common enemy the king of England, and not to conclude any separate peace. At the same time, Baliol solemnly renounced his allegiance to Edward, and received from the Pope an absolution from the oaths of fealty which he had sworn. The grounds of his renunciation were these—That Edward had wantonly and upon slight suggestions summoned him to his courts;—that he had seized his English estates, his goods, and the goods of his subjects;—that he had forcibly carried off and still retained certain natives of Scotland;—and that, when remonstrances were made, instead of redressing, he had continually aggravated these injuries. Edward is said to have received Baliol's renunciation with more contempt than anger. "The foolish traitor," he exclaimed, "since he will not come to us, we will go to him." He accordingly raised a large army; and, sending his brother into France, resolved himself, in person, to make a total conquest of Scotland.
While Edward advanced towards Berwick, a small army of Scots broke into Northumberland and Cumberland, and plundered the country. The castle of Werk was taken; and a thousand men, whom Edward sent to preserve it, falling into an ambush, were slain. An English squadron, also, which blocked up Berwick by sea, was defeated, and sixteen of their ships sunk. But these partial successes were followed by fatal losses. The king of England was a brave and skilful general; he conducted a powerful army against a weak and dispirited nation, headed by an unpopular prince, and distracted by party animosities. His eventual success was, therefore, as complete as might have been anticipated. He crossed the Tweed at Coldstream, took Berwick, and put all the garrison and inhabitants to the sword. The castle of Roxburgh was delivered into his hands; and he hastened Warenne Earl of Surrey forward to besiege Dunbar. Warenne was there met by the Scots army, who, abandoning the advantage of their situation, poured down tumultuously on the English, and were repulsed with terrible slaughter. After this defeat, the castles of Dunbar, Edinburgh, and Stirling, fell into Edward's hands, and he was soon in possession of the whole of the south of Scotland.
Baliol, who had retired beyond the river Tay, with the shattered remains of his army, despairing of making any effectual resistance, sent messengers to implore the mercy of Edward. The haughty Plantagenet communicated the hard terms upon which alone he might hope for what he asked; namely, an unqualified acknowledgment of his "unjust and wicked rebellion," and an unconditional surrender of himself and his kingdom into the hands of his master. Baliol, whose life presents a strange variety of magnanimous efforts and humiliating self-abasements, consented to these conditions; and the ceremony of his degradation accordingly took place, July 2, 1296, in the church-yard of Stracathro, a village near Montrose. Led by force and in fear of his life, into the presence of the Bishop of Durham and the English nobles, mounted on a sorry horse, he was first commanded to dismount; and his treason being proclaimed, they proceeded to strip him of his royal ornaments. The crown was snatched from his head; the ermine torn from his mantle, the sceptre wrested from his hand, and every thing removed from him belonging to the state and dignity of a king. Dressed only in his shirt and drawers, and holding a white rod in his hand, after the fashion of penitents, he confessed that, by evil and false counsel, and through his own simplicity, he had grievously offended his liege lord, recapitulated all the late transactions, and acknowledged himself to be deservedly deprived of his kingdom. He then absolved his people from their allegiance, and signed a deed resigning his sovereignty over them into the hands of king Edward, giving his eldest son as a hostage for his fidelity.
The acknowledgment of an English paramountcy has at all times been so dis-
