war was carried on with various success till May, 1341, when, Baliol having previously withdrawn into England, David and his queen arrived from France. The Scots now began to retaliate on the English frontiers; and, in 1346, while Edward was prosecuting his wars in France, David, at the instigation, it is said, of Philip, whom the English monarch had already charged with aiding the Scots, contrary to the conditions of a subsisting truce, assembled a formidable army, and, penetrating into the bishopric of Durham, pitched his camp in the neighbourhood of that city, on the 16th of October. William de la Zouche, then archbishop of York, Henry de Percy, and Ralph de Nevill, under a commission from the regency, headed the English army; and, in an engagement which ensued, called the battle of Nevil's-cross, the Scots were routed

person of John of Eltham, earl of Cornwall, only brother to the king of England, whom, in the heat of their altercation upon the subject, he slew with his own hand. See B, VIII. c. xxx.

с

with great slaughter, and their king, after a gallant resistance taken prisoner: nor, though occasionally permitted to visit his dominions, was he finally released till the 3d of October, 1357, after a captivity of eleven years.

Baliol, who had served in the English army at the battle of Durham, and, from king of Scotland, condescended to become governor of Berwick, seeming now completely sick of sovereignty, made an absolute surrender to Edward, in consideration of five thousand marks, and an annuity of two thousand pounds, as well of his private estates in Scotland as of his nominal kingdom, delivering seisin of the former by a clod of earth, and of the latter by the royal diadem, and inserting in the instrument of surrender a clause of warranty for himself and his heirs against all mortals for ever. This farcical scene passed at Roxburgh Castle, while Edward, it seems, lay at Bamburgh, in Northumberland; and the phantom of departed royalty, who appears, throughout the

process of this political drama, the tool of the more crafty and ambitious Edward, retired into England, where he continued in obscurity till the time of his death, which happened in 1363.

Edward, now become the immediate and absolute sovereign of Scotland, displayed his affection for his new subjects by a fresh inroad and more extensive devastation; being "resolved," he said,

inviolably to maintain the ancient laws and the usages of that kingdom." The English, however, were soon driven out of the country, and the liege lord and assignee of Baliol finally "expressed his willingness to enter into a treaty with the Scots, not only for the ransom of their king, and for a cessation of hostilities, but also for a perpetual peace."*

* See the Annals of Scotland, by sir David Dalrymple, lord Hailes. Edinb. 1776 9, 2 vols. 4to.

II.

ON THE TITLE OF KING EDWARD III. TO THE

CROWN OF FRANCE.

ON the death of Charles the Fair, king of France, the last of the three sons and successors of Philip the Fair, in 1328, his wife, Joan d'Evreux, being left pregnant, the office of regent was claimed by Edward III. king of England, then a youth of fifteen, in right of his mother Isabel, only sister of the deceased monarch; his claim being opposed by that of Philip, son of Charles of Valois, younger brother of Philip the Fair. This contest, which involved, in fact, the right of succession to the crown itself, in case the child of which Joan was then pregnant should,

as it did, happen to be a daughter, was, by the French peerage, decided in favour of the latter, who, in virtue of that decision, on the delivery of the queen dowager, succeeded to the vacant throne. In any other country than France, the claim of Edward must unquestionably have been preferred to that of Philip; but by the Salic law, an ancient and established custom of that kingdom, females were incapable of inheriting the crown; and, consequently, Isabel, having no right in herself, could not possibly, as was contended, transmit any to her son. This consequence, however, was denied by Edward, who insisted, that although females were personally excluded, such incapacity did not reach their male descendants; and that he, as the nearest

male in blood, ought to be

who was very far removed.

preferred to Philip,

But the argument,

if well-founded, clearly proved too much to be of any service to the English monarch, since the male issue of the daughters of former kings must