The Disinherited King- Edward Balliol (Part 1/3)
(In response to a request from poniatowskaja- it’s longer than I’d expected and I don’t know if King John’s will be as long, but the John Comyn one will be shorter and easier to read, I promise)
On the 24th of September 1332, a Balliol king was, for the second time, crowned King of Scots at Scone. This man- who some might have called King Edward I- was Edward Balliol, the son of the unfortunate and much-maligned King John, and a man who, for a very brief time, looked set to take back Scotland for his family. Time, of course, would reveal that this was not to be, but, despite remaining a thorn in the side of the Bruce dynasty for at least forty years, Edward Balliol is even less frequently mentioned in the national histories than his father is, and, if possible, in even less glowing terms. Nevertheless, his ambitions to reclaim the throne of Scotland, and the wider conflict he became a key part of –often called the ‘Second War of Independence’- are just as important to Scottish (and English) history as the earlier conflict, even if they fit less easily into the romantic narrative we’ve crafted for ourselves.
So Who Was Edward Balliol?
Born in around 1282, Edward Balliol was the son of an influential Northern English baron named John Balliol- the future King John- and his wife, Isabella de Warenne, the daughter of the Earl of Surrey (yes, that one) and Alice de Lusignan (the half-sister of Henry III). His paternal grandparents, meanwhile, were John, Lord Balliol, and Devorguilla of Galloway, a younger daughter of the High Constable of Scotland, Alan, Lord of Galloway. John (the elder) had been an influential counsellor of Henry III and active in the politics of Alexander III’s minority, and, whilst frequently underrated by past historians, some of whom considered him socially inferior to Devorguilla (heiress to vast estates in Galloway and elsewhere), was a powerful man in his own right. Therefore, even before his father’s accession to the crown of Scotland, through all four of his grandparents Edward Balliol was a part of the English elite, and could have expected to fall heir to the family’s vast estates in England and Scotland, as well as the ancestral lands in France from which they took their name. This, however, also made his father the subject of three kings and, while this was manageable in the thirteenth century, as history showed, things soon began to take a different turn.
(Barnard Castle in County Durham, a major stronghold of the Balliol family in the thirteenth century)
Due to the power and influence of the family he was born into, Edward Balliol was, however, linked especially to the English royal family from the very beginning. A traditional story has it that King Edward I was present at his christening, and was also his godfather, lifting him from the font and naming him in a further underlining of the close, personal connection between the Balliol heir and the English Crown. Though our next glimpse of Edward comes about ten years afterwards, it is once again in the company of a Plantagenet- this time Edward I’s son and heir, Prince Edward (later Edward II), who was perhaps at most only a year or so different in age to Edward Balliol. In 1293, after his father had become King of Scots, Edward Balliol is to be found in attendance at a Pentecost feast held by the prince, and it seems that he was probably residing in the Prince of Wales’ household for much of his father’s reign.
Even at this early stage Edward Balliol’s experience probably differed from King John’s. The latter was the youngest of four sons, whose education was rather more religious in nature, indicating that he may originally have been intended for the church. Edward, on the other hand, was the heir first to a number of important lordships and then to a kingdom, expected to have a knowledge of military affairs and to be skilled in arms, as well as to mix with other boys of his social class. Therefore, although he was the son of the King of Scots, Edward was raised in an environment defined by his personal connections to the English Crown, and as the heir to an English baronial tradition, which meant forging links with others of his class and age in the English political sphere (admittedly, this often overlapped with the Scottish one, but it needs to be pointed out that, at an early age, Edward Balliol’s interests and main influences were largely those centred on the English court).
