as he had hold of them he declared Edward a contumacious vassal, for not having obeyed his summons to Paris. This was done in May, 1294. [Sidenote: Consequences of the quarrel with Philip the Fair. ] The news of this outrageous proceeding was received in England with great indignation, and for a moment it appeared that the nation was unanimously determined to uphold the rights of the king. Even John Balliol, the King of Scots, who had got himself into trouble owing to his divided duties to his subjects and his overlord, and who was present in the Parliament which Edward called in June, offered to devote the whole produce of his English estates to maintain the righteous cause. A great scheme was set on foot for foreign alliances: the Spaniards were asked for substantial assistance; the princes of the Low Countries, the King of the Romans too, were taken into pay. A thorough scheme for the defence of the coast and organization of the navy was devised. Edward’s urgent needs or consistent policy led him to assemble, as we saw, the estates of the kingdom, in a way in which they had never been brought together before, and the parliaments of 1294 and 1295 completed the formation of the constitutional system. But a rising on the Welsh border prevented any general expedition in 1294; and the dread of a common enemy threw the Scots in 1295 into correspondence with France. Edward, provoked at the delay, pressed by the deficiency and waste of his resources, had recourse to very exceptional measures for raising money, and so produced a reaction against the foreign war, and a combination of political forces most dangerous to his own authority, and most trying to the new machinery of government at the very moment of its completion. The model parliament of 1295 was followed by the crisis of 1296, and the confirmation of charters of 1297. [Sidenote: Relations of Edward with the clergy. ]