=8. Edward's first Conquest.=--Edward's dealings with Scotland now became those of a conqueror instead of a protector. The Scots had, without gainsaying, acknowledged his supremacy. It was the appeal of Scottish subjects which had tempted him to extend the incidents of that supremacy beyond legal limits, and now it was the Scots who began the war, and thus gave Edward the excuse, for which he was waiting, for conquering their country. He at once marched northwards with a great army, and besieged and took _Berwick_, a large and wealthy trading town. Provoked by the resistance and insults of the citizens, the King wreaked a fearful vengeance on them, and Berwick was reduced to the rank of a common market-town. While he was at Berwick, John's renunciation of fealty was sent to him by the party of independence, who were keeping their King in custody lest he should repent and submit. When Edward had secured Berwick, he marched to _Dunbar_, took the castle, and then went on to _Edinburgh_. He there took up his quarters in _Holyrood_, laid siege to the castle, took it, seized the crown jewels, and then passed on to _Perth_, taking possession of _Stirling_ on the way. To crush out all idea of an independent kingdom, and to let the people see that they were conquered, he carried off from _Scone_ the _Stone of Destiny_, with which the fate of the Scottish monarchy was supposed to be mystically joined. This stone was removed to _Westminster_, and was placed under the seat of the coronation-chair. He also took with him the _Holy Rood_ of Queen Margaret, and obliged all the nobles who submitted to him to swear allegiance on this much valued relic. Edward did not go further north than _Elgin_, and he returned to Berwick in 1296, having marched all through Scotland in twenty-one weeks. All the nobles and prelates did personal homage to him. John submitted himself to Edward's pleasure, and was degraded and dispossessed. He was then sent as a prisoner to England, was afterwards made over to the keeping of the Bishop of Vicenza, the Pope's representative, and at last he retired to his own estates in _Picardy_, where he died in 1315. Edward treated his kingdom as a fief forfeited by the treason of the vassal who held it. This notion of the thirteenth century, that the fief was forfeited by treason, would not have occurred to anyone in the tenth century, when probably John would only have been deposed, and some one else set up in his stead. The seizure of Normandy from John of England by Philip of France was a case of the same kind, and quite as unprecedented.