(King Edward I of England, Edward Balliol’s godfather)
From King John to Toom Tabard
In 1292, Edward’s father John had been raised to the kingship of Scotland, but to most people he is known more by his surname than any royal title, dismissed as not a ‘real’ or ‘proper’ king of Scotland, his short reign seen simply as an unfortunate blip which occurred between the Maid of Norway’s death and the entry of the ‘hero’ Robert Bruce. The traditional narrative of King John labels him as either puppet, victim, or English usurper, but in recent decades historians have attempted to give him a more rounded assessment, acknowledging his successes, but also not dismissing the very real problems of his reign. It would take ages to rehearse all the reasons for King John’s downfall, made up as they are of calculated provocations by an English king determined to assert his authority over his ‘vassal’; factional politics amongst Scottish nobles and especially those close to the king; the wider tensions between the kings of England and France over the issue of homage and the encircling alliances they made against each other; and many other elements. It is perhaps easiest to just relate that they culminated in a brief war between the Scottish and English kings which saw Berwick-upon-Tweed wiped out, a shoddy battle at Dunbar, many of the valuables of the Scottish Crown plundered, and King John himself deposed by Edward I in 1296. There, John’s arms were ripped from his cote, the Great Seal of Scotland broken, and the now ex-king placed in custody.
(A much later portrayal of John Balliol, his crown and scepter broken in a symbol of his deposition)
In comparison to that suffered by Scottish political prisoners later in the Wars of Independence, John’s confinement was reasonably comfortable, and his expenses were paid for by the English Crown. Nevertheless, he was still an important prisoner, and for several years, there were worries that an attempt might be made to restore him to his kingship (and even John himself may not have given up hope of this straight away, as hinted by the fact that he was found carrying a copy of the Great Seal of Scotland and a crown by English officials in 1299). Later on, when his custody was transferred to Philip IV of France, he was still sought out by Scots who did not accept the situation- most notably William Wallace, who attempted several times to arrange a meeting with his king whilst in France, though to little effect other than to put Edward I on his guard. However, eventually hopes for the restoration of King John waned and he was eventually released onto his ancestral estates in Picardy, where he spent most of the rest of his life at the castle of Helicourt, never to be reinstated as king of Scotland.
Edward in ‘Honourable Custody”
So where was Edward Balliol in all of this? As I said above, he is thought to have spent much of his father’s reign in the household of Prince Edward. However, in 1295, in the Franco-Scottish treaty which would eventually contribute to his father’s downfall, a match was arranged for him with Jeanne de Valois, Philip IV’s niece, which makes one wonder how much control over his person the Scots had at the time. Later chronicles claim that he was with his father when King John finally surrendered in Angus in 1296 but, if so, he was back in Prince Edward’s household by the end of the year. This comfortable confinement continued until 1297, when increased tensions with Scotland meant that he was moved for greater security to the Tower of London along with his father, and the sons of the Earls of Mar and Strathearn.
By November of 1299 he was in the care of his grandfather, the Earl of Surrey, who had successfully petitioned the king for the transferal of Edward into his custody. Later on, after his grandfather’s death, this responsibility for his custody passed to his cousin, the new Earl. Perhaps Edward initially harboured hopes that the English earldom promised by Edward I in the terms of surrender agreed upon by King John in 1296 would be Surrey, but his cousin continued to thrive and it may have soon become clear that this was not going to happen. Later, Edward would petition to be moved to the household of the brothers of Edward II, possibly as a result of his cousin’s support for the royal favourite Piers Gaveston, which was contrary to the stance of most of the barons and possibly Edward Balliol himself did not want to be associated with his cousin on this front. Whether it was due to this or simply a lack of obligation that he did not answer the summons for the army which was later defeated at Bannockburn in 1314 is unclear. In any case, it must have become increasingly obvious to Balliol - in his thirties by 1314- that he was unlikely to be restored to his English lands or regain his family’s old status among the English barons any time soon, no matter how much the king might seem to be contemplating restoring him to his patrimony.
