ace for England's illustrious dead. The invention of
gunpowder, which was to make iron-clad knights a romantic tradition,
also belongs to this period, which saw too, the conquest of Scotland;
and the magic stone supposed to have been Jacob's pillow at Bethel, and
which was the Scottish talisman, was carried to Westminster Abbey and
built into a coronation-chair, which has been used at the crowning of
every English sovereign since that time.

Scottish liberties were not so sacrificed by this conquest as had been
the Irish. The Scots would not be slaves, nor would they stay
conquered without many a struggle.

{56}

Robert Bruce led a great rebellion, which extended into the succeeding
reign, and Bruce's name was covered with glory by his great victory at
Bannockburn (1314).

We need not linger over the twenty years during which Edward II., by
his private infamies, so exasperated his wife and son that they brought
about his deposition, which was followed soon after by his murder; and
then by a disgraceful regency, during which the Queen's favorite,
Mortimer, was virtually king. But King Edward III. commenced to rule
with a strong hand. As soon as he was eighteen years old he summoned
the Parliament. Mortimer was hanged at Tyburn, and his queen-mother
was immured for life.

We have turned our backs upon Old England. The England of a
representative Parliament and a House of Commons, of ideals derived
from a wider knowledge, the England of a Westminster Abbey, and
gunpowder, and cloth-weaving, is the England we all know to-day.
Vicious kings and greed of territory, and lust of power, will keep the
road from being a smooth one, {57} but it leads direct to the England
of Edward VII.; and 1906 was roughly outlined in 1327, when Edward III.
grasped the helm with the decision of a master.

After completing the subjection of Scotland he invaded France,--the
pretext of resisting her designs upon the Netherlands, being merely a
cover for his own thirst for territory and conquest. The victory over
the French at Crecy, 1346, (and later of Poitiers,) covered the warlike
king and his son, Edward the "Black Prince," with imperishable renown.
Small cannon were first used at that battle. The knights and the
archers laughed at the little toy, but found it useful in frightening
the enemies' horses.

Edward III. covered England with a mantle of military glory, for which
she had to pay dearly later. He elevated the kingship to