flag-bearer "then begged that they would do no more to him; for they would give up the castle to the King, and throw themselves on his mercy." Upon which the assault was stopped, and the castle surrendered.

The defenders, on passing out, were reviewed before Edward, and found to number only sixty. "They were," says Walter, "beheld with astonishment;" and it was natural that the besieging army should wonder that a handful of men should be able to resist their mighty host for such a lengthened period. The ultimate fate of this gallant few is left in doubt. Their lives, according to Walter, were spared by order of the King, and they were each presented with a new garment; whereas, in the Chronicle of Lanercost it is stated that many of them were hanged from the trees around the castle-a treatment, if true, that accords with the usual merciless policy of the English monarch. As the name of Sir Herbert Maxwell, who owned Carlaverock at this period, is not mentioned by the Exeter historian, the likelihood is that he was not present at its defence.

Previously to the siege, or on the first day of its progress, Edward visited the churches of Applegarth, Tinwald, and Dumfries, to offer oblations on their altars, with a view of securing a blessing upon his efforts. Now that they were crowned with success, he caused the castle to be repaired, and, consigning it to the keeping of Lord Clifford, proceeded to Dumfries, crossed with his army Devorgilla's Bridge over the Nith, and entered Galloway, where he continued about six weeks prosecuting the objects of his expedition.*

*

Rymer's Fœdera, vol. i., p. 921; and Wardrobe Accounts, p. 215.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ROMAN PONTIFF INTERFERES ON BEHALF OF SCOTLAND, AND CLAIMS IT FROM EDWARD AS A FIEF OF THE HOLY SEE HE SENDS A MISSIVE TO THAT EFFECT BY THE HANDS OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURYINTERVIEW OF THE ARCHBISHOP WITH THE KING IN CARLAVEROCK CASTLE -EDWARD HOLDS A COURT AT DUMFRIES, AND, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE POPE'S REQUEST, SIGNS A TREATY OF PEACE WITH THE SCOTS—THE COUNTRY IS AGAIN INVADED AND TEMPORARILY SUBDUED-BETRAYAL AND EXECUTION OF WALLACE.

It is necessary that we should now glance at some of the leading national events that occurred immediately prior to the memorable siege just described, and those that followed that event. Wallace, on being defeated at Falkirk, resigned the office of Governor of Scotland, to which he had been elevated by his grateful countrymen; and it was then held by Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick (grandson of the Competitor); John Comyn, younger, of Badenoch (grandson of Devorgilla); and William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews, who ruled the country in the name of Baliol, though that crownless and luckless sovereign was an exile in France, and politically dead. The Scots had repeatedly endeavoured to gain assistance from Philip of France, the brother-in-law of their oppressor; but as Philip allowed the claims of his ancient allies to be overborne by those of a personal nature, the patriots resolved to invoke the aid of the Roman Pontiff.*

Accordingly, a deputation from Bruce and his colleagues waited upon Pope Boniface, depicted the woes under which Scotland groaned, and prayed him to take action against the tyrant author of them all. "We shall interfere for the relief of your country," said his Holiness in effect; "but we shall claim the kingdom that we mean to wrest from Edward of England as the immemorial fief of the Holy See." Whether the Scottish Triumvirate were more displeased than gratified

*Fordun, p. 983; and Wyntoun, vol. ii., p. 105.

with this intimation, we cannot say: if they desired to see an end put to the English domination, it was not that it might be succeeded by the supremacy of Rome-their country independent of any foreign potentate whatever, was what Bruce at least sought to secure. We know that this preposterous claim of the Pope enraged King Edward. It was set forth in a bull, directed to that monarch, bearing date July 5th, 1299; and he was warned by it that if he resisted or demurred, Jerusalem would not fail to protect her sons, and Mount Zion her worshippers. This spirited Papal missive was forwarded to Winchelsea, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was ordered to deliver it to the King; and the prelate (as we learn from a curious letter left by him detailing his journey*) set out with his suit of clerks and other officials for Nithsdale, where his royal master then was. He incurred no small risk on his travels from numerous bands of Scottish marauders, who would gladly have plundered him, and called the deed patriotic. Taking a somewhat roundabout route, he followed Edward to Kirkcudbright, where he learned that he had just returned to Dumfriesshire, crossed the Solway with his chariots and horses, and finding the King in Carlaverock Castle, soon after the period of its capture, delivered to him the Papal bull.

