David I and Henry I

Author(s): Judith A. Green

Source: The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 75, No. 199, Part 1 (Apr., 1996), pp. 1-19
Published by: Edinburgh University Press
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The Scottish Historical Review, Volume LXXV, 1: No. 199: April 1996, 1-19

JUDITH A*. GREEN

David I and Henry I

In his History of the Kings of England, which he wrote at the request

of Queen Matilda, William of Malmesbury included a pen
portrait
of her brother David. He described David's boyhood at the court of
the Anglo-Norman kings with approval, in that David acquired social
polish there and threw off the rusticity of Scottish manners.1 The
of course, tells us more about William's prejudices than
description,
the reality of David's experiences, but it encapsulates the image of a
king who, having spent his youth with Normans, acquired friends and
allies at court, and familiarity with Norman techniques of warfare and
government which he was all too ready to import into Scotland.
David I has a deserved reputation as one of the great kings of
medieval Scotland. There is room for debate as to how far David

actually initiated some of

these developments, but, whether he
began or
developed them, his direct personal involvement is
undoubted.2 Henry I's reign was, in contrast, less clearly innovative,
but he was a very effective ruler, bringing more than three decades
of peace to England, and developing and refining the practices of
royal administration.3 The two kings shared preoccupations: the
1 William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Regum Anglorum libri quinque, historiae novella libri
tres, ed. N. E. S. A Hamilton (Rolls Ser., 1870), ii, 476-7.
2 R. L. G. Ritchie, The Normans in Scotland for a view which
(Edinburgh, 1954);
takes greater account of continuity, see G. W. S. Barrow, David I of Scotland
(1124-1153): The Balance of New and Old (Reading, 1985), repr. in G. W. S.
Barrow, Scotland and itsNeighbours in theMiddle Ages (London, 1992). For the view
that the reorganisation of the Scottish Church into territorial dioceses had begun
before 1124, see G. Donaldson, 'Scottish bishops' sees before the reign of David I',
Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., lxxxvii (1952-3), repr. in G. Donaldson, Scottish Church
History (Edinburgh, 1985). For the view that David's introduction of Normans
(and Flemings) into Scotland had a restricted if important impact,
see A. A. M.
Duncan, Scotland: The Making of the Kingdom (Edinburgh, 1975), 133-42.
3 There is a growing literature on I's reign. See E. Mason, I:
Henry 'Henry
an
decoding enigma', Medieval History, i(3) (1991); and, e.g.: R. W. Southern, 'The
place of Henry I in English History', Proc. British Academy, xlvii (1962), repr. in
R. W. Southern, Medieval Humanism and other Studies (Oxford, 1970); C. W.
Hollister, Monarchy, Magnates and Institutions in the Anglo-Norman World (London,
collects Hollister's articles on the
1986) (which important reign); M. Brett, The
English Church under Henry I (Oxford, 1975); J. A. Green, The Government of
England under Henry I (Cambridge, 1984), esp. 215-19; and W. L. Warren, The
Governance of Norman and Angevin England 1086-1272 (London, 1987), chap. 4.

JUDITH A. GREEN is a Reader in Modern at the Queen's of

History University
Belfast. An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the University of Glasgow;
she would like to thank Dr Keith and Dr Sandy Grant for their helpful
Stringer
comments on the text.
 2 JUDITH A. GREEN

desire to ensure that their own children, and not their rivals',
succeeded them, and their awareness of the of eccles
implications
iastical politics (David's ambitions for the see of St Andrews may be
by Henry's for St David's in Wales). Both were founders
paralleled
and benefactors of religious orders; both were builders of castles;
were David even
and both given favourable reports by chroniclers,
more so than Henry, not surprisingly given his outstanding
generosity to the Church.
Equally remarkable is the relationship between the two monarchs; it
is very rare for contemporary kings to have been so well acquainted
with each other. It was a relationship sustained by intermittent but
often lengthy visits of David to Henry's court, visits which did not
come to an end when David became king of Scots in 1124. What
I should like to attempt in this article is to piece together the
evidence about that relationship, to explore its dynamics and the
influences upon it. It would be very easy to think of this as one-way,
with David absorbing Norman culture, acquiring Norman friends
and allies, and then importing them into Scotland, but that ignores
the importance of David in Henry's political calculations.4 Thus, by
interweaving the evidence about the two men, we shall gain a fresh
on each.
perspective
David may have met Henry before 1100, because he is said to
have been reared at court, and it may be inferred that he travelled
south in the company of his elder brothers after the death of King
Malcolm in 1093.5 David was knighted by Henry I, however, and
this is likely to have occurred when he was about sixteen and
around the time Henry married David's sister Edith, who was
speedily renamed Matilda.6 Of David's activities in the next few
years there are only occasional references in the acts of his brother
in-law. It is likely that, as a young knight, he was gaining experience
with the royal household: certainly, as will be suggested later, the
families from whom he later recruited men belonged to what might
be described as a 'west Norman mafia' in the early years of Henry's
His earliest appearance occurs in a confirmation by Henry of
reign.
an exchange of land for Robert de Brus in Yorkshire. This, dated at
Whitsuntide and issued at Windsor, has been attributed by the
editors of Henry's acts to Whitsuntide 1103.7 Attestations clearly
must only be used to infer that individuals may have been present at
the time; nevertheless, even if they were not physically present, that
4 stressed the impact of Normans in Scodand. of a time a
Ritchie, Normans, Writing
few years after 1130 he described 'a land with Normans to be seen everywhere':

