the Marshal,[1] was still to hold good, Robert Bruce, lord of Skelton in Yorkshire, and of Annandale in the northern kingdom, was the nearest in blood to David of Huntingdon as the son of his second daughter.  Beyond this there was the further question of the divisibility of the kingdom.  So fully was southern Scotland feudalised that it seemed arguable that the monarchy, or at least its demesne lands, might be divided among all the representatives of the coheiresses, after the fashion in which the Huntingdon estates had been allotted to all the representatives of Earl David.  In that case John of Hastings, lord of Abergavenny, put in a claim as the grandson of Earl David’s youngest daughter.

    [1] Hist. de Guillaume le Marechal, ii., 64, II. 11899-902.

        Oil, sire, quer c’est raison
        Quer plus pres est sanz achaison
        Le filz de la terre son pere
        Que le nies:  dreiz est qu’il i pere.

When so much was uncertain, every noble who boasted any connexion with the royal house safeguarded his interests, or advertised his pedigree, by enrolling himself among the claimants.  Five or six of the competitors had no better ground of right than descent from bastards of the royal house, especially from the numerous illegitimate offspring of William the Lion.  The others went back to more remote ancestors.  A foreign prince, Florence, Count of Holland, demanded the succession as a descendant of a sister of Earl David, declaring that David had forfeited his rights by rebellion.  John Comyn, lord of Badenoch, brought forward his descent from Donaldbane, brother of Malcolm Canmore.  One claim reads like a fairy tale, with stories of an unknown king dying, leaving a son to be murdered by a wicked uncle, and a daughter to escape to obscurity in Ireland, where she married and transmitted her rights to her children.  There was no authority in Scotland strong enough to decide these claims.  Once more Robert Bruce raised the standard of disorder, and the appeal of Bishop Fraser to Edward to undertake the settlement of the question showed that the English king’s mediation was the readiest way of restoring order.

In 1291 Edward summoned the magnates of both realms, along with certain popular representatives, to meet at Norham, Bishop Bek’s border castle on the Tweed.  Trained civilians and canonists also attended, while abbeys and churches contributed extracts from chronicles, carefully compiled by royal order, with a view of illustrating the king’s claims.  On May 10 Edward met the assembly in Norham parish church.  Roger Brabazon, the chief justice, declared in the French tongue that Edward was prepared to do justice to the claimants as “superior and direct lord of Scotland”.  Before, however, he could act, his master required that his overlordship should be recognised by the Scots.  It is likely that this demand was not unexpected.  Even in the treaty of Brigham Edward had been careful not