otland and I King." "I fear" replied Mary Bruce "we are only
playing at royalty like children in their games." The play was soon turned
into bitter earnest. A small English force under Aymer de Valence sufficed
to rout the disorderly levies which gathered round the new monarch, and the
flight of Bruce left his followers at Edward's mercy. Noble after noble was
sent to the block. The Earl of Athole pleaded kindred with royalty. "His
only privilege," burst forth the king, "shall be that of being hanged on a
higher gallows than the rest." Knights and priests were strung up side by
side by the English justiciaries; while the wife and daughters of Robert
Bruce were flung into Edward's prisons. Bruce himself had offered to
capitulate to Prince Edward. But the offer only roused the old king to
fury. "Who is so bold," he cried, "as to treat with our traitors without
our knowledge?" and rising from his sick-bed he led his army northwards in
the summer of 1307 to complete the conquest. But the hand of death was upon
him, and in the very sight of Scotland the old man breathed his last at
Burgh-upon-Sands.

BOOK IV
THE PARLIAMENT
1307-1461

AUTHORITIES FOR BOOK IV

For Edward the Second we have three important contemporaries: Thomas de la
More, Trokelowe's Annals, and the life by a monk of Malmesbury printed by
Hearne. The sympathies of the first are with the King, those of the last
two with the Barons. Murimuth's short Chronicle is also contemporary. John
Barbour's "Bruce," the great legendary storehouse for his hero's
adventures, is historically worthless.

Important as it is, the reign of Edward the Third is by no means fortunate
in its annalists. The concluding part of the Chronicle of Walter of
Hemingford or Heminburgh seems to have been jotted down as news of the
passing events reached its author: it ends at the battle of Crecy. Hearne
has published another contemporary account, that of Robert of Avesbury,
which closes in 1356. A third account by Knyghton, a canon of Leicester,
will be found in the collection of Twysden. At the end of this century and
the beginning of the next the annals which had been carried on in the Abbey
of St. Albans were thrown together by Walsingham in the "Historia
Anglicana" which bears his name, a compilation whose history may be found
in the prefaces to the "Chronica Monasterii S. Albani" issued in the Rolls
Series. An anonymous chronicler whose work is printed in the 22nd volume o