p. 227.
5 William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Regum, ii, 476-7.
6 The Ecclesiastical
History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. M. Chibnall (Oxford, 1969^-80), iv, 274.
7 vol. II, 1100-1135, ed. C.Johnson
Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum [RRAN],
and H. A Cronne (Oxford, 1956), no. 648.
DAVID I AND HENRY I 3

it reasonable to record an attestation is

contemporaries thought
in its own way as a sign that an individual have
revealing might
been present. In October 1105 David seems to have been with his
sister at Cornbury, a hunting lodge in the forest of Wychwood,
where he attested three documents.8 David was very
certainly
attached to his sister, and they shared a taste for patron
religious
age. The only story we have about their personal relationship is an
occasion on which David was scandalised when, summoned to his
sister at night, he found her washing and even kissing the feet of
own chamber.9
lepers in her
David's situation changed in 1107 when his brother Alexander
became king. It appears that David had been bequeathed a
large
estate in southern Scotland by King Edgar, and that Alexander was
reluctant to hand it over until David appeared with armed forces
provided by King Henry.10 There is little doubt that David did go
north from Henry's court at this point: as Geoffrey Barrow's
reconstruction of David's itinerary demonstrates, there is a gap
between 1107 and 1113. The assumption is that south-west
Scotland and south Lothian were the regions in question, and it
may be that David was stepping into a position previously held by
one or more of his brothers.11
South-west Scotland (apart from Galloway) was part of Cumbria,
the rump of an earlier the present Border.
kingdom straddling
According to the York chronicler, Hugh the Chanter, David was
instrumental in securing the consecration of one Michael, a 'Briton',
as a bishop for Cumbria ? or for Glasgow,
depending
on one's
? in 1109.12 Michael have been a man of local
viewpoint may stock,
and the fact that he is buried at Morland in Cumbria suggests that
he did not minister only or even at all in 'Scottish' Cumbria. David,
however, was evidently already active in Cumbria, and there is little
doubt that he regarded 'English' Cumbria as part of his domain, as
Barrow has recently reaffirmed.13 Certainly the of the
language
inquest made into the lands of the bishopric of Glasgow, probably
8
Ibid., ii, nos. 701,703,706.
9 in J.-P. Migne,
Ailred, 'Genealogia Regum Anglorum', Patrologia Latina, cxcv, col.
756.
1() 'Relatio de Standardo', in Chronicles
Ailred, of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and
Richard I, ed. R. Howlett (Rolls Ser., 1884-9), iii, 193.
11 G. W. S. and Unity: Scotland 1000-1306
Barrow, Kingship (London, 1981), 32.
12 the Chanter, The History
Hugh of the Church of York 1066-1127, ed. and trans.
C. Johnson, revised edn. by M. Brett, C. N. L. Brooke and M. Winterbottom
(Oxford, 1990), 52; N. Shead, 'The origins of the medieval diocese of Glasgow',
ante, xlviii (1969).
13 G. W. S. 'The Scots and the north of England', in The Anarchy
Barrow, of King
Stephen's Reign, ed. E. King (Oxford, 1994); for the background, see D. P.
Kirby,
'Strathclyde and Cumbria: a survey of historical to 1092', Trans.
development
Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Soc. [TCWAAS], new
ser., lxii (1962).
 4 JUDITH A. GREEN

shortly before his succession to the throne, suggests this: the lands
surveyed were said to be in David's lordship in that part of Cumbria
which lay north of the Solway.14 William Rufus had seized Cumbria
as recently as 1092, and there is no reason why the Scots were
expected to accept a permanent loss of territory.
There is also an indication of David's connection with Durham
between 1107 and 1124. The relationship of the Scottish kings with
Durham has been re-examined recently.15 St Cuthbert was a
powerful saint greatly revered on both sides of the Border, but
there were also political considerations for the Scottish king in
building up good relations with Durham. Although the see was in
the mouveance of the Norman kings in the late eleventh and early
twelfth centuries, it was no means certain that it would remain so.
After all, as recently as 1080 Bishop Walcher had been murdered by
the locals. His successor, William of St Calais, lost the trust of
William Rufus and went into exile between 1088 and 1091, but
when he returned he may have helped to broker a peace between
Malcolm and Rufus in 1091. Certainly Bishop William was keen to
promote a with the Scots, and Malcolm may have
good relationship
been tempted to concur in part by another factor which has not
been considered, namely, the potential for tension between the
and Robert de Mowbray.16 Robert was described as earl of
bishop
Northumberland by Symeon of Durham, but it has been pointed
out that he is not known to attest royal charters in this capacity
before 1094, and it may be that there was some dispute over the
scope of
his authority in County Durham, especially after the
bishop's restoration.17 His action in bestowing Tynemouth, where
the community at Durham had an outpost, on St Albans Abbey in
1091 can hardly have endeared him to the bishop.18 A vigorous and
independent-minded bishop may well have suited Malcolm's plans
better than a strong pro-Norman earl. Malcolm III and Margaret
had a special relationship with Durham, and, it is thought, entered
into confraternity with the monks in 1093 at the time the cathedral
was begun; Malcolm also laid the foundation stone of the new

14
Lawrie, Early Scottish Charters [ESC], no. 50.
15 G. W. S. 'The kings of Scodand and Durham', in Anglo-Norman Durham
Barrow,
1093-1193, ed. D. Rollason, M. Harvey, and M. Prestwich (Woodbridge, 1994).
16 of Durham, Libellus de exordio atque pro cursu istius hoc est Dunelmensis
Symeon
ecclesie, in Opera omnia, ed. T. Arnold (Rolls Ser., 1882-5), i, 128; for comment, see
H. S. Offler, 'William of St Calais, first Norman bishop of Durham', Trans. Archi
tectural and Archaeological Soc. of Durham and Northumberland, x (1950), 272-3; and
W. M. Aird, 'An absent friend: the career of Bishop William of St Calais', in
Rollason, Harvey, and Prestwich, Anglo-Norman Durham, 295.
*7
Symeon of Durham, Historia Regum, in Opera omnia, ii, 384; F. Barlow, William

Rufus (London, 1984), 167-8.

