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116 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS the " king of the sea ; " he neglected the navy in his later years. Little as the nation owed him in other respects, his achievements by sea and land made the English name respected. It is said to have been chiefly through Mortimer's influence that, on April 24, 1328, a peace was concluded between England and Scotland, the chief pro- visions of which were that the Scots agreed to pay the sum of ,20,000, and that Edward agreed to recognize the independence of the Scotch crown. The treaty was very unpopular in England, and it is not surprising, therefore, that, when Edward Baliol in 1332 made his attempt to mount the Scotch throne, Edward III. gave him indirect assistance, and that after Baliol's de- thronement in 1333 an invasion of Scotland was resolved on. On July 19 Ed- ward defeated the Scots at the battle of Halidon Hill. His army was in great danger, and was hemmed in by the sea, the Tweed, the garrison of Benvick, and the Scottish host, which far outnumbered the English. On the 2oth he drew up his men in four battles, placing his archers on the wings of each ; all fought on foot, and he himself in the van. The English archers began the fight ; the Scots fell in great numbers, and others fled, the rest charged up the hill and engaged the enemy hand to hand. They were defeated with tremendous loss ; many nobles were slain, and it was commonly said in England that the war was over, for that there was not a Scot left to raise a force or lead it to battle. Ed- ward ordered a general thanksgiving for this victory. Receiving as the result of his victory the submission of the principal Scotch nobles, he annexed the whole of Scotland south of the Forth to his own crown, and allowed Baliol to reign over the remainder as titular king. Soon after, Baliol was again a fugitive, but was again aided by Edward to mount a nominal throne. After a short period of peace Edward, in July, 1336, ravaged and burned Scot- land as far as Aberdeen, but growing complications with France compelled him in the same year to return to England. Though he professed to have a claim, through his mother, on the French throne against Philip of Valois, that claim was left in abeyance until several acts of aggression on the part of Philip brought about a rupture between the two kings. The Count of Flanders, at Philip's in- stigation, had broken off commercial relations with England ; French privateers were daily committing ravages on English commerce ; Aquitaine was continually threatened by desultory attacks ; and Philip, though he hesitated to accept the re- sponsibility of being the first to declare war, scarcely attempted to conceal his endeavors to throw that responsibility on Edward. Edward sailed for Flanders July 1 6, 1338; and at Coblentz held a conference with the Emperor Louis V., at which the latter appointed him his vicar-general, and gave orders for all the princes of the Low Countries to follow him in war for the space of seven years. In 1339 Edward laid siege to Cambrai, but soon afterward raised the siege and invaded France. Philip advanced to meet him, but declined battle, and Edward concluded his first campaign without achieving anything to compensate him for its cost. In 1340 he defeated the French fleet before Sluys. The French fleet of one