On January 1, 1316–17, the Pope declared a truce of two years between Edward and Bruce 'acting as King of Scotland' (gerentem se pro rege ScotiÆ), and denounced excommunication against all breakers thereof. By a Bull dated March 17, he exhorted Edward to peace with Bruce 'now governing the realm of Scotland' (impraesentiarum regnum ScotiÆ gubernantem), representing not only the waste of good lives and property but also the hindrance to the recovery of the Holy Land, and announcing the despatch of his nuncios, Guacelin d'Euse and Lucca di Fieschi, to effect a solemn concord. Presently he drew up two more Bulls, dated March 28—one, to certain English prelates, excommunicating all enemies of Edward invading England and Ireland; the other, to certain Irish prelates, excommunicating Robert and Edward Bruce—but these the Cardinals would hold in reserve till the issue of their mission should declare itself. In these Bulls, King Robert is 'late Earl of Carrick' (dudum Comes de Carrik); Edward, by profession of eagerness to go on a crusade—and otherwise—is the Pope's 'most dear son in Christ.' In view of the crusade, it was essential that Edward should also enjoy peace at home; and, on April 20, the Pope wrote to the chief magnates urging them to support their King with counsel and with help.

Towards the end of June 1317, the two Cardinals arrived in England, and were conducted with great ceremony to London. Edward had gone to Woodstock, where, on July 1, he summoned his parliament to meet at Nottingham on the 18th, to consider, before the Cardinals should come to his presence, the questions he would have to discuss with them. On July 27, he authorised safe conducts for the Cardinals' party, and assigned specially to the two prelates two officers of his personal staff. The Cardinals started for the north, 'as the manner of the Romans is,' with great pomp and circumstance. On the way, they were to consecrate the new Bishop of Durham, Louis de Beaumont, who proceeded in their train. They were also accompanied by Sir Henry de Beaumont, the brother of the Bishop elect, and other magnates. In the pride of ecclesiastical security, they contemned all warnings of danger. They had an unexpected welcome to the episcopate. On September 1, as they were passing Rushyford, within nine miles of Durham—if not at Aycliffe, three miles south of Rushyford—they were suddenly assailed by Sir Gilbert de Middleton and his robber band, and despoiled of all their valuables. The prelates and their personal attendants Sir Gilbert permitted to proceed to Durham, perhaps on foot, unharmed; the Bishop elect, Sir Henry, and the rest he consigned to Mitford Castle—the eyrie whence he swooped upon the country around, harrying as far as the Priory of Tynemouth. Arrived at Durham, the Cardinals, having duly adored St Cuthbert and venerated the venerable Bede, let loose upon their sacrilegious assailants all the powers of excommunication. The malison, says the Malmesbury chronicler, was efficacious; for, before the year was out, Middleton was captured and taken to London, where he was drawn, hanged, beheaded, and quartered.

The Cardinals' advance messengers, and their special envoys (praecursores)—the Bishop of Corbau and the Archdeacon of Perpignan—had reached the Border in safety. There the messengers had been stopped. The envoys, however, were met, about the beginning of September, by Douglas and Sir Alexander de Seton, and allowed to proceed, but only after handing over their letters for King Robert. They were conducted to Roxburgh Castle. There the King received them graciously, listened with reverent attention to the Pope's open letters in favour of peace, and replied that he would welcome a good and lasting peace, whether arranged by the mediation of the Cardinals or otherwise. He also listened respectfully to the Cardinals' open letters. But as for the close letters, he positively refused to break the seal of one of them. They were addressed to Robert de Brus, 'governing the realm of Scotland.' 'There are several others of the name of Robert de Brus,' he said, 'who take part with the other barons in the government of the realm of Scotland. These letters may be for one of them; they are not addressed to me, for they do not bear the title of King.' No; he would not risk opening other men's letters. Still, he would assemble his Council and consult with them whether he should nevertheless receive the Cardinals to audience; but, as his barons were engaged in various distant places, it would be impossible for him to give his decision till Michaelmas (September 29).