18 Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, ed. H. T. Riley i, 56-7.
(Rolls Ser., 1867-9),
DAVID I AND HENRY I 5

cathedral.19 Their son King Edgar was assisted by Rufus in establish

on the Scottish throne. It may therefore have been
ing himself
or under a certain amount of pressure from Rufus, that
willingly,
on the west (that is, Scottish) bank of the Tweed to
Edgar gave land
Durham in 1095 (namely Coldinghamshire and Berwickshire).20
Alexander I, his successor, actually attended the opening of St
Cuthbert's tomb in 1104. When he became king, one of his charters
confirming Edgar's gifts refers to the participation of his brother
David in the confirmation.21 Alexander's confirmation is addressed
to Prior Algar of Durham, who succeeded Turgot in 1109. Lawrie
a date of about 1110 for the document, for no very
suggested
obvious reason, but it is likely to have been issued before 1114, from
which year David usually described himself as earl.
At a later date, David was again involved in Durham's affairs.
The monks of Durham evidently ran into difficulties over establish
ing their rights in the land given to them, issued his own
and David
confirmation of the gifts Edgar had made, a document
attested only
by his sister and nephew.22 Perhaps from the lack of any reference
to King Henry we may infer that Henry was not present, and thus a
date after the Christmas feast of 1115, or possibly later, in 1116 or
1117 when Matilda and William were acting as regents in England,
is to be ascribed. In another document, which Lawrie dates as about
1118, David refers to a plea heard before him between the monks
and David's 'drengs' of Horndean.23 This was witnessed by three
men, one of whom was Hugh de Morville, about whom more later.
There are two other to be noted before we leave these
points
Durham grants. The first is the possibility that Matilda had a
personal interest in the region, perhaps in the form of a
marriage
portion. The sources are silent on any provision for her by her
father's family in 1100, but it would make sense to endow her in
the North. There is an interesting later grant by her of the church
of Carham (Wark) on Tweed to Durham.24 She had a further
indirect link via Waltham, which she held in dower, and which the
Conqueror had granted to Bishop Walcher. The canons were
paying a pension for the building of Durham castle, until Matilda

19 of Durham, Historia in Opera Liber

Symeon Regum, omnia, ii, 220; Vitae, ed.
J. Stevenson (Surtees Soc, 1841), 73; Barrow, 'Kings of Scodand and Durham',
313-14.
20 nos.
ESC, 15, 17-22. The authenticity of the early Scottish charters to Durham
has been debated; see, esp., A. A. M. Duncan, 'The earliest Scottish charters', ante,
xxxvii (1958), 118-25; and J. Donnelly, 'The earliest Scottish charters?', ante, lxviii
(1989).
21 no. 26.
ESC,
22 no. 29.
Ibid.,
23
Ibid., no. 32.
24 RRAN, ii, no. 1143.
 6 JUDITH A. GREEN

stopped it.25 The second is that none of David's charters for

Durham refers to King Alexander.26 Even David's confirmation of a
gift by Thor Longus, which did refer to Alexander (and which also
mentioned, incidentally, Queen Matilda of England), did not do
so.27 One possible inference is that David did not regard himself as
subordinate to Alexander in this region.
Meanwhile, David's fortunes had been transformed by marriage.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle H included the grant of the earldom of
Northampton to David, which presumably followed his marriage, in
decisions taken at the Christmas feast at Windsor in 1113-14.28
Henry had spent 1112 and the first months of 1113 in Normandy,
only returning after the successful pacification of his enemies. Such
an act of patronage, David to marry the of
allowing daughter
Waltheof, who had been earl of Northumbria as well as
Northampton/
Huntingdon, was both generous and risky. The marriage was
probably arranged at the time when Henry granted the honour of
Eye to his nephew Stephen, and there is no reason to disbelieve the
claim that Matilda urged her husband to do something for her
younger brother. David's marriage nevertheless throws light on the
high price Henry was prepared to pay for security in the North.
Matilda de Senlis's first husband had at least two sons, Simon and
Waltheof, but they were evidently minors at the time of their
father's death. David was granted the title of earl and held Simon's
estates in custody. For the next two years David crops up intermit
tently at Henry's court.29 Conceivably he visited his earldom in
1114, when he issued a confirmation in favour of St Andrews
Priory, Northampton.30
It was probably following his marriage, and perhaps in celebra
tion of it, that David took steps to found a community at Selkirk of
Tironensian monks.31 Tiron was an unusual choice.32 It was a

community that had only recently come into being in the wilds of
the forest of Perche beyond the frontiers of Normandy. Its founder,
Bernard, had fled from the ostentation of Cluniac ritual and was
a life of apostolic poverty. Henry I is said to have been
seeking
the new community. He an annual pension
impressed by granted
for the purchase of shoes, and freedom from tolls for the monks,
25 ed. R. Ransford
Early Charters of the Augustinian Canons of Waltham Abbey Essex,
1989), no. 5.
(Woodbridge,
26
ESC, nos. 29, 30, 32, 34.
27
Ibid., no. 54.
28 Chronicle, ed. D. Whitelock, D. C. Douglas and S. I. Tucker
Anglo-Saxon (London,
1961), H,s.a. 1114.
29 I, in Regesta Regum Scottorum
Skeleton itinerary of David [/2/2S], i, 113.
30
Ibid., i, no. \.
31 G. W. S. Barrow, The Kingdom Church and Society from the
of the Scots: Government,
Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century (London, 1973), 175.
32 Ibid., 174-7, 199-210; Chronicle, s.a. 1114.
Anglo-Saxon
DAVID I AND HENRY I 7

