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They are, my liege," replied one of his councilors," but it is of God and not of us they ask mercy. These men will win the day or die upon the field."

In the battle of Bannockburn which followed the English army was completely routed, and Edward and a small company of knights escaped with difficulty. It was one of the worst defeats that an English army has ever suffered. By means of it Bruce won the independence of Scotland.

Describe Edward's character and ambitions.
Tell the story of Llewelyn's revolt.
Relate the story of the Maid of Norway.

Describe the rivalry for the throne of Scotland.
Describe Edward's conquest of Scotland.
Give an account of the Stone of Destiny.

Tell the story of the revolt of Wallace.

Give an account of Robert Bruce at the court of Edward; of his coronation; in his wanderings.

Describe the battle of Bannockburn.

Why would it be better to have the whole island of Great Britain united? Were there ever any coins but round coins? How would the marriage of the Prince of Wales and the Maid of Norway win Scotland for the English royal family? According to the law of primogeniture, which claimant was entitled to the throne of Scotland? How was Baliol unwise in making a treaty of alliance with France, the enemy of England? What is the difference between tradition and history?

EDWARD II. was king for about twenty years, and grew more unpopular every day. At last Parliament did that which no preceding national council had ever thought of attempting. The old Saxon Witan had the right to choose a king, but now Parliament claimed the right to set aside a king. Parliament deposed King Edward II., and chose his fifteen-year-old son to rule as Edward III.

Edward III. would have made a good king had he not been so ambitious. Even before he became of age he set out to add France to his kingdom. Not long after Edward's coronation King Charles IV. of France died, leaving no sons. His two older brothers had preceded him upon the throne. When he died he had no living brother and but one sister, Isabella, the mother of Edward III. According to French law a woman cannot be the ruler of France, and therefore Isabella's cousin, Philip VI., at once took the throne. Edward III. claimed the

crown through his mother, who, he said, could transmit it to

her son, although she could not hold it herself. This was a ridiculous claim, but it was all that Edward needed; he declared war with Philip VI., which lasted, with intermissions, for so long a time that it is known in history as the Hundred Years' War.

Edward III. had been king only a few years when not only he himself, but the whole nation was made happy by the news that a son and heir, a new Prince of Wales, was born. Bells were rung all over the kingdom, and a day of feasting and rejoicing followed. The babe was christened Edward, the name that his great-grandfather had made illustrious. No father was ever prouder of his first-born son. From the day of the prince's birth the king's ambitions were all centered in the welfare of the child.

Even the war with France was carried on in a slow, halfhearted manner, until the boy reached the age of fifteen. As the young prince was then old enough to be a soldier, his father began preparations for a vigorous attack upon France. By making important grants to Parliament he obtained the necessary funds for paying a large army, and set out for France, leading his force in person. Philip VI. was able, however, to raise a very much larger army; and when the two forces approached each other, Edward at first found it necessary to retreat. When, in retreating, he came to a place where he thought he could defend himself, he halted and drew up his army in line of battle. This halt was a great surprise to the French army; but as it numbered many times the English force, it proceeded without hesitation to make an attack. The battle of Crécy (Kres'see) that followed was one of the most important battles in the history of the world. It was one of the last fought by the chivalry of the Middle Ages, and one of the first in which modern methods of warfare were used.

The Middle Ages were the days of chivalry, the days in which knights fought on horseback in hand-to-hand encounters. Those were the days in which lords, barons, and nobles, surrounded by the serfs or peasants who cultivated their fields, followed king or duke to battle. These serfs were poorly armed, and fought only because compelled to do so. They were of very little value, and often worse than useless. The brunt of the battle always fell

upon the knights, and the army which had the greater number of knights was usually victorious.

In the battle of Crécy all this was changed. The flower

The

of the English nobility, the knights and barons, were there; but in place of the serfs from the fields, Edward had an army of hired yeomen, the free, common people of England. British yeoman was a skilled marksman, trained from boyhood in the use of the bow and arrow. Such was the army that awaited the approach of the French; for the first time an army of footmen, an army of the common people, was drawn up to resist an army of knights. What would be the result?

King Edward stationed himself upon a hill where he could overlook the battle. The right wing was led by the sixteenyear-old Edward. On came the French knights, with their armor glistening in the sunlight. Before they reached the line of Prince Edward's bowmen they were met by a flight of arrows

so thick that it seemed to them to be snowing. The front line fell, horses and riders mortally wounded; those in the rear, unable to stop, rode over their prostrate companions, only to fall in their turn. Every arrow met its mark.

Here and there, scattered among the bowmen, were placed

AN ENGLISH ARCHER.

some little cannon which were used for the first time in warfare. Many people laughed at them as being nothing but playthings, but King Edward hoped that their noise might frighten the horses of the enemy and make them unmanageable. These cannon may have helped somewhat in winning the battle for the English, but they were mere toys in comparison with the great guns of the present time.

The king of France had heard of Edward's army of archers, and had therefore added to his army a number of Genoese crossbowmen, who with their powerful bows might be supposed to work great destruction to an enemy. But a heavy

thunderstorm wet the crossbows and rendered them almost useless, while the bows of the English army were perfectly dry, as they were kept in cases. The sunlight that followed the shower was also an aid to the English, for it blinded the eyes of the French, and made them a more shining target for the English arrows.

In the midst of the battle a messenger from the young prince came to the king asking him to send aid.

“Is my son dead ?" asked the king.