continued to use the Treaty of Birgham as a reference point, indicating that they still wished to see Scotland retain an independent identity from England. Having got these concessions, Edward arranged for a court to be set up to decide which of the claimants should inherit the throne. It consisted of 104 auditors plus Edward himself as president. Edward chose 24 of the auditors while the two claimants with the strongest cases—Bruce and Balliol—were allowed to appoint forty each. Competitors When Margaret died, there were no close relatives to whom the succession might pass in a smooth and clear manner. Of her nearest relatives derived through legitimate descent from prior kings, all but one were the descendants of Margaret's great-great-great-grandfather, Henry, the son of king David I of Scotland; the exception was Edward I himself, who was a descendant of Malcolm Canmore's daughter Matilda of Scotland. In addition to these relatives, there were noblemen descended from illegitimate daughters of more recent Scottish kings who also made claims. Thirteen nobles put themselves forward as candidates for the throne (with those claiming the throne through illegitimate lines in italic): John Balliol, Lord of Galloway, son of Devorguilla, daughter of Margaret, eldest daughter of David, Earl of Huntingdon, son of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, son of King David I. He pleaded primogeniture in legitimate, cognatic line. Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale, son of Isabella, second daughter of David, Earl of Huntingdon. This Robert Bruce was regent of Scotland sometime during the minority of King Alexander III and was occasionally recognised as a tanist of the Scottish throne. In the succession dispute, he pleaded tanistry and proximity in degree of kinship to the previous monarch, his descent being a generation shorter. John Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, son of Henry de Hastings, son of Ada, third daughter of David, Earl of Huntingdon. Floris V, Count of Holland, son of William II, Count of Holland, son of Floris IV, Count of Holland, son of William I, Count of Holland, son of Ada, daughter of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon. He claimed that David, Earl of Huntingdon, had renounced his hereditary rights to throne of Scotland. John "the Black" Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, son of John Comyn, son of Richard Comyn, son of William Comyn, son of Hextilda, daughter of Bethóc, daughter of King Donald III. Nicholas de Soules, son of Ermengarde, daughter of Marjorie, natural