The envoys had their apology ready. They explained that it was the custom of Holy Mother Church, during the pendency of a question, not to say or write anything calculated to prejudice either party. 'If my Father and my Mother,' replied Bruce, holding up the Pope's letters, 'wished to avoid creating prejudice against the other party by calling me King, it seems to me that they ought not, while the question is still pending, create prejudice against me by withholding the title from me; especially when I am in possession of the realm, and everybody in it calls me King, and foreign kings and princes address me as King. Really, it appears to me that my Father and Mother are partial as between their sons. If you had presented a letter with such an address to another king, it may be that you would have received another sort of answer.' This caustic reply, the envoys reported, he delivered with a benign mien, 'always showing due reverence for his Father and Mother.'

The envoys passed to the next point. They requested him to cease meantime from further hostilities. 'That,' he replied, 'I can in no wise do without the consent of my barons; besides, the English are making reprisals upon my people and their property.'

In the confidence of authority, the envoys had taken with them one of the Cardinals' advance messengers, who had been sent on with a letter announcing the Pope's coronation, but had been stopped at the frontier. They now entreated King Robert to grant him a safe conduct; but he denied their request 'with a certain change of countenance,' not uttering a word.

Turning to Bruce's staff they inquired anxiously, Why was this? Why, simply because King Robert was not suitably addressed. But for this blunder, he would have willingly and promptly responded on every point.

So wrote the Cardinals to the Pope from Durham on September 7. They added that they expected nothing better than a refusal of an audience at Michaelmas; for, even if Robert were himself disposed to receive them, it was evident that his barons would offer opposition. The friends of Bruce had made no secret of their opinion that the reservation of the royal title was a deliberate slight at the instance of English intriguers—an opinion avowedly based on information from the papal court. The contrary assurances of the envoys had been worse than useless, and they despaired of further intercommunication unless and until the resentment of the Scots should be mollified by concession of the royal title. Some considerable time after Michaelmas, Bruce confirmed by letter the anticipations of the Cardinals. He must have his royal title recognised. At the same time he repeated his desire for peace, and his readiness to send representatives to negotiate; but when the bearer brought back the Cardinals' reply, he was stopped at the frontier, and had to take the letters back—no doubt because they were still improperly addressed.

Three days later (September 10), Edward wrote to the Pope from York, whither he had hastened on hearing of the assault on the Cardinals, assuring him that he would promptly 'avenge God and the Church,' and see that the prelates had their temporal losses made good.

To do the Pope justice, he had been anxious to keep clear of the difficulties obviously involved in the reservation of Bruce's royal title. In his letter of March 18, he had apologetically prayed Bruce not to take it ill that he was not styled King of Scotland. On October 21, he sends the Cardinals letters—one for Bruce explaining the former omission of the royal title, and apparently conceding it now; another for Edward, begging him not to be offended at his styling Bruce King; and a third for themselves, blaming them for not telling him whether or not they had Edward's consent that he (the Pope) should address Bruce as King. They are to request Edward to give way on the point; and they are to present or to keep back the letters as they may see expedient. The information of the Scots from Avignon was evidently well grounded.

