretensions to be sovereign of Scotland, and gave occasion to a series of wars, fiercer and more bloody than any which had hitherto taken place betwixt the countries.

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SEVEN kings of Scotland had reigned in succession, after Malcolm Canmore, the son of Duncan, who recovered the kingdom from Macbeth. Their reigns occupied a period of nigh two hundred years. Some of them were very able men; all of them were welldisposed, good sovereigns, and inclined to discharge their duty towards their subjects. They made good laws; and considering the barbarous and ignorant times they lived in, they appear to have been men as deserving of praise as any race of kings who reigned in Europe during the period. Alexander, the third of that name, and the last of these seven princes, was an excellent sovereign. He defeated a great invasion of the Norwegians and Danes, as they landed from their ships, in the battle of Largs. He also acquired, and added to the Scottish dominions, the Hebrides, or islands which lie to the west of Scotland, and which did not till his time belong to that kingdom. He maintained groat friendship with England, but would never yield up any part of the rights of Scotland. He was, in short, a brave and excellent prince. Alexander III. married Margaret, daughter of Henry III. of England; but unhappily all the children who were born of that marriage died before their father. After the death of Queen Margaret, Alexander married another wife; but he did not live to have any family. As he was riding in the dusk of the evening, along the sea coast of Fife, betwixt Burntisland and Kinghorn, he approached too near the brink of the precipice, and his horse starting or stumbling, he was thrown over the rock, and killed on the spot. It is now no less than five hundred and forty-two years since Alexander's death, yet the people of the country still point out the very spot where it happened, and which is called the King's Crag. The very melancholy consequences which followed Alexander's death, made the manner of it long remembered. A sort of elegy is also preserved, in which his virtues, and the misfortunes which followed his death, are mentioned. It is the oldest specimen of the Scottish language which is known to remain in existence; but as you would not understand it otherwise, I am obliged to alter it a little :

When Alexander our king was dead,
Who Scotland led in love and le',

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Away was wealth of ale and bread, Of wine and wax, of game and glee. Then pray to God, since only he Can succour Scotland in her need, That placed is in perplexity!

Another legend says, that a wise man, who is called Thomas the Rhyner, and about whom many stories are told, had said to a great Scottish nobleman, called the Earl of March, that the sixteenth day of March should be the stormiest day that ever was witnessed in Scotland. The day came, and was But while remarkably clear, mild, and temperate. they were all laughing at Thomas the Rhymer on account of his false prophecy, an express brought the news of the King's death. There," said Thomas; that is the storm which I meant, and there was never tempest which will bring more ill luck to Scotland." This story may very possibly be false; but the general belief in it serves to show, that the death of Alexander the Third was looked upon as an event of the most threatening and calamitous nature. The full consequences of the evil were not visible at first; for, although all Alexander's children had, as we have already said, died before him, yet one of them, who had been married to Eric, King of Norway, had left a daughter named Margaret, upon whom, as the grand-daughter and nearest heir of the deceased prince, the crown of Scotland devolved. The young Princess, called by our historians the Maid of Norway, was residing at her father's court.

While the crown of Scotland thus passed to a young girl, the King of England began to consider by what means he could avail himself of circumstances, so as to unite it with his own. This King was Edward, called the First, because he was the first of the Norinan line of princes so called. He was a very brave man, and a good soldier,-wise, too, skilful, and prudent, but unhappily very ambitious, and desirous of extending his royal authority, without caring much whether he did so by right means, or by those which are unjust. And although it is a great sín to covet that which does not belong to you, and a still greater to endeavour to possess yourself of it by any unfair practices, yet his desire of adding the kingdom of Scotland to that of England was so great, that Edward the First was unable to resist it. The mode by which the English king at first endeavoured to accomplish his object was a very just one. He proposed a marriage betwixt the Maiden of Norway, the young Queen of Scotland, and his own eldest son, called Edward after himself. A treaty was entered into for this purpose; and had the marriage been effected, and been followed by children, the union of England and Scotland might have taken place more than three hundred years sooner than it did, and an immeasurable quantity of money and bloodshed would probably have been saved. But it was not the will of Heaven that this desirable union should be accomplished till many long years of war and distress had afflicted both these nations. The Maiden of Norway, the young Queen of Scotland, sickened and died, and all the treaty for the marriage was ended with her life.