It is not known if Edward ever saw his father again- it only seems possible if they were both guests at the wedding of the new king, Edward II, to Isabella of France in 1308. It is also impossible to tell what he thought of his father being deposed or who he blamed, if anyone, for his father’s dishonour. When John eventually died in November of 1314, however, Edward fell heir to the French lands, and in early 1315 King Edward II was petitioning the French king for a fealty by proxy (which some have suggested implies that he still wanted to keep a close eye on Edward Balliol, especially in the aftermath of Bannockburn when he needed all the assets he could get). This was refused however and Edward Balliol eventually arrived in France in the summer of 1315 to do homage to the French king for his lands (though the deaths of certain monarchs slowed things up considerably). He was now probably in his early to mid-thirties and had spent most of his life in various forms of custody, his years marked by largely abortive plans, both of his family and of others, to regain something of the Balliol inheritance back in England and Scotland. This French inheritance, however, was not the end of Edward’s story- on the contrary he was soon back in England and later complained that his French lands were impoverished during another attempt to regain his position in the former country. Though he was probably moving a lot between England and France during this period, and was still given the occasional payment from the English Crown, it is difficult to ascertain what he was up to in the late 1310s. Even with the return of his French lands, he had a lot more petitioning and fighting ahead of him in various attempts to restore his patrimony, struggles which would define the rest of his life.
(An early twentieth century portrayal of Edward II of England, in whose household Edward Balliol was brought up, and who was roughly the same age as him)
From Uncertainty to Opportunity
For some time, Edward’s main aims regarding the restoration of his patrimony were largely focused on petitioning the return of his English lands. However, though Edward II may have given the issue considerable thought, and sometimes the recovery of his English estates may have appeared to be a real possibility, the idea soon began to flounder and die. After his father’s death, though, Edward Balliol seems to have turned his attention increasingly to the north, where his family’s rivals, the House of Bruce, now held sway over much of Scotland and the country was enjoying something of an ascendancy under Robert I’s governance. Nevertheless, even after King Robert’s famous victory at Bannockburn, the House of Bruce was not entirely secure and Edward Balliol hoped, perhaps with some confidence, to revive his claim.
(A twentieth-century depiction of King Robert I, arguably Scotland’s most famous king. To many supporters of Edward Balliol, however, he was regarded as a usurper)
Several important members of the Scottish nobility refused to swear fealty to King Robert, and forfeited their lands as a result, becoming known as the Disinherited. To this band of nobles, and perhaps to a significant number of others, Robert Bruce was no hero- simply a usurper who had taken the throne of the Balliols and an excommunicate who had murdered a close kinsman of the true king before a church altar. Even in the early 1320s, by which time one would have thought Robert I was fairly secure in his crown, he faced a serious plot against him, now known as the Soules conspiracy. This plot, led by by William de Soulis (the Butler of Scotland and a signatory to the Declaration of Arbroath) and involving a number of key Scottish nobles (such as David Brechin, Countess Agnes of Strathearn, and Sir Roger Mowbray) was an attempt to bring about the death of Robert. It appears likely- on the evidence of the Earl of March, who alleged to have discovered contact between de Soulis and Balliol whilst accompanying the Declaration of Arbroath to France- that Balliol had some inkling of the aims of Soulis and his supporters. How far he himself was involved, however, and whether William de Soulis or Edward Balliol would rule afterwards, is uncertain. In any case the plan was foiled, with many of the conspirators being imprisoned or executed, but it does display that, even when Robert I was at the height of his powers, his enemies were still a force to be reckoned with.
Unfortunately for Edward Balliol, political tensions in England meant for a time that he was unlikely to find any support there- and even throughout the early 1320s, it is unclear how committed he was to the Scottish option. Edward II was deposed in 1327, and, while technically succeeded by his teenage son Edward III, the real power lay in the hands of his mother and the (English) Earl of March, Roger Mortimer. Though a campaign in the north of England- the Weardale Campaign- was organised to counter Scottish raids in 1327, with the young Edward III at its head, this proved unsuccessful and the next year the new regime headed by Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer was forced to make peace with the Scots in the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, which saw Robert I’s infant son, David Bruce, married to Joan of the Tower, the young sister of the new English king, Edward III. The peace, however, was considered shameful by many in England, not least Edward III himself, and when the young king finally pulled off a coup against Isabella and Mortimer in 1330, the tide began to change. Robert the Bruce had died in 1329, leaving a child king in his stead, and James Douglas, one of his foremost lieutenants, soon followed him to the grave. On both sides of the border, people would probably have been well aware that the Anglo-Scottish peace was already looking shaky.
