the position of a vassal king.  The new monarch made a full and indisputable acknowledgment of his position as Edward’s liege, and the great seal of the kingdom of Scotland was publicly destroyed in token of the position of vassalage in which the country now stood.  Of what followed it is difficult to speak with any certainty.  Balliol occupied the throne for three and a half years, and was engaged, during the whole of that period, in disputes with his superior.  The details need not detain us.  Edward claimed to be final judge in all Scottish cases; he summoned Balliol to his court to plead against one of the Scottish king’s own vassals, and to receive instructions with regard to the raising of money for Edward’s needs.  It may fairly be said that Edward’s treatment of Balliol does give grounds for the view of Scottish historians that the English king was determined, from the first, to goad his wretched vassal into rebellion in order to give him an opportunity of absorbing the country in his English kingdom.  On the other hand, it may be argued that, if this was Edward’s aim, he was singularly unfortunate in the time he chose for forcing a crisis.  He was at war with Philip IV of France; Madoc was raising his Welsh rebellion; and Edward’s seizure of wool had created much indignation among his own subjects.  However this may be, it is certain that Balliol, rankling with a sense of injustice caused by the ignominy which Edward had heaped upon him, and rendered desperate by the complaints of his own subjects, decided, by the advice of the Great Council, to disown his allegiance to the King of England, and to enter upon an alliance with France.  It is noteworthy that the policy of the French alliance, as an anti-English movement, which became the watchword of the patriotic party in Scotland, was inaugurated by John Balliol.  The Scots commenced hostilities by some predatory incursions into the northern counties of England in 1295-96.

Whether or not Edward was waiting for the opportunity thus given him, he certainly took full advantage of it.  Undisturbed by his numerous difficulties, he marched northwards to the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.  Tradition tells that he was exasperated by insults showered upon him by the inhabitants, but the story cannot go far to excuse the massacre which followed the capture of the town.  After more than a century of peace, the first important act of war was marked by a brutality which was a fitting prelude to more than two centuries of fierce and bloody fighting.  On Edward’s policy of “Thorough,” as exemplified at Berwick, must rest, to some extent, the responsibility for the unnecessary ferocity which distinguished the Scottish War of Independence.  It was, from a military stand-point, a complete and immediate success; politically, it was unquestionably a failure.  From Berwick-on-Tweed Edward marched to Dunbar, cheered by the formal announcement of Balliol’s renunciation of his allegiance.  He easily defeated