Meantime the Cardinals made another attempt. They proclaimed the truce in London, and had it proclaimed by other ecclesiastics 'in other principal places of England and Scotland.' But they must bring it directly to the knowledge of Bruce. Accordingly they despatched Adam de Newton, the Guardian of the monastery of the Friars Minors in Berwick, to King Robert and the leading prelates of Scotland, to make the proclamation. Adam prudently left his papers in safe keeping at Berwick till he had provided himself with a safe conduct. On December 14, he set out for Old Cambus, twelve miles off, and found Bruce in a neighbouring wood hard at work, 'day and night, without rest,' preparing engines for the siege of Berwick. He at once obtained his safe conduct, and fetched his Bulls and other letters from Berwick to Old Cambus; but Sir Alexander de Seton refused to allow him to wait upon the King, and required him to hand over the letters. Seton took the letters to Bruce, or professed to do so, but presently brought them back, delivered them to Adam, and ordered him to be gone. Bruce would have nothing to do with Bulls and processes that withheld from him the title of King, and he was in any case determined, he said, to have the town of Berwick. Adam, however, was not to be baffled. He proclaimed the truce publicly before Seton 'and a great assembly of people.' The Scots, however, would not take it seriously. Not the most solemn adjurations could procure for Adam a safe conduct either back to Berwick or on to the Scots prelates, and he was summarily ordered to get out of the country with all speed. So he took his way to Berwick. But he was waylaid and stripped to the skin, and his Bulls and processes were torn in pieces. Still Adam was undaunted. 'I tell you, before God,' he wrote to the Cardinals on December 20, 'that I am still ready as ever, without intermission, to labour for the advancement of your affairs.'

From midsummer 1317, Edward's officers had been kept busy on the March. About the beginning of July, Sir John de Athy had taken the Scots sea-captain, Thomas Dunn, and killed all his men, except himself and his cousin, from whom Sir John had learned that Randolph was preparing to attack the Isle of Man, and even had designs on Anglesey, where English traitors were in league with him. Before January there had been large submissions to Bruce in the northern counties, partly from compulsion of arms, partly from starvation; and the chronic feuds between the town and the castle of Berwick were dangerously aggravated by the high-handedness of the constable, Sir Roger de Horsley, who hated all Scots impartially and intensely.

At last a burgess of Berwick, Peter (or Simon) de Spalding, exasperated by Horsley's supercilious harshness—bribed with ready money and promise of lands, the Lanercost chronicler says; corrupted by Douglas, says John of Tynmouth—entered into communication with the Marshal (or the Earl of March) for the betrayal of the town. By direction of the King, the Marshal (or March) ambushed at night in Duns Park, where he was joined by Randolph and Douglas. Advancing on foot, the Scots planted their ladders unperceived and scaled the wall at the point where Simon was in charge. The temptation to plunder upset the order of attack, two-thirds of the party scattering themselves over the town, breaking houses and slaying men. The opposition of the town's people was easily overcome, but when the garrison sallied, Randolph and Douglas were dangerously weak. Sir William de Keith, however, exerted himself conspicuously, as became a brand-new knight, in collecting the Scots, and after very hard fighting the garrison was driven in. Bruce presently came up with large reinforcements, but the castle held out tenaciously, and surrendered only to famine. The town was taken on March 28 (Fordun), or April 2 (Lanercost); the castle held out gallantly till past the middle of July, and even then Horsley marched out his famished garrison with the honours of war. Bruce installed as warden Sir Walter the Steward. Peter of Spalding, says John of Tynmouth, proved troublesome in insisting upon his promised reward; and, on an accusation of plotting against the life of King Robert, was put to death. The allegation recalls the case of Sir Peter de Lubaud. Edward was extremely incensed at the Mayor and burgesses of Berwick, who had undertaken, for 6000 marks, to defend the town for a year from June 15, 1317. He ascribed the loss of it to their carelessness, and in the middle of April he ordered that their goods and chattels, wheresoever found, should be confiscated, and that such of them as had escaped into England should be imprisoned. On June 10, 1318, he summoned his army to meet him at York on July 26, to proceed against the Scots.