The kingdom of Scotland was troubled, and its inhabitants sunk into despair at the death of their young Princess. There was not any descendant of Alexander the Third remaining who could be considered as his direct and undeniable heir; and many of the great nobles, who were more or less distantly related to the royal family, prepared each of them to assert a right to the crown, began to assemble forces and form parties, and threatened the country with a civil war, which is the greatest of all misfortunes. The number of persons who set up claims to the crown was no fewer than ten, all of them forming pretensions on some relationship more or less distant to the royal family. These claimants were most of them powerful, from their rank and the number of their followers; and, if they should dispute the question of right by the sword, it was evident that the whole country would be at war from one sea to the other.

To prevent this great dilemma, it is said the Scottish nobility resolved to submit the question respect

ing the succession of their kingdom to Edward I. of, or Sovereign thereof. John Baliol closed the_disEngland, who was one of the wisest princes of his graceful scene, by doing homage to the King of Engtime, and to request of him to settle, as umpire, which land, and acknowledging that he was his liege vassal of the persons claiming the throne of Scotland was and subject. to be preferred to the others. The people of Scotland are said to have sent ambassadors to Edward, to request his interference as judge; but he had already determined to regulate the succession of the kingdom of Scotland, not as a mere umpire, having no authority but the desire of the parties, but as himself a person principally concerned; and for this purpose he resolved to revive the old pretext of his having right to the feudal sovereignty of Scotland, which, as we have before seen, had been deliberately renounced by his generous predecessor Richard the First.

Soon after this remarkable, and to Scotland most disgraceful, transaction, King Edward began to show to Baliol that it was not his purpose to be satisfied with a bare acknowledgment of his right of sovereignty, but that he was determined to exercise it with severity on every possible occasion. He did this, no doubt, with the purpose that he might provoke Baliol to some act of resistance, which would give him a pretext for depriving him of the kingdom altogether as a disobedient subject, and taking it under his own government in his usurped character of Lord ParaWith this purpose, Edward of England summoned mount. He therefore encouraged the Scottish subthe nobility and clergy of Scotland to meet him at the jects to appeal from the courts of Baliol to his own; Castle of Norham, a large and strong fortress, which and as Baliol declined making appearance in the Engstands on the English side of the Tweed, on the line lish courts of justice, or answering there for what he where that river divides England from Scotland. had done as King of Scotland, Edward insisted upon They met there on the 9th June, 1291, and the King having possession of three principal fortresses of of England appeared before them, surrounded by the Scotland-Berwick, Roxburgh, and Jedburgh. Baliol high officers of his court. He was a very handsome surrendered, or at least agreed to surrender, the casman, and so tall, that he was popularly known by tles; but he perceived that it was Edward's intention the name of Longshanks, that is, long legs. The gradually to destroy his power entirely, and stung at Justiciary of England then informed the nobility and once with shame and fear, he entered into a league clergy of Scotland, in King Edward's name, that be- with France, raised a great army, and invaded Engfore he could proceed to decide who should be the land, the dominions of him whom he had so lately vassal King of Scotland, it was necessary that they acknowledged his Lord Paramount or Sovereign. At should acknowledge the King of England's right as the same time, he sent a letter to Edward, formally Lord Paramount or Sovereign of that kingdom. renouncing his dependance upon him. Edward reThe nobles and churchmen of Scotland were sur-plied, in Norman French, "Ha! dares this idiot compnsed to hear the King of England propose a claim mit such folly? Since he will not attend on us, as is which had never been admitted, except for a short his duty, we will go to him," He accordingly assemtime, in order to procure the freedom of King William bled a powerful army, amongst which came Bruce, the Lion, and which had been afterwards renounced who had formerly contended for the crown of Scotfor ever by Richard the First. They refused to give land with Baliol, and who now hoped to gain it upon any answer until they should consult together by his forfeiture. Edward defeated the Scottish army in themselves. "By St. Edward," said the King, a great battle near Dunbar, and Baliol, who appears "whose crown I wear, I will make good my just to have been a mean-spirited man, gave up the conrights, or perish in the attempt!" He dismissed the test. He came before Edward in the castle of Roxassembly, however, allowing the Scots a delay of burgh, and there made a most humiliating submisthree weeks. sion. He appeared in a mean dress, without sword, royal robes, or armis of any kind, and bearing in his hand a white wand. He there confessed, that through bad counsel and folly he had rebelled against his liege lord, and, in atonement, he resigned the kingdom of Scotland, with the inhabitants, and all rights to their obedience and duty, to their liege lord King Edward. He was then permitted to retire uninjured.

