=4. Edward's Decision.=--Edward decided with perfect justice, according to the ideas of modern law, that _Balliol_, as the grandson of the eldest daughter, had the best right to the throne. In early times in Scotland no one would have thought of doubting Bruce's claim as next in degree. As Edward refused to divide the dominions among the heirs of the three daughters, it is clear that he looked on Scotland as a dependent kingdom, and not as an ordinary fief, which would have been shared among the three rivals. Judgment was given at _Berwick_, November 1292, eighteen months after the first meeting of the council. During this time the government had been nominally in the hands of the guardians of the kingdom; but Edward had the strongholds, twenty-three in number, in his own hands, and seems to have looked upon the two countries as really united. At the end of the suit he gave up the strongholds, and by so doing showed that he meant to act fairly. =5. John, 1292-96. Policy of Edward.=--The great scheme of Edward's life was to unite Britain under one government, of which he himself was to be the head. He had already added to England the dependent principality of Wales. Hitherto his actions towards Scotland had been perfectly fair and upright. In placing John Balliol, the rightful heir, on the throne, he was doing no more than had been done by the King of England, acting as over-lord, in the cases of Malcolm Canmore and Eadgar: but his way of placing him there was not strictly just; the conditions which he required were such as he had no right to exact, nor John to accept. He made him do homage for his kingdom as though it had been an English fief. Now, though this was true as far as concerned Lothian, and partly true as concerned Strathclyde, as concerned Scotland it was untrue. Although Scotland had, since 924, been in some degree subject to the King of England, this dependence was no more than was implied by the "commendation," the very natural relation of the weaker to the stronger. But it must be remembered that three centuries had passed since that first commendation, and in that time the original simplicity of the feudal tenure had been altogether changed and in great measure forgotten. Edward looked on the three parts of Scotland as fiefs, and therefore subject to the same burthens as his other fiefs; the Scots knew that they were not thus subject, and they therefore argued that their kingdom was in no way dependent on England: thus both parties were partly right and partly wrong. Even the amount of dependence implied in the original commendation had, in the last reign, been refused by the Scottish King, and had not been insisted on by the English one. But John Balliol was weak and foolish, while Edward was wise, strong, and determined to rule the whole country indirectly through his submissive vassal.