[1] The Latin, Articuli inserti in magna carta, given by Hemingburgh, ii., 152, is quoted as a statute in the Petition of Right of 1628, under the title De tallagio non concedendo.  The view of its relation to the French Confirmatio cartavum is that taken by M. Bemont, Chartes des libertes anglaises, especially pp. xliii., xliv. and 87.  It is based on Bartholomew Cotton’s nearly contemporary statement (Hist.  Angl., p. 337).

On November 5 the king ratified, at Ghent, the action of his son’s advisers.  Thus the constitutional struggle was ended by the complete triumph of the baronial opposition.  And the victory was the more signal, because it was gained not over a weak king, careless of his rights, but over the strongest of the Plantagenets, greedy to retain every scrap of authority.  It is with good reason that the Confirmation of the Charters of 1297 is reckoned as one of the great turning points in the history of our constitution.  Its provisions sum up the whole national advance which had been made since Gualo and William the marshal first identified the English monarchy with the principles wrested from John at Runnymede.  In the years that immediately followed, it might well seem that the act of 1297, like the submission of John, was only a temporary expedient of a dexterous statecraft which consented with the lips but not with the heart.  But in later times, when the details of the struggle were forgotten and the noise of the battle over, the event stood out in its full significance.  Edward had been willing to take the people into partnership with him when he thought that they would be passive partners, anxious to do his pleasure.  He was taught that the leaders of the people were henceforth to have their share with the crown in determining national policy.  Common dangers were still to be met by measures deliberated in common, but the initiative was no longer exclusively reserved to the monarch.  The sordid pedantry of the baronial leaders and the high-souled determination of the king compel our sympathy for Edward rather than his enemies.  But all that made English history what it is, was involved in the issue, and the future of English freedom was assured when the obstinacy of the constable and marshal prevailed over the resolution of the great king.

CHAPTER XI.

THE SCOTTISH FAILURE.

The expedition of Edward to Flanders lost its best chance of success through the events which retarded its despatch.  While the English king was wrangling with his barons, the French king was active.  On the news of the alliance of Count Guy with the English, Robert of Artois was summoned from Gascony to the north.  While Philip besieged Lille, and finally took it, Robert of Artois gained a brilliant victory over the Flemings at Furnes on August 20.  Meanwhile John of Avesnes, Count of Hainault, was closely co-operating