Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baliol, Henry de
BALIOL, HENRY de (d. 1246), chamberlain of Scotland, was the son of Ingelram and grandson of Bernard de Baliol, of Barnard Castle. His mother was daughter and heiress of William de Berkeley, lord of Reidcastle in Forfarshire, and chamberlain of Scotland under William the Lion in 1165. William de Berkeley was succeeded in this high office, not yet divided into those of the treasurer and comptroller, and entrusted with the superintendence of the whole royal revenues, by Philip de Valoines and his son William de Valoines, lords of Panmure. The latter died in 1219, leaving only a daughter, and Henry de Baliol, who had married his sister Lora, obtained the chamberlainship which had been held by the father both of his mother and his wife. Although invited by King John to take his side shortly before Magna Charta, it is probable that, like his sovereign, Alexander II, he joined the party of the barons. He is mentioned in the Scottish records in various years between 1223 and 1244, and the appointment of Sir John Maxwell, of Caerlaverock, who appears as chamberlain in 1231, must either have been temporary, or Baliol must have retained the title after demitting the office, which Crawford (Officers of State, p. 261) supposes him to have done in 1231. In 1234 he succeeded, in right of his wife as coheiress, along with Christian de Valoines, her niece, wife of Peter de Maule, ancestor of the Maules of Panmure, to the English fiefs of the Valoines, vacant by the death of Christian, countess of Essex, a rich inheritance, situated in six shires. In 1241 he attended Henry III to the Gascon war, and, dying in 1246, was buried at Melrose. It is probable, but not certain, that Alexander de Baliol of Cavers, also chamberlain of Scotland [see Baliol, Alexander de], was his son. His only daughter, Constance, married an Englishman of the name of Fishburn.
[Documents in Panmure Charter Chest; Act. Parl. Scot. i. 403 a, 405 b, 407 b, 408 b; Chronicle of Melrose; Dugdale's Baronage; Crawford's Lives of Officers of State, p. 260.]