Overbearing lords

 

In February 1293 John Balliol, King of Scots, appointed two new sheriffs in north-west Scotland. These were William earl of Ross, sheriff of Skye, and Alexander Argyll, sheriff of Lorn.

Ross and Argyll had supported Balliol's claim to the kingship, so he was sensibly trying to appoint loyal men to important posts in Scotland. However, the policy ran aground when Argyll clashed with another leading Isleman, Angus Mor.

To undercut his rival, Angus refused to swear homage to Balliol as King of Scots and took his complaint to Balliol's overlord, Edward I. He died shortly after, but his son Alexander also refused to acknowledge Balliol and complained to Edward. In response Balliol confiscated his land, but the case was still ongoing when war broke out with England in 1296.

The Argyll/Mor affair exposed Balliol's weakness as King of Scots. Because he had sworn homage to Edward as superior lord, his subjects had somewhere else to go if they didn't like Balliol's justice. In other words, they could bypass the justice of his court and appeal to Westminster.

Argylle was not the only Scot to do this. Bishop Wishart of Glasgow and MacDuff of Fife also appealed to Edward over Balliol's head, while the Bruces openly defied him. Whatever his character flaws, it is difficult to see how Balliol could have succeeded.

Interestingly, Edward had the exact same problem in his role as Duke of Aquitaine (also called Gascony or Guyenne) in south-west France. After the Treaty of Paris in 1259, he and his heirs were vassals of the Capetian kings of France. His Gascon subjects reacted in the same way as the Scottish appellants, bypassing the ducal court and submitting appeals to Paris.

The result was an impossible situation, in which neither Gascony or Scotland could be governed effectively. It didn't help that both Edward and his cousin, Philip the Fair of France, were typically overbearing overlords who sought to exploit every advantage.

(Incidentally, I don't know if the attached map of Scotland is particularly accurate, I just like it).