Person Page - 115

David I (?) King of the Scots¹

David I, King of Scots

• Father: Malcolm III 'Canmore' (?) King of the Scots^2,3 b. c 1031, d. 13 Nov 1093
• Mother: Saint Margaret (?) Queen of the Scots³ b. 1045, d. 16 Nov 1093

• Relationships: 19th great-grandfather of Dougald MacFarlane, 17th great-grandfather of Margaret MacDonell, 22nd great-grandfather of Donald James MacFarlane

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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• Birth*: David was born between 1080 and 1085 in Scotland.^2,3
• Marriage*: He married Maud (?) of Northumberland, Queen of the Scots, daughter of Waltheof (?) Earl of Northumbria and Huntingdon and Judith (?) of Lens, circa 1114.⁴
• Death*: David I (?) King of the Scots died on 24 May 1153 in Scotland.³
• Burial*: He was buried after 24 May 1153 in Dunfermline Abbey, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland.³
• Biography*: David was king from 1124 to 1153.
  
  He gained the title of Prince David of Cumbria in 1107. As a result of his marriage, David 1st 'the Saint', King of Scotland was styled as Earl of Huntingdon circa 1113. As a result of his marriage, David I 'the Saint', King of Scotland was styled as Earl of Northampton circa 1113. He succeeded to the title of King David 1st of the Scots on 23 April 1124.
  
  This influential king established a basic form of central government; issued the first royal coinage; built the castle nuclei of Berwick, Edinburgh, and Stirling; and stengthened Angle-Norman aristocratic and feudal influence in Scotland. This followed his early years at the court of England's Henry I, David's brother-in-law, where he was 1st. Earl of Huntingdon. From 1136 David fought for his neice Matilda against Stephen in the English civil wars, and secured parts of Cumberland and Northumberland for himself. He modified Scottish Christianity (5 bishoprics founded) and established great Lowland abbeys on mainstream West European lines. Succeeded by his grandson, Malcolm 4th.
  
  Early Years
  
  The early years of David I are the most obscure of his life. Because there is little documented evidence, historians can only guess at most of David's activities in this period.
  
  Childhood and flight to England
  
  David was born on a date unknown in 1084 in Scotland. He was probably the eighth son of King Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, and certainly the sixth and youngest produced by Máel Coluim's second marriage to Queen Margaret. He was the grandson of the ill fated King Duncan I.
  
  In 1093 King Máel Coluim and David's brother Edward were killed at the River Aln during an invasion of Northumberland. David and his two brothers Alexander and Edgar, both future kings of Scotland, were probably present when their mother died shortly afterwards. According to later medieval tradition, the three brothers were in Edinburgh when they were besieged by their uncle, Domnall Bán.
  
  Domnall became King of Scotland. It is not certain what happened next, but an insertion in the Chronicle of Melrose states that Domnall forced his three nephews into exile, although he was allied with another of his nephews, Edmund. John of Fordun wrote, centuries later, that an escort into England was arranged for them by their maternal uncle Edgar Ætheling.
  
  Intervention of William Rufus and English exile
  
  William Rufus, King of England, opposed Domnall's accession to the northerly kingdom. He sent the eldest son of Máel Coluim, David's half-brother Donnchad, into Scotland with an army. Donnchad was killed within the year, and so in 1097 William sent Donnchad's half-brother Edgar into Scotland. The latter was more successful, and was crowned King by the end of 1097.
  
  During the power struggle of 1093–97, David was in England. In 1093, he may have been about nine years old. From 1093 until 1103 David's presence cannot be accounted for in detail, but he appears to have been in Scotland for the remainder of the 1090s. When William Rufus was killed, his brother Henry Beauclerc seized power and married David's sister, Matilda. The marriage made David the brother-in-law of the ruler of England. From that point onwards, David was probably an important figure at the English court. Despite his Gaelic background, by the end of his stay in England, David had become a full-fledged Normanised prince. William of Malmesbury wrote that it was in this period that David "rubbed off all tarnish of Scottish barbarity through being polished by intercourse and friendship with us"
  
  Prince of the Cumbrians, 1113–1124
  
  David's time as Prince of the Cumbrians and Earl marks the beginning of his life as a great territorial lord. His earldom probably began in 1113, when Henry I arranged David's marriage to Maud, 2nd Countess of Huntingdon, who was the heiress to the Huntingdon–Northampton lordship. As her husband, David used the title of Earl, and there was the prospect that David's children by her would inherit all the honours borne by Matilda's father Waltheof. 1113 is the year when David, for the first time, can be found in possession of territory in what is now Scotland.
  
  Obtaining the inheritance
  
  David's brother, King Edgar, had visited William Rufus in May 1099 and bequeathed to David extensive territory to the south of the river Forth. On 8 January 1107, Edgar died. It has been assumed that David took control of his inheritance – the southern lands bequeathed by Edgar – soon after the latter's death. However, it cannot be shown that he possessed his inheritance until his foundation of Selkirk Abbey late in 1113. According to Richard Oram, it was only in 1113, when Henry returned to England from Normandy, that David was at last in a position to claim his inheritance in southern "Scotland".
  
