Edward Invades Scotland
To gain the victory, however, over the determined perseverance and overwhelming military strength of the English king, was no easy task. The distress of Scotland, from its exposure to the continued ravages of war, had reached a pitch which the people of the land could endure no longer. They became heartbroken for a time, under a load of misery and suffering, from which they could see no relief but in absolute submission; the governor Comyn, the lateguardian Wallace, and the few patriotic nobles who were still in the field, found it impossible to keep an army together; and all men felt assured that the entire subjugation of the country was an event which no human power could possibly prevent or delay.If Edward, at this crisis, again resumed the war, it was evident that nothing could oppose him. We may judge, then, of the desolating feelings of this unhappy country, when word was brought that the King of England had once more collected the whole armed force of his dominions, and, leading his army in person, had passed the Border. The recent defeat at Roslin had chafed and inflamed his passions to the utmost; and he declared that it was his determined purpose either to reduce the nation to entire subjection, or to raze the land utterly with fire and sword, and turn it to a desert, fit only for the beasts of the field. In recording the history of this last miserable campaign, the historian has to tell a tale of sullen submission, and pitiless ravage; he has little to do but to follow in dejection the chariot wheels of the conqueror, and to hear them crushing under their iron weight all that was free, and brave, in a devoted country.
Edward separated his army into two divisions. He gave the command of one to his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, who directed his march westward into Scotland, whilst the king himself, at the head of the second division, proceeded eastward by Morpeth and Roxburgh, and reached the capital without challenge or interruption in the beginning of June, 1303. The whole course of the king, as well as that of the prince, was marked by smoke and devastation, by the plunder of towns and villages, the robbery of granges and garners, the flames of woods, and the destruction of the small tracts of cultivated lands which yet remained. Wherever he turned his arms, the inhabitants submitted to a power which it was impossible for them to resist; and the governor Comyn, Sir Simon Fraser, and the late guardian William Wallace, were driven into the wilds and fastnesses, where they still continued the war by irregular predatory expeditions against the convoys of the English.