but he did not

grant land in England.33 It was David in Scotland
and Robert FitzMartin in Wales, probably at about the same time,
who took the first steps towards the foundation of communities.34
Robert FitzMartin was lord of Blagdon in Somerset. He is not
known to have had any contact with David, but this is intrinsically
not unlikely. Matilda Peverel, Robert's wife, was a sister of William
Peverel II of Nottingham.35 Moreover, there were men from
Cornwall and probably more generally from south-west England in
the army which Henry took to Wales in 1114, in whose company
was King Alexander.36
David may have been drawn for personal reasons towards an
choice; he may also have wished to make a bid for
avant-garde
and, after all, this was one area where he could be
independence,
independent. His mother had looked to Christ Church, Canterbury,
for monks to found a priory at Dunfermline. Alexander, like his
sister Queen Matilda, was very attracted by Augustinian canons.
David may simply have wished to do something different, and by
not choosing Benedictine monks for a new community whose
headquarters lay outside the realms of his brother and brother-in
law, he was showing his independence. There were, however, other
new communities whom he could have chosen to endow, such as
the hermits headed by Vitalis of Mortain who settled at Savigny;37

33
RRAN, ii, nos. 1169, 1236.
34 Barrow that the foundation of St Dogmael's had nothing to do with
suggested
that of Selkirk (Barrow, Kingdom, 201), and he accepted a date of foundation of
the former of c.1115 from M. D. Knowles and N. Hadcock, Medieval Religious
Houses, England and Wales (Cambridge, 1972), 107; Henry I's confirmation of
Robert FitzMartin's was issued between 1116 and 1118: RRAN, ii, no. 1187.
gifts
35 For Robert see I.J. Sanders,
FitzMartin, English Baronies: A Study of their Origin
and Descent, 1086-1327 (Oxford, 1960), 15. Robert's wife, Matilda Peverel, may be
identified with the woman of that name who is mentioned in 1130 as the sister of
William Peverel of Nottingham: R. Bear man, Charters of the Redvers Family and
Earldom of Devon 1090-1217 (Devon and Cornwall Record Soc, 1994), 85-6. She
was also the sister of Adeliza, wife of Richard de Redvers. The family of Peverel of
Nottingham had estates in west Normandy; William Peverel confirmed land held
of him to Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte: G. E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, rev.
V. Gibbs et al. (London, 1910-59), iv, app. I.
36 Brut
y Tywysogyon: Red Book of Hergest version, ed. T. Jones (Cardiff, 1955), 78. The
author of the Brut specifically refers to Penwith, i.e. the westernmost part of
Cornwall; but as the leader of the contingent was Gilbert Gilbert
(presumably
FitzRichard, lord of Ceredigion, whose cousins were lords of Okehampton) itmay
be inferred that it was recruited more
widely from the west country.
37 It is possible, for instance, that Stephen was already count of Mortain and thus
patron of the Savigniacs. It is not clear, however, when was
precisely Stephen
granted the county. He was after the battle of Tinchebrai in 1106, and
knighted
may have been given the county at that time. Count William of Mortain was
on the battlefield and imprisoned,
captured allegedly dying much later: Chibnall,
Orderic Vitalis, vi, 286. William is said to have become a monk in 1120 after being
rescued from the Tower of London a miracle of the Holy Cross: Annates
by
Monastici, ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls Ser., 1864-9), iii, 432, 436. Henry I's charter
confirming the gift of Ralf of Fougeres and his wife of the forest of Savigny to
 8 JUDITH A. GREEN

that he opted for Tiron rather than one of the other groups surely
indicates a personal preference.
The site selected is also interesting, at the upper end of the Tweed

valley. It is possible that the land given for the new foundation had
earlier been
church land and, as was not uncommon with new
foundations, was being restored to the Church.38 David was, in a
sense, staking out the border and a
region setting up community
which owed nothing to historic associations. He may also have been
rather less sanguine than his predecessors about the likely benefits
of becoming a patron of Durham.39

Henry I's Christmas feast of 1115 was spent at St Albans. Henry,

Matilda, their son William, and David, are all known to have been
there, possibly for the last time at a family party. If any oaths of
in were taken to Prince William as his father's
allegiance England
heir, as they had been in Normandy the previous Christmas, it is
that this was the occasion.40 By Easter 1116 Henry was
possible
heading off to Normandy, and may have been accompanied by
David, for it was around this time that David is said to have visited
the abbey of Tiron.41 Henry is not known to have visited England
It is even likely, that he returned
again until November 1120. possible,
for his wife's funeral in 1118. He certainly had views about her
wish to be in Holy Trinity
place of burial, for he refused her buried
Aldgate, preferring Westminster Abbey.42 David disappears from
view, but he may have visited his sister at least once before her
death.43
In November 1120 Henry's hopes and happiness foundered
when the White Ship went down, and with it the king's heir and
two other children plus leading members of his court. The grieving
king returned to England. His first priority had to be remarriage in

