ar of his parliament as a private person.[****]

* Rymer vol. ii. p. 590, 591, 593, 600.

** Rymer, voL ii p. 599.

*** Rymer, p. 603, 605, 606, 608, 615, 616.

**** Ryley's Placit. Parl. p. 152, 153.

These humiliating demands were hitherto quite unknown to a king of
Scotland: they are, however, the necessary consequence of vassalage by
the feudal law; and as there was no preceding instance of such treatment
submitted to by a prince of that country, Edward must, from that
circumstance alone, had there remained any doubt, have been himself
convinced that his claim was altogether a usurpation.[*] [3] But his
intention plainly was to enrage Baliol by these indignities, to engage
him in rebellion, and to assume the dominion of the state as the
punishment of his treason and felony. Accordingly Baliol, though a
prince of a soft and gentle spirit, returned into Scotland highly
provoked at this usage, and determined at all hazards to vindicate
his liberty; and the war which soon after broke out between France and
England, gave him a favorable opportunity of executing his purpose.

The violence, robberies, and disorders, to which that age was so
subject, were not confined to the licentious barons and their retainers
at land: the sea was equally infested with piracy: the feeble execution
of the laws had given license to all orders of men: and a general
appetite for rapine and revenge, supported by a false point of honor,
had also infected the merchants and mariners; and it pushed them, on
any provocation, to seek redress by immediate retaliation upon the
aggressors. A Norman and an English vessel met off the coast near
Bayonne; and both of them having occasion for water, they sent their
boats to land, and the several crews came at the same time to the same
spring: there ensued a quarrel for the preference: a Norman, drawing his
dagger, attempted to stab an Englishman; who, grappling with him, threw
his adversary on the ground; and the Norman, as was pretended, falling
on his own dagger, was slain.[**] This scuffle between two seamen about
water, soon kindled a bloody war between the two nations, and involved
a great part of Europe in the quarrel. The mariners of the Norman ship
carried their complaints to the French king: Philip, without inquiring
into the fact, without demanding redress, bade them take revenge, and
trouble him no more about the matter.[***]

* See note C, at the end of the volume