Meantime the Scots were proceeding with vigour against him. For soon after the capture of Berwick town, Bruce detached a strong force to ravage the northern counties. They laid waste Northumberland to the gates of Newcastle, starved the castles of Harbottle and Wark into surrender, and took Mitford Castle by stratagem. They sold immunity to the episcopate of Durham, excepting Hartlepool, which Bruce threatened to burn and destroy because some of its inhabitants had captured a ship freighted with his 'armeours' and provisions. Northallerton, Ripon, Boroughbridge, Knaresborough, Otley and Skipton were guiding-points in the desolating track of the invaders. Ripon and Otley suffered most severely, and Ripon paid 1000 marks for a cessation of destruction. Fountains Abbey also paid ransom; Bolton Abbey was plundered; Knaresborough Parish Church bears to this day the marks of the fire that burnt out the fugitives. The expedition returned to Scotland laden with spoils, and bringing numerous captives and great droves of cattle. The Archbishop of York postponed misfortune by being too late with measures of resistance. But he energetically excommunicated the depredators, all and sundry.

On hearing of Bruce's reception of the envoys, the Pope had authorised the Cardinals, on December 29, to put in execution the two Bulls of excommunication prepared in the previous March. The Cardinals, however, would seem to have delayed. On June 28, 1318, when the Pope heard of the woeful adventures of Adam de Newton and of the capture of Berwick despite his truce, he ordered them to proceed. For Bruce, he said, had 'grievously' (dampnabiliter) 'abused his patience and long-suffering.' In September accordingly they excommunicated and laid under interdict Bruce himself, his brother Edward, and all their aiders and abettors in the invasion of England and Ireland. 'But,' says the Lanercost chronicler, 'the Scots cared not a jot for any excommunication, and declined to pay any observance to the interdict.' In October, Edward followed up his diplomatic success by pressing hard for the deposition of the Bishop of St Andrews, but the Pope easily found good technical pleas whereby to avoid compliance.

The Irish expedition came to a disastrous close on the fatal field of Faughart, near Dundalk, on October 5 (or 14), 1318. A vastly superior English army, under Sir John de Bermingham, moved against the Scots; and King Edward the Bruce, wrathfully overruling the counsels of his staff, disdaining to wait for the approaching reinforcements from Scotland, and despising the hesitations of his Irish allies, dashed against the tremendous odds with his native impetuosity.

Barbour gives the numbers at 2000 against 40,000, no doubt with generous exaggeration. King Edward fell at the first onset, killed by a gigantic Anglo-Irish knight, Sir John de Maupas, who was found lying dead across his body. Sir John the Steward, Sir John de Soulis, and other officers were slain. Barbour tells how Sir Philip de Mowbray, stunned in action, was led captive by two men towards Dundalk; how he recovered his senses sufficiently to realise his position, shook off his captors, drew his sword and turned back towards the battle-field, and how he cleared a hundred men out of his way as he went. John Thomasson, the leader of the Carrick men, took him in charge, and hurried him away towards Carrickfergus. But the brave defender of Stirling had received a mortal wound. King Edward's body was dismembered, the trunk buried at Faughart, and the limbs exposed in Irish towns held by the English. The head is said to have been sent to England to Edward; but Barbour tells how King Edward the Bruce had that day exchanged armour with Gilbert the Harper, as he had done before at Connor, and how it was Gilbert's head that had been mistakenly struck off and despatched to England. The remnants of the Scots army reached Carrickfergus with the utmost difficulty, and hastily took ship for Scotland, where the news was received with great lamentation. Bermingham was created Earl of Louth for his victory. It is curious to observe that his wife was a sister of the Queen of Scotland.

The death of Edward Bruce disturbed the settlement of the succession, which was again brought under consideration of Parliament, on December 3, at Scone. Robert, the son of Sir Walter the Steward and the late Princess Marjory, was recognised as heir, with a proviso saving the right of any subsequent male issue of King Robert. In case of a minority, Randolph was to be guardian; and failing Randolph, Douglas.

