The Answer of Edward, king of England, respecting the affairs of Scotland, sent to pope Boniface. " To the most holy father in Christ, the lord Boniface, by divine permission, &c , Edward . . . &c. M What is written below we send to be shown to yon, not in the form or shape of a judicial paper, but as a wholly extrajudicial writing, for the sake of preserving the consistency of your sacred paternity. The supreme inspector of hearts knows that it is inscribed by an indelible pen on the tablet of your memory, that our predecessors and progenitors, the kings of England, have, from the most ancient times that it is possible to go back to, been lords of the kingdom of Scotland, and of all its kings, by the right of superior and direct dominion ; and they have received from those kings and from those of the nobles of the land, from whom they have desired to receive them, legal homage and proper oaths of fealty for the kingdom of Scotland. We, therefore, continuing this kind of possession of this right and dominion in our own time, have received the same oaths both from the king of Scotland and from the nobles of the kingdom. Moreover, the kings, our predecessors, rejoiced in a prerogative of so much right and dominion over the kingdom of Scotland and its kings, that they conferred even the kingdom itself on their own faithful subjects. Also, the kings, for just causes, removed some and appointed others to reign in their stead under themselves, which things are beyond all question supposed to have been from old time, and still to be notorious to all persons, although, perhaps, another version of .the case may have been suggested to your paternal ears, by persons jealous of peace, sons of rebellion, men full of false insinuations, from whose designing and deceitful inventions we humbly entreat that the eyes of your holiness may be averted ; and we with devout affection entreat your paternal clemency and excellency, that, for the sake of brevity, we may be allowed just to touch on one or two points by way of example, with all due respect for the achievements of ancient times. " In the time, then, of the Prophets Eli and Samuel, a certain gallant and illustrious man, by name Brutus, of the Trojan race, after the destruction of the city of Troy, landed, with many nobles of the Trojans, in a certain island which was then called Albion, inhabited by giants, who were defeated