Competitors for the Crown of Scotland

In November 1292, the body decided in favour of John Balliol, whose claim was based on the traditional criterion of primogeniture—inheritance through a line of firstborn sons.

The decision was accepted by the majority of the powerful in Scotland, and John ruled as King of Scots from then until 1296, when he was succeeded by Robert de Brus, another claimant.

With the death of King Alexander III in 1286, the crown of Scotland passed to his only surviving descendant, his three-year-old granddaughter Margaret (the Maid of Norway).

In 1290, the Guardians of Scotland, who had been appointed to govern the realm during the young Queen's minority, drew up the Treaty of Birgham, a marriage contract between Margaret and the five-year-old Edward of Caernarfon, heir apparent to the English throne.

One of the strongest claimants, John Balliol, Lord of Galloway, forged an alliance with the powerful Antony Bek, Bishop of Durham, the representative of Edward I in Scotland, and began styling himself 'heir of Scotland',[4] while another, Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale, turned up at the site of Margaret's supposed inauguration with a force of soldiers amidst rumours that his friends the Earl of Mar and the Earl of Atholl were also raising their forces.

[6] Edward seized the occasion as an opportunity to gain something he had long desired—legal recognition that the realm of Scotland was held as a feudal dependency to the throne of England.

Although technically and legally correct by the standards of the time, this reply infuriated Edward so much that he refused to have it entered on the official record of the proceedings.

[6] In the ongoing negotiations between the two countries, the Scots continued to use the Treaty of Birgham as a reference point, indicating that they still wished to see Scotland retain an identity independent from England.

As such, by the normal rules of feudal or customary law the kingdom should be split amongst the direct descendants of the co-heiresses of David I. Unsurprisingly, a court made up of Scots nobles rejected these arguments out of hand.

As for any apparent contradiction between accepting primogeniture and rejecting partition, Edward I was unsympathetic to the argument, having himself drawn up plans for England to be inherited by his eldest daughter, should he die without sons.

[10] Floris V's argument was that during the reign of William the Lion the king's brother David, Earl of Huntingdon had resigned the right of himself and his heirs to the throne in exchange for a grant of land in Aberdeenshire.

Floris claimed that although he did not possess copies of the documents detailing the handover of power, one must exist somewhere in Scotland, and Edward adjourned the court for a full ten months while a search was made through various castle treasuries.

Of special note was the support of John II Comyn, another claimant and head of the most powerful baronial family in Scotland, who was married to Balliol's sister, Eleanor.