It was not exactly thus that Edward understood the treaty. He at once despatched Anthony Beck, Bishop of Durham, to act in unison with the guardians of Scotland, as Lieutenant of Queen Margaret and her husband, at the same time demanding possession of the royal castles, ostensibly for the purpose of preserving the peace of the kingdom. The governors of the castles declined to give them up, but seven great Earls wrote to Edward, as though to a superior, begging him to curb the power of the regency, while, on the other hand, a member of the regency, the Bishop of St. Andrews, also wrote, begging Edward to approach the border to assist in keeping order, and to appoint a king if the rumour which had been spread of the death of the Maid of Norway should prove true. The report was true, Margaret had died on her journey from Norway in the Orkney islands; and acting on these two letters, which he construed as an invitation, Edward summoned a meeting at Norham, to be held after Easter 1291. The delay was probably occasioned by a heavy blow which had fallen on Edward. In November he had lost his much loved wife Eleanor. It is one of his titles to our respect, that in a licentious age he was remarkably pure, and that no word was ever breathed against his perfect fidelity as a husband. After a period of bitter sorrow, and a pompous funeral, each stage of the journey being subsequently marked by a beautiful cross, he returned again in the following year to his Scotch plans. At that meeting he put forward his claim as superior and overlord of the kingdom, saying that it lay with him in that capacity to put an end to discord. He ended by asking that his title should be acknowledged, in order that he might act freely. A delay of three weeks was demanded, at which time the assembly met again on Scotch ground opposite the Castle of Norham. An answer seems to have been meanwhile sent, but the King had regarded it as not to the point; and at the assembly itself no objections were raised to his claim. All the competitors acknowledged his authority in set words, and the case was put into Edward’s hands. [Sidenote: Edward’s supremacy allowed.] [Sidenote: The claimants.] [Sidenote: Edward gives a just verdict. 1292.] [Sidenote: Balliol accepts the throne as a vassal.] [Sidenote: Scotland appeals to the English Courts. 1293.] [Sidenote: The appeals not pressed to extremities.]