Official Clan MacTavish Society

                                    since 1997

known as the "Maid of Norway", the daughter of King Eric of Norway and Alexander's own daughter Margaret. Alexander's untimely death couldn't have come at a worse time for Scotland. It marked the end of a period of peace and prosperity during which country's borders, always a shifting affair, had been defined and the differing tribal "stew" of groups in the Lowlands of Celt, Saxon, and Norman had to some extent, finally grown into one recognisable nation.

The Highlands and the Isles continued to be a land of Celtic and Norse people, but the Lowlands from where the Scots king ruled, was a veritable mix of ethnic groups and Gaelic was beginning to become a secondary language to English and, in places, Norman French or Latin still prevailed.

Edward Becomes Involved in the Political Situation

Edward cleverly sought to arrange a hasty marriage of his son, the Prince of Wales, and the little Margaret, "Maid of Norway". In what can only be said to be, at best, bad judgement on the part of the Scots nobles, agreement to the marriage of young Margaret and Edward of Caernarvon was signed into treaty, called the treaty of Birgham.

However, fate again dealt a cruel blow to Scotland as little Margaret took ill on her voyage to England from Norway and died of fever in the Orkney Isles. Now the throne to Scotland and her future laid in the hands of 13 claimants for the empty throne.

At the request of Scottish, Norman blooded, Bishop Fraser a letter was urgently sent to Edward asking him to arbitrate the increasingly volatile Scottish situation. Anxious to utilise this new opportunity to unite the whole Island of Britain, Edward readily agreed to arbitrate and hoped to bring all of Scotland under his sovereign control.

Acknowledging his feudal and military superiority, the Scots regents allowed Edward to decide who should rule Scotland. The front runners were John Balliol and Robert Bruce 'the Competitor' - Robert the Bruce's grandfather. Both these lords were descendants of knights of William the Conqueror. For, by this time, Scotland, especially the Lowlands, was dominated by Anglo-Norman landownders ruling estates throughout the realm. Also in consideration was Sir "Red" John Comyn.

John Balliol ran vast estates in France; Robert the Bruce the Younger (The Bruce - his father was known as Robert Bruce 'the Elder'), earl of Carrick, owned land in Essex. This conquest of Celtic Scotland had been achieved through court politics, (notably the Canmores and David I), intermarriage, and peaceful settlement. In the North, there were still many Scots landownders and clansmen who were of direct Celtic or Celtic/Norse descent, but increasingly the politics of the day was being handled by warlords of Norman or partial Norman blood. Some state that the ensuing Anglo-Scots war was therefore more a power struggle between Anglo-Norman dynasties and not an international war of Scot versus English or Celts versus Normans, as was more true in Wales and Ireland. However, this author sees it as a combination of both. Clearly in the Lowlands, this was true, but the Highlands of Scotland, not to mention the fiercely independent Isles, the Celtic and Celtic/Norse people were not ruled by Normans. So the confrontations to come were truthfully a mixture: a clash of Norman dynasties and a Celtic and English war, for the independence of Scotland. That said, the common people of all Scotland and many of the lower aristocracy, the clansmen, were Celtic and still spoke Gaelic. It was these people, rallying to the cause of their Scots Norman masters, who may have