Thus stood the right of England to feudal homage over Scotland in 1175. A superiority acquired in such an ungenerous manner, was not likely to be long submitted to with patience. The Scots had always plumed themselves on being an _unconquered_ people, and able to preserve their independence against all who had attempted to invade them. _Vassalage_ implies _protection_;--It was therefore presumption in England to pretend to _defend_ Scotland against those enemies before whom she herself had been obliged to _truckle_. It was not long before the conduct of William displayed that covered scorn of his _liege-lord_, which his late injuries were calculated to inspire. Countenanced by him, the Scottish bishops, at a council held at Northampton, boldly declared, in the presence of the Pope’s legate, “_that they had never_ yielded subjection to the English church, nor ought they.” William also entered the lists with the Roman Pontiff,--before whose threats and anathemas Henry had so ignominiously crouched:--Yet though all the thunder of the Vatican was levelled against him,--and the Archbishop of York, armed with Papal authority, had not only excommunicated him, but placed the kingdom under an interdict; still he maintained his point with inflexible resolution, till the judgment of the apostolic father was annulled, and an honourable compromise obtained. The contrast thus exhibited by his _vassal_ could not be very consoling to the feelings of the English monarch. In the year 1178, William, in the same spirit, founded and amply endowed an abbey at Aberbrothick, in honour of the holy martyr, Thomas à Becket,--a saint who had been thrust down the throat of his liege-lord with the salutary application of the whip. It would be doing William injustice to doubt the sincerity of the gratitude which instigated him to this act of munificence. In 1189, Henry II. died, and was succeeded by his son Richard _Cœur de Lion_. Unlike his father, Richard, though haughty and imperious, was alive to all the noble and virtuous qualities which ought to constitute the character of a king. As soon after the obsequies of his father as decency would permit, he invited William to his court at Canterbury, and magnanimously restored Scotland to her independence. The important document runs thus--“That Richard had rendered up to William, _by the grace of God, King of Scots_, his castles of Rokesburgh and Berwick, to be possessed by him and his heirs for ever as their own proper inheritance.”