The Scottish nobility being thus made aware of King Edward's selfish and ambitious designs, ought to have assembled their forces together, and declared that they would defend the rights and independence of their country. But they were much divided among themselves, and without any leader; and the competitors who laid claim to the crown, were mean-spirited enough to desire to make favour with King Edward, in expectation that he would raise to the throne him whom he should find most willing to subscribe to his own claims of paramount superiority.

Accordingly, the second assembly of the Scottish nobility and clergy took place without any one having dared to state any objection to that which the King of England proposed, however unreasonable they knew his pretensions to be. They were assembled in a large open place, called Upsettlington, opposite to the Castle of Norham, but on the northern or Scottish side of the river. The Chancellor of England then demanded of such of the candidates as were then present, whether they acknowledged the King of England as Lord Paramount of Scotland, and whether they were willing to receive and hold the crown of Scotland, as awarded by Edward, in that character. They all answered that they were willing to do so; and thus, rather than hazard their own claims by offending King Edward, these unworthy candidates consented to resign the independence of their country, which had been so long and so bravely defended.

Upon examining the claims of the candidates, the right of succession to the throne of Scotland was found to lie chiefly betwixt Robert Bruce, the Lord of Annandale, and John Baliol, who was the Lord of Galloway. Both were great and powerful barons; both were of Norman descent, and had great estates in England as well as Scotland; lastly, both were descended from the Scottish royal family, by a daughter of David, Earl of Huntingdon. Edward, upon due consideration, declared Baliol to be King of Scotland, always to be held under him as the Lord Paramount

Baliol being thus removed, Bruce expressed his hopes of being allowed to supply his place, as tributary or dependant King of Scotland. But Edward answered him sternly, "Have we nothing, think you, to do but to conquer kingdoms for you?" By which expression the English King plainly expressed that he intended to keep Scotland to himself, and he proceeded to take such measures as made his purpose still more evident.

Edward marched through Scotland at the head of a powerful army, compelling all ranks of people to submit to him. He removed to London the records of the Kingdom of Scotland, and was at the pains to transport to the Abbey Church at Westminster a great stone, upon which it had been the national custom to place the King of Scotland when he was crowned for the first time. He did this to show that he was absolute master of Scotland, and that the country was in future to have no other King but himself, and his descendants the Kings of England. The stone is still preserved, and to this day the King's throne is placed upon it at the time when he is crowned. Last of all, King Edward placed the government of Scotland in the hands of the Earl of Surry, a brave nobleman; Hugh Cressingham, a clergyman, whom he named Chief Treasurer; and William Ormesby, whom he appointed the chief judge of the kingdom. He placed English soldiers in all the castles and strong holds of Scotland, from the one end of the kingdom to the other; and not trusting the Scottish men themselves, he placed English governors in most of the provinces of the kingdom."

We may here remark, my dear child, that a little before he thus subdued Scotland, this same Edward

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