BALIOL, JOHN. 



KVUOL, EDWARD. 



and direct, of these two noblemen will bo teen in the following 



Derld I., King. 

 Henry, prlnee of Scotland. 



Malcolm IV., King, 

 eldest brother 



(no Uc). 



William, King, 

 lad brother. 



Alcxudrr II., King. 



I 

 Alexander IIT., King. 



Margaret, married Eric, 

 king of Norway. 



Margaret, the Maid of 

 Norway (no luue). 



David, Earl of Him. 



tlngdon, 3rd brother, 



who had three 



danghten : 



2. Isabella, married Robert 

 Brace. 



I 

 Robert Bruce. 



3. Ada. 



1. Margaret, man led Alan 

 of Galloway. 



Ocrvorgeld, or Dcrrorgllle, married 

 John Baliol. 



JohnBaliol. 



This table shows that Baliol was the grandson of the eldest daughter ; 

 Brace the ton of the second daughter : the point at issue therefore 

 was, whether the crown belonged of right to the representative ( the 

 eldest daughter, though more remote by one degree, or to the repre- 

 sentative of the second, who waa nearer by one degree that is, in 

 fact, whether the crown descended in the order of birth, according 

 to the modem tyst-'m of primogeniture, or was hereditary in the 

 order of proximity of blood. At the present day the question would 

 not admit of any dispute; but in the 13th century the principles of 

 succession had not been definitely settled, and the claims appeared to 

 be to equally balanced that a decision in favour of Bruce would by no 

 means warrant the imputation of deliberate injustice. The estates of 

 Scotland were either afraid or unwilling to decide between the com- 

 petitors, and, alarmed at the proapect of civil war, they determined to 

 refer the decision of the controversy to the king of England. This 

 reference was extremely acceptable to Edward, as it gave him a position 

 in which his own views might be worked out, with strict regard to the 

 formalities if not the spirit of judicial procedure. Though there can 

 be no donbt that he employed bis alleged feudal superiority as a 

 nmint towards subjugating Scotland, he laboured to invest the pro- 

 ceedings with the garb of judicial deliberation and free agency. The 

 declaration which he compelled the estates of Scotland to subscribe 

 of their acts (by which his claim as lord paramount of his vassal 

 kingdom of Scotland waa acknowledged without qualification) being 

 wholly uninfluenced by fear or force a declaration which bears the 

 stamp of falsehood on the face of it is a striking instance of his respect 

 for the external observance of justice. 



After a tedious inquiry of nearly two years' duration, the delegates 

 to whom the Engliah king refnrred the consideration, as a point of the 

 law of inheritance, of the claims of the several competitors to the 

 vacant throne, made their report unanimously in favour of the heir of 

 the eldest daughter that is, in favour of primogeniture ; and accord- 

 ingly Edward gave judgment, not as arbiter, but as feudal superior, 

 that John Baliol, as the heir of the eldest daughter, should receive and 

 have Main of the kingdom of Scotland and all its appurtenances. 

 Thai occurred on the lth of November 1292. Next day lialiol swore 

 faalty to the king of England at bis feudal superior and sovereign lord 

 of the realm of Scotland. The new king was crowned at Scone on the 

 84th of November, and again went through the ceremony of vastalage 

 within lees than a month after at Newcastle. It it but right to add 

 that tin estates of Scotland and the other competitors, with r.rure 

 (the tamest! t and grandfather of the hero of Bannockburn) at their 

 bead, had, in the fimt stage of the inquiry, fully acknowledged Edward's 

 claim ae lord paramount; so that Baliol't oath of fealty after the 

 deflation in hit favour wee only in keeping with the whole proceedings. 

 The cUim of the king of England's feudal superiority over Scotland 

 was of long tUnding. frequently acknowledged, and, though constantly 

 evaded, very seldom openly denied. 



Baliol soon found that be bad fallen into the hands of a master who 

 determined to let his power be felt and hit feudal superiority be 

 ' by the Beottith people at well aa their king. Suitors in the 

 leliol, who were .lieaaUsned with his judgment, were enoou 

 to appeal to the lord paramount, and found in Edward a willing 

 hearer. Kven before Baliol had occupied the throne a single year, he 

 wat served with no lees than four citations to prove the legality of his 

 decisions in the courts of the lord paramount. Baliol was timid and 

 weak, but not mean in spirit. Being summoned to answer the coin 

 plaint of tb Kri of Fife before the king of England, he al 

 MltnhilliiJ that he wat not bound to answer the appellant ; that it 



waaa 



regarded the rights of the crown ; and that he 

 thout the advice of the good men of his realm. 



without 



He was reminded of his oath of fealty, but told that he micht have 

 time to consult his council. He replied that he would not ak for 

 either time or adjournment. Judgment for contempt and disobe- 

 dience to the authority of his feudal superior was formally given 

 against him by the English court, which he however continued to 

 ward off by requesting permission to consult his subjects. War ensued, 

 and he lout his kingdom before the judgment waa acted upon. 



