Patrick was an important magnate in Scotland and one of the Competitors for the crown of Scotland after the death of Alexander III. He was one of those who sent an appeal to Edward I, called the Appeals of the Seven Earls, asking for the English king’s help against Bishop Fraser and John Comyn, both of whom were Guardians. The earls claimed they had the right to make the king, and to place him on the throne. Meanwhile John Balliol was already describing himself as heir to the Scottish kingdom and making some interesting promises of land worth 500 marks to Antony Bek, Bishop of Durham and Edward’s right-hand man.
Like so many Scottish nobles, Patrick also held lands in England, which made him eligible to do military service for King Edward. In 1294 he was called up to serve in Gascony. As earl of Dunbar and March, he swore fealty to the king at Wark in 1296. He appears to have been opposed by his wife, who took the Scottish side and held the castle of Dunbar against the English. Prior to the battle of Falkirk, it was spies in the service of Patrick and his colleague, the pro-English earl of Angus, who discovered Wallace’s army when Edward was on the point of falling back to Edinburgh for supplies. At the battle itself Patrick fought in the Bishop of Durham’s bataille.
To have any hope of controlling Scotland, Edward needed men like Patrick. Possibly there was no love lost. In 1304 the king accused Patrick of cowardice and negligence in the face of the enemy, and compared him to a pile of wolf droppings.
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