Alexander de Baliol
Encyclopedia
Alexander de Baliol was lord of Cavers
Cavers (parish)
Cavers is a parish in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, in the former South Roxburghshire, south-west of HawickThe name means "enclosure".Currently, the Church of Scotland Parish comprises Cavers and Kirkton linked with Hawick....

 and Chamberlain of Scotland
Chamberlain of Scotland
Holders of the office of Lord Chamberlain of Scotland are known from about 1124.It was ranked by King Malcolm as the third great Officer of State, called Camerarius Domini Regis, and had a salary of £200 per annum alloted to him...

.

Life

Alexander was a member of the Baliol family
House of Balliol
The House of Balliol was a Picard and Anglo-Norman family who began to rule some estates in England in the reign of William Rufus. In the late 13th and 14th centuries, two members of the house were kings of Scotland....

, about whose pedigree confusion exists. Alexander de Baliol the Scottish chamberlain appears as Dominus de Cavers in the Scottish records in 1270. Seven years later he was commissioned, as lord of Cavers, to serve in Edward's Welsh wars. In 1284, under the same designation of Dominus de Cavers, he was one of the Scottish barons who bound themselves to receive Margaret, the Maid of Norway, as queen in the event of failure of male issue of Alexander III
Alexander III of Scotland
Alexander III was King of Scots from 1249 to his death.-Life:...

. In the same year he received a summons to attend Edward's army, so that he must still have retained English fiefs.

In 1287 he is for the first time mentioned in a writ by the guardians of Scotland
Guardian of Scotland
The Guardians of Scotland were the de facto heads of state of Scotland during the First Interregnum of 1290–1292, and the Second Interregnum of 1296–1306...

 as chamberlain of Scotland, an office in which he succeeded John Lindsay, Bishop of Glasgow. Two years later he took part in the negotiations which resulted in the Treaty of Salisbury
Treaty of Birgham
The Treaty of Birgham, also referred to as the Treaty of Salisbury, comprised two treaties intended to secure the independence of Scotland after Alexander III died without issue in 1286....

, 6 November 1289, confirmed by the parliament at Brigham, 12 March 1290, by which Edward the Prince of Wales
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...

 was to marry Margaret and Edward I solemnly recognised the independence of Scotland. Her death prevented the marriage, and Edward soon forgot or ignored his engagements.

On 5 June 1291 Baliol and his wife Isabella de Chilham, widow of David de Strathbogie
David I Strathbogie, Earl of Atholl
David I Strathbogie was the first of the Strathbogie Earls of Atholl.David was the son of John de Strathbogie and Ada, suo jure Countess of Atholl....

, Earl of Atholl
Earl of Atholl
The Mormaer of Earl of Atholl refers to a medieval comital lordship straddling the highland province of Atholl , now in northern Perthshire. Atholl is a special Mormaerdom, because a King of Atholl is reported from the Pictish period. The only other two Pictish kingdoms to be known from...

, received a letter of attorney and safe conduct from Edward permitting them to remain for a year in Scotland. He still continued to hold the office of chamberlain after the seisin
Seisin
Seisin is the term denoting the legal possession of a feudal fiefdom . It was used in the form of "the son and heir of X has obtained seisin of his inheritance", and thus is effectively a term concerned with conveyancing in the feudal era...

 of Scotland had been given to Edward I, as the condition of his determining the suit as to the succession of the crown of Scotland; but in the beginning of 1292 Robert Heron, rector of Ford, was associated with Baliol in this office. On 30 December 1292 certain of the records of Scotland which had been in the hands of Edward were redelivered to Alexander Baliol as chamberlain of Scotland.

Baliol is last mentioned as chamberlain on 16 May 1294; disputes between Edward and John Baliol may have led to his deprivation by the English king after, or perhaps even before, the campaign of 1296, when Edward forced John Baliol to resign the crown and carried him captive to England. In 1297 John de Sandale, an English baron, appears as chamberlain of Scotland.

From entries in the accounts of the expenses of John Baliol when a prisoner in England with reference to a horse of Alexander de Baliol, it would seem that he shared the captivity of his kinsman. On 13 January 1297 Edward made a presentation to the church of Cavers, upon the ground that the lands of Alexander de Baliol were in his hands. A few scanty notices between 1298 and 1301 indicate that he took part on the English side in the war with Scotland
First War of Scottish Independence
The First War of Scottish Independence lasted from the invasion by England in 1296 until the de jure restoration of Scottish independence with the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328...

; and from one of these we learn that he had manors in Kent, the wood of which he received the king's license to sell.

Alexander Baliol was amongst the barons present at the siege of Caerlaverock in 1300. In 1303 he seems to have shown signs of again falling off from the English side, since his chattels in Kent, Hertfordshire, and Roxburghshire
Roxburghshire
Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh is a registration county of Scotland. It borders Dumfries to the west, Selkirk to the north-west, and Berwick to the north. To the south-east it borders Cumbria and Northumberland in England.It was named after the Royal Burgh of Roxburgh...

 were in that year seized by John de Bretagne
John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond
John of Brittany or Jean de Bretagne 3rd Earl of Richmond, was an English nobleman of Breton origin. He entered royal service under Edward I, and fought in the Scottish Wars. On 15 October 1306 he received his father's title of Earl of Richmond...

, Earl of Richmond
Earl of Richmond
The now-extinct title of Earl of Richmond was created many times in the Peerage of England. The earldom of Richmond was held by various Bretons, Normans, the royal families of Plantagenet, Capet, Savoy, Tudor and Stuart.-History:...

, in the Scottish campaign. His estates in Kent, of which the chief was the castle and manor of Chilham
Chilham
Chilham is a parish in the English county of Kent. Visited by tourists worldwide, it is known for its beauty. Chilham has been a location for a number of films and television dramas...

, were held by him in right of his wife Isabella de Chilham, by whom he left a son of his own name.

The date of his death is unknown, but as he was summoned to all the parliaments of Edward I between 1300 and 1307, and is not mentioned as summoned to any of Edward II, he probably died soon after the accession.
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