eech to the states of Scotland, he had
chosen to begin his claim of superiority. He asserts it to be a fact,
"notorious and confirmed by the records of antiquity," that the English
monarchs had often conferred the kingdom of Scotland on their own
subjects, had dethroned these vassal kings when unfaithful to them; and
had substituted others in their stead.

* Rymer, vol. ii. p. 844.

** Rymer, vol. ii. p. 863.

He displays with great pomp the full and complete homage which William
had done to Henry II.; without mentioning the formal abolition of that
extorted deed by King Richard, and the renunciation of all future claims
of the same nature. Yet this paper he begins with a solemn appeal to
the Almighty, the searcher of hearts for his own firm persuasion of
the justice of his claim; and no less than a hundred and four barons,
assembled in parliament at Lincoln, concur in maintaining before the
pope, under their seals, the validity of these pretensions.[*] At the
same time, however, they take care to inform Boniface, that, though they
had justified their cause before him, they did not acknowledge him for
their judge: the crown of England was free and sovereign: they had sworn
to maintain all its royal prerogatives, and would never permit the king
himself, were he willing, to relinquish its independency.

* Rymer, vol. ii. p. 873. Walsing. p. 85. Heming. vol. i. p.
186. Trivet, p. 330, M. West, p 443.

{1302.} That neglect, almost total, of truth and justice, which
sovereign states discover in their transactions with each other, is
an evil universal and inveterate; is one great source of the misery
to which the human race is continually exposed; and it may be doubted
whether, in many instances, it be found in the end to contribute to
the interests of those princes themselves, who thus sacrifice their
integrity to their politics. As few monarchs have lain under stronger
temptations to violate the principles of equity than Edward in his
transactions with Scotland, so never were they violated with less
scruple and reserve: yet his advantages were hitherto precarious and
uncertain, and the Scots, once roused to arms and inured to war, began
to appear a formidable enemy, even to this military and ambitious
monarch. They chose John Cummin for their regent; and, not content
with maintaining their independence in the northern parts, they made
incursions into the southern counties, which Edward imagined he h