For the first few years after King Robert’s death, the peace lasted, albeit in a tense manner. Edward III made several attempts at persuading the new Guardian, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray (Bruce’s nephew and last surviving of the late king’s chief lieutenants) to address the pleas of the Disinherited- as those who had been deprived of their Scottish lands by the Bruce party were known- led by David Strathbogie and Henry de Beaumont, for their claims to property in Scotland to be recognised. This had been part of the treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, but Randolph proved uncooperative, and the Disinherited began to prepare for a more active attempt at regaining their lands. Whether they would gain the full backing of the English Crown was uncertain yet, but during the late 1320s they clearly seem to have come to the conclusion that something more drastic had to be done.
(Philip I of Taranto, Edward’s alleged father-in-law)
Edward Balliol may have first come into (meaningful) contact with the leadership of the Disinherited in France in the mid 1320s, in the form of the redoubtable Henry de Beaumont. De Beaumont- who claimed the Earldom of Buchan in right of his wife, Alice Comyn- was an experience soldier and, given his wife’s links to the Balliol family, must have instantly appreciated the possibilities inherent in forming an alliance with Edward. Even if they had not formed any concrete alliance or meaningful relationship in France, Balliol may have come into contact with de Beaumont and other important members of the Disinherited again in 1327, when he arrived back in England abbout the same time as the failed Weardale campaign, in which both Henry de Beaumont and David Strathbogie (claimant to the Earldom of Atholl) took part. It is difficult to tell just exactly when Edward decided to ultimately throw in his lot with their party, especially since we have little information on what he was up to in the 1320s. He may even have married around this time, allegedly to Margherita de Taranto, a cousin of the French king, but it is difficult to tell when or even if this marriage took place; in any case they must have later divorced, likely before the end of the decade.
Eventually, though, Edward must have decided that to join the ranks of the Disinherited this was his best course of action, whether it put his French lands at risk or not, and by 1330 they certainly seem to have been working in tandem. Though de Beaumont was still to a large extent considered leader of the Disinherited, given his long experience of warfare, it was also natural that they should congregate around the man who might be considered to have been disinherited the most- Edward Balliol, claimant to the kingship itself. The aims of the Disinherited thus soon shifted from seeking the King of England’s intercession to regain their individual lands in Scotland to assembling an invasion force to install their chosen king on the Scottish throne.
(A depiction of Edward III and David II later in life)
The first obvious result of Edward Balliol’s assocation with the Disinherited was a downturn in his relations with the French king (which perhaps resulted in his divorce, had the marriage ever taken place). This may also have been connected to Edward’s association with the murder of a squire named Jean de Candas, which saw the confiscation of his territory of Dompierre and Balliol himself thrown into prison. Luckily for him, he was soon released, allegedly at the intervention of Henry de Beaumont. Even so, the French king would not take kindly to Edward making war on his allies, the Scots. Nonetheless, at this point Balliol seems to have been committed to this course of action as the only viable one left open to him.
It was generally thought unwise to invade while Randolph still lived, but by 1332 the Guardian was sickening fast and, on the twentieth of July, he died. The Scottish political community were likely well aware of Balliol’s intentions at this point, and quickly gathered to select a new Guardian (though a significant number may well have favoured the Balliol claim given the youth of David II and the obvious disadvantages of civil strife). Edward Balliol and the Disinherited, meanwhile, had set sail from Ravenspur and by the time the Scots lords were assembling at Perth on the second of August, Edward’s small fleet was already sitting in the Firth of Forth. Four days later, he landed at Kinghorn, in Fife, only a few miles from the spot where Alexander III’s body had been found nearly fifty years before (and sparked off all the trouble in the first place). There his force was met with some resistance led by the Earl of Fife, but this was quickly overcome. In Fife, Edward may have received financial support from some of the religious houses as he moved onto Dunfermline, and from there directed his ships to sail into the Tay. Soon he was on his way west, heading fast towards the burgh of Perth, and the nearby coronation spot at Scone.