Vitalis was issued in 1112, and this makes no reference to Stephen or any count of
Mortain: H. Round, Calendar Documents preserved in France (London, 1899),
J. of
287-8. It is not inconceivable that David and Stephen were rivals, and
early
if Stephen was already count of Mortain and thus committed to the Savigniacs,
then David may have preferred to opt for Tiron. See also C. N. L. Brooke, 'King
David I of Scodand as a connoisseur of the religious orders', in Mediaevalia
a here
Christiana xi-xii siecles: Hommage Raymonde Foreville (Tournai, 1989), 325-6;
of Selkirk.
it is suggested that David may have visited Tiron before the foundation
38 Barrow, 205.
Kingdom,
39 and Durham', 318.
Barrow, 'Kings of Scodand
40 RRAN, ii, no. 1102.
41 of Henry I, RRAN, ii, xxx; Geoffrey the Fat, 'Life of Bernard of Tiron',
Itinerary
in Migne, Latina, clxxii, cols. 1426-7. David arrived too late
Patrologia Evidently
to meet Bernard; the latter died in 1116 or 1117.
42 The ed. G. A.J. Record Soc,
Cartulary of Holy Trinity Aldgate, Hodgett (London
1971), 230.
43 RRAN, ii, no. 1180.
DAVID I AND HENRY I 9

the hope of securing an heir, and within a few weeks he had sent
for and married Adeliza of Louvain. Significantly, David was at his
court in January 1121, together with Henry's nephews Theobald,
Count of Blois, and Stephen, and his son Robert. David's presence
at this crucial juncture of events is noteworthy: he must have taken
horse virtually as soon as he heard of the disaster.
So far, then, all seems to have been sweetness and light in Anglo
Scottish relations. King Alexander was married to an
illegitimate
daughter of Henry named Sybil. The date of the marriage cannot
be pinpointed, but was possibly arranged in 1114 when the two
kings went to Wales together, and Henry visited Sybil's maternal
family home at Castle Holgate in Shropshire.44 The marriage,
however, was childless, and thus David was increasingly likely to
succeed Alexander. Yet in 1121 and 1122 the political temperature
rose.45 In 1121 there was a gathering of northern magnates at
Durham. What was going on?
The sources do not offer an explicit reason, but there are clear
of tension. The built a castle at Norham on the river
signs bishop
Tweed. Probably about the same time Walter Espec, from this point
on one of Henry's key men in the north of built another
England,
at Wark, and gave the church there, which Matilda had earlier
given to Durham, to his newly founded priory at Kirkham in
Yorkshire.40 From the Scots' point of view, the castles threatened
their territorial claims in the region. In July 1122 Henry's daughter
Sybil died, and later in the year he made his only recorded visit to
the North, a sure indication of unease. He visited Carlisle, where
the defences the castle were
of strengthened.47 His presence at
Durham and Yorkare also recorded, before he returned south in
time for Christmas.48
There are other possibilities. Perhaps, if Matilda had had a
marriage portion in the north of England, the Scots were demand
ing that it should be handed over to them. Perhaps David wanted
Carlisle now that Ranulf Meschin had been moved to the earldom
of Chester: there is just a chance that Robert de Brus may have

44
Ibid., ii, nos. 1048-51; for the possibility that another daughter of Henry married
Fergus of Galloway, see R. D. Oram, and the Scots', in
'Fergus, Galloway
Galloway: Land and Lordship, ed. R. D. Oram and G. P. Stell 1991);
(Edinburgh,
and R. D. Oram, 'A family business? Colonisation and settlement in twelfth- and
thirteenth-century Galloway', ante, lxxii (1993), 115-16.
45 of Durham, Historia in Opera omnia, ii, 261-2;
Symeon Regum, J. A. Green, 'Anglo
Scottish Relations, 1066-1174', in England and her 1066-1453, ed.
Neighbours
M.Jones and M. Vale (London, 1989), 61-2.
46 William Monasticon
Dugdale, Anglicanum, (new edn., London, 1817-30), vi, 208-9.
47 Simeon of Durham, Historia in Opera Omnia,
Regum, ii, 265; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
s.a. 1122.
4?
RRAN, ii, nos. 1131-9.
 10 JUDITH A. GREEN

been active in thelocality at about this time.49 The timing of the

inquest into the lands north of the Solway belonging to the see of

Glasgow could be taken as an indication of concern at this juncture.

Although Carlisle was not elevated into a bishopric until 1133, plans
may have been set in hand at the time of Henry's visit in 1122.50 In
ecclesiastical one new factor was the arrival of
politics, Archbishop
Thurstan at York in 1121, having finally won his battle not to make
a profession of obedience to Canterbury despite pressure from
Canterbury and from the king. As archbishop of York, Thurstan
had his own primatial claims to pursue over the Scottish Church,
and it may have been these that were causing the temperature to
rise.51

The York primacy might appear in retrospect to have been a lost

cause, but that was by no means evident at the time. After all, Bishop
Michael had been consecrated at York. His successor, Bishop John,
had been elected at York, but this was during the period after
Thomas's death and before Thurstan was allowed to
Archbishop
enter his see. John was consecrated by the Pope, but that did not
him from swearing an oath to Thurstan, if he could be
preclude
or coerced into doing so.52 In 1109 Turgot, Bishop of
persuaded
Durham, had been consecrated bishop of St Andrews by Arch
bishop Thomas, and Thomas also consecrated Ralph to the Orkneys
in the same
year.
was alive to the implications of York's primacy,
King Alexander
and when in 1120 he sought a new bishop of St Andrews, he turned
to Christ Church Canterbury, and to Eadmer, the biographer of
Anselm and no friend of York. He could be sure that Eadmer
would not make any profession to York. Neither, however, was
Eadmer prepared to do homage and accept investiture from

