“ After the coronation, coming to the King of England, who was keeping the Festival of the Nativity of our Lord at Newcastle-on-Tyne, he did homage in these words: "My lord, lord Edward, King of England, I, John Balliol, King of Scotland, acknowledge myself your liege vassal for the whole kingdom of Scotland, with its appurtenances and all belonging to it, which kingdom I hold and claim by right to hold hereditarily, from you and your heirs, Kings of England, as regards life and limb and earthly honour, against all men who live and die." ”

“ The oath which the commonalty of England swore at Oxford:
We, so and so, make known to all men, that we have sworn on the Holy Gospels and by our oath have bound ourselves together, and we promise in good faith, each one of us and all together, to aid one another, both ourselves and those belonging to us against all men, doing right, and taking nothing that we cannot take without doing hurt, saving our faith to the King and to the crown. ”

“ But to return to the course of events in England, we must not pass over in a feigned silence the wickedness or madness of the inhabitants of the Cinque Ports, and the many hardships which they brought upon the English people. For they gathered together a large fleet of pirate vessels, with which they constantly scoured the seas, to prevent by force the bringing of provisions to England; all those whom they were able to capture on the seas, natives as well as foreigners, they cruelly slew, and, casting the bodies into the deep, put to their own use the ships and all they contained ”

“ Now he had this habit, that he was wont to travel every year through all the districts of his kingdom with a large retinue, to become acquainted with his people, to reprove shortcomings, to administer justice, to punish rebels, to cherish and reward the good, and, with the officers of each district, thoroughly to reform all abuses. He would not allow within his kingdom any idlers without a trade or means of livelihood. ”

“ When the knights and officers of one district went away from him, the sheriff of another district, with a chosen train of knights, came to meet him. Moreover, he made it a statute of the realm that everyone should, in each working day, dig the length and breadth of his own body—that is, seven feet—considering that idleness is the foe of virtue. Likewise he would not allow very many licences for horses, save only those devoted to work, in the court of any lord, or in the houses of the rich; for too great a number of horses destroys the sustenance of the poor ”

“ A ruler is so called from ruling well; for where there is no rule, there is no ruler. That King, indeed, so behaved towards his enemies that they feared him with the utmost fear and loved him with hearty love; and in his country he maintained unshaken peace, law, and unbroken prosperity, so that the inhabitants thereof {85} abode in the beauty of peace, in the tents of trustfulness and in plenteous ease; and he quelled all insolence, disturbances, rioting, and rebellion. ”

“ Know that we, for the honour of God and of Holy Church, and for the good of our whole kingdom, have granted for ourselves and our heirs, that the Great Charter of Liberties and the Charter of the Forest, which were made by common assent of the whole realm, in the time of King Henry our father, shall be observed in every point without change. ”

“ This is the King's argument, which has an appearance of fairness, and this is alleged in defence of the right of the kingdom.
Now let my pen turn to the other side:—let me describe the object at which the Barons aim.... The adversaries of the King are enemies who make war upon him, and counsellors who flatter the King, who seduce their Prince with deceitful words, and who lead him into error by their double tongues; these are adversaries worse than those who are perverse; it is these who pretend to be good whilst they are seducers, and procurers of their own advancement ”

“ For every Earl also is thus his own master, giving to everyone of his own men both as much as he will, and to whom he will; and although he be a subject, the King permits it all. Which, if he do well, is profitable to the doer; if not, he must himself see to it; the King will not hinder him from injuring himself. Why is the Prince worse in condition, when the affairs of the Baron, the knight, and the freeman, are thus managed? ”

“ From all that has been said, it may appear evident that it becomes a King to see, together with his nobles, what things are convenient for the government of the kingdom, and what are expedient for the preservation of peace; and that the King have natives for his companions, not foreigners nor favourites for his counsellors or for the great nobles of the kingdom. ”

“ Further, we cancel and annul the statute which provides that for the future the kingdom of England shall be governed by native-born men, and that aliens shall leave the country not to return, except those whose continued residence is approved by the commonalty: we ordain that aliens may freely dwell in the said kingdom; and that the King may freely call whomsoever he pleases, both aliens and natives, to his council, even as he could before the aforesaid time. ”

“ When these matters had been settled and completed, he made his way towards England, and overran and ravaged the whole of Northumberland as far as Newcastle; thus he wintered in England at the expense of the enemy, and saved his country's substance; and he got home again safely with much riches and honour....
During the time of his rule the Kingdom of Scotland prospered wonderfully in happiness and in manifold ways; everyone dwelt in safety with his own, and agriculture began to thrive everywhere. ”

“ The Chief Justice has power to amend the wrongs done by all other justices and bailiffs, counts, barons, and all other men, according to the law and justice of the land. And writs shall be pleaded according to the law of the land and in the proper places. And the Justice shall take no presents except of beer, and wine, and such things, that is to say, meat and drink, such as have been accustomed to be brought to the tables of the chief men for the day. ”

“ Believing them to be the army of the Scots, they hastened to ascend the slopes of the hill in battle array, but when they reached the top, found none. On this spot a tent was pitched, and the King and the Bishop heard the Mass of the Magdalene (the Magdalene being the saint of the day) . While the celebration was taking place, and it was light enough for them to see one another, our men saw the Scots at a distance arranging their lines and preparing for battle. They had drawn up all their men in four circular bodies on the hard ground of a slope near Falkirk. ”

“ A wise Prince will never reject his people, but an unwise one will disturb the kingdom. Wherefore, if a King is less wise than he ought to be, what advantage will the kingdom gain by his reign? Is he to seek by his own opinion on whom he should depend to have his failing supplied? If he alone choose, he will be easily deceived, who is not capable of knowing who will be useful. Therefore let the community of the kingdom advise ”

