A. D. 1363, 569 



November 27'h — King Edward having renounced his pretenfions to 

 the kingdom of France, and finding his purchafe of the kingdom of 

 Scotland from his va(T:d Balliol as ineffectual as his attempts to fubdue it 

 by force, bethought himfelf of another method of acquiring that king- 

 dom. Before King David was born, the parliament of Scotland had 

 fettled the fucceflion of the crown on the heirs male of King Robert, 

 and, failing them, on Robert Stewart the fon of his deceafed daughter. 

 David's wife had lately died without having ever born a child, and, as 

 often happens, he was not upon friendly terms with his declared fuc- 

 ceflbr. Such being the lituation of the royal family of Scotland, and 

 the country groaning under the preffure of the king's ranfom, Edward 

 thought it a favourable opportunity for perfuading David to confent, 

 that, failing male * ifTue of himfelf, he, or his fucceffors, kings of Eng- 

 land, fhould fucceed to the kingdom of Scotland. In order to fweeten 

 the propofal to the king, the nobles, and people, of Scotland, he offered 

 to remit the whole balance, then unpaid, of the ranfom (30,000 marks 

 were now paid) ; to reftore Berwick, Rokfburgh, Jedburgh, and Loch- 

 maben, with their annexed diftrids, immediately to the Scots ; to re- 

 ftore, or compenfate, to David the greateft part of the lands belonging 

 to his anceftors in England ; to make fimilar reftitution to Douglas (a 

 powerful earl in Scotland) and to the abbays and other religious founda- 

 tions ; to take upon himfelf to fatisfy fome Englifla barons for their 

 claims upon eftates in Scotland ; to fwear that the king of England and 

 Scotland fhould never alienate nor divide the later kingdom ; to pre- 

 ferve the antient laws and ufages of the kingdom ; and to condud the 

 government entirely by the adminiftration of natives of the country, 

 and by parliaments to be held in Scotland ; to lay no new impofitions, 

 prifes, tallages, or exactions, befides thofe which were eftablifhed in the 

 times of the good kings of Scotland; that the Scottifh merchants fhould 

 ufe their own franchifes in trade, without being under any compulfion 

 to go to Calais or any other place but at their own pleafure, and they 

 iliould pay no more than half a mark for every fack of wool to the 



great cuflom f . [Ft^dera, V. vi, p. 426.] Such was the fketch of a 



treaty talked over by the privy counfelors of the two kings in their 

 prefence at London, and approved of by them both. But David, hav- 

 ing already raifed an infurrection againft himfelf by propofmg to his 

 parliament to appoint Lionel, the fecond furviving fon of Edward, to 

 be his fucceflbr in cafe of his death without iflue, was now more cau- 



* The word male is kept out of fight \n the be- to be liable to pay the much-heavier duty then 



pliiiiing of the i'cheme ; but it appears in the con- paid upon wool in England. In a propofed treaty, 



clufion of it. lomewhat fimilar, in the year 1290, when there 



■\ Abercromby and Lord Hailes give dlfTerent was a profpeft of uniting the two kingdoms by a 



cxpofitions of this article. I prefame, that half marriage, there was not a word of the commerce 



a mark per fack was the antient duty on wool ex- or merchants of either kingdom. \_FaMra, V. ii, 



ported from Scotland, and that the Scots were not p. 482.3 



Vol. L . 4 C 