49 to St Mary's
Robert de Brus's grant of 'Karkarevil' York (i.e. St Mary's depend
ency at Wetheral in Cumberland), which Earl David confirmed, has never been

fully explained (ESC, no. 52). Barrow suggested that the place was Querqueville
in western and that Robert may have David land there
Normandy, granted
(Barrow, Kingdom, 323 and note). If this is correct, the relationship between the
two men is shown in a fresh light. But why should David have confirmed a
grant
of land in Normandy where David was tenant not lord?
by Robert allegedly
in the vicinity of
Another possibility is that the land in question lay somewhere
Carlisle. In either case, David is shown to have had an interest in confirming gifts
to Wetheral in Cumbria before he became At a later date the Brus family
king.
held Edenhall near Penrith: F. W. Ragg, The Earlier Owners of Edenhall', TCWAAS,
new ser., xiii (1913). Although the earliest known Brus connection with Edenhall
mentioned here dates from the time of Peter de Brus of Skelton, temp. Henry III,
a much earlier connection, if not with Edenhall, then with somewhere else in
Cumbria, is not impossible.
50 see 'The origins of the cathedral
For the foundation of Carlisle, J. C. Dickinson,
of Carlisle', TCWAAS, xlv (1946); and J. C. Dickinson, 'Walter the Priest and St

Mary, Carlisle', TCWAAS, lxix (1969).

51 A J. Nicholl, Archbishop Thurstan (York, 1964), chaps. 2-3, provides the background.
52 li-lii.
Hugh the Chanter, History of the Church of York, pp.
DAVID I AND HENRY I 11

Alexander, and he returned to Canterbury. The monks of Canter

bury had sought Henry I's advice on the issue, and he was alleged
to have replied that Alexander was determined to be master in his
own kingdom ? an accurate assessment of the situation.53
It was at this stage that Thurstan arrived in York. High on his
was securing a from of
agenda profession Bishop John Glasgow,
from the next bishop of St Andrews, and from any other bishop
for Scotland. Thurstan went on the offensive
appointed against
Bishop John, and in January 1122 the Pope sent letters, one to
Alexander and one to John, underlining Thurstan's primacy over
the Scottish bishops. John left Scotland and went to Rome, where
he found the Pope unbending in his support of Thurstan. It is
therefore, that King Alexander was concerned about
possible,
Thurstan's activities, and that this lay behind the tension of 1121-2.
What was David's situation at this time? All we know is that in
1122 he was at York in Henry I's company when Henry issued a
protection for the newly founded at Kirkham.54 He was still
priory
in the king's favour, because not long afterwards he was addressed
with Roger of Salisbury in a writ instructing the two to make sure
that the monks of Reading secured their rights at Cholsey in
Berkshire.55 It is not impossible that the writ belongs to the
period
between 1123 and 1126, when the king was out of England and
Roger was acting as his viceroy, and therefore, to the
presumably,
months immediately before David became king. If the writ was
issued in this period, the role of David as a royal justiciar acquires
added significance.56 If he was in Henry's good books, then he
perhaps had a role in 1122. If David's activities in
played mediating
Cumbria had been part of the problem, then the two had evidently
been speedily reconciled. From Henry's point of view, a breach with
David was highly undesirable. The death of Alexander's wife Sybil
in July 1122 was another factor which had to be taken into account;
even if Alexander remarried, it would take time before David was
supplanted as heir presumptive.

In 1124 David became king, and his elevation inevitably affected his
relationship with Henry I. Hitherto David had been the junior
partner, a landless younger son, enriched his brother-in-law and
by
given the rare of comital status. He was a man with wealth
privilege
and prospects able to attract men into his following. Attract them he
did: we have their attestations to documents issued by David before
1124. What we simply do not know is if he was already
giving some
53
Ibid., 50, 52.
54 Historia Novorum, ed. M. Rule
Eadmer, (Rolls Ser., London, 1881), 286.
55
Nicholl, Archbishop Thurstan, 78-84; #/L4Ar, ii, no. 1423.
56
/Wrf., ii, no. 1334.
 12 JUDITH A. GREEN

of them land in Scotland. He may well have done so, though the
earliest written evidence is his charter granting Annandale to
Robert de Brus, which was probably issued soon after his accession.
W. E. Kapelle has suggested that in the years following 1107, when
David was probably in Scotland, he may have worked with Ranulf
Meschin, lord of Carlisle, and men like Robert de Brus, who had
estates in Yorkshire, to the on the
large bring region bordering
Firth under more effective control.57 Such a scenario is not
Solway
David's acquaintance with Robert de Brus went back to
impossible.
the early years of the twelfth century, and when David left Henry's
court in 1107 it seems that Robert went with him.58 Robert was the
known to receive substantial
only first rank northern magnate
Scottish estates from David before 1135. David had contacts with
others, like Walter Espec, Eustace Fitzjohn, and Bernard de Balliol,
but they did not accept, were not allowed to accept, or were not
offered, land in Scotland. Robert was also the only man whose
estates were entered into Domesday after the first volume was
drawn and the suspicion inevitably arises whether the two
up,59
were connected. There is no very obvious reason why Robert's
lands should been singled out in this way from other honours
have
which had comeinto being after 1086, other than his tenure of
Annandale from David. If, as is the was entered
likely, description
the 1120s, perhaps it followed a renewal of fealty and
during
to The size of the grant by David, and the amount
homage Henry.
of knight service (ten knights) later are also exceptional,
requested,
and it would appear that David intended the lordship, with its
at the castle at Annan, to be a bulwark against the
headquarters
autonomous region of Galloway.60 If so, there is no reason why
Robert should not have been holding Annan before 1124 but only
received a charter when David became king.61
57 W. E. and its Transformation,
Kapelle, The Norman Conquest of theNorth: The Region
1000-1135 (London, 1979), 207; RRAN, ii, no. 1423.
58 See above, note 51. David occurs as a witness to Henry I's confirmation of an
of land for Robert de Brus, the earliest occurrence of either in a docu
exchange
ment of Henry I: RRAN, ii, no. 648; J. A. Green, 'Aristocratic on the
loyalties
northern frontier of England, c. 1100-1174', in the ed.
England Twelfth Century,
D. Williams (Woodbridge, 1990), 61-2.
59 ed. A. Farley Commission, 1783-1816), i, 332b-333.
Domesday Book, (Record
Different views have been as to the time when the description was
expressed
see G. Fellows-Jensen, 'The Domesday Book account of the Bruce fief,
compiled;
ii (1969-70), cf. P. King, 'The return of
English Place-Name Society Journal, 8-17;
the fee of Robert de Brus in Domesday', Yorkshire Archaeological lx (1988),
Journal,
25-9. For a discussion of the handwriting, see A. Rumble, 'A Domesday postscript
and the earliest roll', in People and Places in Northern Europe
surviving pipe
in Honour ed. I. Wood and N. Lund
500-1600: Essays of Peter Hayes Sawyer,
(Woodbridge, 1991).
60 G. W. S. Barrow, Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland (3rd edn,
Edinburgh, 1988), 20.
61 169.
Ritchie, Normans,
DAVID I AND HENRY I 13