“ Certain of the chief men belonging to the Duchy of Gascony had come to the King in England with fierce complaints and denunciations against Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who had been Seneschal of Gascony, saying that he was intolerably oppressing the nobles and people of the said province by undue extortions, and had applied the revenues and proceeds which flowed into the royal treasury, not to the King's uses, but to his own. ”

“ No one for the future shall lose life or limb on account of our hunting, but if any one be arrested and convicted of the taking of venison he shall pay heavily therefor, if he have whence he may pay; if he have not whence he may pay, let him lie in our prison for a year and a day; and if after a year and a day he can find pledges, let him depart from prison; but if not, let him abjure the kingdom of England.
(11) Any archbishop, bishop, earl, or baron passing through our forest, may take one or two beasts, in presence of the forester, if he should be at hand ”

“ About the same time, in February, the lord the King of England, who, during his whole reign, had been considered extravagantly liberal towards foreigners, having now taken thought with himself secretly, that from being subjected to the provisions made by the Barons he had been, contrary to his customs, forced to stay his hand, was greatly grieved at being forced to adhere to their guardianship and arrangements, however useful they might be, and determined, with a resolute heart, to alter them. ”

“ Therefore they aim at making the King a slave, who wish to diminish his power, to take away his dignity of Prince; they wish by sedition to reduce captive into guardianship and subjection the royal power, and to disinherit the King, that he shall be unable to reign so fully as hitherto have done the Kings who preceded him, who were in no respect subjected to their people, but administered their own affairs at their will, and conferred what they had to confer according to their own pleasure. ”

“ Having therefore received the homage of the nobles of Poitou, and having placed garrisons of his own natural and loyal subjects in their castles and cities, to command them, and keep them for him, the King returned to France; and being soon restored to perfect health, he commanded the men of Poitou, who had been surrendered on conditions of extremity, to be kept in close custody, and while there a condition was imposed on them that they should not give their daughters in marriage, nor go from one city to another, without leave of the French. ”

“ While they were arguing, the lord Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith, a man of foresight and shrewdness in counsel, answered and said, that he had seen a King consecrated who was not yet a knight, and had many a time heard of Kings being consecrated who {35} were not knights; and he went on to say that a country without a King was, beyond a doubt, like a ship amid the waves of the sea without rower or steersman. ”

“ Much booty was seized, and no fewer that fifteen thousand of both sexes perished, some by the {100} sword, others by fire, in the space of a day and a half, and the survivors, including even little children, were sent into perpetual exile. Nevertheless, this most clement Prince exhibited towards the dead that mercy which he had proffered to the living, for I myself beheld an immense number of men told off to bury the bodies of the fallen, all of whom, even those who began to work at the eleventh hour, were to receive as wages a penny apiece at the King's expense. ”

“ Each one swore on the Holy Gospels, that, looking to the honour of God, and the faith of the King, and the good of the realm, he would ordain and treat with the aforesaid sworn men regarding the reformation and the amendment of the state of the kingdom ”

“ Some persons, moreover, stated that on one occasion the Bishop placed his hand on the head of the Earl's eldest son, and said to him: "My well-beloved child, both thou and thy father shall die on one day, and by one kind of death; but it will be in the cause of justice and truth." ”

“ They who want experience can know little; they will profit little the kingdom who are not stedfast. Hence it may be deduced that it concerns the community to see what sort of men ought justly to be chosen for the unity of the kingdom; they who are willing and know how, and are able to profit it, such should be made the counsellors and coadjutors of the King; to whom are known the various customs of their country; who feel that they suffer themselves when the kingdom suffers ”

“ In spite, however, of all his good deeds and deserts in the interests of the state and the independence of the crown, certain sons of wickedness and imps of the devil conspired and devised mischief against him, framing lies and backbiting him behind his back while speaking him fair to his face and meditating treachery, saying within their hearts, "We will not have this man reign over us." ”

“ The Earls, much incensed thereat, especially since they were supporting not so much their own cause as that of the commonalty as a whole, informed the mediators, who were passing between them and the King, that not only they themselves, but the whole commonalty of the land, were oppressed beyond all bounds by unjust exactions, talliages and prises, and especially by the non-observance of the liberties of the Great Charter ”

“ Every freeman for the future may freely make in his own woods or in any land he has in the forest, mills, places for live stock, ponds, limepits, ditches, or ploughland outside the covert on the arable land, provided it be not to the hurt of any neighbour.
(13) Every person may have in his woods eyries for hawks, sparrows, falcons, and eagles, and heronries; he may likewise have any honey he finds in his woods.
(14) Henceforth, no forester who is not a forester of fee [9] paying us a ferm for his office, shall take any cheminage [10] in his bailiwick ”

“ To this the King's messengers replied, "Appoint from among yourselves, my lords, men whom you may send to make these proposals to the lord King; for we, knowing that his wrath is roused, fear to tell him of them." When the clergy had done so, the King's anger broke forth, and giving way to furious rage, he declared the Archbishop of Canterbury himself and all the clergy of England outside his guardianship and protection ”

“ At length the day came, and when the clergy were assembled, Master Robert of Winchelsea Archbishop of Canterbury, after hearing the advice {103} of the messengers sent from the King, replied as follows: "You know well, my lords, for it is undeniable, that under God Omnipotent we have two lords, one spiritual and one temporal; our spiritual lord is the Pope and our temporal lord the King; and although we owe obedience to each, yet in a greater degree to the spiritual than to the temporal ”