The weakness and simplicity of King John left matters to take their course for a time, but the king, who was not strong enough to stand up against Edward, was not the man to resist the pressure of his own subjects.  On his return from the London parliament of June, 1294, the Scots barons virtually deposed him.  A committee was set up by parliament consisting of four bishops, four earls, and four barons which, though established professedly on the model of the twelve peers of France, had a nearer prototype in the fifteen appointed under the Provisions of Oxford.  To this body the whole power of the Scottish monarchy was transferred, so that John became a mere puppet, unable to act without the consent of his twelve masters.  Under this new government the relations of England and Scotland soon became critical.  The Scots denied all right of appeal to the English courts, and expelled from their country the nobles whose possessions in England gave them a greater interest in the southern than in the northern kingdom.  Among the dispossessed barons was Robert Bruce, son of the claimant, by marriage already Earl of Carrick, and now by his father’s recent death lord of Annandale.  In defiance of Edward’s prohibition the Scots received French ships, and subjected English traders at Berwick to many outrages.  At last, on July 5, 1295, an alliance was signed between Scotland and France, by which Edward Balliol, the eldest son of King John, was betrothed to Joan, the eldest daughter of Charles of Valois, the brother of the French king.  On this, Edward demanded the surrender of three border castles, and on the refusal of the Scots, cited John to appear at Berwick on March 1, 1296.  Thus, by a process similar to that which had embroiled Edward with his French overlord, the King of Scots also was forced to face the alternative of certain war or humiliating surrender.

To Edward a breach with Scotland was unwelcome.  In 1294 the Welsh had prevented him using all his power against France, and in 1295 the Scots troubles further postponed his prospects of revenge.  But no suggestion of compromise or delay came from him.  On his return to London early in August, 1295, he busied himself with preparing to resist the enemies that were gathering around him on every side.  It was the moment of the raid on Dover, and the French question was still the more pressing.  In a parliament of magnates at London, Edmund of Lancaster told the story of his Paris embassy with such effect that two cardinal-legates, whom the new pope, Boniface VIII., had sent in the hope of making peace, were put off politely, on the ground that Edward could make no treaty without the consent of his ally, the King of the Romans.  Edmund was appointed commander of a new expedition to Gascony, though his weak health delayed his departure.  Meanwhile Edward called upon every class of his subjects to co-operate with him in his defence of the national honour.  He was statesman enough to see that he could only cope with the situation, if England as a whole rallied round him.  His best answer to the Scots and the French was the convention of the “model parliament” of November, 1295.