But it was the rapid extinction of that monarch’s family which brought matters to a crisis. Margaret had had two sons and one daughter, Margaret. Both the sons had died young, and the daughter had married Eric, King of Norway, with the promise that she was to retain her rights to the Scotch succession. In accordance with this, when she died in her first confinement, her little child of the same name, spoken of as the Maid of Norway, was, in 1284, declared heiress of the throne. In 1286 King Alexander died. He had married again, but had no children; the crown would therefore have naturally come to the Maid of Norway. During her absence, a regency, consisting of the Bishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow, the Lords Fife, Buchan, and Comyn, and others, was appointed. But already other claimants had come forward, and their respective parties had begun a civil war. To Edward it seemed the opportunity had arrived of establishing his rights without violence. A marriage between his son and the Maid of Norway at once occurred to him. For this he had secretly cleared the way by obtaining from the Pope a dispensation to enable these cousins to marry. Armed with this, but acting ostensibly in the Norwegian interest, he contrived to bring about a meeting at Salisbury between commissioners on the part of Eric, of the Scotch government, and of himself, at which it was agreed that the young Queen should be received in Scotland free of matrimonial engagements, but pledged not to marry except by the advice of Edward and with the consent of her father. Almost immediately after this, the plan of the marriage was made public, and was at once willingly accepted by the Scotch, who were anxious to be saved from a civil war, but who, while accepting it, took care, at a parliament held at Brigham in 1290, to guard with scrupulous care the independence of the kingdom. [Sidenote: Invitation to Edward to settle the succession.] [Sidenote: Death of the Maid.] [Sidenote: Death of the Queen.] [Sidenote: Meeting at Norham. 1291.]