beyond the Border; in short, that Scotland was to keep all the rights and liberties which belong to a distinct national life. This union, if it had been carried out, would have been the best possible settlement for both kingdoms, but it was prevented by the death of the _Maid of Norway_ on her way to _Scotland_, in one of the _Orkneys_, September 1290. Edward had himself sent a ship handsomely fitted out to fetch home the Maid. =2. Interregnum, 1290-92.=--_Margaret_ was the last of the legitimate descendants of William the Lion. The new King had to be sought among the heirs of William's brother _David, Earl of Huntingdon_. David had left three daughters, _Margaret_, _Isabella_, and _Ada_, and they being dead were represented by their nearest heirs,--Margaret by her grandson _John Balliol_, Isabella by her son _Robert Bruce_, and Ada by her son _John Hastings_. Besides these there were a host of smaller claimants whose pretensions were quite untenable; but there was one other who, though his claim was very shadowy, was first in power and position among the claimants. This was _Florence, Count of Holland_, the great-great-grandson of _Ada_, the daughter of David's son Henry, who was to have had Ross as her dowry. _Bruce_, supported by his son, by _James the Steward_ and by other nobles, made a bond with Florence by which each pledged himself, in case he got the kingdom, to give the other a third of it. Edward, as over-lord, was appealed to to settle the matter, as it was feared by the regents that _Robert Bruce_ would seize the crown by force, and all the competitors seem to have acknowledged Edward's right of superiority. =3. Council at Norham.=--Edward accordingly summoned his barons, amongst whom most of the claimants could be reckoned, to meet him in a council at _Norham_, on the northern side of the _Tweed_, in June 1291, to decide this important case. The real contest lay between _Bruce_ and _Balliol_. Bruce, Balliol, and indeed nearly all the claimants, were Norman barons holding lands of Edward. The family of Bruce came originally from the _Côtentin_ and had been settled in _Yorkshire_ by William the Conqueror, towards the end of his reign. David, who had granted to them the great tract of _Annandale_, had also granted to the _Balliols_ a manor in _Berwick_. Bruce's plea was that, though he was the child of a younger sister, still his right was better than that of Balliol, as he was one degree nearer their common forefather, and he brought forward many precedents to prove that in such a case nearness in degree was to be preferred to seniority.