The Anglo-Norman house whose head, John Balliol, was made King of Scots in 1292 and stripped of the crown in 1296 — the spark of the Wars of Scottish Independence.
The Balliols took their name from Bailleul in Picardy and built a great cross-Channel lordship, holding Barnard Castle in England and wide estates in Scotland and France. John Balliol’s claim to the Scottish throne came through his mother Dervorguilla of Galloway, a descendant of David I; Dervorguilla is remembered for founding Balliol College at Oxford in memory of her husband.
That royal descent placed John among the "Competitors" for the crown when Scotland’s direct line failed in 1290 with the death of Margaret, the Maid of Norway.
To settle the disputed succession the Scottish guardians invited Edward I of England to arbitrate. In the process known as the Great Cause, Edward chose John Balliol in 1292 — but only after Balliol and the other claimants had acknowledged Edward as overlord of Scotland. John was crowned, yet Edward treated him as a vassal, summoning him to English courts and demanding Scottish troops for his French wars.
When the Scots resisted and allied with France, Edward invaded, defeated Balliol in 1296, and ceremonially stripped him of the royal arms — earning him the mocking name Toom Tabard, "empty coat." He was imprisoned and later exiled to his French estates, where he died in 1314.
Balliol’s deposition left Scotland without an effective king and under English occupation, igniting the Wars of Scottish Independence fought by William Wallace and won by Robert the Bruce. The Balliol claim did not quite die: in 1332 John’s son Edward Balliol, backed by England and the "Disinherited" lords, was crowned, but he never held the country and the cause collapsed.
The house is remembered less for its brief kingship than for the crisis it triggered — the moment English overlordship provoked the Scottish nation into a generation of war.