England in the Middle Ages 425 to avoid civil war, Edward was asked to decide who should be king. He agreed to make the decision on condition that the one whom he selected should hold Scotland as a fef from the English king. This arrangement was adopted, and the crown was given to John Baliol. But Edward unwisely made demands upon the Scots which aroused their anger, and their king renounced his homage to the king of England. The Scotch, moreover, formed an alliance with Edward's enemy, Alliance be- Philip the Fair of France ; thenceforth, in all the difficulties i^^d and ° between England and France, the English kings had always ^"^^"^^^ to reckon with the disaffected Scotch, who were glad to aid England's enemies. Edward marched in person against the Scotch (1296) and Edward at- speedily put down what he regarded as a rebellion. _He declared corporate '" that Baliol had forfeited his fief through treason, and that con- ^j^^j^'^^jf ^^^^ sequently the English king had become the real ruler of Scot- land. He emphasized his claim by carrying off the famous Stone of Scone (now in Westminster Abbey), upon which the kings of Scotland had been crowned for ages. Continued resist- ance led Edward to attempt to incorporate Scotland with Eng- land in the same way that he had treated Wales. This was the beginning of three hundred years of intermittent war between England and Scotland, which ended only when a Scotch king, James VI, succeeded to the English throne in 1603 as James I. That Scodand was able to maintain her independence was mainly due to Robert Bruce, a national hero who succeeded in bringing both the nobility and the people under his leadership. Edward I died, old and worn out, in 1307, when on his way north to put down a rising under Bruce, and left the task of dealing with the Scotch to his incompetent son, Edward H. The Scotch acknowledged Bruce as their king and decisively defeated Edward H in the great battle of Bannockburn, the Battle of most famous conflict in Scottish history. Nevertheless, the 1314 '^ ' English refused to acknowledge the independence of Scotland until forced to do so in 1328.
