The Pope, in the same document, took the claim of Edward to the Scottish crown under his own discussion, and authoritatively commanded Edward I to send proctors to Rome to plead his cause before his holiness.  This magisterial requisition was presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the King, in the presence of the council and court, the prelate at the same time warning the sovereign to yield unreserved obedience, since Jerusalem would not fail to protect her citizens, and Mount Zion her worshippers.  “Neither for Zion nor Jerusalem,” said Edward, in towering wrath, “will I depart from my just rights while there is breath in my nostrils.”

Accordingly he caused the Pope’s bull to be laid before the Parliament of England, who unanimously resolved “that in temporals the King of England was independent of Rome, and that they would not permit his sovereignty to be questioned.”  Their declaration concludes with these remarkable words:  “We neither do, will, nor can permit our sovereign to do anything to the detriment of the constitution, which we are both sworn to and are determined to maintain”—­a spirited assertion of national right, had it not been in so bad a cause as that of Edward’s claim of usurpation over Scotland.

Meantime the war languished during this strange discussion, from which the Pope was soon obliged to retreat.  There was an inefficient campaign in 1299 and 1300.  In 1301 there was a truce, in which Scotland as well as France was included.  After the expiry of this breathing space, Edward I, in the spring of 1302, sent an army into Scotland of twenty thousand men, under Sir John Seward, a renowned general.  He marched toward Edinburgh in three divisions, leaving large intervals between each.

While in this careless order, Seward’s vanguard found themselves suddenly within reach of a small but chosen body of troops, amounting to eight thousand men, commanded by Sir John Comyn, the guardian, and a gallant Scottish knight, Sir Simon Fraser.  Seward was defeated, but the battle was scarce over when his second division came up.  The Scots, flushed with victory, reestablished their ranks, and having cruelly put to death their prisoners, attacked and defeated the second body also.  The third division came up in the same manner.  Again it became necessary to kill the captives, and to prepare for a third encounter.  The Scottish leaders did so without hesitation, and their followers, having thrown themselves furiously on the enemy, discomfited that division likewise, and gained—­as their historians boast—­three battles in one day.