Truce between England and Scotland. ] John Balliol had from the beginning of his reign felt himself in a false position, distracted between his duties to Edward as his suzerain and patron, and his duties to his subjects. By a curious coincidence Edward had summoned him to appear as a vassal in his court to answer the complaints of the Earl of Fife, in the very year that he himself was summoned to appear at Paris to answer the complaints of the Normans. The neglect and contempt with which Balliol was treated may have embittered his feelings towards Edward, yet in 1294 he had been the foremost of the barons in offering help against France. But it is clear that he was not a man of strong will or decided views; that he could not easily bring himself to break with Edward, and so throw himself on the support of the Scottish baronage, and that even Edward’s support did not make him strong enough to defy them. He halted between the two and lost his hold on both. In 1295 the Scottish lords determined, in imitation of the French court, to institute a body of twelve peers who were practically to control the action of Balliol, and opened negotiations for an alliance with France. Such an alliance was then a new thing, but in its consequences it was one of the most important influences of mediæval history, for it not only turned the progress of Scottish civilization and politics into a French channel, leading the Scots to imitate French institutions, as they had hitherto copied those of England, but gave to the French a most effective assistance in every quarrel with England, down to the seventeenth century. As soon as Edward learned that such a negotiation was in progress he demanded that, until peace should be made between Philip and himself, the border castles of Scotland should be placed in his hands. This was at once refused, and war broke out. In March, 1206, Edward took and sacked Berwick, and the Scots threatened Carlisle. The unfortunate Balliol seeing himself at last compelled to choose between the two evils, renounced his allegiance to Edward, and almost immediately paid the penalty of his temerity. The Earl Warenne won a great victory at Dunbar in April, and took Edinburgh; Balliol surrendered in July, and was obliged to resign the crown to his conqueror. The Scottish regalia were carried to England. The coronation-stone, which tradition identified with the stone on which the patriarch Jacob had rested his head at Bethel, was removed from Scone to Westminster. The chief nobles of Scotland were led away as hostages, and Scotland, if not subdued, was so far cowed into silence that during 1297 Edward thought it safe to leave it under the government of the Earl Warenne. Sir William Wallace, the somewhat obscure and mythical hero of Scottish liberation, remained, however, in arms against him, and he in September defeated the Earl Warenne at Cambuskenneth, and drove the English out of the country. Edward’s