or that purpose. As the claim of
superiority in England, more than any other cause, had tended to inflame
the animosities between the two nations, Mortimer, besides stipulating a
marriage between Jane, sister of Edward, and David, the son and heir of
Robert, consented to resign absolutely this claim, to give up all the
homages done by the Scottish parliament and nobility, and to acknowledge
Robert as independent sovereign of Scotland.[*] In return for these
advantages, Robert stipulated the payment of thirty thousand marks
to England. This treaty was ratified by parliament;[**] but was
nevertheless the source of great discontent among the people, who,
having entered zealously into the pretensions of Edward I., and deeming
themselves disgraced by the successful resistance made by so inferior a
nation, were disappointed, by this treaty, in all future hopes both of
conquest and of vengeance.

The princes of the blood, Kent, Norfolk, and Lancaster, were much united
in their councils; and Mortimer entertained great suspicions of their
designs against him. In summoning them to parliament, he strictly
prohibited them, in the king's name, from coming attended by an armed
force; an illegal but usual practice in that age. The three earls, as
they approached to Salisbury, the place appointed for the meeting of
parliament, found, that though they themselves, in obedience to the
king's command, had brought only their usual retinue with them, Mortimer
and his party were attended by all their followers in arms; and they
began with some reason to apprehend a dangerous design against their
persons. They retreated, assembled their retainers, and were returning
with an army to take vengeance on Mortimer; when the weakness of Kent
and Norfolk, who deserted the common cause, obliged Lancaster also to
make his submissions.[***]

* Rymer, p. 837. Heming. p. 270. Anon. Hist p. 392.

** Ypod, Neust. p. 510.

*** Knyghton, p. 2554.

The quarrel by the interposition of the prelates, seemed for the present
to be appeased.

{1329.} But Mortimer, in order to intimidate the princes, determined to
have a victim; and the simplicity, with the good intentions of the earl
of Kent, afforded him soon after an opportunity of practising upon him.
By himself and his emissaries he endeavored to persuade that prince that
his brother, King Edward, was still alive, and detained in some secret
prison in England. The earl, whose remorses for th