But two different meanings were attached in England and Scotland to this fealty due from the Scottish king. The English lawyers and statesmen always maintained that it was due to the king of England _for the realm of Scotland_. The Scots, on the other hand, insisted on another view—that the king of Scotland owed homage for the honour or earldom of Huntingdon, a possession held by him within the realm of England; but that for Scotland itself he owed no fealty, and ought not to come under any obligation. This quarrel, or difference of opinion, had existed for two or three hundred years. It came to the surface at Edward’s coronation, when his brother‐in‐law, the king of Scotland, appeared at Westminster in great state to pay his homage. He came attended by a hundred knights, and, as we have already narrated, “each knight, as he dismounted from his horse, cast the steed loose, and whosoever could catch them, had them to their own behoof.” But still, when the homage was to be paid, the usual question arose. The English lawyers and statesmen demanded an unconditional homage for the realm of Scotland. The Scotch persisted in limiting it to “the lands their king held of king Edward in England.” No quarrel ensued; the question seems to have been postponed, for we find that three years after, Edward writes to the bishop of Wells, that “his beloved brother, the king of Scotland, had agreed to perform an unconditional homage at the ensuing feast of Michaelmas.” Alexander then appeared before the parliament at Westminster, and offered his homage in these words: “I, Alexander, king of Scotland, do acknowledge myself the liegeman of my lord Edward, king of England, against all his enemies.”
This Edward accepted;[41] and it is abundantly evident that, as the two brothers‐in‐law had no intention of quarrelling, the real point in dispute—the allegiance claimed “for the realm of Scotland”—was left undecided—Edward not conceding, Alexander not admitting, the alleged rights of the English crown.
This position of postponement, declining to bring the matter to a quarrel, continued during the whole of Alexander’s life. Edward and he remained in amity; but Edward in this and all other disputed questions, always used the reservation—”saving the rights of my crown;” _i.e._, “whatever properly belongs to the king of England, _that_ I do not concede.”