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Table of Contents

THE ENGLISH PERIOD.

Eadgar; invasion of Magnus (1)—English marriage (2)—Alexander I.; rising in Moray (3)—Church reforms (4)—David I. (5)—English war (6)—Battle of the Standard (7)—peace with England (8)—internal improvements (9)—Malcolm IV. (10)—subjection of Galloway (11)—William the Lion (12)—Convention of Falaise (13)—homage at Lincoln (14)—independence of the Church (15)—internal troubles (16)—social progress (17)—Alexander II. (18)—settling of the border line (19)—state of the North (20)—Alexander III. (21)—his marriage and homage to England (22)—last invasion of the Northmen (23)—literature and architecture (24)—state of the kingdom (25).

1. Eadgar, 1097-1107. Invasion of Magnus.—In the beginning of this reign, Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, made good his right to the Orkneys and the Scandinavian Earldom on the mainland. He seized the two earls, and placed his own son Sigurd in their stead. He then sailed for the Sudereys, at that time dependencies of the Kingdom of Man, wasted them with fire and sword, marked his claim by sailing round each island, and, by way of proving his right to Kintyre, is said to have had himself dragged across the isthmus that joins it to the mainland in his ship, with his hand on the tiller. On his death the islands fell back into the hands of the former owners, and their descendants, the Lords of the Isles, were afterwards wont to declare themselves vassals of Norway, whenever it suited their convenience. In one respect only did this expedition differ from the former piratical descents of the Northmen. This time the sacred island of Iona was respected, and the church, so lately rebuilt, was left uninjured by the special order of the King.

2. English Marriage.—The friendly relations with England were maintained and strengthened by the marriage of Eadgar's sister Eadgyth, who took the name of Matilda, with Henry the First, the youngest son of William the Conqueror. She proved nearly as great a blessing to the English as her English mother had been to the Scots, for she taught the King to "love his folk," and was affectionately remembered by them as "Maud the good Queen." On his death-bed Eadgar separated Strathclyde from the rest of the kingdom, and conferred it on his brother David as a return for the wise counsel with which that brother had helped him through his very uneventful reign.

3. Alexander I., 1107-1124. Northern Rising.—This King, unlike his easy-tempered brother, had a strong will and unyielding spirit. His reign was consequently a troubled one, as always happened when the Scots King tried to rule instead of being ruled by his turbulent subjects. His first difficulties were of course in the north. The men of Merne and Moray came forth secretly and swiftly, hoping to surprise and murder him; but their tactics, which had proved fatal to Duncan, were upset by Alexander's discovery of the plot and rapid march to meet them. They were thus forced to fight, and thoroughly beaten on the northern shore of the Moray Firth, and the signal vengeance taken by the King after his victory, won for him the title of "the Fierce." To commemorate his success he founded the monastery of Scone.

4. Church Reforms.—Alexander deserves to be remembered for the spirit and wisdom with which he upheld the independence of the national church. Anxious to carry out in the same spirit the reforms already begun by his mother, he appointed her confessor Turgot, Prior of Durham, to the See of St. Andrews, and asked the Archbishop of York to consecrate him. The Archbishop on this claimed the canonical obedience of all the Scottish bishops, declaring that the whole country was in his province. This demand was clearly unjust; for, though Lothian was undoubtedly so, the Scottish Church was older than his own, and had never been dependent on any foreign See. This difficulty was got over by the consecration of the new bishop by the Bishop of London, and Turgot was installed as head of the Church from which his own priory of Durham had originally branched off. Instead of identifying himself with the interests of his new charge, he did all he could to bring the Scottish Church under the authority of the Archbishop of York, so that he and the King soon quarrelled; and as the King refused to let the Bishop go to Rome to lay his case before the Pope, he resigned, and went back to Durham, where he shortly afterwards died. To evade the claims of York, the King resolved that his next bishop should be chosen from the southern province. Eadmer, a monk of Canterbury, the friend and biographer of Anselm the Archbishop, accepted the bishopric. But he proved no better than Turgot, for he persisted in considering himself and his bishopric as dependent on Canterbury; and as the King would on no account agree to this, he too resigned and went away. Though he afterwards repented, and proposed to return, it was then too late, for Robert, Prior of Scone, had been appointed in his stead. As Alexander left no children, his brother David succeeded him, so that Strathclyde or Cumbria was re-united to the kingdom.

