the Scots at Dunbar, in April, 1296, and continued an undisturbed progress through Scotland, the castles of Dunbar, Roxburgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling falling into his hands.  Balliol determined to submit, and, on the 7th July, 1296, he met Edward in the churchyard of Stracathro, near Brechin, and formally resigned his office into the hands of his overlord.  Balliol was imprisoned in England for three years, but, in July, 1299, he was permitted to go to his estate of Bailleul, in Normandy, where he survived till April, 1313.

Edward now treated Scotland as a conquered country under his own immediate rule.  He continued his progress, by Aberdeen, Banff, and Cullen, to Elgin, whence, in July, 1296, he marched southwards by Scone, whence he carried off the Stone of Fate, which is now part of the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey.  He also despoiled Scotland of many of its early records, which might serve to remind his new subjects of their forfeited independence.  He did not at once determine the new constitution of the country, but left it under a military occupation, with John de Warrenne, Earl of Surrey, as Governor, Hugh de Cressingham as Treasurer, and William Ormsby as Justiciar.  All castles and other strong places were in English hands, and Edward regarded his conquest as assured.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 41:  David, the youngest child of Alexander and Margaret of England, died in June, 1281; Alexander, his older brother, in January, 1283-84; and their sister, Margaret, Queen of Norway, in April, 1283.  Neither Alexander nor David left any issue, and the little daughter of the Queen of Norway was only about three years old when her grandfather, Alexander III, was killed.]

[Footnote 42:  Nat.  MSS. i. 36, No.  LXX.]

[Footnote 43:  Cf.  Table, App.  C.]

CHAPTER IV

THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

1297-1328

Edward I had failed to recognize the difference between the Scottish barons and the Scottish people, to which we have referred in a former chapter.  To the Norman baron, who possessed lands in England and Scotland alike, it mattered little that he had now but one liege lord instead of two suzerains.  To the people of Scotland, proud and high-spirited, tenacious of their long traditions of independence, resentful of the presence of foreigners, it could not but be hateful to find their country governed by a foreign soldiery.  The conduct of Edward’s officials, and especially of Cressingham and Ormsby, and the cruelty of the English garrisons, served to strengthen this national feeling, and it only remained for it to find a leader round whom it might rally.[44] A leader arose in the person of Sir William Wallace, a heroic and somewhat mysterious figure, who first attracted notice in the autumn of 1296, and, by the spring of the following year, had gathered round him a band of guerilla warriors,