[1] See John of London, Commendatio lamentabilis in Chron. of Edw.  I. and Edw.  II., ii., 8-9.  See for the earldoms my Earldoms under Edward I. in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, new ser., viii. (1894), 129-155.

Even more important as adding to Edward’s resources than these direct additions to the royal domains, was the increasing dependence of the remaining earls upon the crown.  His sons-in-law of Gloucester and Hereford were entirely under his sway.  In 1304 the aged Earl Warenne had died, and in 1306 his grandson and successor was bound closely to the royal policy by his marriage with Joan of Bar, Edward’s grand-daughter.  In the same way Edward’s young nephew, Thomas of Lancaster, ruled over the three earldoms of Lancaster, Derby, and Leicester, and by his marriage to the daughter and heiress of Henry Lacy, was destined to add to his immense estates the additional earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury.  Edward of Carnarvon was learning the art of government in Wales, Cheshire, and Ponthieu.  The policy of concentrating the higher baronial dignities in the royal family was no novelty, but Edward carried it out more systematically and successfully than any of his predecessors.  He reaped the immediate advantages of his dexterity in the extinction of baronial opposition and in the zeal of the baronial levies against the Scots during the concluding years of his reign.  Yet the later history of the Middle Ages bears witness to the grievous dangers to the wielder of the royal power which lurked beneath a system so attractive in appearance.

The truce with the Scots ended in November, 1302, and Edward despatched a strong force to the north under John Segrave.  On February 24, 1303, Segrave, attacked unexpectedly by the enemy at Roslin, near Edinburgh, suffered a severe defeat.  The conclusion of the treaty of Paris gave Edward the opportunity for avenging the disaster.  He summoned his levies to assemble at Roxburgh for Whitsuntide and, a fortnight before that time, appeared in person in Tweeddale.  After seven weary years of waiting and failure, he was at last in a position to wear down the obstinate Scots by the same systematic and deliberate policy that had won for him the principality of Wales.  The invasion of Scotland was henceforth to continue as long as the Scottish resistance.  Adequate resources were procured to enable the royal armies to hold the field, and a politic negotiation with the foreign merchants resulted in a carta mercatoria by which additional customs were imposed upon English exports.  These imposts, known as the “new and small customs,” as opposed to the “old and great customs” established in 1275, were not sanctioned by parliamentary grant:  but for the moment they provoked no opposition.  Thus Edward was equipped both with men and money for his undertaking.  At last the true conquest of Scotland began.