this rash treaty, was highly displeased,
but he nevertheless accepted the terms, and both parties began at
once their preparations for the crowning struggle of the war. The
English saw that now or never must they crush out the movement
which, step by step, had wrested from them all the conquests which
had been won with such vast effort under Edward I; while Bruce saw
that a defeat would entail the loss of all that he had struggled
for and won during so many years.

King Edward issued summonses to the whole of the barons of England
and Wales to meet him at Berwick by the 11th of June with all their
feudal following, while the sheriffs of the various counties and
towns were called upon to supply 27,000 foot soldiers. The English
of the settlements in Ireland were also summoned, besides O'Connor,
Prince of Connaught, and twenty-five other native Irish chiefs,
with their following, all of whom were to be under the command of
Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster.

The Prince Bishop of Constance was requested to furnish a body
of mounted crossbowmen. A royal fleet of twenty-three vessels was
appointed to assemble for the purpose of operating on the east
coast, while the seaports were commanded to fit out another fleet
of thirty vessels. A third fleet was ordered to assemble in the
west, which John of Lorne was appointed to command under the title
of High Admiral of the Western Fleet of England. From Aquitaine
and the French possessions the vassals were called upon to attend
with their men-at-arms, and many knights from France, Gascony, and
Germany took part in the enterprise.

Thus, at the appointed time over 100,000 men assembled at Berwick,
of whom 40,000 were men-at-arms, and the rest archers and pikemen.
For the great armament the most ample arrangements were made in the
way of warlike stores, provisions, tents, and means of transport,
together with the necessary workmen, artificers, and attendants.

This army surpassed both in numbers and equipments any that Edward
I had ever led into Scotland, and is considered to have been the most
numerous and best equipped that ever before or since has gathered
on English ground. Of the whole of the great nobles of England only
four were absent--the Earls of Warrenne, Lancaster, Arundel, and
Warwick--who, however, sent their feudal arrays under the charge
of relations.

Among the leaders of this great army were the Earls of Gloucester,
Pembroke, Hereford, and Angus, Lord Clifford,