The Reign of John Balliol s1

The Reign of John Balliol

The King is Chosen 1292

In November 1292 the thirteen leading candidates for the Scottish throne were summoned to Berwick Castle where Edward I announced that he had chosen John Balliol to be king. Not everyone was pleased with this choice. The Bruce family was ambitious and were determined that one day the Scottish throne would belong to them.

On 30th November (St Andrews Day), John Balliol was crowned at Scone. December saw him ordered to Newcastle to swear ‘homage’ to Edward and accept him as his overlord. The sight of a Scottish king on his knees accepting Edward as his superior made some Scottish nobles angry. They began to whisper that a ‘deal’ had perhaps been done between Edward and Balliol. Had Balliol been given the throne so long as he agreed to carry out Edward’s wishes?

The Scots’ Rebellion 1294

For two years the Scots watched as their king was forced to carry out everything that Edward commanded. There was much anger that Balliol was acting merely as a ‘puppet King’. Edward seemed to take great delight in undermining the ‘authority’ of the Scottish king. Offenders punished in Scottish courts found that they could appeal to Edward against Scottish legal decisions. Although only a few did so, Edward handled these appeals in a way that brought shame on the Scottish King. In 1293 Edward had forced Balliol to attend a meeting of the English Parliament in London. A chronicler, a few years later wrote:

Standing in court in front of him, John carried out Edward’s orders and having experienced many insults from all, contrary to his kingly rank and dignity, he returned home greatly crestfallen.

In 1294 Edward went even further. He demanded that Balliol, ten of his earls and sixteen of his barons, with their fighting men, should join him on his campaign against the French. Finally the Scottish nobles had had enough. Discussions began to take place as to how the Scots could break free from Edward’s control. In order to do this, three problems would have to be overcome:

1. All the Scottish nobles including Balliol had agreed that Edward was overlord of Scotland (remember the deal at Norham).

1 | P a g e 2. King John found it difficult to stand up to Edward’s temper and threats.

3. Scotland was not powerful enough to stand alone against England.

The Scots’ first move was to ask the Pope in Rome to cancel all the promises and agreements that they had made with Edward. Arguing that Edward had bullied them into proclaiming him as overlord, the Scots knew that the relationship between the Pope and Edward was not a good one and hoped he would sympathise with them. The plan worked and the Pope declared that the Scots’ promises to Edward were cancelled.

The second move was an attempt to help strengthen John Balliol. 12 men were elected to help him rule. Consisting of 4 bishops, 4 earls and 4 barons, this group was known as the Council of 12.

Finally the Scots decided to make a Treaty of Alliance with France. The French were already at war with Edward. The Treaty stated that Scotland would support the French in their fight and that neither country would make a separate peace with Edward. On discovering these details Edward was furious and plotted revenge.

Preparations for War

Despite Edward’s anger, he was faced with the dilemma of fighting the Scots and the French at the same time. This problem would resolve itself when he convincingly defeated the French in 1295, forcing them to make peace. As 1296 began Edward was now ready to turn his attention to Balliol and the Scots.

The English Invasion of Scotland

Edward’s decision to attack Scotland caused problems for many Scottish nobles, as many owned land in both countries. Nobles were being forced to make a choice. The powerful Comyn family supported Balliol, their close relation. The Bruce family supported Edward, seeing an opportunity to have the Scottish throne handed to their branch of the royal family tree.

Knowing that attack was inevitable the Scots decided to attack first. In March 1296 a Scottish army under John Comyn attacked the English stronghold of Carlisle Castle.

2 | P a g e Robert Bruce (the competitor’s son) defended the castle for the English. Comyn’s men were unable to break the defences.

Instead of attacking this Scottish army at Carlisle, Edward crossed the border and headed for Berwick, one of Scotland’s richest ports and burghs. The attack was not unexpected and the people of Berwick had built a wooden wall to defend the town as well as recruiting extra soldiers to defend it. When Edward’s troops arrived they faced the town with over 25 000 men and over 4000 cavalry. Scottish soldiers numbered around 5000.

