The sources from whence the present writer has drawn his materials, will, it is hoped, be found such as are generally entitled to credit. Being of opinion that the authors who lived nearest the period under review ought to be best informed respecting the transactions connected with it, he has therefore endeavoured to collate as many ancient Scottish and English authorities as possible. The biographical notices of such Englishmen as figured in the Scottish wars, are chiefly drawn from the historians of England; conceiving that it belongs to the writers of a country to be best acquainted with the details of its internal and domestic history; but to enumerate the authorities he has consulted, would here be superfluous, as they are duly noted at the proper stages of the narrative. LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM WALLACE. CHAPTER I. STATE OF SCOTLAND IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. The scanty and imperfect records which exist respecting the early state of Scotland, have been a fruitful source of complaint to all writers who have applied themselves to the investigation of her history. Those, however, who would form an estimate of her relative situation and internal resources, by reference to her condition at the time she became allied to England on the accession of James VI., would arrive at very erroneous conclusions on the subject. That Scotland retrograded under the dynasty of the Stuarts, few, who are conversant with her early history, will be inclined to deny. But, without inquiring how far the incapacity or imprudence of that unfortunate race may have contributed to her decline, the writer will endeavour to arrange a few remarks respecting the above-mentioned period, for the benefit of those readers whose attention may not have been directed to that interesting portion of our annals. The jurisprudence of Scotland, like that of the other states of Europe, embraced the feudal system in all its degrees of servitude, from the knightly devoirs of the baron, down to the humble and more laborious task of the bondsman, who could be either put to death at the will of his over-lord, or bartered away to the church, for a certain number of masses. Yet though this state of society existed to a considerable extent, there were some privileged classes exempt from its more degrading operation. The most influential of these, as might be expected, were the priesthood, who, as soon as admitted to orders, became emancipated from their temporal bondage.[6] Merchants and burgesses were of course free. Had this not been the case, those useful classes could not have existed, as the control of the feudal superior over the _adscriptos glebæ_, extended not only to an absolute property in themselves and their offspring, but also over any means they might accumulate. When a bondsman, therefore, bought a burgage, and remained a year and a day in a burgh, without being molested or claimed by his lord, he became a free man for ever.[7]