The Scalacronica. 73 



eldest son, Edward of Carnarvon, should take to wife Margaret, 

 the daughter of Margaret, Queen of Norway, the daughter of the 

 said Alexander, who had broken his neck. This they did in 

 order to secure peace. To this the Councils of the two realms 

 agreed in such wise that Edward of Carnarvon should dwell in 

 Scotland during his father's life-time, and that after his death he 

 should always dwell one year in the one realm and the next year in 

 the other realm, and that he should leave his officers and ministers 

 of the one realm at the entry of the marches of the other, so that 

 all his Council might be of that nation in whose realm he should 

 be dwelling at the time. The King, on coming home, gave his 

 assent to this, and sent to the Court of Rome for a Dispensation, 

 and envoys to Norway to fetch the said Margaret. One of the 

 envoys was a clergyman of Scotland, Master Weland, who 

 perished with the maid in returning to Scotland upon the coast 

 of Buchan. While King Edward was at Ghent, honourable 

 envoys came to him from the Commons of Scotland and from the 

 Bishops, Earls, and Barons, who certified that Margaret, the 

 daughter of the Queen of Norway, who was the daughter of their 

 King Alexander, had perished on the sea, in coming to Scotland ; 

 and they prayed him of his seignory to be willing to intervene, for 

 the quiet of the country, to see that they had for their King him 

 who had the right to be so. For they said they were afraid on the 

 one hand of a great dispute between divers lords, the most power- 

 ful in the realm, who claimed the succession ; and on the other, of 

 divers riots, which had commenced in the countrv ; for each lord 

 made himself, as it were, king in his own part of the country. 

 The King replied to them by letter that he was coming into his 

 realm and would march to the Border and there deliberate on 

 their request. And it is well known that according to the 

 chronicles of Scotland there never had been such a difficulty as 

 to who should be their King of the right line. The line was 

 not expected to fail, con.sidering that there had been three kings 

 in succession, each one the son of the preceding. 



I do you to wit that there was no war between the two 

 realms for 80 years, before that which was commenced by John 

 of Balliol. Because there was no issue of the two Kings Alex- 

 ander, it was agreed to return to the issue of David Earl of 

 Huntingdon, the brother of William, King of Scotland and son of 



