Haco, king of Norway, threatened Scotland with an invasion; to prevent which, the king of England inter posed his offices. In the succeeding year, the Nor wegians landed at Largo in Cunningham. The Scots attacked them. Their fleet was dispersed and shatter ed by a storm, and llaco having returned to Orkney, died. Magnus, the successor of Haco, consented to relinquish the Western islands with all his rights and claims, in consideration of four thousand merks, and a yearly tribute of one hundred. The Scandinavian in habitants were allowed to leave the island, with their effects. The Orkney and Shetland remained to Nor way. From this period, Alexander was employed for several years in maintaining the independence of the Scottish church against the pretensions of the Pope, and in restraining the encroachments of the clergy.
Events followed in rapid succession, which ultimate ly involved the nation in a civil war. Within one year, Alexander the prince of Scotland, and his sister Mar garet, who had been married to Eric, king of Norway, died. The prince had no issue. Margaret left an only daughter Margaret, commonly called the maiden of Norway.
Alexander assembled a parliament, in order to settle the succession to the crown. The nobles solemnly bound themselves to acknowledge Margaret of Nor wgy as their sovereign, and Alexander married Joleta, daughter of the Count de Dreux. Scarcely had the nuptial festivities ceased, when the king was thrown from his horse over a precipice, and instantly killed, in the forty-fifth year of his age, and the thirty-seventh of his reign.
Margaret. --In consequence of the absence and in fancy of the maiden of Norway, the parliament ap pointed a regency of six; the bishop of St. Andrews, with the earls of Fife and Buchan, were elected for the administration of the counties north of the Forth; while the bishop of Glasgow, John Comyn, lord of Badenoch, and James the steward of Scotland, were intrusted with the government of the districts south of that boundary. The earl of Fife was murdered; his colleague, the earl of Buchan, died; dissensions im mediately arose among the remaining four, but Eric, king of Norway, interposed, and sent plenipotentiaries to treat with Edward concerning the affairs of the in fant queen and her kingdom.
That monarch had already formed the project of marrying his son to the young princess, but the king of Norway hesitated to yield up his only child. Mean
while Edward busied himself to obtain possession of the Scottish fortresses, and while the guardians of the kingdom were preparing to receive their sovereign, the prospect of an alliance between the two nations was overthrown. The young queen sailed from Nor way, landed in Orkney, and died.
The progeny of Alexander was now extinct; the re gency was superseded; and the tic that united England and Scotland was broken. The nation had looked to the descendants of Alexander. The families who were connected with royalty, secretly prepared to assert their several rights; the nobles formed into factions; and the nation anticipated a civil war.
Rai posterity of William the Lion having become extinct by the death of the princess Margaret, the right of succession reverted to David, earl of Huntingdon, and to the posterity of his daugh ters, Margaret, Isabella, and Adama. Margaret left one daughter, married to John Baliol, by whom she had a son of the same name; Isabella, the second sister, had a son, Robert Bruce; Adama was the mother of John Hastings.
There appeared no fewer than thirteen competitors for the crown; but, of these, ten renounced their pre tensions. The competition was therefore limited to Baliol, Bruce, and Hastings. Baliol was sprung from the eldest branch; Bruce was one degree nearer the common stock; Hastings alleged that the kingdom of Scotland, like many other inheritances, was divisible, and that he had a title to a third. Baliol and Bruce united against Hastings in maintaining that the king dom was indivisible.
On the news of the queen's death, Bruce appeared at Perth with a formidable retinue. Baliol resided in England at this critical period, and Edward was cho sen umpire. One hundred and four commissioners were named, whom he commanded to examine the cause deliberately, and make their report; promising that, by the ensuing spring, he would make known his determination.
Edward's conduct, however, became suddenly very suspicious. He required that all the fortresses in Scot land should be delivered into his hands; that he might present the kingdom to the claimant whose right should be recognised. This exorbitant demand was granted. The earl of Angus alone refused to surren der the castles in his custody, without a formal and particular acquittal from parliament, which he ob tained.