Wars of Independence

In 1286 King Alexander the Third fell to his death from the
cliffs at Kinghorn in Fife leaving only his grandaughter the
Maid of Norway as heir to the scots throne. In 1290 on her way to
Scotland the infant princess died, leaving Scotland with no apparent heir.

Of those with claims to the throne two people had the strongest
claims, Robert the Bruce 5th Lord of Annandale and John Baliol, and
with civil war seemingly inevitable, Edward the first of England
offered to act asmediator in order to preserve the peace. As
Scotland and England wereon excellent terms at this time the
claimants to the throne agreed.

For his own purposes Edward chose John Baliol as the King of
Scotland and afterwards declared himself to be Lord Paramount
of Scotland. There then followed four years of domination by Edward
whoforced his will on a weak King John, forcing him to travel to
london to give account of his stewardship and treated him like a common criminal.

In 1296 even Baliol could take no more and took to arms against Edward.
He also entered into treaty with France which was at war with England.
Edward marched north with his armies and defeated the Scots army at
the Battle of Dunbar and toppled the puppet King John. Declaring
Scotland to be now a province of England, he set about grinding the
country into the dust so that the idea of an independant
Scotland was a faint hope.

But not all in Scotland accepted Edward as King and so began the
Scottish Wars of Independance which were to last for 18 years.
During this period two men were responsible for regaining Scotland's
freedom, they were William Wallace of Elderslie and Robert the Bruce,
Earl of Carrick and 7th Lord of Annandale.

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