John, King of Scots, better known as John Balliol (his Dad founded Balliol College, Oxford) became King of Scotland on this day in 1292.
It wasn’t actually a very pleasant job and he didn’t have a great deal of autonomy - he was known as Toom Tabard or empty vessel. He took over the post from Margaret, Maid of Norway. She had taken on the role at the tender age of 3, being the only legitimate heir to King Alexander III. Yolande, Alexander’s wife, did try to fake a pregnancy in order to ensnare the throne for her own offspring but she was unconvincing and Margaret, daughter of Eric II of Norway and Alexander’s daughter who was also called Margaret, was groomed for Queendom. She stayed in Norway for the first 4 years of her rule, and a series of politicians did the job of actually running the country. Then, worried that such a young Queen would cause civil war between the rivals to the throne, England’s Edward I had her married off at the tender age of 7 to his son, the Prince of Wales (later to become Edward II of red hot pokers fame). The prince was to act as warder to the Queen rather than as a husband (phew!) but, on her way from Norway to Scotland to start being Queenly, she became ill on the stormy voyage and died soon after disembarking at Orkney. Her body was taken back to Bergen and the corpse laid next to her mother. She was the last of the House of Dunkeld.
With Margaret’s life cut short, Scotland was left with 13 claimants to the throne. Edward I appointed John Balliol, who he basically ignored and Ed did the real ruling. When John rebelled and set up an alliance between Scotland, France and Norway, Edward responded by brutally invading Scotland and crushing the rebellion. John was taken to the Tower of London and then exiled to France. This sparked the Scottish War of Independence, with the Scots uprising under William Wallace (this is the bit that’s in Braveheart). They claimed to be acting on behalf of the exiled King, but John, snug in the family estate at Picardy, refused to get involved. So, Scotland was left without a monarch until Robert the Bruce took the throne in 1306. Robert the Bruce was hugely successful and bashed the English hard before invading Ireland and forming a pan-Gaelic alliance.
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