it to the enemy.  Turberville strove in vain to induce Morgan to head another revolt in Glamorgan, and urged upon Philip the need of an alliance with the Scots.  At last the invasion was attempted, and the French admiral, Matthew of Montmorenci, sacked and burnt the town of Dover.  Luckily, however, Turberville’s treason was discovered, and the Yarmouth fleet soon avenged the attack on Dover by burning Cherbourg.  In the face of such resistance, Philip IV. abandoned his plan of invasion and tried to establish a sort of “continental blockade” of English ports in which a modern writer has seen an anticipation of the famous dream of Napoleon.[1] Though nothing came of these grandiose schemes, yet the efforts made to organise invasion had their permanent importance as resulting in the beginnings of the French royal navy.  As late as 1297 a Genoese was appointed admiral of France in the Channel, and strongly urged the invasion of England and its devastation by fire and flame.  But the immediate result of Philip’s efforts to cut off England from the continent was that his Flemish allies found in his policy a new reason for abandoning his service.  On January 7, 1297, a fresh treaty of alliance between Edward and Guy, Count of Flanders, was concluded.

[1] See for this Jourdain, Memoire sur les Commencements de la Marine francaise sous Philippe le Bel (1880), and C. de la Ronciere, Le Blocus continental de l’Angleterre sous Philippe le Bel in Revue des Questions historiques, lx. (1896), 401-41.

More effective than Philip’s efforts to combine the Continent against the English were his endeavours to stir up opposition to Edward in Britain.  The Welsh rising of 1294 had taken place independently of him, but it was not Philip’s fault that Morgan did not once more excite Glamorgan to rebellion.  A better opening for intrigue was found in Scotland.  Ever since the accession of John Balliol, there had been appeals from the Scottish courts to those of Edward.  Certain suits begun under the regency, which had acted in Edward’s name from 1290 to 1292, gave the overlord an opportunity of inserting the thin end of the wedge; and it looked as if, after a few years, appeals from Edinburgh to London would be as common as appeals from Bordeaux to Paris.  But whatever were the ancient relations of England and Scotland, it is clear that the custom of appeals to the English king had never previously been established.  It was no wonder then that what seemed to Edward an inevitable result of King John’s submission, appeared to the Scots an unwarrantable restriction of their independence.