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sequences, enabled him to execute his schemes with the greater facility. Under pretence of examining the question with the utmost solemnity, he summoned all the Scottish barons to Norham; and, having gained some and intimidated others, he prevailed on all who were present, not excepting Bruce and Baliol, the competitors, to acknowledge Scotland to be a fief of the English crown, and to swear fealty to him as their Sovereign or Liege Lord. This step led to another still more important. As it was vain to pronounce a sentence which he had not power to execute, Edward demanded possession of the kingdom, that he might be able to deliver it to him whose right should be found preferable; and such was the pusillanimity of the nobles, and the impatient ambition of the competitors, that both assented to this strange demand, and Gilbert de Umfraville, earl of Angus, was the only man who refused to surrender the castles in his custody to the enemy of his country. Edward, finding Baliol the most obsequious and the least formidable of the two competitors, soon after gave judgment in his favour. Baliol once more professed himself the vassal of England, and submitted to every condition which the sovereign whom he had now acknowledged was pleased to prescribe.

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Edward, having thus placed a creature of his own upon the throne of Scotland, and compelled the nobles to renounce the ancient liberties and independence of their country, had reason to conclude that his dominion was now fully established. But he began too soon to assume the master his new vassals, fierce and independent, bore with impatience a yoke to which they were not accustomed. Provoked by his haughtiness, even the passive spirit of Baliol began to mutiny. But Edward, who had no longer use for such a pageant king, forced him to resign the crown, and openly attempted to seize it as fallen to himself by the rebellion of his vassal. At that critical period arose sir William Wallace, a hero, to whom the fond admiration of his countrymen hath ascribed many fabulous acts of prowess, though his real valour, as well as integrity and wisdom, are such as need not the heightenings of fiction. He, almost single, ventured to take arms in defence of the kingdom, and his boldness revived the spirit of his countrymen. At last, Robert Bruce, the grandson of him who stood in competition with Baliol, appeared to assert his own rights, and to vindicate the honour of his country. The nobles, ashamed of their former baseness, and enraged at the many indignities offered to the nation, crowded to his standard. In order to crush him at once, the English monarch entered Scotland at the head of a mighty army. Many battles were fought, and the Scots, though often vanquished, were not subdued. The ardent zeal with which the nobles contended for the independence of the kingdom, the prudent valour of Bruce, and above all, a national enthusiasm inspired by such a cause, baffled the repeated efforts of Edward, and counterbalanced all the advantages which he derived from the number and wealth of his subjects. Though the war continued with little intermission upwards of seventy years, Bruce and his posterity kept possession of the throne of Scotland, and reigned with an authority not inferior to that of its former monarchs.

But while the sword, the ultimate judge of all disputes between contending nations, was employed to terminate this controversy, neither Edward nor the Scots seemed to distrust the justice of their cause; and both appealed to history and records, and from these produced, in their own favour, such evidence as they pretended to be unanswerable. The letters and memorials addressed by each party to the pope, who was then reverenced as the common father, and often appealed to as the common judge of all Christian princes, are still extant. The fabulous tales of the early British history, the partial testimony of ignorant chroniclers, supposititious treaties and charters, are the proofs on which Edward founded his title to the sovereignty of Scotland; and the homage done by the Scottish monarchs for their lands in England is preposterously supposed to imply the subjection of their

whole kingdom.* Ill founded, however, as their right was, the English did not fail to revive it, in all the subsequent quarrels between the two kingdoms; while the Scots disclaimed it with the utmost indignation. To this we must impute the fierce and implacable hatred to each other, which long inflamed both. Their national antipathies were excited, not only by the usual circumstances of frequent hostilities, and reciprocal injuries; but the English considered the Scots as vassals who had presumed to rebel; and the Scots, in their turn, regarded the English as usurpers who aimed at enslaving their country.

