In 1343 the Knight began to intrigue traitorously with Edward III.; after
a truce, David led his whole force into England, where his rash chivalry
caused his utter defeat at Neville's Cross, near Durham (October 17,
1346). He was taken, as was the Bishop of St Andrews; his ransom became
the central question between England and Scotland. In 1353 Douglas,
Knight of Liddesdale, was slain at Williamshope on Yarrow by his godson,
William, Lord Douglas: the fact is commemorated in a fragment of perhaps
our oldest narrative Border ballad. French men-at-arms now helped the
Scots to recover Berwick, merely to lose it again in 1356; in 1357 David
was set free: his ransom, 100,000 merks, was to be paid by instalment.
The country was heavily taxed, but the full sum was never paid. Meanwhile
the Steward had been Regent; between him, the heir of the Crown failing
issue to David, and the King, jealousies arose. David was suspected of
betraying the kingdom to England; in October 1363 he and the Earl of
Douglas visited London and made a treaty adopting a son of Edward as king
on David's demise, and on his ransom being remitted, but in March 1364
his Estates rejected the proposal, to which Douglas had assented. Till
1369 all was poverty and internal disunion; the feud, to be so often
renewed, of the Douglas and the Steward raged. David was made
contemptible by a second marriage with Margaret Logie, but the war with
France drove Edward III. to accept a fourteen years' truce with Scotland.
On February 22, 1371, David died in Edinburgh Castle, being succeeded,
without opposition, by the Steward, Robert II., son of Walter, and of
Marjorie, daughter of Robert Bruce. This Robert II., somewhat outworn by
many years of honourable war in his country's cause, and the father of a
family, by Elizabeth Mure of Rowallan, which could hardly be rendered
legitimate by any number of Papal dispensations, _was the first of the
Royal Stewart line_. In him a cadet branch of the English FitzAlans,
themselves of a very ancient Breton stock, blossomed into Royalty.