The king gave his son Edward the principality of Wales, which was a step very pleasing to the Welch, because he had been born in Wales. He also bestowed on him the earldom of Chester. Therefore, the king and the barons being now at peace with one another, addressed an elegant letter to the pope, sealed with a hundred seals, requesting to protect, as was just, the rights of the English over the kingdom of Scotland which they had enjoyed from the beginning, and by no means to lend an ear to the false suggestions of the perjured Scots, as is fully set forth in the history of the following year. The lord Edmund, earl of Cornwall, cued this year, without issue, leaving Edward, king of England, his next heir. The queen her second son doth Edmund call. A.i). 1301. On the fifth day of August, being the day of Saint Oswald, king and martyr, Margaret, queen of England, brought forth her second son, at Woodstock, and named him Edmnnd. This year the lord the pope usurped for three years the tenth part of all the ecclesiastical revenues in the kingdom of England. Moreover, in these days the salt of the earth and the head of the people fell into a great dropsy ; for the more money—that wicked water—they drank, so much the more did they thirst for it ; and what temporalities the one left behind him, not having diminished them of his own accord, the other, without being compelled, plucked from the spiritualities as polluted. Therefore, the church of the faithful sat in sorrow, being led by its venal protectors in a miserable manner under tribute. About the same time, while the king of England was leading an army against the kingdom of Scotland, Edward, prince of Wales, the king's son, marched before him with a warlike army. But because they did nothing great or worthy of praise, since scarcely any one of the Scots resisted them, our pen may pass briefly over this part of the narrative. While these events were taking place, the king of France sent the abbot of Compiegne, and some other persons with him, to ask for peace for the Scots, calling them his own friends ; but the ambassadors, not receiving such a reply as they wished, returned home again. This year, a subject of dissension arose between the pope and the king of France, each of them trusting to his own great power to such a degree, that the pope said to the ambassador of the king of