Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/69

This page has been validated.
Baliol
63
Baliol

circumstance which no doubt contributed to the obscurity of its records and the extinction of its name. The founder of the house in England was the Norman baron Guido or Guy de Baliol, whose French fiefs of Bailleul, in the department of L'Orne, two leagues from Argenton, Dampierre, Harcourt, and Vinoy, in Normandy, were long retained by his descendants, and afforded a refuge when their English inheritance was forfeited along with the Scottish crown, which John wore so short a time and Edward failed to recover. Guy is said, in a manuscript on which Surtees, the historian of Durham, relies, to have come 'to England with the Conqueror, and to him gave William Rufus the barony of Bywell in Northumberland, and the forests of Teesdale and Charwood, with the lordship of Middleton in Teesdale and Gainsford, with all their royalties, franchises, and immunities' (Bowes MS., Surtees Durham, iv. 50) Bernard or Barnard Baliol is stated by the same manuscript to have built 'the fortress which he called Castle Barnard, and created burgesses and endowed them with the like franchises and liberties as those of Richmond,' a statement corroborated by the ancient and noble ruin which still overhangs the Tees, with 'its uttermost walls of lime and brick' and 'innermost cut in rocks of stone,' as the ballad runs, and by the charter of his son, a second Bernard, which confirms his father's grant to the burgesses (Surtees, iv. 71). In 1135 the first Bernard did homage, along with David I of Scotland, to the Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I, but prior to the battle of the Standard, 1138, he renounced his homage and joined the party of Stephen. Along with Robert de Bruce, Lord of Annandale, a common interest then uniting the ancestors of the future rivals, he was sent before the battle by the northern barons to make terms with David I, but without success. Continuing to support Stephen, Bernard de Baliol was taken prisoner with him at Lincoln on 2 Feb. 1141. The charter of the second Bernard, still preserved, is unfortunately without date, and there is no charter-evidence to fix his father's death, but a fine exacted in 14 Henry II (1167), for neglecting to certify the number of his knights' fees, is assumed with probability by Surtees to refer to the time of his succession, and to make the fact which history records of the capture of William the Lion at Alnwick in 1174 by a Bernard de Baliol along with other northern barons applicable to the second and not the first bearer of the name.

[Dugdale's Baronage, corrected by Surtees' Durham, iv. 51.]

Æ. M.

BALIOL, BERNARD de, the younger (fl. 1167). Dugdale does not recognise a second Bernard, but for the reasons stated in the last article, the opinion of Surtees appears preferable, though it must be admitted that his existence rests on the evidence of one charter and the improbability of a single life having covered the period from 1135, when the first Bernard must have at least attained majority, to nearly the close of the century. This Bernard joined Robert de Stuteville, Odonel de Umfraville, Ranulf de Glanville, and other northern barons, who raised the siege of Alnwick and took William the Lion prisoner in 1174. Our only further information about him consists of grants to various abbeys, one of which, to Rievaulx, was 'for the good of his own soul and that of his consort Agnes de Pinkney,' and the confirmation of the privileges granted by his father to the burgesses of Barnard Castle. He was succeeded by his son Eustace, whose existence is only known from charters of which the earliest, dated in 1190, is a license to marry the widow of Robert Fitzpiers for a fine of 100 marks. He was succeeded about 1215 by his son Hugh, the father of John de Baliol I, whose son was John de Baliol II, king of Scotland.

[Dugdale's Baronage and Monasticon Anglicanum; Surtees' Durham, iv. 51-2.]

Æ. M.

BALIOL, EDWARD de (d. 1363), king of Scotland, the eldest son of John de Baliol, king of Scotland, and Isabel, daughter of John de Warenne, earl of Surrey, on his father's death in 1314 succeeded to his French fiefs, on which he lived till 1324, when he was invited by Edward II to England, which he again visited in 1327, with the view of being brought forward as a pretender to the Scottish crown. A more favourable opportunity presented itself after the death of Robert Bruce in 1329. Baliol was again summoned to England 20 July 1330, with permission to remain as long and return as often as he pleased in order that preparations might be made for the invasion of Scotland. Placing himself at the head of the disinherited barons whose lands had been forfeited by Bruce for their adherence to England, of whom the chief were Henry de Beaumont, Gilbert de Umfraville, and Thomas, Lord Wake of Liddell, and a small force of 400 men-at-arms and 3,000 foot, Baliol sailed from Ravenspur, near the mouth of the Humber, and landed at Kinghorn, in Fife, on 6 Aug. 1332. The death of Randolph, the valiant regent who found a feeble successor in Donald, earl of Mar, gave Baliol an advantage he was prompt