Political and military events in Scotland during the reign of David I

Political and military events in Scotland during the reign of David I are the events which took place in Scotland during David I of Scotland's reign as King of Scots, from 1124 to 1153. When his brother Alexander I of Scotland died in 1124, David chose, with the backing of Henry I of England, to take the Kingdom of Alba for himself. David was forced to engage in warfare against his rival and nephew, Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair. Subduing the latter took David ten years, and involved the destruction of Óengus, mormaer of Moray. David's victory allowed him to expand his control over more distant regions theoretically part of the Kingdom. In this he was largely successful, although he failed to bring the Earldom of Orkney into his kingdom.

Overview Both Michael Lynch and Richard Oram portray David as having little initial connection with the culture and society of the Scots;Lynch, Scotland: A New History, p. 79; Oram, David: The King Who Made Scotland, pp. 75–6. Oram characterises David's position at his accession in 1124 as "a stranger in a strange land".Oram, David: The King Who Made Scotland, title to chapter 5, pp. 73–88. Both historians likewise argue that David became increasingly re-Gaelicized in the later stages of his reign.Lynch, Scotland: A New History, p. 83; Oram, David: The King Who Made Scotland, esp. for instance, pp. 96, 126. Other historians, such as R. Andrew McDonald for instance, focus on the violence of David's "Norman" establishment, and partially explain David's troubles in Scotland as non-Celtic tension against the "Celtic" periphery.R. Andrew McDonald, Outlaws of Medieval Scotland, pp. 24–29, et passim. The latter Norman-Celtic dualistic picture is attacked by Matthew Hammond, who asks why the Gaelic east of the kingdom which constituted David's Scotian heartland was less "Celtic" than the heavily Norse-influenced west and north.Matthew H. Hammond, "Ethnicity and the Writing of Medieval Scottish history", p. 23.

In fact, as king of Scots David pursued the goals anyone in his position would be expected to pursue. While it is true that David established himself in power with the backing of Henry I and his own Anglo-Norman retainers, as king his expansion also impinged upon areas that were Norse and English in speech using forces taken from his own Gaelic territories. David used the forces at his disposal. In doing so David's position in Scotland was largely successful. Not only did he survive to die a peaceful death, but he retained hold of his core territory in east-central Scotland, introduced more direct royal control into Moray and beyond, while men from Argyll, the Hebrides and Galloway were could be brought into David's 1136-8 invasion host. David's failings were that he did not succeed in permanently incorporating the Orkney Islands into his kingdom.For all this, see below.

David's position as heir to Scottish throne However, David's claim to be heir to the Scottish kingdom was spurious. David was the youngest of eight sons of the fifth from last king. Two more recent kings had produced sons. William fitz Duncan, son of King Donnchad II, and Máel Coluim, son of the last king Alexander, both preceded David in terms of the slowly emerging principles of primogeniture. However, unlike David, neither William nor Máel Coluim had the support of Henry, and both were claimed to be illegitimate. The death in 1122 of Sibylla, daughter of King Henry and wife of King Alexander, increased David's prospects of becoming King, which in turn made David even more important to Henry; it was probably for this reason that King Henry strengthened his military presence in the north of England at this point in time. This act was probably designed to make Alexander acknowledge David as heir, or at least to intimidate Alexander's vassals for this same purpose. So when Alexander died in 1124, the Gaelic aristocracy of Scotland had no choice but to accept David as King, or face war with both David and Henry I.Oram, David: The King Who Made Scotland, pp. 70–2.

1st war against Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair Alexander's son Máel Coluim chose war. Orderic Vitalis reports that Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair "affected to snatch the kingdom from [David], and fought against him two sufficiently fierce battles; but David, who was loftier in understanding and in power and wealth, conquered him and his followers".A.O. Anderson, Scottish Annals, p. 158. The revolt may have involved the death of David's eldest son. Before recounting the war against Máel Coluim, Orderic Vitalis reported the death of this son at the hands of an exiled Norwegian priest; but Orderic's account is so obscure that it is difficult to make anything of it. The priest was reportedly a member of David's household, and was put to death by being bound to the tails of four horses.A.O. Anderson, Scottish Annals, p. 157; Duncan, The Kingship of the Scots, p 59, doubts the existence of this son on the basis that David is not known to have commemorated this supposed child, as he did to his other dead relatives. Whether or not the two events were connected, Máel Coluim escaped unharmed into areas of Scotland not yet under David's control, and there gained shelter and some measure of support; when Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair renewed his claim to the throne six years later, he had the support and protection of the king of Moray.Oram, David: The King Who Made Scotland, pp. 84–5.

Royal coronation and the Scots

In either April or May of the same year David was crowned King of Scots (Gaelic: rí(gh) Alban; Latin: rex Scottorum) at Scone. If later Scottish and Irish evidence can be taken as evidence, the ceremony of coronation was a series of elaborate traditional rituals,John Bannerman, "The Kings Poet", in The Scottish Historical Review, V. LXVIII, (1989), pp. 120–49. of the kind infamous in the Anglo-French world of the 12th century for their "unchristian" elements.John J. O'Meara (ed.), Gerald of Wales: The History and Topography of Ireland, (London, 1951), p. 110. Ailred of Rievaulx, friend and one time member of David's court, reported that David "so abhorred those acts of homage which are offered by the Scottish nation in the manner of their fathers upon the recent promotion of their kings, that he was with difficulty compelled by the bishops to receive them".A.O. Anderson, Scottish Annals, p. 232.