The Scots had now chosen their new Guardian: Donald, Earl of Mar, who had also been a close companion of Edward II and had chosen to stay in England even after his release from captivity after Bannockburn, but after the English king’s death had returned to Scotland. Despite his personal associations with Edward II, he also had close family links to the House of Bruce- his aunt had been King Robert’s first wife and his own mother may have been one of the king’s sisters- so, whilst there was still some distrust among certain elements of the Scottish political community, he probably didn’t seem like a terrible choice for Guardian. Having been aware that an invasion was in the offing, the Scots had also made some preparations, mustering two armies, for either side of the Forth. As Edward Balliol neared Perth, he came up against the Earl of Mar’s large northern force in the vicinity of the village Forteviot, in between the burgh of Perth and the town of Auchterarder that lay thirteen miles to the south-west of the city. At first glance, the situation would not have looked good for Edward and the Disinherited, as their force of no more than two or (at most) three thousand was outnumbered by the Earl of Mar’s much bigger army. However, Edward’s force was both experienced and prepared for battle, while the Scots had been mustered hurriedly, and were overconfident of success, reared as they had been on stories of Myton, Bannockburn and the other Scottish victories of the last twenty years. Local knowledge may also have played a part- Andrew Murray of Tullibardine had changed sides and helped the Disinherited safely navigate the terrain, in particular the river crossing.
A night assault by Balliol’s army on what was thought to be the main body of their enemy turned out to be a bit of a mistake, and Sir Thomas Grey, who may well have been with the invaders, states that when daybreak came, a large amount of the Scots force remained intact, “so that scarcely were they [Balliol’s army] able to put themselves in array before the enemy advanced to the attack.” Nevertheless, division in the Scots ranks, caused by a falling out between Robert Bruce (illegitimate son of the late king) and the Guardian, the Earl of Mar, (who Bruce accused of treachery and cowardice), and overconfidence made the opposing army both unruly and unwieldy. Superior tactics on the part of Beaumont and Balliol, enabled their force to hem the larger Scots army in on the uneven terrain. The English archers who were to be so devastating in later battles in France and had already inflicted large-scale injuries on the Scots forty years earlier at Falkirk, were used to great advantage, and the way they were deployed at Dupplin is an early example of the method used in France. The result was a wholesale slaughter of the foe. The Earls of Mar, Moray, and Menteith, as well as Robert Bruce and numerous other noblemen and commons lost their lives, the Earl of Fife was taken prisoner and later swore loyalty to Edward Balliol, and the Disinherited were triumphant.
(The Mausoleum on the Mote hill at Scone, which now occupies the site where Scots kings were once crowned)
The Battle of Dupplin Moor won, Edward led his troops to Perth, where they garrisoned the town. It was not long before the Earl of March, leading the second Scottish force, from south of the Forth, brought his army up to the burgh defences, but just over a week later, the Scots were forced to disband. Victorious twice, Edward thus made his way to Scone where, at around fifty years old, and nearly forty years after his father had sat in the same spot, he was crowned king of Scots. The Earl of Fife, whose elder sister had first placed a crown on the head of Robert Bruce, fulfilled his family’s traditional role at the coronation, but many other members of the Scots nobility remained absent. Edward Balliol may have allowed himself to savour the moment that he had waited for for so long, but even he would have been aware that there was still a long way to go and a lot of trouble ahead.
(I will try and get Part 2 up in the next few days. References will be at the end of that. Anyway, hopefully I didn’t ramble too much)
