for the Charter was over.  Justice and good government were secured.  The personal despotism which John had striven to build up, the imperial autocracy which had haunted the imagination of Henry the Third, were alike set aside.  The rule of Edward, vigorous and effective as it was, was a rule of law, and of law enacted not by the royal will, but by the common council of the realm.  Never had English ruler reached a greater height of power, nor was there any sign to warn the king of the troubles which awaited him.  France, jealous as it was of his greatness and covetous of his Gascon possessions, he could hold at bay.  Wales was growing tranquil.  Scotland gave few signs of discontent or restlessness in the first year that followed the homage of its king.  Under John Balliol it had simply fallen back into the position of dependence which it held under William the Lion; and Edward had no purpose of pushing further his rights as suzerain than Henry the Second had done.  One claim of the English Crown indeed was soon a subject of dispute between the lawyers of the Scotch and of the English Council boards.  Edward would have granted as freely as Balliol himself that though Scotland was a dependent kingdom it was far from being an ordinary fief of the English Crown.  By feudal custom a distinction had always been held to exist between the relations of a dependent king to a superior lord and those of a vassal noble to his sovereign.  At Balliol’s homage indeed Edward had disclaimed any right to the ordinary feudal incidents of a fief, those of wardship or marriage, and in this disclaimer he was only repeating the reservations of the marriage treaty of Brigham.  There were other customs of the Scotch realm as incontestable as these.  Even after the treaty of Falaise the Scotch king had not been held bound to attend the council of the English baronage, to do service in English warfare, or to contribute on the part of his Scotch realm to English aids.  If no express acknowledgement of these rights had been made by Edward, for some time after his acceptance of Balliol’s homage they were practically observed.  The claim of independent justice was more doubtful, as it was of higher import than these.  The judicial independence of Scotland had been expressly reserved in the marriage treaty.  It was certain that no appeal from a Scotch King’s Court to that of his overlord had been allowed since the days of William the Lion.  But in the jurisprudence of the feudal lawyers the right of ultimate appeal was the test of sovereignty, and Edward regarded Balliol’s homage as having placed him precisely in the position of William the Lion and subjected his decisions to those of his overlord.  He was resolute therefore to assert the supremacy of his court and to receive Scotch appeals.

[Sidenote:  The French Attack]