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 to the Scottish people, and the circumstances of this renunciation of the kingdom are so extremely humiliating to national pride, that John Baliol has been ever since held in hatred and contempt, and is scarcely allowed a place in the ordinary rolls of the Scottish monarchs. It must be said, however, in his defence, that his first acknowledgment of the paramountcy was no more than what his rival Bruce and the greater part of the nobles of the kingdom were also guilty of; while he is certainly entitled to some credit for his efforts to shake off the yoke, however inadequate his means were for doing so, or whatever ill fortune he experienced in the attempt. In his deposition, notwithstanding some equivocal circumstances in his subsequent history, he must be looked upon as only the victim of an overwhelming force.

The history of John Baliol after his deposition is not in general treated with much minuteness by the Scottish historians, all of whom seem to have wished to close their eyes as much as possible to the whole affair of the resignation, and endeavoured to forget that the principal personage concerned in it had ever been king of Scotland. This history, however, is curious. The discrowned monarch and his son were immediately transmitted, along with the stone of Scone, the records of the kingdom, and all other memorials of the national independence to London, where the two unfortunate princes were committed to a kind of honourable captivity in the Tower. Though the country was reduced by the English army, several insurrections which broke out in the subsequent year showed that the hearts of the people were as yet unsubdued. These insurgents invariably rose in the name of the deposed king John, and avowed a resolution to submit to no other authority. It is also worth remarking, as a circumstance favourable to the claims and character of Baliol, that he was still acknowledged by the Pope, the King of France, and other continental princes. When Wallace rose to unite all the discontented spirits of the kingdom in one grand effort against the English yoke, he avowed himself as only the governor of the kingdom in name of King John, and there is a charter still extant, to which the hero appended the seal of Baliol, which seems, by some chance, to have fallen into his hands. The illustrious knight of Elderslie, throughout the whole of his career, acknowledged no other sovereign than Baliol; and, what is perhaps more remarkable, the father of Robert Bruce, who had formerly asserted a superior title to the crown, and whose son afterwards displaced the Baliol dynasty, appeared in arms against Edward in favour of King John, and in his name concluded several truces with the English officers. There is extant a deed executed on the 13th of November, 1299, by William, Bishop of St Andrews, Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, and John Comyn the younger, styling themselves guardians of the kingdom of Scotland; in which they petition King Edward for a cessation of hostilities, in order, as they afterwards expressed themselves, that they might live as peaceable subjects under their sovereign King John.

There is, however, no reason to suppose, that these proceedings were in accordance with any secret instructions from Baliol, who, if not glad to get quit of his uneasy sovereignty, at the time he resigned it, at least seems to have afterwards entertained no wish for its recovery. A considerable time before his insurgent representatives made the above declaration in his behalf, he is found executing a deed of the following tenor: "In the name of God, Amen. In the year 1298, on the 1st of April, in the house of the reverend father, Anthony, Bishop of Durham, without London. The said Bishop discoursing of the state and condition of the kingdom of Scotland, and of the inhabitants of the said kingdom, before the noble lord John Baliol; the said John, of his own proper motion, in the presence of us, the Notary, and the subscribing witnesses, amongst other things, said and delivered in the French tongue to this effect, that