5. David I., 1124-1153. Rising in Moray.—The usual rising in Moray took place in the early part of this reign. The Moray men seized the opportunity for revolt afforded them by David's absence in England, whither he had gone on some business connected with the Honour of Huntingdon, an English fief which he had got by his marriage with Matilda, daughter and heiress of Waltheof, Earl of Northhumberland, who had been put to death by William the Conqueror. Angus and Malcolm, the representatives of the old Moray Mormaers, were descended in the female line from Lulach, the son of Gruach, and the northern party wished to place one of them on the throne. The Constable of the kingdom, the first on record, defeated them; but as the rebellion still continued, David in alarm asked and obtained the aid of the barons of the north of England. He was preparing for his northern march, when the Celts took fright, and gave up their chief, who was imprisoned in Roxburgh Castle. The district of Moray was declared forfeited, and was divided among the Norman knights whom David had drawn round him when Prince of Strathclyde.

6. English War.—In 1135 Henry the First of England died, and David, who had been among the first to swear fealty, for the lands he held in England, to his own niece Matilda, daughter and heiress of Henry, was now the first to take up arms in defence of her right against Stephen. David at once marched into England, received the homage of the northern barons, and took possession of all the northern strongholds, except Bamborough, in Matilda's name. Stephen came north, but peace was made between them; for though David would not break his oath to Matilda by himself holding any fiefs of Stephen, this difficulty was got rid of by investing David's son Henry with the Honour of Huntingdon, which had been hitherto held by David. Carlisle and Doncaster were also conferred on Henry; and though his request to be put in possession of his mother's inheritance of Northumberland was not granted, Stephen promised to take his claim to it into consideration. Henry went south with Stephen, at whose court he took precedence of the English barons. This roused their jealousy, and they straightway left the court in a body. David, highly indignant at this insult, recalled his son, and the next year prepared to invade England again, nor would he agree to any terms of peace, unless Henry were put in immediate possession of Northumberland. In 1138 his army ravaged the northern counties, reduced to ashes the castle of Norham, and routed a body of the men of Lancashire who had mustered to resist the invaders at Clitheroe on the Ribble. After this success, the victors committed greater outrages than ever.

7. Battle of the Standard.—But their excesses, and the fear that David, as the representative of the English line, was trying to win the English crown for himself, at length roused the chivalry of northern England, who, forgetting party feeling, made common cause against the common foe, and assembled round the banner raised by Walter Espec, a doughty and gigantic warrior. A few years before they had prepared to help David in suppressing those very Celts whom he was now leading against themselves. Against such men, inspired by such righteous indignation, the mixed multitude of Scots, Picts of Galloway, Welshmen from Strathclyde, Northmen from the Orkneys, and English from the Lothians, who with a body of Norman knights made up the so-called Scottish host, had but small chance of success. This chance was made still smaller by what proved fatal to the cause of Scotland in many an after fight, the inevitable squabbles between the rival races. The Celts were jealous of the Norman strangers, and clamoured so loudly for their right of leading the van, that David at last gave in to them. His own better judgment would have led him to give the task of breaking the hostile ranks to his well-armed, well-mounted horsemen, leaving it to the infantry to follow up their advantage. The two armies met on a moor, near Northallerton, where the English were drawn up round their Standard, which was so singular that from it the battle took its name. It was the consecrated wafer hoisted on a ship's mast, with the banners of St. Peter of York, St. John of Beverley, and St. Wilfrith of Ripon, floating round it. Before the battle commenced, a last attempt for peace was made by two Norman barons, whose descendants afterwards played a great part in Scottish history. These were Robert de Brus and Bernard de Bailleul. They were friends of David and held lands from him, and they begged him not to fight with the old friends who had formerly stood by him. As he was unmoved by all their entreaties, they renounced their allegiance, and the battle began. The Galloway men made a fierce onslaught on the English, but were driven back and beaten down by the English arrows. They fled, and by their flight spread confusion through the army. The panic was made greater by a cry that the King was slain; and though David did all he could to rally the fugitives round his banner, the ancient dragon of Wessex, he was forced to retire upon Carlisle, where his son Henry joined him a few days after. But this defeat did not drive the Scots out of England. David still continued the siege of Werk, a strong castle, which at last surrendered.

8. Peace with England.—Next year, peace was made at Durham. Earl Henry was invested with the earldom of Northumberland, though Stephen kept Bamborough and Newcastle, and David continued to administer the affairs of the northern counties till his death. Two years after this peace he again took up arms in favour of Matilda, and narrowly escaped being taken prisoner when her forces were routed at Winchester; and it was by David at his court at Carlisle that her son Henry of Anjou was knighted. The close of David's life was embittered by the death of his only son Henry, a just man and a brave soldier, whose loss was universally lamented. He had married Ada de Warenne, daughter of the Earl of Surrey, and left three sons, Malcolm, William, and David, the two eldest of whom reigned in succession. His eldest daughter Ada married Florence Count of Holland, and got the promise of Ross, a great tract of the Highlands, as her dowry. After the death of his son David sent his eldest grandson through the provinces to be acknowledged as his successor, and within a few months he died at Carlisle, and was buried beside his parents at Dunfermline.