1306.] At the time when Robert Bruce began his reign in Scotland, the same form of government was established in all the kingdoms of Europe. This surprising similarity in their constitution and laws demonstrates that the nations which overturned the Roman empire, and erected these kingdoms, though divided into different tribes and distinguished by different names, were either derived originally from the same source, or had been placed in similar situations. When we take a view of the feudal system of laws and policy, that stupendous and singular fabric erected by them, the first object that strikes us is the king. And when we are told that he is the sole proprietor of all the lands within his dominions, that all his subjects derive their possessions from him, and in return consecrate their lives to his service; when we hear that all marks of distinction and titles of dignity flow from him as the only fountain of honour; when we behold the most potent peers, on their bended knees, and with folded hands, swearing fealty at his feet, and acknowledging him to be their Sovereign and their Liege Lord; we are apt to pronounce him a powerful, nay, an absolute monarch. No conclusion, however, would be more rash, or worse founded. The genius of the feudal government was purely aristocratical. With all the ensigns of royalty, and with many appearances of despotic power, a feudal king was the most limited of all princes.

Before they sallied out of their own habitations to conquer the world, many of the northern nations seem not to have been subject to the government of kings;† and even where monarchical government was established, the prince possessed but little authority. A general, rather than a king, his military command was extensive, his civil jurisdiction almost nothing.I The army which he led was not composed of soldiers, who could be compelled to serve, but of such as voluntarily followed his standard.§ These conquered not for their leader, but for themselves; and, being free in their own country, renounced not their liberty when they acquired new settlements. They did not exterminate the ancient inhabitants of the countries which they subdued; but, seizing the greater part of their lands, they took their persons under protection. The difficulty of maintaining a new conquest, as well as the danger of being attacked by new invaders, rendering it necessary to be always in a posture of defence, the form of government which they established was altogether military, and nearly resembled that to which they had been accustomed in their native country. Their general still continuing to be the head of the colony, part of the conquered lands were allotted to him; the remainder, under the name of beneficia or fiefs, was divided among his principal officers. As the common safety required that these officers should, upon all occasions, be ready to appear in arms, for the common defence, and should continue obedient to their general, they bound themselves to take the field, when called, and to serve him with a number of men, in proportion to the extent of their territory. These great officers again parcelled out their lands among their followers, and annexed the same condition to the grant. A feudal kingdom was properly the encampment of a great army military

* Anderson's Historical Essay concerning the Independency, &c.
Tacit. de Mor. Germ. c 7.11
Ø Cæs. lib. vi. c. 23.

† Cæs. lib. vi. c. 23.

ideas predominated, military subordination was established, and the possession of land was the pay which soldiers received for their personal service. In consequence of these notions, the possession of land was granted during pleasure only, and kings were elective. In other words, an officer disagreeable to his general was deprived of his pay, and the person who was most capable of conducting an army was chosen to command it. Such were the first rudiments or infancy of feudal government. But long before the beginning of the fourteenth century, the feudal system had undergone many changes, of which the following were the most considerable. Kings, formerly elective, were then hereditary; and fiefs, granted at first during pleasure, descended from father to son, and were become perpetual. These changes, not less advantageous to the nobles than to the prince, made no alteration in the aristocratical spirit of the feudal constitution. The king, who at a distance seemed to be invested with majesty and power, appears on a nearer view to possess almost none of those advantages which bestow on monarchs their grandeur and authority. His revenues were scanty; he had not a standing army; and the jurisdiction he possessed was circumscribed within very narrow limits.