Other men whose families came originally from west Normandy

joined David's
following before 1124. Barrow has raised the
question of whether David recruited them directly from Normandy
or indirectly via Henry's court.62 He has pointed out a surprising
number of families with west-country links, specifically with
Somerset, who sent sons to Scotland during the twelfth century.63 It
may be suggested that this reflected not so much west-country
recruitment as west-Norman recruitment, because of the strong
west-Norman presence in Somerset and the south-western counties.

That went back to the post-Conquest

presence years and the roles
there of men
such as William de Vauville and Bishop Geoffrey of
Coutances, and was reinforced in the early twelfth century by the
grant of lands by Henry I to a man who had entered his service in
the 1090s, Richard de Redvers.64 These were the men with whom
David was
associated at Henry's court. As David's prospects
he could attract men into his service, and it is not
improved,
to find that they were younger sons or tenants of men
surprising
prominent in Henry's service.
Families like the Foliots or the Morvilles spring up in several
in roughly the same period, and we cannot be sure whether
places
came directly from Normandy, or from a branch settled in
they
England. The Foliots have been thoroughly studied by Morey and
Brooke.65 The family originally hailed from the Cotentin and later
had property at Vauville near In England one branch is
Cherbourg.
found in Devon, where it had settled either at the Conquest, or at a

slightly later date at the time of Richard

de Redvers' arrival.66
Another branch included Foliot, Gilbert
abbot and bishop, and
Payn Foliot, who became David's steward in the honour of Hun
tingdon. It looks as though it was David who was responsible for
introducing him into the honour.67 The Morvilles also came from
western Normandy. One branch seems to have descended from a
companion of Richard de Redvers;68 another, Geoffrey de Morville,
62 G. W. S. Barrow, The Anglo-Norman Era in Scottish History (Oxford, 1980), 99.
63 Ibid., 100; see also J. A. Green, 'Family matters: family and the formation of the
Empress's party in south-west England', in Family Trees and the Roots of Politics, ed.
K. S. B. Keats-Rohan
(Woodbridge, forthcoming).
64 For Norman in south-west see
settlement England, J. A. Green, The Aristocracy of
Norman England (forthcoming), chap. 1; for Richard de Redvers, see Bearman,
Charters of the Redvers Family, 1-5, 17-25.
65 A. Morey and C. N. L. Brooke, Gilbert Foliot and his Letters
(Cambridge, 1965),
chap. 3, and appendix 2.
66 Robert Foliot attested a charter of Richard de Redvers, who died in 1107: Bear
man, Charters of the Redvers Family, no. 3.
67 RRS, i, nos. 13, 15, 16, 20, 21; ESC, nos. 53, 95; W. Farrer, Honors and Knights'
Fees (London and Manchester, 1923-5), ii, 383-4.
68 L. C. Loyd, The Origins of some Families
Anglo-Norman (Harleian Soc, Leeds, 1951),
70; Barrow, Anglo-Norman Era, 71 and note; Bearman, Charters of the Redvers Fam
ily, 38, 54-5, 57.
 14 JUDITH A. GREEN

attested for Nigel d'Aubigny, who was Henry's chief lay magnate in
Yorkshire in the early years of his reign;69 whilst Hugh de Morville
joined King David and, as Barrow has shown, went on to become
David's constable.70 Such men were few in number before 1124, and
they were also not of the first rank; but they were in
important
paving the way for their kinsmen and dependants to follow them
north.71

David had with at least two if not three Norman

contacts families
holding land in Shropshire. William Peverel of Dover and his
brother Haimo held land in Shropshire, the latter apparently from
the time of Earl Hugh of Montgomery, who died in 1097.72 The
family survived the downfall of Hugh's brother in 1102 and

prospered greatly under Henry I.73 A second family was that of

Corbet. Robert Corbet may have arrived in Scotland in the entou
rage of Queen who was a daughter of Henry I and Sybil
Sybil,
Corbet, for he witnessed the foundation charter of Selkirk; David
probably enfeoffed him on the honour of Huntingdon.74 These
cases raise a possibility that Payn de Briouze, who witnessed the
same foundation charter and was granted land in Huntingdon,
arrived via the same route, for he was clearly connected with the
estates in Sussex and inWales.75
Philip de Briouze who held
David's estates and his visits to Henry's court allowed
English
him to develop contacts with some key members of Henry's
administration, an aspect of his role in England which perhaps
deserves more attention than it has been accorded. One royal
chamberlain, William of Houghton, held lands of the honour of
There were links, too, with key Henrician sheriffs,
Huntingdon.76
Gilbert sheriff of Huntingdon, and Hugh of Leicester, sheriff of
Justices like Geoffrey Ridel, Aubrey de Vere and
Northampton.77
Richard Basset were tenants of the honour of Huntingdon.78 In

