an acknowledgement of the English suzerainty.  The acknowledgement however was fatal to Balliol himself.  Surprised at Annan by a party of Scottish nobles, their sudden attack drove him in December over the border after a reign of but five months; and Berwick, which he had agreed to surrender to Edward, was strongly garrisoned against an English attack.  The sudden breakdown of his vassal-king left Edward face to face with a new Scotch war.  The Parliament which he summoned to advise on the enforcement of his claim showed no wish to plunge again into the contest and met him only with evasions and delays.  But Edward had gone too far to withdraw.  In March 1333 he appeared before Berwick, and besieged the town.  A Scotch army under the regent, Sir Archibald Douglas, brother to the famous Sir James, advanced to its relief in July and attacked a covering force which was encamped on the strong position of Halidon Hill.  The English bowmen however vindicated the fame they had first won at Falkirk and were soon to crown in the victory of Crecy.  The Scotch only struggled through the marsh which covered the English front to be riddled with a storm of arrows and to break in utter rout.  The battle decided the fate of Berwick.  From that time the town has remained English territory.  It was in fact the one part of Edward’s conquests which was preserved in the end by the English crown.  But fragment as it was, it was always viewed legally as representing the realm of which it once formed a part.  As Scotland, it had its chancellor, chamberlain, and other officers of State:  and the peculiar heading of Acts of Parliament enacted for England “and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed” still preserves the memory of its peculiar position.  But the victory did more than give Berwick to England.  The defeat of Douglas was followed by the submission of a large part of the Scotch nobles, by the flight of the boy-king David, and by the return of Balliol unopposed to the throne.  Edward exacted a heavy price for his aid.  All Scotland south of the Firth of Forth was ceded to England, and Balliol did homage as vassal-king for the rest.

[Sidenote:  Scotland freed]

It was at the moment of this submission that the young king reached the climax of his success.  A king at fourteen, a father at seventeen, he had carried out at eighteen a political revolution in the overthrow of Mortimer, and restored at twenty-two the ruined work of his grandfather.  The northern frontier was carried to its old line under the Northumbrian kings.  His kingdom within was peaceful and orderly; and the strife with France seemed at an end.  During the next three years Edward persisted in the line of policy he had adopted, retaining his hold over Southern Scotland, aiding his sub-king Balliol in campaign after campaign against the despairing efforts of the nobles who still adhered to the house of Bruce, a party who were now headed by Robert the Steward of Scotland and by Earl Randolph of Moray.  His perseverance