earl of Lancaster, hurried from place to place, and at length murdered at Berkeley, Sept. 21. Several nobles, ignorant of his fate, form plans for his release.

A.D. 1328. Peace is concluded with Scotland, at Edinburgh, March 17; the claim of feudal superiority is renounced, the Scottish regalia given upf, many Scottish prisoners released, and a marriage agreed on between Joan, the king's young sister, and David, son of Robert Bruce.

Charles IV. of France dying without male issue, the king claims the crown of France in right of his mother; his claim is rejected by the states of the kingdom, and Philip of Valois, cousin of the deceased king, succeeds as Philip VI.

Robert Bruce dies, June 7; his son succeeds, as David II., and is crowned at Scone, Nov. 23.

f A piece of the "true cross," set in jewels, which had belonged to Margaret, the sister of Edgar Atheling, was included, but the famous stone of Scone (see p. 357), was not surrendered, through fear of a popular tumult.

Philip III. of France, who died in 1285, was the common ancestor of the competitors, as may be seen by the following slight genealogical table.

By the law of France females could not succeed to the throne, but Edward asserted that the disability was only personal, and that a right to the crown could be transmitted through them; Philip maintained the contrary. Edward gave way at the time, but revived his claim in 1337, being probably induced to do so by the support which Philip afforded to the Scots.

A.D. 1329. A confederacy formed against Mortimer is dissolved by the want of spirit of the earls of Kent and Norfolk, the brothers of the late king.

The king goes to France, and does homage for his lands there, June.

A.D. 1330. A parliament meets at Winchester, March 11, when the earl of Kent is accused of designing to overthrow the government, March 13; he is executed, March 19.

The king becomes impatient of the rule of Mortimer, has him seized at Nottingham, Oct. 19, and takes the government into his own hands, by a proclamation dated Oct. 20. Mortimer is sent to the Tower, and after a brief trial hanged at Tyburn, Nov. 29. Queen Isabella is imprisoned for the remainder of her life.

The exactions of the royal purveyors restrained by statute [4 Edw. III. c. 3]," people being greatly grieved by things being taken without payment."

A.D. 1331. A parliament held at Westminster, September and October.

SCOTLAND.

The year 1332 saw the renewal of the attempt to bring Scotland under feudal subjection to England. One of the stipulations of the treaty of peace of 1328 provided that any lands which English nobles had held in Scotland and had lost during the war should be re

He was condemned unheard, on the plea of the notoriety of the facts, on which ground the attainder was reversed, and his title and estates restored to his grandson, Roger Mortimer, in 1354.

stored to them, but this was not done. Edward Baliol (son of the competitcr) was among the number who thus suffered; he raised a small force, with the assistance of his friends, landed in Scotland, and met with such success that in little more than a month he was crowned king. He was soon expelled; was restored, again expelled, returned in company with the king of England, whom he had formally acknowledged as his liege lord, and to whom he had ceded, as far as treaties went, the whole of the country south of the Forth and Clyde; but though the allies ravaged the land as far north as Inverness, killed the earl of Douglas, who acted as regent for David II., and captured Berwick, their enterprise failed, and the kingdom of Scotland remains to the present day de facto and de jure independent of any other.

A.D. 1332. Edward Baliol and his friends invade Scotland; they land at Kinghorn, in Fifeshire, Aug. 7; and defeat the Scots near Perth, Aug. 11, 12.

Baliol is crowned at Scone, Sept. 27; he subjects the crown of Scotland to that of England by his letters patent, dated Roxburgh, Nov. 23, but is suddenly attacked by the Scots at Annan, at Christmas, and expelled.

A.D. 1333. The Scots invade England; the king marches into Scotland, and besieges Berwick; Douglas, the regent, attempts to relieve it, but is defeated and killed at Halidon, (near Berwick,) July 19, and the town surrenders, July 20.

Balio is received as king by a parliament held at Perth in October.

A.D. 1334. Baliol offends his supporters by ceding the whole south of Scotland to the English, Feb. 12; he is obliged to flee to Berwick.

A.D. 1335. A parliament held at York, in May, in which freedom of trading is guaranteed to foreign merchants [9 Edw. III. c. 1].

The king, in concert with Baliol, ravages Scotland, advancing, in the course of the next year, as far as Inverness.

A.D. 1337. The French give considerable succours to the Scots; in retaliation, the king forms continental alliances, and assumes the title of King of France.

The export of wool prohibiteds, and foreign clothworkers allowed to settle in England [11 Edw. III. c. 1.] A.D. 1338. The king embarks for Flanders, from Orwell, July 16, leaving his son Edward regent, but is unable to attack France until the next year.

A.D. 1339. The king invades France from Flanders, in September, but most of his allies desert him, and he is obliged to retire after ravaging the Cambresis and other frontier districts.

A.D. 1340. The king returns to England in February; holds a parliament, March 29, obtains supplies, and sails from Orwell, June 22.

The clergy exempted from purveyance [14 Edw. III. c. 1.]

Sheriffs directed to be appointed annually, at the Exchequer, on the morrow of All Soulsh [14 Edw. III. c. 7].

h

It was subsequently made felony [27 Edw. III. st. 2, c. 3].

The statute recites that many sheriffs had been guilty of great oppression in their office, which they considered themselves to hold for life.

One weight and one measure established for the whole kingdom [14 Edw. III. c. 12].

The king defeats the French fleet at Sluys, June 24; he orders a public thanksgiving for his victory.

He besieges Tournay, and challenges "Philip of Valois" to a single combat, July 26; the French king refuses to meet him, July 30; a truce is concluded, Sept. 25, to last till June 25, 1341, but it is prolonged till 1342.

The king returns to England, landing suddenly at the Tower, Nov. 30; he displaces and otherwise punishes the chancellor (Robert Stratford, bishop of Chichester',) and many of the chief officers of state.

A.D. 1341. A parliament held at Westminster in April. Some of the statutes passed there are afterwards set aside, as having been obtained against the will of the king.

Peers of the realm to be tried for offences only by the parliament [15 Edw. III. c. 2].

A dispute concerning the succession arises in Britanny; the king supports John de Montfort in opposition to Charles of Blois, the nephew of the king of France.

A.D. 1342. The wife of De Montfort (Jane, sister of Louis I., count of Flanders,) defends herself in Hennebon until relieved by Sir Walter Manny.

The king passes over to Britanny in October.

This was one of the remedies promised by Magna Charta, but like many other valuable points, it seems to have been neglected.

He was succeeded by Sir Robert Bourchier, the first layman who held the office of chancellor.

* John III., duke of Britanny, dying without male issue, the duchy was claimed by his half-brother, John de Montfort, and Charles of Blois, who had married his niece. The French court adjudged it to Charles, but he was vigorously opposed by the Montforts, and at length killed in the field. John de Montfort the younger married Mary, daughter of Edward III., and was powerfully supported by him; he was thus established in Britanny, but in the next reign, to conciliate the king of France, he abandoned the English cause.

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