Confirmation of the Charters

But notwithstanding the loyalty of the clergy, lesser barons, and citizens at Westminster, the discontent was too widespread to be so easily dispelled. Besides the barons, the merchants had their grievance, for Edward had seized their wool in 1294, and again in 1297, when he had demanded, in addition to the customs duty granted in 1275, a "maletolte," or tax of forty shillings on every fifth sack. The continued resistance of the barons and the merchants, the pleadings of the clergy, led by Archbishop Winchelsey, and Edward's desire to compromise in order to obtain the money needed for the expedition to Flanders, led the king to perform that great constitutional act known as the Confirmation of the Charters. This he did in Ghent, on November 5,1297. He promised "to keep in every point without breach" the Charter of Liberties and the Charter of the Forest, affirming that all judgments contrary to them should be null and void; that the charters should be read twice a year to the people; and that all who broke them should be excommunicated.

Through the influence of the barons and the merchants three far-reaching clauses were added. The king declared that the aids, tasks, and prises' demanded in recent years should not be deemed a precedent for the future; that the maletolte" of wool should be released, though the customs granted in 1275 should be paid as usual; and lastly, that thenceforth no corn, wool, leather, or other goods should be seized or maletoltes" taken, under any circumstances, and that no tallages should be levied on the towns but by the common consent of the realm. This meant that henceforth parliament was to control the levying of feudal dues and customs duties and all general taxation. The king continued to levy tallages on the crown lands, but even this right was given up forty years later.

Peace with France

Edward's business with Flanders was soon finished. The Flemish were angry with the king for tampering with the wool trade, and gave him little help against France. Therefore he patched up a truce with Philip, June 27, 1298. This happy outcome was effected by the mediation of Boniface VIII, acting not as pope, but as plain Benedict Cajetan, a pleasant fiction that enabled Edward to accept the services of the pope without acknowledging his claims. Recompense was made for damages; and in 1299 Edward married, as his second wife, Margaret, eldest sister of Philip, and his son was betrothed to Isabella, Philip's daughter. The terms were not wholly satisfactory to Philip, but a later event rendered him powerless to reopen the conflict. The peace withdrew from Flanders the support of Edward, and Philip immediately annexed that territory. But in 1302 the Flemish burghers defeated him in the battle of Courtrai, and not only demonstrated the superiority of the burgher infantry over the heavy armed cavalry of feudalism, but also made necessary the acceptance of the truce as permanent. At Chartres, in 1303, Philip gave back Guienne; and Edward in his turn acknowledged the full sovereignty of the French king over the duchy.

The Scottish War of Independence

Scotland was already in arms. Maddened by Edward's treatment of them after Dunbar, by the tyranny of his officials, and by the introduction among them of foreign soldiers, the Scots were ready to fight for their national independence. A national champion, William Wallace, made himself the leader of an uprising, and had already, September 11, 1297, won a victory at Cambuskenneth, near Stirling, over Edward's viceroy in Scotland, Earl of Warenne, him of the rusty sword in the quo warranto inquiry. Wallace was neither an outlaw and freebooter, as some have said, nor yet the hero that romance has made him. He was a knight of good family, a rough warrior, who in this emergency found scope for his gifts as a leader.' His followers increased in number until he was able to dash across the border and to sweep Northumberland with fire and sword. Edward, returning from France, gathered an army at York, and entering Scotland defeated Wallace at Falkirk, in a battle where the new bowmen won the day (July 22, 1298). But the Scots would not yield, and until 1303 the struggle continued. At last, after the final treaty had been made with Philip IV, Edward turned on the Scots, drove all before him, and for the second time subdued the country. Wallace was betrayed in 1305 and cruelly executed as a traitor; Scotland was divided into counties, and provision was made for representation in the English parliament.

But still Scotland was unsubdued. For the third time insurrection broke out, and this time the leader was Robert Bruce, the grandson of the old claimant. Unable to persuade Comyn, nephew of Balliol and late regent, to join him, Bruce slew Comyn, and fleeing northward, was crowned king of Scotland at Scone in 1306. Again Edward gathered his forces, again did he push forward at the head of an army to the north; but this time the hand of death was upon him. Unduly harsh in his treatment of the Scots, and forgetting that what he was facing was a national uprising, not a feudal revolt, he roused in those last days a bitter feeling of resentment among the Scots, and made Bruce the national champion of Scotland. At Burgh-on-Sands, Edward died, July 17, 1307, with a last injunction to his barons to bury his heart in the Holy Land, and, to his son to continue the advance against the Scots, bearing his bones in the very front of the line. Thus died one of the greatest of English kings.