Editing David I of Scotland (section)

== Political and military events in Scotland during David's kingship ==
{{main|Political and military events in Scotland during the reign of David I}}

In spite of the fact that David spent his childhood in Scotland, Michael Lynch and Richard Oram portray him as having little initial connection with the culture and society of the Scots;<ref>Lynch, ''Scotland: A New History'', p. 79; Oram, ''David'', pp. 75–76.</ref> but both likewise argue that David became increasingly re-Gaelicised in the later stages of his reign.<ref>Lynch, ''Scotland: A New History'', p. 83; Oram, ''David'', esp. for instance, pp. 96, 126.</ref> Whatever the case, David's claim to be heir to the Scottish kingdom was doubtful. He 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 Duncan II, and [[Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair|Máel Coluim]], son of the last King Alexander, but since Scots had never adopted the rules of [[primogeniture]] that was not a barrier to his kingship, and unlike David, neither William nor Máel Coluim had the support of Henry. So when Alexander died in 1124, the aristocracy of Scotland could either accept David as king or face war with both David and Henry.<ref>Oram, ''David'', pp. 70–72.</ref>

=== Coronation and struggle for the kingdom ===
Alexander's son, Máel Coluim, chose war. [[Orderic Vitalis]] reported 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".<ref>A. O. Anderson, ''Scottish Annals'', p. 158.</ref> Máel Coluim escaped unharmed into areas of Scotland not yet under David's control, and in those areas gained shelter and aid.<ref>Oram, ''David'', pp. 84–85.</ref>

In either April or May of the same year, David was crowned King of Scotland ({{langx|sga|[[rí]](gh) Alban}}; [[Medieval Latin]]: {{lang|la|[[rex Scotorum|rex Scottorum]]}})<ref>Chibnall, ''Anglo-Norman Studies'', p. 33</ref> at [[Scone, Scotland|Scone]]. If later Scottish and Irish evidence can be taken as evidence, the ceremony of coronation was a series of elaborate traditional rituals,<ref>John Bannerman, "The Kings Poet", pp. 120–149.</ref> of the kind infamous in the Anglo-French world of the 12th century for their "unchristian" elements.<ref>John J. O'Meara (ed.), ''Gerald of Wales: The History and Topography of Ireland'' (London, 1951), p. 110.</ref>

[[Aelred 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".<ref>A. O. Anderson, ''Scottish Annals'', p. 232.</ref>

Outside his Cumbrian principality and the southern fringe of Scotland-proper, David exercised little power in the 1120s, and in the words of Richard Oram, was "king of Scots in little more than name".<ref>Oram, ''David'', p. 87.</ref> He was probably in that part of Scotland he did rule for most of the time between late 1127 and 1130.<ref name="Oram">Oram, ''David'', p. 83.</ref> However, he was at the court of Henry in 1126 and in early 1127,<ref>A. O. Anderson, ''Scottish Annals'', pp. 163–167.</ref> and returned to Henry's court in 1130, serving as a judge at [[Woodstock Palace|Woodstock]] for the [[treason]] trial of [[Geoffrey de Clinton]].<ref name="Oram"/> It was in this year that David's wife, Matilda of Huntingdon, died. Possibly as a result of this,<ref>Oram, ''David'', p. 84.</ref> and while David was still in southern England,<ref>A. O. Anderson, ''Scottish Annals'', p. 167.</ref>

Scotland-proper rose up in arms against him. The instigator was, again, his nephew Máel Coluim, who now had the support of [[Óengus 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, Scotland|Angus]], where they were met by David's [[Mercia]]n [[constable]], [[Edward the 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 – died.<ref>''Annals of Ulster'', s.a. U1130.4, [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100001A/text701.html here] ([http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100001A/text700.html trans])</ref>

According to Orderic Vitalis, Edward followed up the killing of Óengus by marching north into Moray itself, which, in Orderic's words, "lacked a defender and lord"; and so Edward, "with God's help obtained the entire duchy of that extensive district".<ref>A. O. Anderson, ''Scottish Annals'', p. 167; Anderson uses the word "earldom", but Orderic used the word ''ducatum'', [[duchy]].</ref> However, this was far from the end of it. Máel Coluim escaped, and four years of continuing civil war followed; for David, this period was quite simply a "struggle for survival".<ref>Oram, ''David'', p. 88.</ref>

It appears that David asked for and obtained extensive military aid from King Henry. Aelred of Rievaulx related that at this point a large fleet and a large army of Norman knights, including [[Walter Espec]], were sent by Henry to [[Carlisle]] in order to assist David's attempt to root out his Scottish enemies.<ref>A.O. Anderson, ''Scottish Annals'', pp. 193–194; see also Oram, ''David'', p. 86.</ref> 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. In 1134, Máel Coluim was captured and imprisoned in [[Roxburgh Castle]].<ref>A. O. Anderson, ''Early Sources'', vol. II, p. 183.</ref> Since modern historians no longer confuse him with "[[Malcolm MacHeth]]", it is clear that nothing more is ever heard of Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair, except perhaps that his sons were later allied with [[Somerled]].<ref>Ross, "Identity of the Prisoner at Roxburgh", Accessed 1 December 2022.</ref>