In 1299 war broke out between France and England. The estates 

 of Scotland eagerly caught at so favourable an opportunity of assert- 

 ing the independence of their country, and prevailed upon Baliot to 

 conclude an alliance offensive and defensive with the French monarch. 

 The management of this was intrusted to a committee of nobles, the 

 nation having no confidence either in Baliol's patriotism or wisdom. 

 Edward made extensive preparations for chastising his rebellious 

 vassals. He first cited Baliol to appear before him at Newcastle. The 

 summons was unattended to, the Scottish barons detaining their king 

 in a kind of honourable captivity in the highlands. This was in March. 

 On the fith of April 1'aliol rent to the English monarch a formal 

 renunciation of homage in his own name and that of his barons. 

 Edward answered this by invading Scotland, when the Scotch were 

 everywhere defeated ; and Baliol after being compelled to perform the 

 most humiliating acts of feudal penance, had to sign an inntriiiin nt, 

 in which he acknowledged the right of Edward to enter into posses- 

 sion of his fee after the renunciation of homage, and transferred to 

 him the fealty which the Scottish barons and freeholders had sworn 

 to himself. This formal surrender of his kingdom of Scotland took 

 place on the 2nd of July 1296, just four years aftr his accession. 



Edward's treatment of the deposed monarch was indulgent, and 

 showed that he regarded him as n mere puppet of royalty in th. 

 hands of the lords of his council, who originated and conducted the 

 war. From Kincardine, where he signed the act of abdication, he 

 was transferred, with his son Edward Baliol, to the Tower of London, 

 where he resided for three years, with some state, and the liberty of a 

 circle of twenty miles. In accordance with bis own wish he was in 

 1299 allowed to retire to his patrimonial estates in Normandy, on his 

 solemnly pledging himself never more to intermeddle in the affdra of 

 Scotland, and the pope becoming surety for the performance of 

 his promise. His death took place in 1314, just after the battle of 

 Bannockburn. 



Baliol is usually held up. to scorn by Scottish historians as a mean- 

 spirited prince, who purchased the empty honours of a throne at Urn 

 expense of his country and independence. But it required much 

 more firmness and ability than he [was -sued, and a much more favour- 

 able combination of circumstances than attended his elevation, to 

 defeat the ambitious designs of his powerful neighbour, anil wield the 

 sceptre of Scotland in the unsettled times in which he lived. Tho 

 contemptuous epithet ' Toom Tabard,' ' Empty Jacket,' bears signifi- 

 cant testimony to the estimation in which he was held by his 

 countrymen. 



(Hemingford, ffitt. ; Rymer, Ftedera; Lord Hailes, Annals; TytliT, 

 ffutory of Scotland ; Lingard, Hit'.ory of England.) 



BALtOL, or BALLIOL., EDWAUD, shared his father's captivity 

 in the Tower, and accompanied him to his paternal residence in Nor- 

 mandy. With the exception of his visits to the English court in 1 324 

 (when he was invited over by Edward III. with a view to intimidate 

 Robert Bruce), and in 1327, it would appear that he led a life of 

 retirement in Normandy till the year 1332, when we find him taking 

 an active part in the enterprise of the lords Wake, Beaumont, and 

 other ' qucrellours ' (as the disinherited lords were called), to take 

 forcible possession of their forfeited estates in Scotland. Many of the 

 Anglo-Norman barons possessed estates both in Scotland and England, 

 and during the war between the Bruce and the English kings, which 

 ended in favour of Bruce, their estates were seized by both the 

 belligerent*. An express clause however in the treaty of North- 

 ampton in 1327, restored the forfeited Scottish estates of the English 

 lords Percy, Wake, and Beaumont ; and under the sanction of this 

 clause, the last two noblemen, after having in vain claimed its fulfil- 

 ment from the regent and parliament of Scotland, determined to assert 

 th-ir rights by force of arms. Edward lialiol having been induced to 

 join the enterprise, these bold confederates proceeded with a body of 

 300 hone and a few foot soldi, rs to invade a kingdom which was 

 then in the full flush of success and newly-achieved iiid i"i. 

 Small as the invading force wan, then: progress waa marvellous. They 

 entered the Frith of Forth, landed at Kinghoru in Fifeshire, defeated 

 the Karl of Fife, and, with an increased force not exceeding altogether 

 3000 men, marched boldly across the country to meet an enemy at 

 least ten times more numerous than themselves. The army of lialiol 

 encamped near Forteviot, with the river Earn in ita front. On the 

 opposite bank the Earl of Mar lay encamped with a force of from 

 30,000 to 40,000 men ; while a second army, commanded by the Karl 

 of March, lay within eight miles of linliol's flank. lialiol relieved 

 himself from this perilous position by an act of extraordinary daring. 

 In the dead of night he crossed the Earn at a point where it waa 

 fordable, and attacked unawares the sleeping and defencelea* Scots. 

 The carnage was dreadful : 13,000 Scots, including the earls of Mar 

 and Moray, and many knights and barons, lay dead on Dufflin Moor, 

 the scene of battle ; while the loss of the English waa extremely 

 small From Dunlin Moor Baliol and his confederate barons hastened 



