The English, however, had in point of fact obtained possession of the
country, and governed it with much rigor. The Lord High Justice Ormesby
called all men to account, who would not take the oath of allegiance to
King Edward. Many of the Scots refused this, as what the English king
had no right to demand from them. Such persons were called into the
courts of justice, fined, deprived of their estates, and otherwise
severely punished. Then Hugh Cressingham, the English treasurer,
tormented the Scottish nation, by collecting money from them under
various pretexts. The Scots were always a poor people, and their native
kings had treated them with much kindness, and seldom required them to
pay any taxes. They were, therefore, extremely enraged at finding
themselves obliged to pay to the English treasurer much larger sums of
money than their own good kings had ever demanded from them; and they
became exceedingly dissatisfied.
Besides these modes of oppression, the English soldiers, who, I told
you, had been placed in garrison in the different castles of Scotland,
thought themselves masters of the country, treated the Scots with great
contempt, took from them by main force whatever they had a fancy to,
and if the owners offered to resist, abused them, beat and wounded, and
sometimes killed them; for which acts of violence the English officers
did not check or punish their soldiers.
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