anders: the demand was laid before the
Councillors whom he had left behind as assessors to his son, who was
named Regent. They however were in great perplexity, partly from the
trouble of this agitation itself, but mainly from the revolt in
Scotland which had broken out in a formidable manner. William Walays,
like one of those Heyduck chiefs who rise in Turkey against the
established order of things, the right of which they do not recognise,
had come down from the hill country, at the head of the fugitives and
exiles, a robber-patriot, of gigantic bodily strength and innate
talent for war. His successes soon increased his band to the size of
an army; he beat the English in a pitched battle, and then swept over
the borders into the English territory. If the royal commissioners
would oppose a strong resistance to this inroad, they must needs
ratify a provisional concession of the demands brought forward. The
King, who had meanwhile reached Flanders, which the French had entered
from two sides, could not possibly yield to the Scottish
movement--whether he wished to carry on the war or make a truce:
nothing therefore remained to him but to confirm the concessions made
by his councillors.

It is not absolutely certain how far these had gone; one word of
discussion may be allowed on the matter.

The historians of the time have maintained that the right of voting
the taxes was granted to the Estates, and in fact conjointly to the
nobles whether spiritual or temporal, and the representatives of the
counties and towns: the copy of a statute is extant, in which this is
very expressly stated.[43] But since the statute does not exist in an
authentic shape, and is not to be found in the Rolls of the Realm, we
cannot safely base any conclusion on it. As to the date too at which
it may have been passed, our statements waver between the
twenty-eighth and the thirty-fourth year of Edward. On the other hand
we find in the collection of charters an undoubted charter of
confirmation given at Ghent and dated 5 November 1297, in which not
merely are the Great Charter of Henry III and the Forest Charter
confirmed, but also some new arrangements of much importance
guaranteed, and confirmed by ecclesiastico-judicial regulations.[44]
According to it the grants of taxes and contributions which had been
hitherto made to the King for his wars were not to be regarded as
binding for the future. He reserves only the old customary taxes: to
the high