's CDafc. 73 



stipulated that Scotland should enjoy her ancient 

 liberties and customs, and that in case the prince 

 and Margaret should die without children, the crown of 

 Scotland should revert to the next heir. The projected 

 marriage promised well, but the sudden death of the young 

 princess left only a dismal prospect for the kingdom. 

 No breaking-out among the people immediately ensued, 

 for the regency was sufficiently powerful to keep the 

 crown from sudden spoliation. It was otherwise in the 

 course of a short time, for several pretenders laid claim 

 to the vacant throne. The posterity of William, King of 

 Scotland, the prince who was taken prisoner by Henry 

 II., being extinct on the death of Margaret, the crown 

 devolved by natural right to the representatives of 

 David, Earl of Huntingdon, brother to William, whose 

 male line being also extinct, left the succession open to 

 the descendants of his daughters. John Baliol .repre- 

 sented his maternal ancestor Margaret, one of the 

 three daughters of the Earl of Huntingdon, married to 

 Alan, Lord of Galloway ; Robert Bruce of Annandale, 

 his mother Isabella ; and John Hastings, the lady 

 Adama, who espoused Henry Lord Hastings. This 

 last pretended that the kingdom of Scotland, like other 

 inheritances, was divisible among the three co-heiresses 

 of the Earl of Huntingdon, and that he, in right of his 

 mother, was entitled to a third. Baliol and Bruce 

 spurned at the thought of dismembering the country, 

 while each asserted the superiority of his own claim. 



