Baliol's Feudal Penance
With these fresh levies he advanced to Edinburgh, made himself master of the castle after a siege of eight days;IT passed rapidly to Stirling, which he found abandoned; and while there, the Earl of Ulster, with a new army of thirty thousand foot and four hundred horse, came to join the king, and complete the triumph of the English arms. The monarch continued his progress without opposition to Perth, where he halted to keep the feast of the nativity of John the Baptist, with circumstances of high feudal solemnity, regaling his friends, creating new knights, and solacing himself and his barons. In the midst of these rejoicings, messengers arrived from the unhappy Baliol, announcing his submission, and imploring peace.Edward disdained to treat with him in person, but informed him, that he intended, within fifteen days, to advance to Brechin; and that on Baliol's repairing to the castle there, the Bishop of Durham would announce the decision of his lord superior. This was.none other than that of an absolute resignation of himself and his kingdom to the mercy of his conqueror; to which Baliol, now the mere shadow of a king, without a crown, an army, or a nobility, dejectedly submitted. In presence of the Bishop of Durham, and the Barons of England, he was first stript of his royal robes; after which they spoiled him of his crown and sceptre, and compelled him, standing as a criminal, with a white rod in his hand, to perform a humiliating feudal penance, f He confessed, that, misled by evil counsel and his own weakness, he had grievously offended his liege lord; he recapitulated his various transgressions, his league with France, and his hostilities against England; he acknowledged the justice of the invasion of his kingdom by Edward, in vindication of his violated rights; and three days after this, in the castle of Brechin, he resigned his kingdom of Scotland, its people and their homage, into the hands of his liege lord Edward, of his own free will and consent.