provisions; and left the northern counties in the hands of the natives.
The Scots, no less enraged at their present defeat than elated by their
past victories, still maintained the contest for liberty; but being
fully sensible of the great inferiority of their force, they endeavored,
by applications to foreign courts, to procure to themselves some
assistance. The supplications of the Scottish ministers were rejected by
Philip; but were more successful with the court of Rome.

{1300.} Boniface, pleased with an occasion of exerting his authority,
wrote a letter to Edward, exhorting him to put a stop to his oppressions
in Scotland, and displaying all the proofs, such as they had probably
been furnished him by the Scots themselves, for the ancient independence
of that kingdom.[*] Among other arguments hinted at above, he mentioned
the treaty conducted and finished by Edward himself, for the marriage
of his son with the heiress of Scotland; a treaty which would have been
absurd, had he been superior lord of the kingdom, and had possessed
by the feudal law the right of disposing of his ward in marriage. He
mentioned several other striking facts, which fell within the compass of
Edward's own knowledge particularly that Alexander, when he did homage
to the king, openly and expressly declared in his presence, that he
swore fealty not for his crown, but for the lands which he held in
England: and the pope's letter might have passed for a reasonable one,
had he not subjoined his own claim to be liege lord of Scotland; a claim
which had not once been heard of, but which, with a singular confidence,
he asserted to be full, entire, and derived from the most remote
antiquity. The affirmative style, which had been so successful with
him and his predecessors in spiritual contests, was never before abused
after a more egregious manner in any civil controversy.

{1301.} The reply which Edward made to Boniface's letter, contains
particulars no less singular and remarkable.[**] He there proves the
superiority of England by historical facts, deduced from the period of
Brutus, the Trojan, who, he said, founded the British monarchy in the
age of Eli and Samuel: he supports his position by all the events which
passed in the island before the arrival of the Romans: and after laying
great stress on the extensive dominions and heroic victories of King
Arthur, he vouchsafes at last to descend to the time of Edward the
Elder, with which, in his sp