Whatever David thought of his childhood homeland, the Anglo-Norman historians were clearly convinced that he had little cultural or social connection to it in 1124. David remained an absentee king for much of his early reign in Scotland-proper. In his first act as king he made a grant or perhaps a reaffirmation of a previous grant to one of his followers, Robert de Brus, of the lordship of Annandale, on the frontier between his old principality and the lands of "Galloway":"David, by the grace of God King of Scots, to all his barons, men and friends, English and French, greetings. Know you that I have given and granted to Robert de Brus Ystrad Annan (Annandale) and all the land from the boundary of Dunegal of Srath Nid (Nithsdale) to the boundary of Randolph le Meschin; and I will and grant that he should hold and have that land and its castle well and honourably with all its customs which Ranulph le Meschin ever had in Carduill (Carlisle) and in his land of Cumberland on that day in which he had them most fully and freely. Witnesses: Eustace fitz John, Hugh de Morville, Alan de Perci, William de Somerville, Berengar Engaine, Randolf de Sules, William de Morville, Hervi fitz Warin and Edmund the chamberlain. At Scone."G. Donaldson, Scottish Historical Documents, (Edinburgh, 1970), p. 17. This charter addresses only his "English and French" followers, and the witness list contains the names of eight Frenchmen and one Englishman; there are no Scots. By contrast, the witnesses to the charters of Alexander I issued in Scotland-proper are virtually all Gaels.e.g. Liber Ecclesie de Scon, (Bannatyne Club, 1843), nos i & iv. In 1124 then, it is possible to argue that David felt he could depend on Frenchmen and Englishmen only. It would take some time for David to reestablish himself in the country and people of his early childhood.It is also possible to argue that only English and French are addressed because the land in question concerned an area outside actual Scottish territory; see G. W. S. Barrow (ed.), The Acts of Malcolm IV King of Scots 1153–1165, Together with Scottish Royal Acts Prior to 1153 not included in Sir Archibald Lawrie's '"Early Scottish Charters' in Regesta Regum Scottorum, Volume I, (Edinburgh, 1960), p. 40.

2nd war against Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair In this period David was busy in some of his Scottish lands and was becoming more intimate with his native Scottish subjects. David, however, spent several long periods resident in England. In fact, outside his "Cumbrian" principality and the southern fringe of Scotland-proper, David still exercised little power, and in the words of Richard Oram, was "king of Scots in little more than name".Oram, David: The King Who Made Scotland, p. 87. He was probably in the part of Scotland he did rule for most of the time between late 1127 and 1130,Oram, David: The King Who Made Scotland, p. 83. but was at the court of Henry in 1126 and early 1127,A.O. Anderson, Scottish Annals, pp. 163–3. and returned to Henry's court in 1130 serving as a judge at Woodstock for the treason trial of Geoffrey de Clinton.Oram, David: The King Who Made Scotland, p. 83. It was in this year that David's wife, Matilda de Senlis, died. Possibly as a result of this,Oram, David: The King Who Made Scotland, p. 84. and while David was still in southern England,A.O. Anderson, Scottish Annals, p. 167. Scotland-proper rose up in arms against him.

The instigator was his nephew Máel Coluim, who now had the support of Óengus of Moray, King or Mormaer of Moray. King Óengus was David's most powerful "vassal", a man who, as grandson of King Lulach of Scotland, even had his own claim to the kingdom. The rebel Scots had advanced into Angus when they were met by David's Mercian constable, Edward; a battle took place at Stracathro near Brechin. According to the Annals of Ulster, 1000 of Edward's army, and 4000 of Óengus' army, including Óengus himself,Annals of Ulster, s.a. U1130.4, here (trans) died. According to Orderic Vitalis, Edward followed up the killing of Óengus by marching north into Moray itself, which, in his words, "lacked a defender and lord"; and so Edward, "with God's help obtained the entire duchy of that extensive district".A.O. Anderson, Scottish Annals, p. 167; Anderson uses the word "earldom", but Orderic in fact used the word ducatum, duchy. However, this was far from the end of it. Máel Coluim again escaped, and four years of this continuing Scottish "civil war" followed; for David this period was quite simply a "struggle for survival".Oram, David: The King Who Made Scotland, p. 88.

It appears that David applied for and obtained extensive military aid from his patron, King Henry. Ailred of Rievaulx relates that at this point a large fleet and a large army of Norman knights, including Walter l'Espec, and were sent by Henry to Carlisle to assist in David's attempt to root out his Scottish enemies.A.O. Anderson, Scottish Annals, pp. 193–4; see also Oram, David: The King Who Made Scotland, p. 86. The fleet seems to have been used in the Irish Sea, the Firth of Clyde and the entire Argyll coast, where Máel Coluim was probably at large among supporters. By 1134 Máel Coluim was captured and imprisoned in Roxburgh Castle.A.O. Anderson, Early Sources, vol. ii, p. 183.

Pacification of the west and north