three facts, says Bishop Stubbs,
"remain on record as illustrations of Edward's chief weakness, the
legal captiousness, which was the one drawback on his greatness."

It was the dangerous aspect of affairs in Scotland that forced the
king to submit so easily to the demands of his barons. Already, in the
spring of 1297, Wallace, without any countenance from the Scottish
nobility, had commenced a guerilla warfare, and his handful of
desperate men soon increased into an army, which completely defeated
Earl Warenne and Cressingham at Cambuskenneth (Stirling Bridge), in
September, 1297, and ravaged England, with the most atrocious
cruelties, from Newcastle to Carlisle. Edward's expedition to Flanders
had been a failure, but he hastened to conclude a truce, so as to find
time to chastise the Scots, cementing it by his betrothal to Philip's
sister Margaret. The good Queen Eleanor had been already dead nine
years.

Meantime, Wallace's success had merely earned him the bitter jealousy
of the Scottish nobles, and his power was finally broken in the
disastrous defeat by Edward's army at Falkirk in July, 1298. The king
had two of his ribs broken by a kick from his horse on the morning of
the battle, but rode throughout the day as if unhurt. The struggle
lingered on some years under various leaders, as Edward found his
energy paralyzed the while by the intrigues of Philip, and the
constitutional struggle with his barons. Pope Boniface, in 1301, put
forth a claim to the over-lordship of Scotland, which was repudiated
by the whole body of the estates at Lincoln. It was not till the June
of 1303 that the king was able to resume his conquest. Accompanied by
a fleet carrying his supplies, he penetrated again into the far North,
tarried a while in Dunfermline, and settled the kingdom after the
reduction of Stirling, the last place of strength that held out. In
1305 Wallace was betrayed into his hands, sent to London, and cruelly
executed as a traitor. The fate of this noble-hearted patriot is a
fatal blot upon his conqueror's memory, but it should not be forgotten
that Edward was profoundly convinced of the legality of his own claims
over Scotland, and that Wallace to him was merely a pestilent rebel,
who had earned his doom by treason to his lord and by the cruelties he
had inflicted upon Englishmen. The same year the king prepared a new
constitution for the conquered kingdom, divided it into sheriffdoms
like the English counties, and