thority be acknowledged in most parts of the
kingdom, was solemnly crowned and inaugurated in the abbey of Scone by
the bishop of St. Andrews, who had zealously embraced his cause. The
English were again chased out of the kingdom, except such as took
shelter in the fortresses that still remained in their hands; and Edward
found that the Scots, twice conquered in his reign, and often defeated,
must yet be anew subdued. Not discouraged with these unexpected
difficulties, he sent Aymer de Valence with a considerable force into
Scotland, to check the progress of the malecontents; and that nobleman,
falling unexpectedly upon Bruce, at Methven, in Perthshire, threw his
army into such disorder as ended in a total defeat.[*] Bruce fought with
the most heroic courage, was thrice dismounted in the action, and as
often recovered himself; but was at last obliged to yield to superior
fortune, and take shelter, with a few followers, in the Western Isles.
The earl of Athole, Sir Simon Fraser, and Sir Christopher Seton, who had
been taken prisoners, were ordered by Edward to be executed as rebels
and traitors.[**]

* Walsing. p. 91. Heming. vol. i. p. 222, 223. Trivet, p.
344.

** Heming. vol. i. p. 223. M. West. p. 456.

{1307.} Many other acts of rigor were exercised by him; and that
prince, vowing revenge against the whole Scottish nation, whom he deemed
incorrigible in their aversion to his government, assembled a great
army, and was preparing to enter the frontiers, secure of success, and
determined to make the defenceless Scots the victims of his severity,
when he unexpectedly sickened and died near Carlisle; enjoining with his
last breath his son and successor to prosecute the enterprise, and
never to desist till he had finally subdued the kingdom of Scotland. He
expired in the sixty-ninth year of his age, and the thirty-fifth of his
reign, hated by his neighbors, but extremely respected and revered by
his own subjects.

The enterprises finished by this prince, and the projects which he
formed and brought near to a conclusion, were more prudent, more
regularly conducted, and more advantageous to the solid interests of his
kingdom, than those which were undertaken in any reign, either of his
ancestors or his successors. He restored authority to the government,
disordered by the weakness of his father; he maintained the laws against
all the efforts of his turbulent barons; he fully annexed to his crown
the prin