Many strange and momentous incidents have occurred within the walls and under the shadow of the old British fortress and its two feudal successors; and this interview between Edward I. and the Primate of Canterbury is entitled to rank high among the number, whether we look to the dignity of these personages, or the subject which they discussed. Edward read the bull, his wrath gathering all the time, and eventually boiling over, as, bit by bit, the bold assumptions of the Pope broke upon him, and the document went on to lay his own proud claims in the dust. It needed not the prelate's appended admonition on the duty of obedience to Mother Church to inflame his Majesty's Rising into a paroxysm of passion, he stormed and swore, declaring that he would not be silent at the bidding of the Holy See; and that, despite of Mount Zion or Jerusalem, he would, whilst there was breath in his nostrils, claim and retain what all the world knew to be his rights. The King cooled down after this explosion. He saw that it would be impolitic * Prynne's History of Edward I., p. 882.

rage.

to quarrel outright with the Pope, and, lowering his tone, told Winchelsea that before giving a conclusive answer to the missive of his Holiness, he would require to take the advice of his counsellors on the subject.*

The Archbishop thereupon withdrew; and, shortly after this remarkable audience, a Court was held by the King at Dumfries, at which the Papal bull, and the propriety of granting a peace to the Scots, in terms of its recommendation, were discussed. Reserving the question of his claims, he agreed to grant an armistice; and, on returning to England, at the close of the year, he summoned a Parliament to meet him at Lincoln, by which body the assumptions of the Pope over Scotland were condemned, and the English monarch was declared to be, as regards temporal matters, entirely independent of the Holy See. written reply to this effect was forwarded to Boniface, attested by a hundred and four seals of the nobility, and having attached to it the emphatic intimation, that the barons of England would not permit their sovereign to subordinate his claims to those of his Holiness, were he so inclined.†

A

The King spent a considerable portion of the summer and autumn of 1300 in Dumfries and its neighbourhood. After taking Carlaverock, he went, as has been already stated, into Kirkcudbrightshire for the purpose of overawing the Gallovidians. He appears to have been at Lochrutton on the 17th of July, and at the capital of the shire on the 22nd of that month. Proceeding further into Galloway, Edward granted an interview to the bishop of that diocese, who-prompted by the Pope, in all probability-tried to mediate a peace, but without success. Then the Earl of Buchan and John Comyn (one of the regents) ventured into the royal presence, and had the further hardihood to demand that Baliol, their lawful king, should be permitted to reign over the country, and that the estates, which had been given to English nobles, should be restored to their proper owners. We can fancy the mingled surprise and scorn with which the haughty Edward would receive these requests, coming, as they did, from men whom he looked upon as rebels. The wonder is, not that his answer was in the

Walsingham, p. 78; and Prynne, p. 883.

+ Rymer's Fœdera, vol. i., p. 923; and Tyrrel, vol. iii., p. 146.

L

negative, but that he did not seize and send them, as he had done Baliol, to the Tower.

Returning at the close of August to Carlaverock, where the provoking Papal bull greeted him, he, after temporarily disposing of it, went to Holm-cultram-a large body of his soldiers following him through Dumfriesshire to Carlisle, and laying the country waste along their line of march. Edward once more retraced his steps from Carlisle, reaching Dumfries on the 16th of October, where he continued with his queen and court till the beginning of the following month. The inhabitants of the Burgh would thus be but too familiar with the features and figure of the usurper. Often would he be seen by them, noticeable by his length of stature and majestic mien, riding with his retinue up High Street to the Castle: and doubtless many a muttered curse would follow the cavalcade; for the Dumfriesians detested the English yoke, and, though partially kept in check by the garrison, were always ready, as we have seen, to take part against the invaders, when an opportunity offered. It is in vain for us to inquire as to the style kept up by the conqueror's Court at Dumfries. His beautiful queen, sister of the King of France, would of course be its ruling star and attraction; but whether the royal lady held levees and other fashionable assemblies in the Castle during her three weeks' sojourn, and tried her blandishments for a political purpose on the daughters of the town and district, is not on record. Probably, on Sundays, the King-for he was very pious after a sort-would repair for worship, accompanied by his queen, to the Greyfriars' Church in the Vennel; or proceed for that purpose to Lincluden Abbey,* on the opposite bank of the Nith, which, as we have seen, had some half century before been built and endowed by Uchtred, Lord of Galloway. When Edward first visited Dumfries, on June 18th, 1300, he became, as already stated, the guest of the Grey Friars; but as there are no entries of payment to them in the Wardrobe Accounts on the occasion of his second visit, we may conclude that, in October, he and his Court were indebted for board and lodgings to his own Keeper of the Castle, St. John. The

* We learn from Prynne that the Abbess of Lincluden about this period was named Alienore.