Auld Alliance struck between Scotland and France

1295

Facing Edward I's overbearing interference, the Scottish government of John Balliol negotiated a treaty of mutual defense with Philip IV of France. The alliance, periodically renewed for centuries, would shape European diplomacy and bedevil English foreign policy until the sixteenth century. The treaty bound two kingdoms separated by the entirety of England, ensuring that any English war on one front risked attack on the other.