Treaty of Durham.]

[Footnote 38: Ailred credits Bruce with a long speech, in which he tries
to convince David that his real friends are not his Scottish subjects,
but his Anglo-Norman favourites, and that, accordingly, he should keep
on good terms with the English.]

[Footnote 39: William's English earldom of Huntingdon, which had been
forfeited, was restored, in 1185, and was conferred by William upon his
brother, David, the ancestor of the claimants of 1290.]

[Footnote 40: As Alexander III was the last king of Scotland who ruled
before the War of Independence, it is interesting to note that he was
crowned at Scone with the ancient ceremonies, and as the representative
of the Celtic kings of Scotland. Fordun tells us that the coronation
took place on the sacred stone at Scone, on which all Scottish kings had
sat, and that a Highlander appeared and read Alexander's Celtic
genealogy (Annals XLVIII. Cf. App. A). There is no indication that
Alexander's subjects, from the Forth to the Moray Firth, were "stout
Northumbrian Englishmen", who had, for no good reason, drifted away from
their English countrymen, to unite them with whom Edward I waged his
Scottish wars.]

CHAPTER III

THE SCOTTISH POLICY OF EDWARD I

1286-1296

When Alexander III was killed, on the 19th March, 1285-86, the relations
between England and Scotland were such that Edward I was amply justified
in looking forward to a permanent union. Since the ill-fated invasion of
William the Lion in 1174, there had been no serious warfare between the
two countries, and in recent years they had become more and more
friendly in their dealings with each other. The late king had married
Edward's sister, Margaret, and the child-queen was her grand-daughter;
Alexander and Margaret had been present at the English King's coronation
in 1274; and, in addition to these personal connections, Scotland had
found England a friend in its great final struggle with the Danes. The
misfortunes which had overtaken Scotland in the premature deaths[41] of
Alexander and his three children might yet prove a very real blessing,
if they prepared the way for the creation of a great island kingdom,
which should be at once free and united. The little Margaret, the Maid
of Norway, Edward's grand-niece, had been acknowledged heir to the
throne of her grandfather, in February, 1283-84, and on his death her
succession was admitted. The Great Council met at Scone in April, 1286,
and