obert,
the High Steward of Scotland. The same Parliament put the financial
position of the monarch on a satisfactory footing by granting him a
tenth penny of all rents.

The deposition and murder of Edward II created a situation of which the
King of Scots could not fail to take advantage. The truce was broken in
the summer of 1327 by an expedition into England, conducted by Douglas
and Randolph, and the hardiness of the Scottish soldiery surprised the
English and warned them that it was impossible to prolong the contest in
the present condition of the two countries. The regents for the young
Edward III resolved to come to terms with Bruce. The treaty of
Northampton, dated 17th March, 1327-28, is still preserved in Edinburgh.
It acknowledged the complete independence of Scotland and the royal
dignity of King Robert. It promised the restoration of all the symbols
of Scottish independence which Edward I had removed, and it arranged a
marriage between Prince David, the heir to the Scottish throne, and
Joanna, the sister of the young king of England. A marriage ceremony
between the two children was solemnized in the following May, but the
Stone of Fate was never removed from Westminster, owing, it is said, to
the opposition of the abbot. The succession of James VI to the throne of
England, nearly three centuries later, was accepted as the fulfilment of
the prophecy attached to the Coronation Stone, "Lapis ille grandis":

"Ni fallat fatam, Scoti, quocunque locatum,
Invenient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem".

Thus closed the portion of Scottish history which is known as the War of
Independence. The condemnation of the policy of Edward I lies simply in
its results. He found the two nations at peace and living together in
amity; he left them at war and each inspired with a bitter hatred of the
other. A policy which aimed at the unification of the island and at
preventing Scotland from proving a source of danger to England, and
which resulted in a warfare covering, almost continuously, more than two
hundred and fifty years, and which, after the lapse of four centuries,
left the policy of Scotland a serious difficulty to English ministers,
can scarcely receive credit for practical sagacity, however wise its
aim. It created for England a relentless and irritating (if not always a
dangerous) enemy, invariably ready to take advantage of English
difficulties. England had to fight Scotland in France and in Ireland,
and Edward