e battle of Bannockburn, which secured the
independence of Scotland, fixed Bruce on the throne of that kingdom, and
may be deemed the greatest overthrow that the English nation, since the
conquest, has ever received. The number of slain on those occasions is
always uncertain, and is commonly much magnified by the victors: but
this defeat made a deep impression on the mind of the English; and it
was remarked that, for some years, the superiority of numbers could
encourage them to keep the field against the Scots. Robert, in order to
avail himself of his present success, entered England, and ravaged all
the northern counties without opposition: he besieged Carlisle; but that
place was saved by the valor of Sir Andrew Harcla, the governor: he
was more successful against Berwick, which he took by assault: and this
prince, elated by his continued prosperity, now entertained hopes of
making the most important conquests on the English.

{1315.} He sent over his brother Edward, with an army of six thousand
men, into Ireland; and that nobleman assumed the title of king of that
island; he himself followed soon after with more numerous forces: the
horrible and absurd oppressions which the Irish suffered under the
English government, made them, at first, fly to the standard of the
Scots, whom they regarded as their deliverers: but a grievous famine,
which at that time desolated both Ireland and Britain, reduced the
Scottish army to the greatest extremities; and Robert was obliged to
return, with his forces much diminished, into his own country. His
brother, after having experienced a variety or fortune, was defeated
and slain near Dundalk by the English, commanded by Lord Bermingham: and
these projects, too extensive for the force of the Scottish nation, thus
vanished into smoke.

Edward, besides suffering those disasters from the invasion of the Scots
and the insurrection of the Irish, was also infested with a rebellion
in Wales; and above all, by the factions of his own nobility, who took
advantage of the public calamities, insulted his fallen fortunes, and
endeavored to establish their own independence on the ruins of the
throne. Lancaster and the barons of his party, who had declined
attending him on his Scottish expedition, no sooner saw him return with
disgrace, than they insisted on the renewal of their ordinances, which,
they still pretended, had validity; and the king's unhappy situation
obliged him to submit to their dem