Angus and King
Edward, as well as the disgraceful flight of the Scottish cavalry
without a single blow, corroborates the suspicion. But the great
superiority of the English in archery may account for the loss of this
as of many another battle on the part of the Scots. The bowmen of
Ettrick Forest were faithful; but they could only be few. So nearly
had Wallace's scheme for the campaign been successful, that Edward,
even after having gained this great battle, returned to England, and
deferred reaping the harvest of his conquest till the following
season. If he had not been able to bring the Scottish army to action,
his retreat must have been made with discredit and loss, and Scotland
must have been left in the power of the patriots.

The slaughter and disgrace of the battle of Falkirk might have been
repaired in other respects, but it cost the Scottish kingdom an
irredeemable loss in the public services of Wallace. He resigned the
guardianship of the kingdom, unable to discharge its duties, amid the
calumnies with which faction and envy aggravated his defeat. The
Bishop of St. Andrew's, Bruce, Earl of Carrick, and Sir John Comyn
were chosen guardians of Scotland, which they administered in the name
of Baliol. In the mean time that unfortunate Prince was, in compassion
or scorn, delivered up to the Pope by Edward, and a receipt was
gravely taken for his person from the nuncio then in France. This led
to the entrance of a new competitor for the Scottish kingdom.

The Pontiff of Rome had been long endeavoring to establish a claim, to
whatsoever should be therein found, to which a distinct and specific
right of property could not be ascertained. The Pontiff's claim to the
custody of the dethroned King being readily admitted, Boniface VIII
was encouraged to publish a bull claiming Scotland as a dependency on
the see of Rome because the country had been converted to Christianity
by the relics of St. Andrew.

The Pope, in the same document, took the claim of Edward to the
Scottish crown under his own discussion, and authoritatively commanded
Edward I to send proctors to Rome to plead his cause before his
holiness. This magisterial requisition was presented by the Archbishop
of Canterbury to the King, in the presence of the council and court,
the prelate at the same time warning the sovereign to yield unreserved
obedience, since Jerusalem would not fail to protect her citizens, and
Mount Zion her worshippers. "Neither for Zio