Nicholas thereafter can be found exercising a senior role in Scottish affairs, and by early 1301 he was Chancellor of Scotland.

[1] It is probable that he adopted de Sancto Andrea when he finished training at St Andrews and went elsewhere, and that he dropped it in 1295 when he moved back.

[4] On 6 November 1292, he acted as a substitute auditor on behalf of John de Balliol at Berwick in the Great Cause.

[8] He is found witnessing a charter at Newbattle Abbey on 20 November 1293, as Archdeacon William Frere's Official, and on 20 December is mentioned by Frere as a commissary of the Official of the diocese of St Andrews appointed to adjudicate on 4 January 1294, a case involving Kelso Abbey.

[9] In the following year, William Fraser, the Bishop of St Andrews, died, and it was Nicholas who was chosen to be Official of the diocese and to administer it during the vacancy.

[2] His accession as Chancellor by 1301 corresponded with a renewed emphasis on the authority of King John in government documents.

[2] Becoming Chancellor by 1301, in the words of Geoffrey Barrow, meant that he became "one of the handful of key men who directed the national struggle".

[19] It was Geoffrey Barrow's belief, supported by Donald Watt, that their decision was the result of pressure from the new Scottish king, Robert de Brus, who may have valued Balmyle's experience and trusted his political record.

[20] The usual secular patron of the diocese was the Mormaer of Strathearn, but the incumbent Maol Íosa III was at that stage a prisoner-exile at Rochester in England, thus allowing Robert to take his place.

[16] On 6 October 1312, he came to an agreement with Bernard, Abbot of Arbroath, which resolved Nicholas' complaints concerning the non-payment of his pension as well as more official disputes between the bishopric of Dunblane and the abbey.

[16] On 27 March 1318 he was named as papal mandatory to oversee the provision of the Italian Robert Barducii of Florence to the deanery of Glasgow Cathedral.

The see of Dunblane is first known to have been vacant on 30 January 1320 and Bishop Nicholas' last appearance in the records was witnessing a charter of Coupar Angus Abbey at Arbroath on 8 February 1319: his death therefore fell between these two points.