No sooner had the sentences of excommunication been promulgated than King Robert took measures to have them revoked or mitigated. He had good friends at Rome. Letters from these had fallen accidentally into the hands of Edward, who, on January 12, 1318–19, sent them to the Pope by the hands of Sir John de Neville, and asked His Holiness to deal suitably with the writers. A few days before, he had urged the two Cardinals to press the Pope to reject the applications that he heard were being made on behalf of Bruce and his friends, and stated that he would presently send envoys to the Pope himself. Neville was graciously received, and the Pope ordered the Scots and their abettors at his court to prison. On April 24, the Pope granted Edward's request for a Bull permitting him to negotiate for peace with the Scots notwithstanding their excommunication. But the pressure was not all on one side; the nuncios in England boldly exercised their powers, and had often to be restrained even by royal menace, while every ecclesiastical office was steadily claimed for the papal nominee. Bruce appears to have deemed it prudent to raise little formal objection to the papal appointment of ecclesiastics up and down Scotland, though some of them evidently had but a seat of thorns.

From March to May there was an interesting correspondence between Edward and some minor states and municipalities on the other side of the North Sea, whose people, Edward understood, had harboured, or even assisted, his Scots enemies. They all denied the allegation. The statesmanlike answer of the Count of Flanders, however, is peculiarly notable. 'Our land of Flanders,' he wrote, 'is common to all men, of whatever country, and freely open to all comers; and we cannot deny admission to merchants doing their business as they have hitherto been accustomed, for thereby we should bring our land to desolation and ruin.'

But Berwick must be recaptured. On the loss of Berwick town, Edward had angrily summoned his forces to muster at York on July 26, 1318. So few of them appeared, however, that he was forced to postpone the expedition. On June 4, 1319, he ordered the Welsh levies to be at Newcastle by July 24 at latest; and, two days after, he wrote to the Pope that he hoped now 'to put a bit in the jaws of the Scots.' But another postponement was forced on him. On July 20, however, he issued a peremptory order for a muster at Michaelmas. His May parliament at York had granted him certain taxes, his treasury being 'exhausted more than is believed'; and his good friend the Pope had added a material contribution. But the levy could not be collected till Michaelmas, and meantime the King appealed for an advance. There must have been a favourable response, for early in September he encamped before Berwick with some 10,000 or 12,000 men, his fleet occupying the harbour. Having entrenched his lines, he delivered a general assault on September 7. The besiegers hastily filled the dykes and placed their scaling-ladders, but the garrison threw them down as fast as they were raised. The lowness of the wall was not altogether in favour of the assailants, for the besieged on the top could easily thrust their spears in their faces. In the course of the afternoon the English brought a ship on the flood-tide up to the wall, with a boat lashed to midmast, whence a bridge was to be let down for landing a storming party. They were embarrassed in their efforts, however, and the ship, being left aground by the ebb-tide, was burned by the Scots, the sallying party with difficulty regaining the town. The fight went on briskly till night, when the combatants agreed to postpone its renewal for five days.

Though King Robert had mustered a considerable force, probably as large as Edward's, he deemed it more prudent to despatch it on a raid into England than to launch it directly against the English entrenchments. He had, indeed, good reason to rely upon the skill and energy of the Steward. The five days' truce over, the English, on September 13, moved forward on wheels an immense sow, not only covering a mining party, but carrying scaffolds for throwing a storming party on the wall. By this time, John Crab, whom we have already met as a sea-captain or pirate, and whom the Count of Flanders presently assured Edward he would break on the wheel, if he could only get hold of him, had proved himself engineer enough to devise a 'crane,' which must have been of the nature of a catapult; and this engine he ran along the wall on wheels to encounter the sow. The first shot passed over the monster; the second just fell short; the third crashed through the main beam, and frightened the men out. 'Your sow has farrowed,' cried the Scots. Crab now lowered blazing faggots of combustible stuff upon the sow, and burnt it up. But presently another attempt was made from the harbour, and Crab's engine was hurried up to fight ships with top-castles full of men, and with fall-bridges ready at midmast. The first shot demolished the top gear of one of the ships, bringing down the men; and the other ships kept a safe distance.

