A.D. 1107-1124.
David, youngest son of Malcolm Ceannmor by Queen Margaret, rules over Scotland south of Forth and Clyde as earl.
The only son of Queen Margaret now left was David, the youngest. He appears, while yet a youth, to have accompanied his sister Matilda to the English court, on her marriage with Henry the First, king of England, which took place in November 1100, during the reign of Eadgar over Scotland,[[664]] and here he was trained, with other young Norman barons, in all the feudal usages, so as to become, by education and association with the young English nobility, imbued with feudal ideas, and surrounded by Norman influences, or, as William of Malmesbury expresses it, ‘polished from a boy by intercourse and familiarity with us.’[[665]] When he reached maturity Henry I. gave him in marriage a rich young widow, Matilda, daughter and heiress of that Waltheof who was son of Siward, earl of Northumberland, and himself earl of Northampton, and had married Judith, the niece of the Conqueror, and was afterwards beheaded by him. She was the widow of Simon de Senlis, and by her David obtained during her life the earldom of Northampton and honour of Huntingdon. David was thus, to all intents and purposes, a Norman baron when the death of his brother Eadgar placed him, by his bequest, in possession of almost the entire Scottish territory south of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, with the title of earl. The districts thus possessed by him extended, on the east, from the Tweed as far at least as the Lammermoor range, beyond which was the earldom of Gospatric of Dunbar; while the district extending from the Esk to the Forth was retained by King Alexander. On the west his possessions reached from the Solway Firth to the Firth of Clyde.
Six years after he obtained these lands, he founded, in the year 1113, a monastery of Benedictine monks of Tyron, at Selkirk, on the banks of the Ettrick, and his foundation-charter will still further indicate the extent of his possessions as earl. In this charter he calls himself Earl David, son of Malcolm, king of Scots, and addressed it to all his adherents, Normans, Angles, and Scots,[[666]] and gives the monks the lands of Selkirk and other lands in Teviotdale, a ploughgate in Berwick, and a croft in the burgh of Roxburgh, the tenth of his ‘can’ or dues from Galweia or Galloway, and in addition some lands in his English lordship of Northampton; and he shows his independent position by adding that this grant was made while Henry was reigning in England and Alexander in Scotia, or Scotland proper.[[667]] Not long after he refounded the bishopric of Glasgow, to which he appointed John as first bishop, who had been his tutor. The instrument which records the restoration of the diocese, and an investigation ordered by Earl David into the possessions of the see, is still preserved, and may probably be dated some time between the years 1116 and 1120. In this document it was stated that ‘in the time of Henry, king of England, while Alexander, king of Scots, was reigning in Scotia, God had sent them David, brother-german of the king of Scotia, to be their prince and leader;’[[668]] and ‘David, prince of the Cumbrian region, causes inquisition to be made into the possessions of the church of Glasgow in all the provinces of Cumbria which were under his dominion and power, for he did not rule over the whole of the Cumbrian region.’[[669]] The kingdom of Cumbria originally extended from the Firth of Clyde to the river Derwent, including what was afterwards the dioceses of Glasgow, Galloway, and Carlisle.[[670]] That portion, however, which extended from the Solway Firth to the river Derwent, and afterwards formed the diocese of Carlisle, was wrested from the Scots by William Rufus in 1092, and was bestowed by Henry the First upon Ranulf de Meschines.[[671]] David’s possessions in Cumbria consisted, therefore, of the counties of Lanark, Ayr, Renfrew, Dumfries, and Peebles, and the inquisition contains lands in these counties. He was, as we have seen, overlord of Galloway, and his rule extended also over Lothian and Teviotdale, in the counties of Berwick, Roxburgh, and Selkirk; for, in a charter by Earl David to the monks of Durham of the lands of Swinton in Berwickshire, he addresses it to Bishop John of Glasgow, to Gospatric, Colban and Robert his brothers, and to his thanes and drengs of Lothian and Teviotdale;[[672]] and, in another, Thor of Ednam in Berwickshire calls him his overlord, or the superior of his lands.[[673]]
From these deeds we not only learn the extent of David’s possessions, but we also see that he had attached to himself not only his Anglic vassals but a large following of Norman barons. Of the witnesses to the inquisition there are, besides his countess Matilda and his nephew William, son of his brother Duncan, eight of Anglic race and fourteen who are Normans. In his foundation charter of Selkirk, besides Bishop John of Glasgow, his countess Matilda, his son Henry, his nephew William, and three chaplains, there are eleven Norman witnesses, nine Anglic, and a solitary Gillemichel to represent the Celtic race. The native Cumbrians nowhere appear as witnessing his grants, and it seems plain enough that he had largely introduced the Norman element into his territories, and ruled over them as a feudal superior basing his power and influence upon his Norman and Anglic vassals, of whom the former were now the most prominent both in weight and number.[[674]]
A.D. 1124-1153.
