Editing David I of Scotland (section)

=== 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>