The agreement prom ised a peaceful future for both countries, as far as their relations with each other were concerned, but within two months, the Maid of Norway died on her way to Scotland (Sept. 1290). Civil war between the Bruces and the Balliols was inevitable, and each party wished to secure Edward's support. During the minority of Alexander III., the Bruce family had supported the policy of Henry III. in Scotland, and Robert Bruce, the claimant, was an English landowner, had held high official positions in England, and had fought with Edward during the Barons' Wars. There are indications that he would have acknowledged English overlordship in return for Edward's support, but such a bargain would not have fulfilled the purpose which Edward had begun to cherish—the reduction of Scotland to the position of a vassal kingdom of England. A compact with the Bruces would only have resulted in placing behind Balliol all who upheld Scottish claims to inde pendence, and Edward was determined to obtain an acknowledg ment of his paramount authority from all the claimants—there were rivals to Balliol and Bruce, but with clearly inferior preten sions. After collecting evidence from monastic chronicles about the history of the overlordship controversy, Edward asked the Scottish nobles to meet him at Norham-on-Tweed in May 1292. There he at once announced his intention of establishing his claim to be the feudal overlord of the kingdom of Scotland, and he gave the Scottish magnates some days to consider their attitude. Meanwhile, a great English army was assembling on the opposite bank of the Tweed. Edward's claim was not entirely repugnant to an assembly consisting largely of Anglo-Norman barons, some of whom held lands in England as well as in Scotland, and, after a protest had been entered in the name of the "community" of Scotland, the English overlordship was admitted and the admis sion was duly recorded. The Lord Paramount then ordered an enquiry into the pretensions of the various competitors, who were reminded that any symptoms of recalcitrance would be followed by a declaration that the kingdom, owing to failure of heirs, had reverted to the overlord. Edward then made a progress, as far north as Perth, through the kingdom of his (as yet unidentified) vassal.
In Nov. 1292, Edward, after a judicial in vestigation, gave his decision in favour of John Balliol, thus defin ing right of succession in accordance with the later rules of primo geniture. Within three years the vassal king was in revolt against his overlord, who had subjected him to ignominious treatment. Whether Edward deliberately intended to produce this result is uncertain. Balliol's character and disposition suggested that he would submit to almost any humiliation rather than face Edward's wrath, and, if the English king did contemplate a conquest of Scotland, he cannot have wished to undertake it in 1295, when he had on his hands a Welsh rebellion, a French war and serious domestic quarrels. The remark attributed to him when news was brought of Balliol's alliance with France, "Has the fool done this folly?" indicates that he was surprised by the audacity of his vassal, and he was so far right that Balliol seems to have been compelled by Scottish opinion to take action. Edward at once
assembled a powerful army to give effect to a new claim—that Scotland, as the fief of a disobedient vassal, had passed by for feiture into the direct possession of the feudal superior. The strength of Scottish feeling is illustrated by the stubborn resis tance offered by the Anglian population of the prosperous mer cantile town of Berwick-on-Tweed, where English rule might have been expected to be more welcome than in any other province of Scotland. Edward took vengeance by a merciless massacre (the first act of warfare for nearly a century) and gave a prece dent for a cruel and relentless struggle. At first, it seemed as if the conquest were to be a very simple process. Scotland was divided—the Bruces denied support to Balliol—and Edward, easily defeating a Scottish army at Dunbar (April 1296), made a triamphal march through Scotland. The annexation of the coun try, and its loss of the status even of a vassal kingdom, was em phasized by the destruction of the Great Seal, and by the removal to London of the national records and of the "Stone of Fate" upon which the Scottish kings were crowned. In October the English king returned home, leaving Scotland under a military occupation.
English soldiers and officials were far from tactful, but the explanation of the revolt that followed is not to be found in garrison outrages. The lay magnates who had accepted the English overlordship were largely of Anglo-Norman blood; the smaller landowners and the lower classes of the popula tion nourished a stronger dislike to English rule than did their natural leaders who had deserted the cause of independence. They found at once a new leader in Sir William Wallace, a younger son of a Renfrewshire landowner, and it was soon proved that only leadership was wanted to enlist an army of soldiers drawn from all parts of Scotland, including the Highlands. On Sept.
1297, Wallace, as commander of "the army of the com mons of Scotland," routed the English army of occupation at Stirling bridge, and for a year he ruled Scotland in the capacity of guardian for John Balliol. Meanwhile, Edward I., relieved both of foreign and of domestic anxieties, prepared to lead an army to Scotland in person. At Falkirk, on July 22, 1298, he defeated Wallace, who escaped but resigned his office of guardian. The victory did not, however, restore the English to the position they had held in 1296. The spirit of resistance, thoroughly awak ened, was not dismayed by defeat. New guardians were appointed, including Robert Bruce, grandson of the Competitor (the future King Robert), and Edward, summoned to London by fresh domestic complications, had to leave Scotland unconquered. It was not till the autumn of 1303 that he was able to undertake operations on a scale adequate for his purpose. He brought a great army to Scotland in September, traversed the country, met with little resistance, and spent the winter in Scotland. In the summer of 1304, having captured Stirling Castle, which had been taken by the Scots of ter their defeat at Falkirk, he again left behind him what he believed to be a conquered country. In i3o5 he captured Wallace and put the noblest of Scottish patriots to the cruel death prescribed by English law for a traitor.