Change of Councillors
A regency was now appointed, which included the whole of the clergy and the nobility who were favourable to England, to whom were intrusted the custody of the king's person, and the government of the realm for seven years, till Alexander had reached the age of twenty-one. Henry assumed to himself the title of "principal counsellor to the illustrious King of Scotland;" and the Comyns, with Bishop Gamelin, the Earl of Mar, Baliol, Ross, and their chief accomplices, were removed from all share in the government of the kingdom.Alexander, upon his part, engaged to treat his young queen with all honour and affection; and the Earl of Dunbar, according to a common solemnity of this age, swore upon the soul of the king, that every article of the agreement should be faithfully performed. Thus ended a negotiation conducted entirely by English influence; and which, although the ambition of the Comyns may have given some plausible colour to the designs of their enemies, was generally and justly unpopular in Scotland. Alexander and his queen now repaired to Edinburgh; and Henry, after having attempted to recruit his exhausted coffers, by selling a pardon to John de Baliol, and confiscating the estates of Robert de Ross, returned to commit new attacks upon the property of his English subjects.