t abase the royal authority; it
brought into clear view the unity of interests between the crown and
the nation.

Another great crisis united them for the second time. As Edward led
the forces of England year by year across the Tweed, to compel the
Scots to acknowledge his overlordship by the edge of the sword, the
Pope who assumed himself to be the Suzerain of the kingdoms of the
world, Boniface VIII, met him with the assertion that Scotland
belonged to the Church of Rome, the King therefore was violating the
rights of that Church by his invasions. To confront the Pope, King
Edward thought it best, as did Philip the Fair of France about the
same time, to call in his Estates to his aid, since without them no
answer to the claim was possible. The Estates then in a long letter
not merely maintain the right of the English crown, but also reject
the Pope's claim to decide respecting it as arbiter, as incompatible
with the royal dignity: even if the King wished it, yet they would
never lend a hand to anything so unseemly and so unheard of.[48] The
King, without regard to the Pope, continued his campaigns against
Scotland with unabated energy.

It marks the character of Edward I that he nevertheless did not break
with the Papacy on this account; so too he still raised taxes that had
not been voted, and held Parliaments in the old form: when
representatives of the counties and towns were summoned it is not
always clear whether they were elected or named.[49] Edward I could
not free himself from the habits of arbitrary rule and the old ideas
connected with them. But with all this it is still undeniable that
under him the monarchy took a far more national position than before;
it no longer stood in a hostile attitude as against the community of
the land, but belonged to it.

And his successors soon saw themselves forced to complete still
further the foundations of a new state of things, which had been thus
laid.

Under Edward II the old ambition of the barons to take a preponderant
part in the government reappeared once more with the greatest
violence. The occasion was afforded by the weakness of this sovereign,
who allowed his favourite, the Gascon Gaveston, a disastrous influence
on affairs. Discontented with this, the King's nearest cousin, Thomas
of Lancaster, placed himself at the head of the great nobles, as
indeed he was believed to have sworn to his father in law (whose rich
possessions passed to him, and who feare