John Balliol
DIANE MACLEAN

WHEN the last member of the House of Canmore, the Maid of Norway, died on her way to Scotland, the issue of succession was unclear. Six so-called Guardians, representatives of the political community, were elected by a "parliament" at Scone to resolve the dilemma.

Balliol was declared king after the end of the reign of the House of Canmore, having vied for the crown with Robert the Bruce.

After his reign ended, unrest simmered, culminating in the rise of William Wallace.
Of the 13 contenders for the Scottish crown the two strongest were Robert the Bruce (the elder) and John Balliol. Bruce was the son of the second daughter of Earl Henry, the son of David I; Balliol the grandson of the Earl of Henry’s eldest daughter. The issue was far from simple, as both had legitimate and strong claims to the throne.

Unable to make a decision, the Guardians turned to Edward I of England for advice in deciding the succession. The proceedings began inauspiciously with Edward asserting that he acted as overlord of Scotland.

To decide the issue there were 40 arbiters for Bruce, 40 for Balliol and 24 of Edward’s own council. Eventually John Balliol was declared King – not only because of the input of Edward, but because 29 of Bruce’s own arbiters voted against him.

Balliol was crowned at Scone, Perthshire, on St Andrew’s Day, 30 November 1292, the last Scottish king to use the Stone of Destiny as his coronation seat. His price for the crown was high and a few months into his reign King John travelled to Newcastle, in north England, to pay homage to his liege lord Edward I.

King John tried to assert his independence over the coming months, holding a number of parliaments and attempting to manage Scotland’s own affairs. He was continually thwarted, chastened and humiliated by Edward, who treated Balliol as his vassal. By 1293 Edward was at war with France and needed help. He summoned ten earls and 16 barons to come to his aid. There had never been such a demand on such a scale for participation in an overseas war before, and the Scottish nobles balked at the request.

It proved too much, and the King and his Scottish nobles took action. Balliol signed a treaty with Philip IV of France – the first formal recognition of the Franco-Scots auld alliance. This fixed the future marriage between King John’s son and the niece of Philip. It also guaranteed military assistance if either country were threatened by England.

Rather than send troops to Edward to aid the French war, Scotland instead invaded England, in effect starting the Wars of Scottish Independence.

The Scots initially took Stirling and began a siege of Carlisle further south. Edward retaliated by sacking Berwick and slaughtering most of the male inhabitants. Edward then took Edinburgh, Stirling and Roxburgh. After just 17 days the superior strength of the English army and the relative inexperience of the Scots meant that the war of 1296 was effectively over. On 10 July, John surrendered himself and the country to Edward. He was stripped of his kingly regalia and Edward seized the Stone of Destiny and the relics of St Andrew. He then marched north, travelling extensively in Scotland receiving oaths of fealty from his Scottish subjects, which were entered in the Ragman Rolls.

Tower of London, where John Balliol was imprisoned for three years. Picture: PA
King John was imprisoned in the Tower of London and Scotland became a virtual colony.

For ten years various Guardians were appointed to rule Scotland, all of whom did so in the name of king John. Internal unrest simmered and flared periodically, culminating in the rise of William Wallace. Diplomatic pressure was put on England by the Scots, who petitioned France and the Pope to take action against Edward. In 1299, Pope Boniface VIII demanded that King John be released into his custody. Two months later Balliol was banished overseas where he lived out the rest of his life in his French family estates in Picardy.

He died in 1313 never having returned to his country.

This article: http://heritage.scotsman.com/timelines.cfm?cid=1&id=40882005

I'm quite widely read on this topic and have never heard this before. In fact I have never heard of it seeming to be a vote. Edward acted not as a judge in this matter, but as an arbiter, a subtle difference but one which still allowed him to hear the evidence and make the decision.
The 'arbiters' for Bruce and Bailliol were actually auditors to ensure fair play and organise the evidence. In the end the judgement came down to a point of law, although it had been a long and complex process due to the political maneouvering of Robert Bruce 'the Competitor', grandfather to the Robert Bruce who became king.
Who had the senior claim? In fact the judgement in Bailliols favour was fair based on the laws of primogeniture, which had been in use in Scotland since the days of Malcolm Canmore. Bruce's last minute submissions of new evidence and changes in argument showed that. He argued that the older laws of Tanistry should decide once he realised that his argument of having one less ancestor in the line between himself and David 1 had failed.
Bruce's argument was that traditionally the Ard Righ or high king was elected by majority vote amongst the seven original Earls, a vote Bruce would have won. If the format had been by vote amongst the auditors, Bruce would have won the argument that only the Earls should vote, and become king.
All the ideas of Edward electing a puppet come from propaganda of Bruce's reign, when all attempts were made to discredit Bailliol, whose son still coveted the crown and came back after Robert 1s reign to try and win it....with English aid.
Balliol was weak, but only in comparison to Edward, but he did assert himself and stand up to him, this is why Edward invaded and the Scots defeated at the Battle of Dunbar in 1296, kicking off the Wars of Independance. Nevertheless, the Bruce faction would probably been stronger initially, but the result would probably have been the same. Edward had set the scene by having all the competitors swear allegiance to him as overlord before the Great Cause was heard. He was always going to test the new king, whoever it was and assert his position, and subject Scotland and its King to Vassalage.