ther customs of the Scotch realm as
incontestable as these. Even after the treaty of Falaise the Scotch king
had not been held bound to attend the council of the English baronage, to
do service in English warfare, or to contribute on the part of his Scotch
realm to English aids. If no express acknowledgement of these rights had
been made by Edward, for some time after his acceptance of Balliol's homage
they were practically observed. The claim of independent justice was more
doubtful, as it was of higher import than these. The judicial independence
of Scotland had been expressly reserved in the marriage treaty. It was
certain that no appeal from a Scotch King's Court to that of his overlord
had been allowed since the days of William the Lion. But in the
jurisprudence of the feudal lawyers the right of ultimate appeal was the
test of sovereignty, and Edward regarded Balliol's homage as having placed
him precisely in the position of William the Lion and subjected his
decisions to those of his overlord. He was resolute therefore to assert the
supremacy of his court and to receive Scotch appeals.

[Sidenote: The French Attack]

Even here however the quarrel seemed likely to end only in legal bickering.
Balliol at first gave way, and it was not till 1293 that he alleged himself
forced by the resentment both of his Baronage and his people to take up an
attitude of resistance. While appearing therefore formally at Westminster
he refused to answer an appeal before the English courts save by advice of
his Council. But real as the resentment of his barons may have been, it was
not Scotland which really spurred Balliol to this defiance. His wounded
pride had made him the tool of a power beyond the sea. The keenness with
which France had watched every step of Edward's success in the north sprang
not merely from a natural jealousy of his greatness but from its bearing on
a great object of French ambition. One fragment of Eleanor's inheritance
still remained to her descendants, Guienne and Gascony, the fair lands
along the Garonne and the territory which stretched south of that river to
the Pyrenees. It was this territory that now tempted the greed of Philip
the Fair, and it was in feeding the strife between England and the Scotch
king that Philip saw an opening for winning it. French envoys therefore
brought promises of aid to the Scotch Court; and no sooner had these
intrigues moved Balliol to resent the claims of his overlord tha