Edward Balliol - Life

Life

He was the eldest son of John Balliol, erstwhile King of the Scots, and Isabella de Warenne, daughter of John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey and Alice de Lusignan. Alice was daughter of Hugh X de Lusignan and Isabella of Angoulême, widow of John, King of England.

The death of King Robert I weakened Scotland considerably, since his son and successor David II was still a child and the two most able lieutenants, the Black Douglas and Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray, both died shortly afterwards.

Taking advantage of this, Edward Balliol, backed by Edward III of England, defeated the Regent, the Earl of Mar, at the Battle of Dupplin Moor in Perthshire. He was crowned at Scone in September 1332, but three months later he was forced to flee half-naked back to England, following a surprise attack by nobles loyal to David II at the Battle of Annan.

On his retreat from Scotland, Balliol sought refuge with the Clifford family, land owners in Westmorland, and stayed in their castles at Appleby, Brougham, Brough, and Pendragon.

He was restored by the English in 1333, following the Battle of Halidon Hill. Balliol then ceded the whole of the district formerly known as Lothian to Edward and paid homage to him as liege lord. With no serious support in Scotland, he was deposed again in 1334, and restored again in 1335, and finally deposed in 1336 by those loyal to David II. All realistic hopes of Edward's restoration were lost when David II returned from France in June 1341.

He returned to Scotland after the defeat of David II at Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346, raising an insurrection in Galloway, and speedily penetrated to the central parts of the kingdom. However, he gained no permanent footing.

On 20 January 1356, Balliol surrendered his claim to the Scottish throne to Edward III in exchange for an English pension. He spent the rest of his life living in obscurity. He died in 1367, at Wheatley, Doncaster, Yorkshire, England. The location of his grave is unknown.

Read more about this topic:  Edward Balliol

Famous quotes containing the word life:

    When I think of this life I have led; the desolation of solitude it has been; the masoned, walled-town of a Captain’s exclusiveness, which admits but small entrance to any sympathy from the green country without—oh, weariness! heaviness! Guinea-coast slavery of solitary command!
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)

    The girl must early be impressed with the idea that she is to be “a hand, not a mouth”; a worker, and not a drone, in the great hive of human activity. Like the boy, she must be taught to look forward to a life of self-dependence, and early prepare herself for some trade or profession.
    Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)

    I do not mean to imply that the good old days were perfect. But the institutions and structure—the web—of society needed reform, not demolition. To have cut the institutional and community strands without replacing them with new ones proved to be a form of abuse to one generation and to the next. For so many Americans, the tragedy was not in dreaming that life could be better; the tragedy was that the dreaming ended.
    Richard Louv (20th century)