King David I of Scotland
King David I of Scotland - "The gentle abbey-builder"
King David I (1084 - 1153, king from 1124) David was the youngest son of Malcolm III (Canmore) and Margaret (saint), daughter of Edward the Atheling and brother of Alexander I, whom he succeeded. David is remembered mostly as a great builder of religious houses. A pious, civilized man, accessible to his subjects, David built up a network of royal burghs and castles and promoted feudalism in Scotland on the English (Anglo-Norman) pattern, and thus spelled out the end of Celtic influence. Ironically, his policy consolidated the clan system in the Highlands, which was to remain until after the Jacobite rising of 1745. David sided with his niece Matilda (against her cousin Stephen) for the throne of England and was defeated at the battle of the Standard (1138).
After Malcolm's death in 1093 his children were brought to England and in 1100 David's sister Matilda married King Henry I. David was thus into the environment of the educated Anglo-Norman court. David may have learnt his piety from either his mother or his sister, but his success as a ruler must be partly attributed to his upbringing in Henry's court. He was, as William of Malmesbury wrote, "polished from a boy by intercourse and familiarity with us" and "had rubbed off all the rust of Scottish barbarism".
In 1107 David became Prince of Cumbria and the anglicised Lothian; his brother Alexander confined his rule to lands north of the Forth. In 1113 David mnarried, with Henry's blessing, Matilda the daughter of waltheof, the Saxon Earl of Huntingdon, who had been executed by William I in 1076. He was then enfeoffed with great midland honour that had been recreated in 1090 for the Norman Simon of St. Liz, Matilda's first husband. As Earl of Huntingdon David would inevitably be a force in English politics. His marriage to Matilda also gave him the opportunity to make claim to the border earldom of Northumbria which had been held by Waltheof. In 1127 David swore loyalty to his niece Matilda as successor in the event of Hebry's death. But as King of Scotland his major concern was now with the strengthening and expansion of his kingdom. David had already shown in Cumbria the shape of he re-organisation he intended for his kingdom, the introduction of an Angle-Norman feudal class, and the sponsorship of new bishoprics and monastries. In addition David created a curia regis together with the great Anglo-Norman officials, the constable, the justiciar, and chancellor. He assured that Celtic customs should accommodate themselves to Anglo-Norman feudal practice.
After 1135 David took every opportunity to extend his authority over the border. In early 1138 Stephen was obliged to accept David's son Henry as Earl of Huntingdon and to grant Carlisle and Doncaster. David aimed to secure more. In the summer of 1138 he brought a savage army to terrorise the border. "Atrocities," commented William of Hexham, "occur in all wars but very seldom to such an extent," and the chronicler clearly felt nothing but horror and contempt for this "execrable army". David's force was, in fact, ill-disciplined and it was crushingly defeated by the northern barons under Archbishop Thurstan of York at the Battle of the Standard in August 1138. Nevertheless Stephen was compelled to grant Northumbria to Henry, Earl of Huntingdon. This was the outcome of the general state of anarchy prevailing, and not of the Battle of the Standard, for Dav id's defeat meant that the border became English. Yet David's reputation was not destroyed by the atrocities of 1138, perhaps because the monastic chriniclers could not bring themselves to criticise so munificent a patron. David was especially generous to the new Cisterian Order, and the most intimate biography of the king was written by his steward Ailred who left the royal service in 1134 to become a monk and ultimately Abbot of Rievaulx.
He was buried at Dunfermline Abbey.
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