David reigns over all Scotland as first feudal monarch.
On the death of King Alexander in the year 1124, the Saxon Chronicle tells us that ‘David, his brother, who was earl of Northamptonshire, succeeded to the kingdom, and had them both together, the kingdom of Scotland and the earldom in England;’ and thus the southern and northern districts, which had been severed during the whole of Alexander’s reign, were once more united under one king, and David founded a dynasty of feudal monarchs of Celtic descent in the paternal line, and in the maternal representing the old Saxon royal family, but governing the country as feudal superiors, and introducing feudal institutions. The extent to which the feudal and Norman element had already been introduced into the south of Scotland, while under the rule of earl, by David, will be apparent when we examine the relation between the Norman barons who witness his charters and the land under his sway. The most prominent of those who witness the foundation charter of Selkirk are four Norman barons, who possessed extensive lordships in the north of England. The first was Hugo de Moreville, and we find him in possession of extensive lands in Lauderdale, Lothian, and Cuningham in Ayrshire. The second was Paganus de Braosa. The third Robertus de Brus, who acquired the extensive district of Annandale in Dumfriesshire; and the fourth, Robertus de Umfraville, received grants of Kinnaird and Dunipace in Stirlingshire. Of the other Norman knights who witness this charter, and also the inquisition, Gavinus Ridel, Berengarius Engaine, Robertus Corbet, and Alanus de Perci possess manors in Teviotdale. Walterus de Lindesaya has extensive possessions in Upper Clydesdale, Mid and East Lothian, and in the latter district Robertus de Burneville is also settled. In Scotland proper the character in which David ruled will be best seen by contrasting his charters with those of his predecessors. Eadgar, who possessed the whole kingdom north of the Tweed and the Solway, addresses his charters to all his faithful men in his kingdom, Scots and Angles. Alexander, who possessed the kingdom north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde alone, to the bishops and earls, and all his faithful men of the kingdom of Scotia. A charter granted by David, in the third year of his accession to the throne, to the monks of Durham, of lands in Lothian, is addressed to all dwelling throughout his kingdom in Scotland and Lothian, Scots and Angles;[[675]] but when we enter Scotland proper, and compare his foundation charter of Dunfermline with that of Scone by his predecessor, Alexander I., there is a marked contrast between them. Alexander grants his charter to Scone, with the formal assent and concurrence of the seven earls of Scotland; and it is confirmed by the two bishops of the only dioceses which then existed in Scotland proper, with exception of St. Andrews, which was vacant, and the witnesses are the few Saxons who formed his personal attendants, Edward the constable, Alfric the pincerna, and others.[[676]] King David’s charter to Dunfermline, a foundation also within Scotland proper, is granted ‘by his royal authority and power, with the assent of his son Henry, and with the formal confirmation of his queen Matilda, and the bishops, earls, and barons of his kingdom, the clergy and people acquiescing.’ Here we see the feudal baronage of the kingdom occupying the place of the old constitutional body of the seven earls, while the latter appear only as individually witnessing the charter. David’s subsequent charters to Dunfermline show this still more clearly, for they are addressed to the ‘bishops, abbots, earls, sheriffs, barons, governors, and officers, and all the good men of the whole land, Norman, English, and Scotch:’ in short, the feudal community or ‘communitas regni,’ consisting of those holding lands of the crown, while the old traditionary earls of the Celtic kingdom appear among the witnesses only.[[677]]
