Scotland Back in the Day: Why David I was the greatest King of Scots

Robert the Bruce, who secured our independence? James IV, a true moderniser before his untimely death at Flodden? Or James VI, who secured the Union of the Crowns in 1603? Victoria? Or Elizabeth II or I, depending on your arithmetic, the current and longest-reigning monarch?

All those named above have a claim, but only one King of Scots completely transformed this nation, laying down the foundation stones of what we now recognise as Scotland. He was David I, born around 1084 to Malcolm III, known as Canmore or great chief – not “big head”, as is so often taught – and Queen Margaret, formally canonised a saint after her death.

In the machinations of royal families that were current in those days, as a young boy David was forced into exile in the English court after the death of his father, while his uncle Donald III, known as Donald Bane, seized the Scottish throne. There he learned a great deal about England and Europe, and especially the Norman way of life, with the kings William Rufus and especially King Henry – who married David’s sister Matilda – supporting David.

Henry also arranged the marriage of David to Maud, Countess of Huntingdon, a widow and the owner of vast estates in England. The couple had one son, called Henry after David’s patron, but sadly he died before he could succeed his father.

On the death of his brother King Edgar, David took charge of estates all over southern Scotland and northern England, taking the title Prince of the Cumbrians. By 1113, while still in his 20s, he was back in his homeland and beginning his great works by founding Selkirk Abbey. A pious and god-fearing man and strong supporter of the church, David would go on to found more than a dozen abbeys or monasteries, including the mighty abbey of the Augustinian order at Jedburgh. These foundations alone changed the face and culture of Scotland as they brought in foreign influences and made education available to many more people than previously.

Later as king, David went much further in reorganising the church, founding or re-starting bishoprics such as Aberdeen and Glasgow. He helped the then bishop of Glasgow with the foundation of a stone-built cathedral which was dedicated in 1136, and Glasgow’s bishops remained stout defenders of the Scottish monarchy for centuries.

With the backing of Henry I, David became King of Scots after the death of his brother Alexander in 1124, even though other contenders may have had better claims to the throne. Those who lost out, such as Malcolm, son of King Alexander, fought for their claims and David had to fight a series of small wars inside Scotland, as well as wage war against England on occasion. He expanded Scotland’s borders as far south as the Rivers Tyne and Ribble at one point, but later was content to accept control of Carlisle and most of Northumbria.

The lost Battle of the Standard at Northallerton in Yorkshire in 1138 was typical of David’s attempts to boost the cause of his family’s claim to the English throne, the doomed invasion being to support his niece Matilda’s claim against King Stephen. That claim would eventually succeed gloriously when his great nephew, Henry Plantaganet, whom David had knighted, became King Henry II of England a year after David’s own death in 1153, and founded a dynasty.

With this background of civil war and trouble with England, it is almost astonishing that David was able to transform much of Scotland, though he never did gain control of the whole territory of modern Scotland as the Norse and Gaels still held their possessions, with Alba still seen as a separate northern entity. Instead, he set about the task of re-inventing lowland Scotland.

As Prince of the Cumbrians, David had invited some of the Norman families he had met at the English court to settle in southern Scotland. One of the greatest of these was the family of Robert de Brus, who had mixed Norman and Anglo-Saxon heritage, to whom he gave the lordship of Annandale. In time, de Brus became Bruce, and it was as Lord of Annandale that King Robert the Bruce first competed for the Scottish throne.

With the Normans came a new system of land tenure known as feudalism. David was keen on this form of government in which a vassal held his land in permanent tenure from his lord, as long as he provided money or troops and other services for that lord. Effectively this created a pyramid system of “feudal superiors” with King David himself at the top.

Unlike England, David and his Norman knights tended to live in peace with the existing noble families who became feudal superiors themselves. It may have been unfair and open to abuse, but feudalism was at least a way of retaining control over land, and was surprisingly long-lasting – feudal tenure was only abolished by the Scottish Parliament in the last decade.

David instituted other reforms of the governance of Scotland, setting up a central core of royal officials such as a chamberlain, a chancellor, and justiciars who were responsible for spreading his new justice system across the land. David also created the office of sheriff – both a judge and administrator – who effectively ruled and dispensed criminal and civil law in the king’s name in each district, or sheriffdom, of Scotland.

DAVID is a figure who divides the historians who have studied him. Some see him as a sort of Norman conqueror who imposed their way of life on Scotland, while others see him a clever ruler who integrated Norman ways while preserving much of the Celtic polity. But he certainly enriched and changed the country.

Scotland was then a land of subsistence agriculture with very little mercantile trade – the people survived on the food they grew, with wool usually the only surplus available for export, and that wool trade centred on the east-coast ports facing Europe.

David’s English possessions included the riches of a silver mine near Carlisle, and he used the proceeds to make the first proper Scottish coinage, which massively boosted trade.

His most influential work was the creation of burghs – some 15 in all before his death. There were no burghs before David became king, and centres of population were usually around church foundations or castles and forts.

Starting with Roxburgh and Berwick, he granted the title “Royal Burghs” to settlements across his territories. Based on the system he had found in England, David made the burghs the engine of modernisation for Scotland. Each burgh had special privileges within the kingdom – those that were seaports were granted exclusive trading rights, for example. Eventually, each Royal Burgh would be represented in the Scottish Parliament, but along with the rights came responsibilities. Each burgh had to enforce a strict code of living, and history tells us that the native Scots were not too happy with this idea, with many of the first burghs being inhabited by people brought in from England, France and Belgium by David and his Norman lords.

With these new burghs, the landscape was transformed and the true character of the lowlands was established – outside of the cities, Scotland is mostly a “towny” nation to this day.

So if any one man could be said to have created modern Scotland, it is David I, the greatest King of Scots.