539 A.D. 1301* LETTRES OT POPE. BOKIPACE. affairs. Given at Anagni, on the twenty-eighth of Jane, in the fifth year of our pontificate." The Letters addressed by pope Boniface to Edward the First, king of England, to tell him that thè kingdom of Scotland belongs to the Roman Church. " Boniface, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our most beloved son in Christ, Edward, the illustrious king of England, health and our apostolical benediction. . " We know, my son, and experience, which teaches men the character of things in a long course of time, has shown us how the affectionate zeal of that reverence towards your mother, the Roman church, which guides you in the bowels of kingly charity and affection, flourishes ; and that you do always promptly obey, and acquiesce in, the true decrees of our Apostolic See. Wherefore we entertain a firm hope, and feel a full confidence, that your royal highness will kindly receive our words, and carefully understand them, and effectually execute them. " It may, indeed, have come to the knowledge of your highness, and we do not at all doubt that it is contained in the list of your memory, how from ancient times the kingdom of Scotland has of full right belonged, and is still well known to belong, to the aforesaid church ; and that as we have received it, it has never been under any feudal subjection to your ancestors, the kings of England, nor is it so now to you. We have heard how Henry of illustrious memory, king of England, and your father, in the time of discord or war which existed between himself and a certain Simon de Montfort, and his partisans and adherents, requested assistance to be furnished to him by Alexander, king of that same land of Scotland, and son-in-law of Henry himself. And in order that this help so furnished might not be considered as having been either asked or given in consequence of any subjection or right claimed, the aforesaid Henry thought proper to grant his letters patent to the king of Scotland, in which he distinctly acknowledged that he had only received, or was only going to receive, the aforesaid aid as a special favour. Moreover, when, in process of time, you desired to have the presence of the aforesaid king of Scotland, your sister's husband, then alive, at the solemnity of your coronation, you took care to assure him by letters patent, under your own hand, that you asked for it not as a