This week – 1 April 1298

John Balliol, under house arrest outside London, made a statement in the presence of Anthony Bek and others that while king of Scotland he found in his fellow Scots ‘such malice, deceit, treason and treachery’, and that he believed they were plotting to poison him. He therefore stated that he had no intentions to return to Scotland or to have anything to do with the Scots. This statement, though likely genuine in sentiment, was used as propaganda against the Scots’ efforts to have Balliol restored to the throne.