]
[Footnote 40: As Alexander III was the last king of Scotland who ruled
before the War of Independence, it is interesting to note that he was
crowned at Scone with the ancient ceremonies, and as the representative
of the Celtic kings of Scotland. Fordun tells us that the coronation
took place on the sacred stone at Scone, on which all Scottish kings had
sat, and that a Highlander appeared and read Alexander's Celtic
genealogy (Annals XLVIII. Cf. App. A). There is no indication that
Alexander's subjects, from the Forth to the Moray Firth, were "stout
Northumbrian Englishmen", who had, for no good reason, drifted away from
their English countrymen, to unite them with whom Edward I waged his
Scottish wars.]
CHAPTER III
THE SCOTTISH POLICY OF EDWARD I
1286-1296
When Alexander III was killed, on the 19th March, 1285-86, the relations
between England and Scotland were such that Edward I was amply justified
in looking forward to a permanent union. Since the ill-fated invasion of
William the Lion in 1174, there had been no serious warfare between the
two countries, and in recent years they had become more and more
friendly in their dealings with each other. The late king had married
Edward's sister, Margaret, and the child-queen was her grand-daughter;
Alexander and Margaret had been present at the English King's coronation
in 1274; and, in addition to these personal connections, Scotland had
found England a friend in its great final struggle with the Danes.
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