Meantime the general attack raged all along the wall. Sir Walter the Steward rode from point to point, supplying here and there men from his own bodyguard, till it was reduced from a hundred to a single man-at-arms. The severest pressure was at Mary Gate. The besiegers forced the advance barricade, burned the drawbridge, and fired the gate. Sir Walter drew reinforcements from the castle, which had not been attacked, threw open Mary Gate and sallied upon the foe, driving them back after a very hard struggle, and saving the gate. Night separated the combatants. Barbour tells how the women and children of the town had carried arrows to the men on the walls, and regards it as a miracle that not one of them was slain or wounded. But clearly the Steward could not sustain many days of such heavy fighting.

The Scots army under Randolph and Douglas had meanwhile followed the familiar track through Ripon and Boroughbridge, harrying and burning and slaying. They appear to have made a serious attempt to capture Edward's Queen, who was then staying near York; but the Archbishop, learning this intention from a Scots spy that had been taken prisoner, sallied forth and brought her into the city, and sent her by water to Nottingham. Trokelowe speaks of certain 'false Englishmen' that had been bribed by the Scots, and Robert of Reading specifies Sir Edmund Darel as the guide of the invaders in the attempt. Next day the Archbishop, with Bishop Hotham of Ely, the Chancellor of England, and an unwieldy multitude of clergy and townspeople numbering some 10,000, advanced against the Scots between Myton and Thornton-on-Swale, about twelve miles north of York. 'These,' said the Scots, 'are not soldiers, but hunters; they will not do much good.' For the English 'came through the fields in scattered fashion, and not in united order.' The Scots formed a schiltron, and set fire to some hay in front, the smoke from which was blown into the faces of the English. As they met, the Scots raised a great shout, and the enemy, 'more intent on fleeing than on fighting,' took to their heels. The Scots mounted in pursuit, killing (says the Lanercost chronicle) clergy and laymen, about 4000, including Nicholas Fleming, the Mayor of York, while about 1000, 'as was said,' were drowned in the Swale. Many were captured and held to heavy ransom. The Archbishop lost, not only his men, his carriages, and his equipment generally, but all his plate, 'silver and bronze as well,' which his servants had 'thoughtlessly' taken to the field; and yet the blame may rest elsewhere, for the York host appears to have fully anticipated that the Scots would flee at sight of them. The Primate's official cross was saved by the bearer, who dashed on horseback through the Swale and carefully hid it, escaping himself in the dusk of the evening. Then a countryman, who had observed the cross and watched the bearer's retreat, discovered it, wound wisps of hay about it, and kept it in his hut till search was made for it, whereupon he restored it to the Archbishop. Such is John of Bridlington's story. The whole episode contrasts markedly with the exploit of Bishop Sinclair in Fife. It was contemptuously designated, from the number of ecclesiastics, 'the Chapter of Myton.'

The Myton disaster occurred on September 20, and on September 24 Edward raised the siege of Berwick. Certain chroniclers speak of intestine dissensions, and particularly of a quarrel with Lancaster over the appointment of wardens of town and castle once Berwick was taken. The Lanercost chronicler says Edward desired to detach a body to intercept the Scots, and with the rest to carry on the siege; but his magnates would not hear of it. He accordingly abandoned the siege, and marched westward to cut off the retreat of the Scots. Randolph had penetrated to Castleford Bridge, near Pontefract, and swept up Airedale and Wharfdale; and, passing by Stainmoor and Gilsland, he eluded Edward's army, and carried into Scotland many captives and immense plunder. It remained for Edward but to disband his troops, and go home, as usual, with empty hands.

About a month later (November 1), when the crops were harvested in northern England, Randolph and Douglas returned with fire and sword. They burnt Gilsland, and passed down to Brough (Burgh) under Stainmoor; turned back on Westmorland, which they ravaged for ten or twelve days, and went home through Cumberland. They mercilessly burnt barns and the stored crops, and swept the country of men and cattle.