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At a time when pomp and splendour were little known, even in the palaces of kings; when the officers of the crown received scarcely any salary besides the fees and perquisites of their office; when embassies to foreign courts were rare; when armies were composed of soldiers who served without pay; it was not necessary that a king should possess a great revenue; nor did the condition of Europe, in those ages, allow its princes to be opulent. Commerce made little progress in the kingdoms where the feudal government was established. Institutions which had no other object but to inspire a martial spirit, to train men to be soldiers, and to make arms the only honourable profession, naturally discouraged the commercial arts. The revenues, arising from the taxes imposed on the different branches of commerce, were by consequence inconsiderable; and the prince's treasury received little supply from a source, which, among a trading people, flows with such abundance as is almost inexhaustible. A fixed tax was not levied even on land: such a burden would have appeared intolerable to men who received their estates as the reward of their valour, and who considered their service in the field as a full retribution for what they possessed. The king's demesnes, or the portion of land which he still retained in his own hands unalienated, furnished subsistence to his court, and defrayed the ordinary expense of government. The only stated taxes which the feudal law obliged vassals to pay to the king, or to those of whom they held their lands, were three: one when his eldest son was made a knight; another, when his eldest daughter was married; and a third, in order to ransom him if he should happen to be taken prisoner. Besides these, the king received the feudal casualties of the ward, marriage, &c. of his own vassals. And, on some extraordinary occasions, his subjects granted him an aid, which they distinguished by the name of a benevolence, in order to declare that he received it not in consequence of any right, but as a gift flowing from their good will.† All these added together produced a revenue so scanty and precarious as naturally incited a feudal monarch to aim at diminishing the exorbitant power and wealth of the nobility, which, instead of enabling him to carry on his schemes with full effect, kept him in continual indigence, anxiety, and dependence.

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Nor could the king supply the defect of his revenues by the terror of his arms. Mercenary troops and standing armies were unknown as long as the feudal government subsisted in vigour. Europe was peopled with

* Craig. de Feud. lib. i. Dieg. 14. Du Cange Gloss. voc. Dominicum. Auxilium.

* Du Cange, voc

soldiers. The vassals of the king, and the sub-vassals of the barons, were all obliged to carry arms. While the poverty of princes prevented them from fortifying their frontier towns, while a campaign continued but a few weeks, and while a fierce and impetuous courage was impatient to bring every quarrel to the decision of a battle, an army without pay, and with little discipline, was sufficient for all the purposes both of the security and of the glory of the nation. Such an army, however, far from being an engine at the king's disposal, was often no less formidable to him than to his enemies. The more warlike any people were, the more independent they became ; and the same persons being both soldiers and subjects, civil privileges and immunities were the consequence of their victories, and the reward of their martial exploits. Conquerors, whom mercenary armies, under our present forms of government, often render the tyrants of their own people, as well as the scourges of mankind, were commonly under the feudal constitution the most indulgent of all princes to their subjects, because they stood most in need of their assistance. A prince, whom even war and victories did not render the master of his own army, possessed hardly any shadow of military power during times of peace. His disbanded soldiers mingled with his other subjects; not a single man received pay from him many ages elapsed even before a guard was appointed to defend his person; and destitute of that great instrument of dominion, a standing army, the authority of the king continued always feeble, and was often conemptible.

Nor were these the only circumstances which contributed towards depressing the regal power. By the feudal system, as has been already observed, the king's judicial authority was extremely circumscribed. At first, princes seem to have been the supreme judges of their people, and, In person, heard and determined all controversies among them. The multiplicity of causes soon made it necessary to appoint judges, who, in the king's name, decided matters that belonged to the royal jurisdiction. But the barbarians, who overran Europe, having destroyed most of the great cities, and the countries which they seized being cantoned out among powerful chiefs, who were blindly followed by numerous dependents, whom, in return, they were bound to protect from every injury; the administration of justice was greatly interrupted, and the execution of any egal sentence became almost impracticable. Theft, rapine, murder, and disorder of all kinds prevailed in every kingdom of Europe, to a degree almost incredible, and scarcely compatible with the subsistence of civil society. Every offender sheltered himself under the protection of some powerful chieftain, who screened him from the pursuits of justice. To apprehend and to punish a criminal often required the union and effort of half a kingdom.* In order to remedy these evils, many persons of distinction were intrusted with the administration of justice within their own territories. But what we may presume was, at first, only a temporary grant, or a personal privilege, the encroaching spirit of the nobles gradually converted into a right, and rendered hereditary. The lands of some were,