  King Henry's backing seems to have been enough to force King Alexander to recognise his younger brother's claims. This probably occurred without bloodshed, but through threat of force nonetheless. David's aggression seems to have inspired resentment amongst some native Scots. A Gaelic quatrain from this period complains that:
  
  Olc a ndearna mac Mael Colaim,      It's bad what Máel Coluim's son has done;,
  ar cosaid re hAlaxandir,       dividing us from Alexander;
  do-ní le gach mac rígh romhaind,      he causes, like each king's son before;
  foghail ar faras Albain.       the plunder of stable Alba.
  
  If "divided from" is anything to go by, this quatrain may have been written in David's new territories in southern Scotland.
  
  The lands in question consisted of the pre-1975 counties of Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire, Berwickshire, Peeblesshire and Lanarkshire. David, moreover, gained the title princeps Cumbrensis, Prince of the Cumbrians", as attested in David's charters from this era. Although this was a large slice of Scotland south of the river Forth, the region of Galloway-proper was entirely outside David's control.
  
  David may perhaps have had varying degrees of overlordship in parts of Dumfriesshire, Ayrshire, Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire. In the lands between Galloway and the Principality of Cumbria, David eventually set up large-scale marcher lordships, such as Annandale for Robert de Brus, Cunningham for Hugh de Morville, and possibly Strathgryfe for Walter Fitzalan.
  
  In England
  
  n the later part of 1113, King Henry gave David the hand of Matilda of Huntingdon, daughter and heiress of Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland. The marriage brought with it the "Honour of Huntingdon", a lordship scattered through the shires of Northampton, Huntingdon, and Bedford; within a few years, Matilda bore a son, whom David named Henry after his patron.
  
  The new territories which David controlled were a valuable supplement to his income and manpower, increasing his status as one of the most powerful magnates in the Kingdom of the English. Moreover, Matilda's father Waltheof had been Earl of Northumberland, a defunct lordship which had covered the far north of England and included Cumberland and Westmorland, Northumberland-proper, as well as overlordship of the bishopric of Durham. After King Henry's death, David would revive the claim to this earldom for his son Henry.
  
  David's activities and whereabouts after 1114 are not always easy to trace. He spent much of his time outside his principality, in England and in Normandy. Despite the death of his sister on 1 May 1118, David still possessed the favour of King Henry when his brother Alexander died in 1124, leaving Scotland without a king.
  
  Political and military events in Scotland during David's kingship
  
  Michael Lynch and Richard Oram portray David as having little initial connection with the culture and society of the Scots; but both likewise argue that David became increasingly re-Gaelicised in the later stages of his reign. Whatever the case, David's claim to be heir to the Scottish kingdom was doubtful. 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 I2nd 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. So when Alexander died in 1124, the aristocracy of Scotland could either accept David as King, or face war with both David and Henry I.
  
  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". Máel Coluim escaped unharmed into areas of Scotland not yet under David's control, and in those areas gained shelter and aid.
  
  In either April or May of the same year, David was crowned King of Scotland (Gaelic: rí(gh) Alban; Latin: rex Scottorum)[34] at Scone. If later Scottish and Irish evidence can be taken as evidence, the ceremony of coronation was a series of elaborate traditional rituals, of the kind infamous in the Anglo-French world of the 12th century for their "unchristian" elements. 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".
  
  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". He was probably in that part of Scotland he did rule for most of the time between late 1127 and 1130. However, he was at the court of Henry in 1126 and in early 1127, and returned to Henry's court in 1130, serving as a judge at Woodstock for the treason trial of Geoffrey de Clinton. It was in this year that David's wife, Matilda of Huntingdon, died. Possibly as a result of this, and while David was still in southern England, 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, where 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 – died.
  
  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". 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".
  
  It appears that David asked for and obtained extensive military aid from King Henry. Ailred of Rievaulx related that at this point a large fleet and a large army of Norman knights, including Walter l'Espec, were sent by Henry to Carlisle in order to assist David's attempt to root out his Scottish enemies. 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. Since modern historians no longer confuse him with "Malcolm MacHeth", it is clear that nothing more is ever heard of Máel Coluim mac Alaxadair, except perhaps that his sons were later allied with Somerled.
  
  Pacification of the west and north
  
  Richard Oram puts forward the suggestion that it was during this period that David granted Walter fitz Alan the kadrez of Strathgryfe, with northern Kyle and the area around Renfrew, forming what would become the "Stewart" lordship of Strathgryfe; he also suggests that Hugh de Morville may have gained the kadrez of Cunningham and the settlement of "Strathyrewen" (i.e. Irvine). This would indicate that the 1130–34 campaign had resulted in the acquisition of these territories.
  
  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. William may have been given the daughter of Óengus in marriage, cementing his authority in the region. The burghs of Elgin and Forres may have been founded at this point, consolidating royal authority in Moray. David also founded Urquhart Priory, possibly as a "victory monastery", and assigned to it a percentage of his cain (tribute) from Argyll.
  
  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 Mormaers 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.
  
  Dominating the north
  
  While fighting 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.
  
  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.
  
  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 2nd 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.^2,3