the position of a vassal king. The new monarch
made a full and indisputable acknowledgment of his
position as Edward’s liege, and the great seal
of the kingdom of Scotland was publicly destroyed in
token of the position of vassalage in which the country
now stood. Of what followed it is difficult to
speak with any certainty. Balliol occupied the
throne for three and a half years, and was engaged,
during the whole of that period, in disputes with
his superior. The details need not detain us.
Edward claimed to be final judge in all Scottish cases;
he summoned Balliol to his court to plead against one
of the Scottish king’s own vassals, and to receive
instructions with regard to the raising of money for
Edward’s needs. It may fairly be said that
Edward’s treatment of Balliol does give grounds
for the view of Scottish historians that the English
king was determined, from the first, to goad his wretched
vassal into rebellion in order to give him an opportunity
of absorbing the country in his English kingdom.
On the other hand, it may be argued that, if this
was Edward’s aim, he was singularly unfortunate
in the time he chose for forcing a crisis. He
was at war with Philip IV of France; Madoc was raising
his Welsh rebellion; and Edward’s seizure of
wool had created much indignation among his own subjects.
However this may be, it is certain that Balliol, rankling
with a sense of injustice caused by the ignominy which
Edward had heaped upon him, and rendered desperate
by the complaints of his own subjects, decided, by
the advice of the Great Council, to disown his allegiance
to the King of England, and to enter upon an alliance
with France. It is noteworthy that the policy
of the French alliance, as an anti-English movement,
which became the watchword of the patriotic party in
Scotland, was inaugurated by John Balliol. The
Scots commenced hostilities by some predatory incursions
into the northern counties of England in 1295-96.
Whether or not Edward was waiting for the opportunity
thus given him, he certainly took full advantage of
it. Undisturbed by his numerous difficulties,
he marched northwards to the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Tradition tells that he was exasperated by insults
showered upon him by the inhabitants, but the story
cannot go far to excuse the massacre which followed
the capture of the town. After more than a century
of peace, the first important act of war was marked
by a brutality which was a fitting prelude to more
than two centuries of fierce and bloody fighting.
On Edward’s policy of “Thorough,”
as exemplified at Berwick, must rest, to some extent,
the responsibility for the unnecessary ferocity which
distinguished the Scottish War of Independence.
It was, from a military stand-point, a complete and
immediate success; politically, it was unquestionably
a failure. From Berwick-on-Tweed Edward marched
to Dunbar, cheered by the formal announcement of Balliol’s
renunciation of his allegiance. He easily defeated