* A remarkable instance of this occurs in the following history, so late as the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-one. Mary, having appointed a court of justice to be held on the borders, the inhabitants of no less than eleven counties were summoned to guard the person who was to act as judge, and to enable him to enforce his decisions. The words of a proclamation, which afford such convincing proof of the feebleness of the feudal government, deserve our notice-"And because it is necessary for the execution of Her Highness' commandments and service, that her justice be well accompanied, and her authority sufficiently fortified, by the concurrence of a good power of her faithful subjects-Therefore commands and charges all and sundry Earls, Lords, Barons, Freeholders, Landed men, and other Gentlemen, dwelling within the said counties, that they and every one of them, with their kin, friends, servants, and household men, well bodin in feir of war in the most substantial manuer, [i. e. completely armed and provided,] and with twenty days' victuals, to meet and to pass forward with him to the borough of Jedburgh, and there to remain during the said space of twenty days, and to receive such direction and commands as shall be given to them in our Sovereign Lady's name, for quietness of the country: and to put the same in execution under the pain of losing their life, lands, and goods." Keith's Hist. of Scotland, 198.

in process of time, erected into Baronies, those of others into Regalities. The jurisdiction of the former was extensive; that of the latter, as the name implies, royal and almost unbounded. All causes, whether civil or criminal, were tried by judges, whom the lord of the regality appointed; and if the king's courts called any person within his territory before them, the lord of regality might put a stop to their proceedings, and by the privilege of repledging, remove the cause to his own court, and even punish his vassal if he submitted to a foreign jurisdiction.* Thus almost every question, in which any person who resided on the lands of the nobles was interested, being determined by judges appointed by the nobles themselves, their vassals were hardly sensible of being in any degree subject to the crown. A feudal kingdom was split into many small principalities, almost independent, and held together by a feeble and commonly an imperceptible bond of union. The king was not only stripped of the authority annexed to the person of a supreme judge, but his revenue suffered no small diminution by the loss of those pecuniary emoluments which were in that age due to the person who administered justice.

In the same proportion that the king sunk in power, the nobles rose towards independence. Not satisfied with having obtained an hereditary right to their fiefs, which they formerly held during pleasure, their ambition aimed at something bolder, and, by introducing entails, endeavoured, as far as human ingenuity and invention can reach that end, to render their possessions unalienable and everlasting. As they had full power to add to the inheritance transmitted to them from their ancestors, but none to diminish it, time alone, by means of marriages, legacies, and other accidents, brought continual accessions of wealth and of dignity; a great family, like a river, became considerable from the length of its course, and, as it rolled on, new honours and new property flowed successively into it. Whatever influence is derived from titles of honour, the feudal barons likewise possessed in an ample manner. These marks of distinction are, in their own nature, either official or personal, and being annexed to a particular charge, or bestowed by the admiration of mankind upon illustrious characters, ought to be appropriated to these. But the son, however unworthy, could not bear to be stripped of that appellation by which his father had been distinguished. His presumption claimed what his virtue did not merit; titles of honour became hereditary, and added new lustre to nobles already in possession of too much power. Something more audacious and more extravagant still remained. The supreme direction of all affairs, both civil and military, being committed to the great officers of the crown, the fame and safety of princes, as well as of their people, depended upon the fidelity and abilities of these officers. But such was the preposterous ambition of the nobles, and so successful even in their wildest attempts to aggrandize themselves, that in all the kingdoms where the feudal institu tions prevailed, most of the chief officers of state were annexed to great families, and held, like fiefs, by hereditary right. A person whose undutiful behaviour rendered him odious to his prince, or whose incapacity exposed him to the contempt of the people, often held a place of power and trust of the greatest importance to both. In Scotland, the offices of Lord Justice General, Great Chamberlain, High Steward, High Constable, Earl Marshal, and High Admiral, were all hereditary; and in many counties, the office of Sheriff was held in the same manner.

Nobles, whose property was so extensive, and whose power was so great, could not fail of being turbulent and formidable. Nor did they want instruments for executing their boldest designs. That portion of their lands, which they parcelled out among their followers, supplied them with a numerous band of faithful and determined vassals; while that which

• Craig. lib iii. Dieg. 7.

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