=== Pacification of the west and north ===
Richard Oram puts forward the suggestion that it was during this period that David granted [[Walter fitz Alan]] [[Strathgryfe]], with northern [[Kyle, Ayrshire|Kyle]] and the area around [[Renfrew]], forming what would become the "Stewart" lordship of Strathgryfe; he also suggests that [[Hugh de Morville, Constable of Scotland|Hugh de Morville]] may have gained [[Cunninghame|Cunningham]] and the settlement of "Strathyrewen" (i.e. [[Irvine, North Ayrshire|Irvine]]). This would indicate that the 1130–1134 campaign had resulted in the acquisition of these territories.<ref>For all this, see Oram, ''David'', pp. 93–96.</ref>

How long it took to pacify Moray is not known, but in this period David appointed his nephew William fitz Duncan to succeed Óengus, perhaps in compensation for the exclusion from the succession to the Scottish throne caused by the coming of age of David's son [[Henry of Scotland|Henry]]. William may have been given the daughter of Óengus in marriage, cementing his authority in the region. The burghs of [[Elgin, Moray|Elgin]] and [[Forres]] may have been founded at this point, consolidating royal authority in Moray.<ref>For all this, see Oram, ''David'', pp. 93–96; Oram also believes that the burghs of [[Auldearn]] and [[Inverness]] may also have been founded at this time, but it is more usual to ascribe these to the reign of David's grandson [[William the Lion]]; see, for instance, McNeill, Peter & MacQueen, Hector (eds), ''Atlas of Scottish History to 1707'', (Edinburgh, 1996), pp. 196–198.</ref> David also founded [[Urquhart Priory]], possibly as a "victory monastery", and assigned to it a percentage of his ''[[cain]]'' (tribute) from Argyll.<ref>Oram, ''David'', pp. 91–93.</ref>

During this period too, a marriage was arranged between the son of [[Matad, Mormaer of Atholl]], and the daughter of [[Haakon Paulsson]], [[Earl of Orkney]]. The marriage temporarily secured the northern frontier of the kingdom and held out the prospect that a son of one of David's [[mormaer]]s could gain [[Orkney]] and [[Caithness]] for the Kingdom of Scotland. Thus, by the time Henry I died on 1 December 1135, David had more of Scotland under his control than ever before.<ref>Oram, ''David'', p. 119.</ref>

=== Dominating the north ===
[[File:Kinloss Abbey.jpg|thumb|right|The ruins of [[Kinloss Abbey]] in [[Moray]], founded by David in 1150 for a colony of [[Melrose Abbey|Melrose Cistercians]].]]

While fighting [[Stephen of England|King Stephen]] and attempting to dominate northern England in the years following 1136, David was continuing his drive for control of the far north of Scotland. In 1139, his cousin, the five-year-old [[Harald Maddadsson]], was given the title of "Earl" and half the lands of the [[earldom of Orkney]], in addition to Scottish [[Caithness]]. Throughout the 1140s, Caithness and [[Sutherland]] were brought back under the Scottish zone of control.<ref>Richard Oram, "David I and the Conquest of Moray", p. 11.</ref> Sometime before 1146, David appointed a native Scot called [[Aindréas]] to be the first [[Bishop of Caithness]], a bishopric which was based at [[Halkirk]], near [[Thurso]], in an area which was ethnically Scandinavian.<ref>John Dowden, ''The Bishops of Scotland'', ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912), p. 232; Kenneth Jackson, ''The Gaelic Notes in the Book of Deer: The Osborn Bergin Memorial Lecture 1970'', (Cambridge, 1972), p. 80.</ref>

In 1150, it looked like Caithness and the whole earldom of Orkney were going to come under permanent Scottish control. However, David's plans for the north soon began to encounter problems. In 1151, [[King Eystein II of Norway]] put a spanner in the works by sailing through the waterways of Orkney with a large fleet and catching the young Harald unaware in his residence at Thurso. Eystein forced Harald to pay [[fealty]] as a condition of his release. Later in the year David hastily responded by supporting the claims to the Orkney earldom of Harald's rival [[Erlend Haraldsson]], granting him half of Caithness in opposition to Harald. King Eystein responded in turn by making a similar grant to this same Erlend, cancelling the effect of David's grant. David's weakness in Orkney was that the Norwegian kings were not prepared to stand back and let him reduce their power.<ref>Oram, ''David'', pp. 199–200.</ref>