Bothwell, which he captured in September. The two English armies met to winter at Linlithgow without having damaged the Scots' fighting ability. In January 1302, Edward agreed to a nine-month truce. It was around this time that Robert the Bruce, along with other nobles, gave his allegiance to Edward I, even though he had been on the side of the patriots until then. There are many reasons that may have prompted his turning. Not the least of them possibly was that Bruce found it loathsome to continue sacrificing his followers, family and inheritance for the exiled Scottish king John Balliol. There were rumours that Balliol would return with a French army and regain the Scottish throne. Soulis supported the return of Balliol as did many other nobles, but the return of John as king would lead to the Bruces losing any chance of ever gaining the throne themselves. Also, Robert's father was old and ill, and may have wished his son to seek peace with Edward, who, he was convinced, would eventually be victorious over the Scots. The elder Bruce would have seen that, if the rebellion failed and his son were against Edward, he would lose everything; titles, lands, and probably his life. Edward also had come to see that he needed a Scottish noble like Bruce as a friend, rather than as an enemy. He was facing both excommunication by the Pope for his actions and a possible invasion by the French. Robert the Bruce's defection to the English king's side was not total. He sent a letter to the monks at Melrose Abbey in March 1302 that effectively weakened his usefulness to the English king. Apologizing for having called the monks to service in his army when there had been no national call up, Bruce pledged that, henceforth, he would "never again" require the monks to serve unless it was to "the common army of the whole realm", for national defence. More serious to the Scottish patriots than the apparent defection of Bruce was the loss of support from Philip IV of France and subsequently, the Pope. Philip faced revolt at home and became too involved in his own difficulties to care about the Scots. He thus created a schism between the Scots' cause and the Pope, The Pope's support for the Scots faded without Philip's influence. It seemed that Philip had such difficulties that he signed