Edward began to think of truce. In his letter of December 4 to the Pope, he represents that urgent proposals for peace had come to him from Bruce and his friends. In any case, the step was a most sensible one. On December 21, terms were agreed on, and next day Bruce confirmed them. This truce was to run for two years and the odd days to Christmas. Bruce agreed to raise no new fortresses within the counties of Berwick, Roxburgh, and Dumfries. He delivered the castle of Harbottle to Edward's commissioners, 'as private persons,' with the proviso that, unless a final peace were made by Michaelmas, it should be either redelivered to him or demolished. On August 25, 1321, Edward commanded that it should be destroyed 'as secretly as possible.'

In autumn 1319, the Pope, at the instance of Edward, had given orders for a revival of the excommunications against Bruce and his friends; but on January 8, 1319–20, he cited Bruce and the Bishops of St Andrews, Dunkeld, Aberdeen, and Moray, to compear before him by May 1. The summons went unheeded; he had not addressed Bruce as King. Excommunications were again hurled at Bruce and his bishops, and Scotland was laid under ecclesiastical interdict. Meanwhile, however, the Scots 'barons, freeholders, and all the community of the realm'—no churchmen, be it observed—assembled at Arbroath Abbey on April 6, and addressed to his Holiness a memorable word in season. First, as to their kingdom and their King:

Our nation continued to enjoy freedom and peace under the protection of the Papal See, till Edward, the late King of the English, in the guise of a friend and ally, attacked our realm, then without a head, and our people, then thinking no evil or deceit, and unaccustomed to war or aggression. The acts of injury, murder, violence, burning, imprisonment of prelates, burning of abbeys, spoliation and slaying of ecclesiastics, and other enormities besides, which he practised on our people, sparing no age or sex, creed or rank, no man could describe or fully understand without the teaching of experience. From such countless evils, by the help of Him that woundeth and maketh whole, we have been delivered by the strenuous exertions of our Sovereign Lord, King Robert, who, for the deliverance of his people and his inheritance from the hands of the enemy, like another Maccabeus or Joshua, cheerfully endured toils and perils, distress and want. Him the Divine Providence, that legal succession in accordance with our laws and customs, which we are resolved to uphold even to death, and the due consent of us all, made our Prince and King. To him, as the man that has worked out the salvation of the people, we, in maintenance of our freedom, by reason as well of his merits as of his right, hold and are resolved to adhere in all things. If he should abandon our cause, with the intention of subjecting us or our realm to the King of England or to the English, we should instantly strain every nerve to expel him as our enemy and the subverter of both his own rights and ours, and choose another for our King, such a one as should suffice for our defence; for, so long as a hundred of us remain alive, never will we be reduced to any sort of subjection to the dominion of the English. For it is not for glory, or riches, or honours, that we contend, but for freedom alone, which no man worthy of the name loses but with his life.

With this noble and resolute declaration, they appealed to the Pope to 'admonish' Edward, who ought to be content with his own dominions, anciently held enough for seven kings, and 'to leave in peace us Scotsmen, dwelling in our poor and remote country, and desiring nothing but our own,' for which 'we are ready and willing to do anything we can consistently with our national interests.' But, further, as to the Pope himself:

If, however, your Holiness, yielding too credulous an ear to the reports of our English enemies, do not give sincere credit to what we now say, or do not cease from showing them favour to our confusion, it is on you, we believe, that in the sight of the Most High, must be charged the loss of lives, the perdition of souls, and all the other miseries that they will inflict on us and we on them.

This memorable declaration was not without effect. On August 13, the Pope earnestly impressed Edward with the duty of keeping on good terms with Bruce. And on August 18, he wrote that, on the prayer of Bruce by his envoys, Sir Edward de Mambuisson and Sir Adam de Gordon, he had granted suspension of the personal citation and of the publication of the sentences till the 1st of April next year.