The reign of David I. is beyond doubt the true commencement of feudal Scotland, and the term of Celtic Scotland becomes no longer appropriate to it as a kingdom. Under his auspices feudalism rapidly acquired predominance in the country, and its social state and institutions became formally assimilated to Norman forms and ideas, while the old Celtic element in her constitutional history gradually retired into the background. During this and the subsequent reigns the outlying districts, which had hitherto maintained a kind of semi-independence under their native rulers, and in which they were more tenaciously adhered to, were gradually brought under the more direct power of the monarch and incorporated into the kingdom. It will be unnecessary for our purpose to continue further a detailed narrative of the reigns of the kings of this dynasty who had thus become feudal monarchs, and it only remains to notice shortly the occasional appearance of the Celtic element in her constitution, and the fitful struggles of her Celtic subjects to resist the power which was gradually but surely working out this process of incorporation and the consolidation of the various districts which composed it into one compact kingdom.
A.D. 1130.
Insurrection of Angus, earl of Moray, and Malcolm, bastard son of Alexander I.
David had been barely six years on the throne of Scotland when a united attempt was made on the part of its Gaelic inhabitants to wrest the districts north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde from his dominion, and the further encroachment of the English barons with their feudal holdings. At the head of this insurrection was Malcolm, a natural son of the late King Alexander, who probably counted upon the Gaelic population of Scotland proper preferring to recognise him as his father’s heir in his limited kingdom, rather than be united with Lothian under the feudal government of David; and Angus, son of the daughter of Lulach the Mormaer of Moray, and successor of Macbeth as king of Scotia, for three months, who on the death of Lulach’s son Maelsnechtan in 1085 had succeeded to him, according to the Pictish law of succession, as Mormaer of Moray, or, as it was now termed, Earl. Orderic of Vital gives so circumstantial an account of this insurrection, that his narrative may be accepted as substantially true, supported as it is by other authorities. ‘Malcolm, a bastard son of Alexander,’ he tells us, ‘attempted to deprive his uncle of the crown, and involved him in two rather severe contests; but David, who was his superior in talent as well as in wealth and power, defeated him and his party. In the year of our Lord 1130, while King David was ably applying himself to a cause in King Henry’s court, and carefully examining a charge of treason which, they say, Geoffrey de Clinton had been guilty of, Angus, earl of Moray, with Malcolm and five thousand men, entered Scotia (or Scotland proper) with the intention of reducing the whole kingdom to subjection. Upon this Edward, the son of Siward, earl of Mercia in the time of King Edward, who was a cousin of King David and commander of his army, assembled troops and suddenly threw himself in the enemy’s way. A battle was at length fought, in which Earl Angus was slain and his troops defeated, taken prisoners, or put to flight. Vigorously pursuing the fugitives with his soldiers elated with victory, and entering Morafia, or Moray, now deprived of its lord and protector, he obtained, by God’s help, possession of the whole of that large territory. Thus David’s dominions were augmented, and his power was greater than that of any of his predecessors.’[[678]] This account is confirmed by the Saxon Chronicle, which has in the year 1130, ‘In this year Anagus was slain by the Scots army, and there was a great slaughter made with him. Thus was God’s right avenged on him, because he was all forsworn;’ and the Ulster Annals have in the same year, ‘Battle between the men of Alban and the men of Moray, in which fell four thousand of the men of Moray, with their king Oengus, son of the daughter of Lulag, a thousand also of the men of Alban in heat of battle.’[[679]] Fordun places the scene of this battle at Stracathro in Forfarshire.[[680]]
A.D. 1134.
Insurrection by Malcolm Maceth.