JOHN BALLIOL DOES HOMAGE TO EDWARD FOR HIS KINGDOM OF SCOTLAND (1292).
Source.—Nicholas Trivet's Annals, pp. 324-325. (English Historical Society Publications.)
The King of England, after the Feast of S. John the Baptist, came to Scotland, and having listened to the pleas in support of their right of those who claimed the Scottish throne, caused forty persons to be elected, twenty from England and twenty from Scotland, to examine those pleas with diligent care, the final decision being postponed to the following Michaelmas. When the aforesaid date arrived, after careful discussion, Edward, with the consent of all, adjudged the kingdom without reservation to John Balliol, who was descended from the eldest daughter of David, King of the Scots. Robert Bruce, between whom and the aforesaid John decision lay, after the claims of the others had been dismissed, although one degree nearer in descent, yet was descended from the second daughter of David. John, on the Feast of S. Andrew the Apostle following, was crowned, seated on the royal stone in the Church of Canons Regular at Scone. After the coronation, coming to the King of England, who was keeping the Festival of the Nativity of our Lord at Newcastle-on-Tyne, he did homage in these words: "My lord, lord Edward, King of England, I, John Balliol, King of Scotland, acknowledge myself your liege vassal for the whole kingdom of Scotland, with its appurtenances and all belonging to it, which kingdom I hold and claim by right to hold hereditarily, from you and your heirs, Kings of England, as regards life and limb and earthly honour, against all men who live and die." And the King received homage in the aforesaid form, saving his own or another's right. And when King John had done homage, the King of England restored to him without delay the kingdom of Scotland in full with all its appurtenances.