While the English army were encamped before Carlaverock, Winchelsea, Archbishop of Canterbury, arrived with a bull, directed to Edward, from the Pope. The application which, as has already been stated, the Scottish commissioners were instructed to make to King Philip for the stipulated assistance having at first been evaded, and afterwards finally refused--the embarrassing situation of his own affairs affording him a plausible pretext for withholding the aid necessary for the relief of his allies--the Scots, according to their instructions, proceeded to lay their complaints before the Court of Rome. Boniface listened with complacency to their grievances, and readily undertook to interpose his authority in their behalf. For this purpose, he addressed to Edward a letter of admonition, exhorting him to desist from any further attempts to subvert the liberties of a kingdom over which he had no lawful claim. The groundless nature of the pretensions he had set up, the Pontiff proceeded, at considerable length, to explain--being, no doubt, enabled to do so, from the information furnished him by the commissioners. Among other matters, he reminded him, that the mere circumstance of his having negotiated with the Scots, for the marriage of his son with the heiress of Scotland, must prove fatal to any plea he might advance in favour of his being the feudal lord of that kingdom, as he would find no one weak enough to believe that he would have submitted to negociate, when he had a right to command. “He also,” says a respectable historian, “mentioned several striking facts which fell within the compass of Edward’s own knowledge, particularly that Alexander, when he did homage to the King, openly and expressly declared in his presence, that he swore fealty _not for his crown, but for the lands which he held in England_; and the Pope’s letter might have passed for a reasonable one, had he not subjoined his _own_ claim to be _liege lord of Scotland_, a claim which had not once been heard of, but which, with a singular confidence, he asserted to be full and entire, and derived from the most remote antiquity.” This letter Boniface concluded, by exhorting him, in his name, to set at liberty all those ecclesiastics and others belonging to the country whom he had imprisoned, and to remove all officers he had appointed to places of trust in the kingdom, contrary to the wishes of the people; directing him, if he conceived he had still any reasons to allege in support of his pretensions, to send persons properly authorized to Rome, where he, the Pope, would hear the case, and within six months give an impartial decision. To these exhortations the Archbishop added his own, urging, among other things, the propriety of his yielding obedience to so sacred an authority, observing, that Jerusalem would not fail to protect her citizens, and to cherish, like Mount Zion, those who trusted in the Lord. At the conclusion of this address, which was made