on of the kingdom was purely Celtic in blood,
and had at no time been subject to English influences, but though the
reigning family was itself of Celtic origin, its authority hardly
extended effectively beyond the region inhabited by men of English
blood. Undoubtedly the Scottish king in 921 chose Edward the Elder "to
father and to lord," and the right then acknowledged was claimed
successively by William the Conqueror, Rufus, and other English kings.
Moreover, from the twelfth century it had been customary for the
Scottish kings or their sons to receive English earldoms, and do
homage for them, but it continued to remain somewhat vague whether
such homage was understood to be extended beyond these earldoms, so as
to include the Lowland provinces and the whole Scottish kingdom.
William the Lion, taken prisoner at Alnwick in 1174, for his freedom
acknowledged the supremacy of Henry II. in the treaty concluded at
Felaise on December 7; but on his return found his subjects
ill-disposed to accede to his cowardly submission; and fifteen years
later the claim founded on this special act of submission was formally
renounced for a sum of 10,000 merks by Richard I., who was eager to
raise money for his Crusade. Such was the ill-defined position of this
ancient controversy, when fate seemed to fling into Edward's hands the
opportunity of defining it anew with all the clearness dear to his
legal mind. It was easy for him to secure a recognition of his
superiority from the selfish and eager candidates for the crown, and
meantime he secured the Scottish castles, and after a deliberate
examination of the rival claims, decided in favor of John Baliol, who,
on his accession, paid homage distinctly for the whole kingdom of
Scotland. He soon found his position as a vassal-king intolerable,
betwixt the unruly turbulence of his subjects and the imperious
demands of his overlord, who allowed appeals to be led from Baliol's
subjects to himself.

Meantime the ambitious projects of the new King of France, Philip IV.,
involved Edward in anxieties for the safety of Guienne and his other
possessions in France. Ere long the high-handed conduct of the French
king made war necessary, and Edward, with characteristic energy, at
once began his preparations, and summoned in 1295 an assembly of the
estates of the realm, which was practically the beginning of the
modern parliaments.

The ever-increasing exasperation of the Scots at length broke out into