Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/70

 Baliol to seize. After defeating the Earl of Fife, who opposed his landing, he marched by Dunfermline to the river Earn, surprised and routed Mar at Dupplin Moor with great slaughter on 12 Aug., and took possession of Perth. A threatened blockade of that town by the Earl of March having been abandoned, Baliol was crowned at Scone on 24 Sept. by William Sinclair, bishop of Dunkeld. Leaving Perth in charge of the Earl of Fife, who soon surrendered it to the Scotch, Baliol marched towards the border, and at Roxburgh on 23 Nov. met Edward III, acknowledged him as superior and lord of Scotland, and bound himself to serve in all his wars. He further engaged to put him in possession of Berwick and to marry the princess Johanna, already betrothed to David II. It was soon seen how fragile was his tenure of the country he affected to dispose of, for on 16 Dec. he was surprised at Annan by Archibald Douglas and completely defeated. His brother Henry was slain, and he had himself difficulty in escaping across the English border. In the following year, 9 March 1333, with additional aid from England, Baliol returned and established his camp near Roxburgh, with the view of besieging Berwick. The Scots lost about this time the services of two of their bravest leaders, Sir Andrew Murray of Bothwell, and Sir William Douglas, the knight of Liddesdale, and Edward, having himself advanced with a great force to the siege of Berwick, defeated Archibald Douglas, who had succeeded to the chief command, at Halidon Hill on 12 July, which forced the capitulation of Berwick.

In February 1334 Baliol held a parliament at Edinburgh, where, on the 12th of that month, his engagements to Edward were renewed and Berwick was annexed to the English crown. Not satisfied with this severance of the great fortress which was the key to the borders from the Scottish kingdom, Edward demanded and Baliol agreed at Newcastle-on-Tyne to the absolute surrender to the English crown of the forests of Jedburgh, Selkirk, and Ettrick, the counties of Roxburgh, Peebles, Dumfries, and Edinburgh, the constabularies of Haddington and Linlithgow, with all the towns and castles in the territory annexed. This comprised the whole of ancient Lothian, the richest and most important part of Scotland. Edward at once parcelled it into sheriffdoms, and appointed a chamberlain and justiciary for Lothian. On 18 June he received the homage of Baliol for the whole kingdom of Scotland, and, as if to mark the ignominy of his vassal with a deeper stain, declared that his private estates were not to be understood as falling within the surrender of the rights of his country. In the autumn of this year a dispute as to the succession of Alexander de Mowbray, one of the disinherited barons, between his brother as heir male, who was at first supported by Baliol, and his daughter as heir general, whose cause was espoused by Henry de Beaumont, earl of Buchan, and David de Hastings, earl of Athole, exposed the weakness of Baliol, who was compelled to change sides and abandon Mowbray through fear of these powerful earls. The return of Sir Andrew Murray from England, and of the Earl of Moray, now acknowledged as regent on behalf of David II, gave able leaders to the Scottish patriots, and Baliol was forced to take refuge in England. In winter he was again brought back, rather than restored, by the aid of Edward, and after wasting Annandale celebrated Christmas at Renfrew, where he created William Bullock, an ecclesiastic, chamberlain of Scotland. In July of the following year Edward again invaded Scotland, and although the fortunes of war were not all on one side, Guy, count of Namur, a mercenary ally of Edward, being defeated on the Borough Muir and forced to leave Scotland, the capture of the Earl of Moray and the aid of the Mowbrays and others enabled Edward to conclude a treatv at Perth 18 Aug. 1335, by which the Earl of Athole and all who submitted to the English king were to be pardoned for their rebellion, and the ancient laws and usages of Scotland as in the days of Alexander III restored. Athole, who was named lieutenant of Scotland, now espoused the side of Baliol, but was soon after surprised and slain by the Earl of March, William Douglas of Liddesdale, and Sir Andrew Murray, in the forest of Kilblain. Baliol succeeded in detaching John, the lord of the Isles, from the national cause by ceding to him Cantire and Knapdale in Argyle, and several of the principal Hebrides, along with the wardship of the young heir of Athole, on 12 Dec. 1335. A loan of 300 marks by Edward on 16 Oct. 1335 and a daily pension of 5 marks during pleasure, granted on 27 Jan. 1336, indicated the poverty and dependence of Baliol. The command of the English troops was given not to Baliol but to the Earl of Lancaster. In August Edward himself suddenly returned to Perth, which was the chief fortress held by Baliol, and overran the north-east of Scotland. After establishing a weak line of forts from Dunottar to Stirling and reinforcing the garrison of Perth, he returned to England, leaving his brother, the Earl of Cornwall, in command. Sir Andrew Murray