Hamish MacPherson: Marking the anniversary of King David I’s ascension

David was the third of the Margaretsons – as Nigel Tranter called them – to become king and I would argue that he was the first king of what we now recognise as a united Scotland – except for Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides which remained in Norwegian hands at that time.

We do not know the exact date of David’s coronation at Scone but it definitely took place there and almost certainly happened soon after Alexander’s death, and so we should celebrate that nonacentennial any time over the next few weeks.

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Given his importance to Scotland’s history, I am amazed that more is not being made of the 900th anniversary of the ascension to the throne of a man who did so much to secure Scotland’s independence and who definitely altered the way this country was run – to this day, we live in a nation replete with governance introduced by David.

I note that the good citizens of Stirling have already begun to celebrate the 900th anniversary of their city’s incorporation as a royal burgh by none other than King David I. There’s no exact date for that anniversary, as no charter was sealed at that time by King David, and it’s more than likely that Stirling’s royal status was confirmed by oral decree from the throne. It could have happened any time between 1124 and 1130 which were the starting years of David’s transformation of Scotland with the establishment of royal burghs such as Berwick, Roxburgh, Perth, Edinburgh and Scone.

After his birth, probably around 1084, David’s early years were spent at the court of his mother and father, but after their deaths in 1093, he was sent south, probably to keep him out of the hands of would-be monarchs, to what became the court of King Henry I of England when he succeeded William II (Rufus) in 1100.

David’s older sister Edith had also gone south and she married Henry I in the year of his coronation, taking the Norman name of Matilda on her marriage. Descended from the House of Wessex, she was a unifying force among the aristocracy for the Anglo-Norman Henry and she would become Good Queen Maud for her many works for the church and her charity to the poor. She also gave birth to a daughter who would become the Empress Matilda.

As brother-in-law to the king, David spent a lot of time at the English court and was heavily influenced by Henry. He also met many nobles, mostly Normans, who had come from the continent to help William the Conqueror, William Rufus and Henry to rule England.

Historians have long argued among themselves about how much David was influenced by “Englishness” but there’s no doubt that he learned much from the way Henry assimilated Normans into England.

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As I showed last week, King Edgar had gained the Scottish throne after a series of battles with the other claimants, Malcolm Canmore’s sons by his first wife, Ingibiorg Finnsdottir. When Edgar died in 1107, he bequeathed Scotland (Alba) north of the Forth and Clyde to his brother Alexander I and the southern parts of the country – except for Galloway – to his other brother David.

Alexander was reluctant to accept this arrangement but David had the backing, especially the military support, of Henry of England, who also recognised David as “Prince of the Cumbrians” and in 1113, arranged his Scottish protégé’s marriage to Maud, Countess of Huntingdon and daughter of the Earl of Northumbria. That marriage brought David the so-called Honour of Huntingdon, a mass of land holdings across almost a dozen counties.

When Alexander died, at Scone David received the homage of the nation’s nobility – he was apparently reluctant to do so as he thought it unseemly – but duly laid claim to the whole of mainland Scotland, except for pesky Galloway which remained defiantly independent. He had already established his own train of knights and clerks in anticipation of the struggles he would face when becoming king, and these started almost immediately.

The nobility faced a choice – either support David, knowing all the time he had the backing of Henry of England – or back one of the two other possible heirs, both sons of regent kings.

The first was William fitz Duncan, son of King Duncan II and therefore a legitimate claimant to the throne, who was effectively bought off by David so that this renowned warrior would later become general of the king’s armies. Not so easy to deal with was David’s own nephew, Máel Coluim, son of Alexander I.

The English chronicler Orderic Vitalis wrote that Máel Coluim “affected to snatch the kingdom” and in doing so waged “two sufficiently fierce battles; but David, who was loftier in understanding and in power and wealth, conquered him and his followers”.

In 1130, due to his role as Earl of Huntingdon, David was summoned south by Henry to be part of the tribunal which heard the case against Geoffrey de Clinton, the king’s treasurer. The tribunal acquitted de Clinton of treason, but even as he was hearing the case, Máel Coluim rose in rebellion again and this time had the support of the most powerful lord in the north of Scotland, Óengus of Moray. The latter aristocrat also had a legitimate claim to the throne through his grandfather King Lulach, and their joint plan was to depose David and proclaim Óengus as king.

Edward Siwardsson, an old Anglo-Saxon noble, had been appointed as Constable by David and with the king away it was Siwardsson who took control of David’s forces and routed the rebels at the Battle of Stracathro, Óengus being one of the reported 4000 dead on that side. Máel Coluim escaped and continued to agitate against David until 1134 when he was captured and imprisoned for life at Roxburgh Castle.

David could now get on with the job of changing Scotland.