1296. Ten thousand Scots were slain at this memorable battle, and a vast number were made prisoners, among whom were many of the principal nobility of the kingdom, who were sent to the South in chains, and distributed among the prisons of England and Wales. Baliol, after performing a most degrading feudal penance, and imploring the clemency of his conqueror, was sent prisoner, along with his son Edward, to the Tower of London, having previously resigned the kingdom and the people of Scotland into the hands of Edward. Thus terminated the brief and unfortunate reign of John Baliol, who had aspired to a sceptre he had neither the judgment nor the energy to wield. With a spirit subdued before the commanding genius of Edward, any efforts he made to regain the independence he had relinquished, were rather forced upon him, by the impatience of his people to the English yoke, than the result of any magnanimous resolution of his own. Though possessing qualities that might have graced the seclusion of private life, he was destitute of those talents which were required in the discharge of the duties of a sovereign.
Selected by Edward from the other competitors, more on account of the natural timidity of his character than the superior justice of his claim, it is impossible to look on the degradation that was inflicted on him, without feeling disgusted at the total want of generosity which marked the character of the English monarch. Listening to the _interested_ advice of the Bishop of Durham,[59] who counselled him to set aside the claim of Bruce, because the talents and spirit of the latter might be troublesome, he arrayed Baliol in the trappings of royalty; and, while he insulted the tame unresisting puppet he had created, he fancied himself trampling with impunity on the hitherto unsullied majesty of a free people.
The destruction of Berwick, and the discomfiture at Dunbar, laid Scotland prostrate at the feet of her invader, who marched triumphantly through the kingdom, receiving the homage of the terrified chieftains, and placing garrisons in the deserted fortresses; while churchmen of all grades, Earls, Barons, Knights and Esquires, hastened to avert his displeasure, by taking the oath of allegiance, and renouncing the French alliance.