Edward demanded that the people of Berwick surrender. They refused and instead shouted insults like ‘longshanks’. English ships sailed into the harbour and the land army attacked the town walls. A slaughter then followed. Edward ordered that no prisoners should be taken and soon the bodies of Berwick’s men, women and children began to pile in the streets. Homes and businesses were burnt to the ground. Edward was sending a clear message to Scotland – surrender or face devastation.

Source A – from an English chronicler’s description of the capture of Berwick.

The King tried to persuade the leading men to surrender, promising them personal safety, security for their possessions, pardon for their offences. He waited for three days. They gave no reply to his generous offer. He spoke to them in a friendly manner; they redoubled their insults. Some of them putting themselves on the heights, bared their buttocks and insulted the King. Others fiercely attacked the fleet. Troops were brought into action and the city occupied. No fewer than fifteen thousand men and women perished, some by the sword, others by fire.

3 | P a g e After destroying Berwick Edward’s army marched north to face Balliol’s army. At the Battle of Dunbar the Scots were heavily defeated. Outnumbered four to one and with many Scottish nobles supporting Edward, Balliol’s men were always in a weak position. The English army was also better trained and had more weapons. As they had recently finished their two year fight against the French it could also be argued that the English had much more fighting experience.

Following the heavy defeat at Dunbar the Scots army fled. Many additional Scots nobles decided to make their peace with Edward. Balliol escaped with the remnants of the army and fled north. Throughout the summer of 1296 Edward pursued Balliol, capturing castle after castle. At Stirling a chronicler at the time noted that

‘…they that were in the castle ran away and left none but the porter who did hand over the keys.’

Balliol travelled as far north as Aberdeen but increasingly saw that his plight was hopeless. His army had been beaten, most nobles had made peace with Edward and most of Scotland’s key towns and castles were in the hands of the English. He agreed to meet Edward in July 1296 to make peace.

Source B – from a letter sent by King John to Edward I, April 1296

You and others of your kingdom have committed repeatedly and by violent force intolerable injuries and severe damages against us and our kingdom and have come with avast crowd of soldiers and committed acts of slaughter and burning. We cannot any longer endure these insults and we renounce the fealty and homage which we have done to you. Source C – also from a letter sent by King John to Edward I, July 1296

Through bad advice and our own foolishness we have angered our lord Edward in that while we still owed him fealty and homage we made an alliance with the King of France against him. We have defied him, renouncing our homage, we have sent men into England to burn and murder. For these many wrongs our lord the King of England has conquered Scotland, something he had a right to do.

Balliol’s meeting with Edward took place in Montrose. Balliol begged forgiveness and apologised for his disobedience. Edward was in no mood to forgive and decided to strip Balliol of his title as King of Scots. In front of the Scottish nobility Balliol’s crown and royal robes were removed from him. Receiving the nickname ‘toom tabard’ or ‘empty coat’, Balliol was taken as prisoner to London where he would be imprisoned in the Tower. He would later be allowed to leave England for France but would never return to Scottish soil.

4 | P a g e After the defeat of Balliol, Robert Bruce (the competitor’s son and defender of Carlisle Castle) asked Edward to make him king. Edward replied “Have we nothing else to do but win kingdoms for you?”Edward did not intend to replace one Scots king with another. Instead he set about trying to reduce and remove a number of important parts of the Scottish identity as a separate nation and kingdom. These plans included:

 Scotland should no longer be referred to as a ‘kingdom’ but merely the ‘land’ of Scotland.  The removal of the Scottish crown jewels to London.  The removal of the Stone of Destiny (the stone on which Scottish kings had been crowned for centuries) from Scone to London.  The removal of Scottish government papers to London.  The appointment of important English officials to positions of power in Scotland. John de Warrene, the Earl of Surrey became the ‘Governor of Scotland’ whilst Hugh Cressingham became ‘Treasurer’.  The forcing of all Scottish nobles to sign the so-called ‘Ragman Roll’, a document where they would promise to obey Edward I.

Thus, by the end of 1296 Scotland was firmly under Edward’s control. Scotland had had her independence taken from her and was effectively taken in as part of England

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