[Consequenter redit rex, ut Francorum florem Per hanc regna capiunt pacem pleniorem. Deperirent protinus patres et hæredes; 250 Nisi darent citius ad currendum pedes, Fugientes renuunt villulas et ædes: Idæos lepores puer exagitat Ganymedes. fault.-[Next the king returns, that he may marry Queen Margaret, the flower of the French; through her the kingdoms receive a more complete peace. Anger begets slaughter, concord nourishes love. When love buds between great princes, it drives away bitter sobs from their subjects; and now a firm peace is negotiated by frequent messengers: for by these things grace makes people friends. It is just that the Scots should have a small portion of grace, because the impious people have neither peace nor quiet of mind. Comyn, Carrick, Umfraville raise their standards: there is nothing more sharp than envy, nor more wicked.—The nation, voluntarily wicked, will not be obedient; it forces the illustrious king with his army to return; now they fear who neglect to come to pence, lest they perish languishingly by the sword of dire death.-Let them perish utterly both fathers and sons; unless they quickly give their feet to flight, flying they desert their towns and houses: the child Ganymedes drives about the Inter hæc rex Franciæ, mittens absque mora, Angli velut angeli semper sunt victores, Serviet æterno qui parvo nesciet uti.] hares on mount Ida.-In the midst of these transactions the King of France, sending without delay, asks an honourable truce of the King of England. The king accedes to his request, soon afterwards turning his reins: the grateful hour will arrive when it is least expected.-Who knows not that that would be the best hour for the Scots, in which the sword ceases from the weeping commonalty, and the king unites and honours the nobles. While it is warm and fair weather, the ant labours. After all these warlike labours, the English like angels are always conquerors, they are more excellent than the Scotch and Welsh; you will learn people's manners by contemplating their lives.-As though a swine should resist the valour of the lion, so the filthy Scots attack England; and the king for that reason reduces them to slavery: he will ever be a slave, who cannot be content with the little which Providence has given him.] The following verses seem to have been written immediately after John Baliol had retired to Normandy, in 1299. In the manuscript, they are accompanied by a picture representing a ship, full of people, passing the sea. ON THE DEPOSITION OF BALIOL. [From MS. Cotton. Julius, A. v. fol. 2, ro. of beginning of 14th cent.] Ecce dies veniunt Scoti sine principe fiunt ; Quales sunt et erunt, carmina plura ferunt, Finitis motis, sic fiet Scotia Scotis. TRANSLATION.-Lo! the time is come when the Scots are without a prince; Baliol loses the kingdom, and passes the sea alone. The Scot, hoping to be defended in battle by the new spear of the French, is waiting for their power. The Scots rejoice together in the belief that they will have the better in the war by the aid of the French; they rebel, and haste to fight. France will profit little the Scot in the field. Why has the Scot been beaten in three battles? By the fourth battle the Scots are reduced to extremities such as they are and will ever be, very many songs tell. He who learnt songs conquered Troy in battle; Ovid has told us what was the cause of it. After the war, Troy was barren of maidens; when the rebellion is over, so will Scotland be of Scots. Vastantur gwerra Trojani, de prope terra Quod meritis miseris semper asellus eris. Amplius Andreas ducere nescit eas. Troy is ravaged by war, the land near about being full of camps, it is with its boundaries become the property of another. The son of Achilles rules over the cities and towns; Pyrrhus lays them waste, Æneas has wept for Priam. Merlin writes that the proud crowd shall perish; the barking dog shall depart, and the ox shall go into exile. Then shall the Eutherian grove be stripped of its feathered branches; and the Albanian race will see their kingdom perish. Wretched Scot, lament, thy hour of weeping is now come; for the kingdom of thy forefathers ceases to be thine. Thou art deprived of a prince, and art so trodden down in the field, that by thy ill merits thou wilt always be an ass. A voice from the bottom of the Cambine waters calls thee, to be punished with such slaughter as the race of Adam has not yet seen. Hasten thither, and become the companion of the devil! Andrew will no longer be their leader. The general hatred to the Scots did not hinder the people from feeling grieved by the heavy taxes which were raised to support the war, and more particularly the expeditions into Flanders, (which latter were ill managed, and produced no results,) or from showing their dissatisfaction. The King's measures of ambition were often thwarted by the stern opposition of the barons and the commons. The following song was directed more particularly against the unconstitutional seizure of wool, and generally against all the taxes raised for the Flemish war. SONG AGAINST THE KING'S TAXES. [MS. Harl. No. 2253, fol. 137, vo, written in reign of Edw. II.] Dieu, roy de magesté, ob personas trinas, Rex ut salvetur, falsis maledictio detur! Roy ne doit à feore de gere extra regnum ire, For si la commune de sa terre velint consentire : A quy en fier seurement nemo potest scire. Non eat ex regno rex sine consilio. TRANSLATION. O God, king of majesty, for the sake of the Trinity,-do not permit our king and his household to perish ;-great hurt and great ruin he caused him to have,-who made him pass over the sea.-In order that the king may prosper, may his false advisers be accursed. A king ought not to go out of his kingdom to make war,-unless the commons of his land will consent :-by treason we often see very many perish ;-no one can tell in whom to trust with certainty.-Let not the king go out of his kingdom without counsel. |