9. Internal Improvements.—David was both a good man and a great king. He upheld the honour of his kingdom abroad, and did so much for the welfare of his people at home, that most of the social and political institutions of the later kingdom were afterwards ascribed to him. It is true that he introduced a foreign baronage, for he encouraged many Norman barons to come to his court, and by the lands which he gave them induced them to settle in the country. He thus gave great offence to the native chiefs; but he did not forget the interests of the Commons, for he increased the number of the royal burghs and granted many privileges and immunities to the burghers. The life of David has been written by his friend and admirer, Æthelred the Abbot of Rievaulx. He has drawn an attractive picture of an able and virtuous prince, kindly and courteous alike to high and low; ever ready to listen to the complaints of all his subjects and to set wrong right, and never turning his face away from any poor man. He tells us how the King himself dealt out justice to his subjects, and in his progress through the several districts of his kingdom, used, on set days, in person to hear the suits and to redress the wrongs of the poor and oppressed among his people. Six bishoprics—Dunblane, Brechin, Aberdeen, Ross, Caithness, and Glasgow—were either founded or restored by him; and many abbeys date their foundation from his reign. He carried on the work of church reform by inducing the Culdees to conform to more regular ways, on pain of being turned out of their monasteries. His reign lasted twenty-nine years, during which time the country continued to advance steadily in wealth, fertility, and civilization. There is little doubt that, had his successor possessed the same abilities, the future boundary of the kingdom would have been the Tees instead of the Tweed.

10. Malcolm IV., 1153-1165.—Malcolm was not quite twelve years old when he came to the throne: the fact that he retained possession of it proves that the principle of hereditary succession was gaining ground, and that his grandfather David had put down the unruly spirit of the northern clans and had more firmly established a regular government.

11. Subjection of Galloway.—The principal event of Malcolm's reign was the subjection of Galloway, which was now reduced to direct dependence on the Crown. A rising, the object of which was to dethrone Malcolm and to set up his brother William in his stead, had been planned by some of the nobles while Malcolm was in Aquitaine, helping Henry the Second of England in his war with France. Soon after his return in 1160, they surrounded the city of Perth where he was holding his court, and tried to take him prisoner. But they were dispersed and routed, and though the chiefs fled to Galloway, Malcolm followed them and reduced the district. Fergus, the Lord of Galloway, ended his days in the monastery of Holyrood. A few years later another dangerous enemy rose against Malcolm. This was Somerled, the Lord of Argyle, who ruled the western coast with the power, though without the title, of King. He landed near Renfrew on the Clyde, with a large force, but was almost immediately slain by treachery, and after his death his followers dispersed and returned to their several islands without doing any serious mischief. An increase of power was thus won for the Crown within the limits of the kingdom, but on the other hand the northern counties of England, which had been held by David, were lost, for Henry of England obliged Malcolm to give up all claim to them at Chester, where the two Kings met in 1157. At the same time Malcolm was invested with the Honour of Huntingdon on the same terms as those on which it had been held by David.

12. William the Lion, 1165-1214.—William surnamed the Lion succeeded his brother Malcolm. He was eager to regain the earldom of Northumberland, which his father had held and which his brother had lost. As Henry of England refused it to him, he aided the sons of that monarch in their rebellion against their father, and, when Henry was absent in France, he invaded his kingdom and took several strongholds. But by his own imprudence he was surprised and captured, with the best of his nobles, while tilting in a meadow close by the walls of Alnwick, and was sent for greater security to Falaise, in Normandy, July 1174.

13. Convention of Falaise.—In the end of the year William regained his freedom by signing a treaty called the "Convention of Falaise," the hard terms of which were most humiliating, both to him and to Scotland. He was in future to hold his kingdom on the same terms of vassalage as those by which he now held Lothian, and as a token of further dependence his barons and clergy were also to do homage to the English King, who was to be put in possession of the principal strongholds. His brother David, Earl of Huntingdon, and twenty-one other barons were to remain as hostages till the strongholds were given up, and on their release each was to leave his son or next heir as a warrant of good faith. The homage was performed in the following year, when William met Henry at York; and the King of Scots, with his earls, barons, free-tenants, and clergy, became the liegemen of the King of England in St. Peter's Minster. The clergy swore to lay the kingdom under an interdict, and the laity to hold by their English over-lord, should William prove unfaithful to him. This treaty remained in force till the death of Henry in 1189, when Richard of England, who was in want of money for his crusade, released William, for the sum of 10,000 marks, from these extorted obligations and restored the strongholds, though he refused to give up to him the coveted earldom.