BALIOL, the name of a family which played an important part in the history of Scotland. The founder of the family in England was a Norman baron, Guy or Guido de Baliol, who held the fiefs of Bailleul, Dampierre, Harcourt, and Vinoy in Nor mandy. Coming to England with William the Conqueror, he re ceived lands in the north of England from William II., and his son, Bernard, built a fortress in Durham called Castle Barnard. Bernard fought for King Stephen during the civil war, was present at the battle of the Standard (1138) , and was taken prisoner at the battle of Lincoln 0140. The date of his death is uncertain. Dugdale only believes in the existence of one Bernard de Baliol, but it seems more probable that the Bernard de Baliol referred to after 1167 was a son of the elder Bernard, and not the same individual. If so the younger Bernard was one of the northern barons who raised the siege of Alnwick and took William the Lion, king of Scotland, prisoner in 1174. Practically nothing is known of his sons, Eustace and Hugh who succeeded about 1215. Hugh's son and successor, John de Baliol, who married Dervor guila (d. 129o), daughter of Alan, earl of Galloway, was one of the regents of Scotland during the minority of Alexander III., but in 1255 was deprived of this office and his lands forfeited for treason. He then appeared in England fighting for Henry III. against Simon de Montfort, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Lewes in 1264. About 1263 he established several scholarships at Oxford, and after his death in 1269 his widow founded the college which bears the name of the family. He left three sons, two of whom died without issue, and in 1278 his lands came to his son, John de Baliol (q.v.), who was king of Scotland (1292 96) and died in Normandy in 1315. John's eldest son by his marriage with Isabel, daughter of John de Warenne, earl of Surrey, was Edward de Baliol, who shared his father's captivity in England in 1296. He appears to have lived mainly on his lands in Normandy until 1324, when he was invited to England by King Edward II., who hoped to bring him forward as a candidate for the Scottish crown. A favourable opportunity, how ever, did not arise until after the death of King Robert the Bruce in 1329, when Edward III. had succeeded his father on the English throne. Although Edward did not give Baliol any active assistance, the claimant placed himself at the head of some dis inherited Scottish nobles, raised a small army, and sailed from Ravenspur. Landing at Kinghorn in Fifeshire in Aug. 1332, Baliol gained a complete victory over the Scots under Donald, earl of Mar, at Dupplin Moor, took Perth, and on Sept. 24 was crowned king of Scotland at Scone. He then acknowledged Edward III. as his superior, but soon afterwards was defeated at Annan (where his brother, Henry de Baliol, was slain) and compelled to fly to England. Regaining his kingdom after the defeat of the Scots at Halidon Hill in 1333, Baliol surrendered the whole of the district formerly known as Lothian to Edward, and did homage for Scotland to the English king. His party, how ever, was weakened by disunion, and he won no serious support in Scotland. Entirely dependent on Edward, he again sought refuge in England, and took a very slight part in the war waged on his behalf. He returned to Scotland after the defeat of King David II. at Neville's Cross in 1346. After making an absolute surrender of Scotland to Edward III. in 1356 at Roxburgh in return for a pension, Edward de Baliol died at Wheatley near Doncaster in 1367.
A cadet branch of the Baliol family was descended from Ingel ram, or Engelram, a son of the younger Bernard de Baliol. Ingelram's wife was the daughter and heiress of William de Berkeley, lord of Reidcastle in Forfarshire, and chamberlain of Scotland, and by her he had a son Henry, who became chamber lain about 1223. Henry married Lora or Lauretta, a daughter of Philip de Valoines (Valsques), lord of Panmure, and in 1234 inherited part of the rich English fiefs of the Valoines family. He died in 1246. It is probable that Henry's son was Alexander de Baliol, lord of Cavers in Teviotdale, first mentioned, in 1287, as chamberlain of Scotland. He shared in the negotiations be tween the Scottish nobles and Edward I. of England which culmi nated in the treaty of Salisbury in 1289 and the treaty of Brig ham in 1290. Probably deprived of his office as chamberlain about 1296 he may have shared the imprisonment of his kinsman, John de Baliol the king. He then fought in Scotland for Edward, and was summoned to several English parliaments. He died about 1309, and his grandson, Thomas, is the last of the Baliols men tioned in the Scottish records.