69 ed. D. E. Greenway
Charters of the Honour of Mowbray 1107-91, (British Academy
Records of Social and Economic History, 1972), p. xxxiv.
70 Barrow, Era, 70-84.
Anglo-Norman
71 Earl David 1152-1219: A Study in Anglo-Scottish
K.J. Stringer, of Huntingdon,
1985), 3.
History (Edinburgh,
72 The ed. U. Rees 1975), i, 3-4.
Cartulary of Shrewsbury Abbey, (Aberystwyth,
73 William Peverel have been Ellesmere in Shropshire I:
may granted by Henry
ibid., i, 17-18. He was the uncle of Walkelin Maminot: Sanders, English Baronies,
97. A third brother, Payn Peverel,
was
granted the honour of Bourn: ibid., 19.
74 ESC, no. xxxv; Farrer, Honors and Knights' Fees, ii, 386.
75 made a in Bedfordshire in 1130 for which de
Payn de Briouze proffer Philip
Briouze was Roll 31 Henry I, ed. J. Hunter (Record Comm., 1831),
pledge: Pipe
31. Philip was lord of Bramber in Sussex and lands in Wales, so it is likely that

Payn was a kinsman: Sanders, English Baronies, 21, 108.

76 Green, Government under Henry I, 259; Farrer, Honors and Knights' Fees,
of England
ii, 259.
77 Barrow, 174, 177-8.
Kingdom,
7S Earl David, 108.
Stringer,
DAVID I AND HENRY I 15

recent years an emphasis on the role of the crown in

by historians
men by royal patronage has perhaps tended to obscure the
raising
links of royal servants with key loyalist magnates. The latter had
much more power and influence in their own regions in the early
twelfth century than has often been allowed, and, in this context,
David's as a loyalist magnate should not be forgotten.
importance
David had also been able to build up contacts and friendships
with ecclesiastics as well as laymen in northern England, including
Archbishop Thurstan, and he clearly had close ties with the
canons of Nostell. Thurstan envisaged a special role for
Augustinian
the canons in the evangelisation of the North, and there was no
reason why they could not (as they did) extend their activities into
Scotland. Nostell was dedicated to St Oswald, the martyr king of
Northumbria, a fact which doubtless did not escape Scots' notice.79
It is not clear precisely when Nostell was founded as an
Augustinian
house, but it was probably around 1114. David probably came into
contact with the canons because of the proximity of the priory to
the Great North Road by which he may well have travelled between
Scotland and the honour of Huntingdon.80

David had acquired lands, followers, and a network of contacts from

his association with Henry I before 1124. Henry, however, had also
benefited, for good relations with the sons of Malcolm stabilised the
northern frontier, and created possibilities for further Norman
settlement. William Rufus had shown an aggressive determination
to extend his north-western frontier by seizing and fortifying
Carlisle, and had backed Duncan and Edgar in their efforts to win
the Scottish throne. Henry had allied himself to the sons of Malcolm
III by marriage, and continued good relations. From a southern
standpoint this allowed Norman settlement in the North to
advance. The tenurial map of Yorkshire was and filled in,
reshaped
the beneficiaries again being men close to Henry I, and Norman
families appeared in Durham and Northumberland. Cathedrals were
built at York and Durham, and religious houses were founded.
Henry's plans for his succession took a new turn in 1125 when
his daughter Matilda was widowed. He her back to
brought
England, and at Christmas 1126 all the leading ecclesiastics and
laymen took an oath of allegiance to her as Henry's successor in
default of a son. David was the first layman to take the oath.81 From

79
Nicholl, Archbishop Thurstan, 127-37.
80 It was suggested by Farrer that David may have been lord of Hallam, but this
seems to have been on the mistaken that David was pardoned dane
assumption
geld for Hallam in the 1130 pipe roll: Early Yorkshire Charters, vol. Ill, ed.
W. Farrer 1916), 3.
(Edinburgh,
81 William of Malmesbury, Historia Novella, ed. K. R. Potter 1955), 4-5.
(Edinburgh,
 16 JUDITH A. GREEN

David's point of view, he had little alternative, since Matilda was his
niece and therefore preferable to William Clito or Theobald and
Stephen of Blois. It is likely that Henry had given David an added
inducement, by himself putting pressure on Thurstan. The arch
bishop was still to exert his over the Scottish
endeavouring primacy
Church, at this moment by trying to secure a profession from
Robert, prior of Scone, who had been elected to the bishopric of
St Andrews. From Thurstan's point of view the situation had
become more complicated because his representatives at Rome had
discovered that King David had been trying to secure an arch

bishopric for St Andrews, and this, if conceded, would mean an

independent Scottish Church.82 Yet in the early weeks of 1127

Thurstan consecrated Robert without a at the behest of
profession
the two kings, who persuaded him not to persist with his case at
Rome but to settle ? disadvantageously
? out of court.
Thurstan had a consolation prize, in that he consecrated a
bishop
for Whithorn, probably in 1128, but this was in any case
region
outwith David's power. In 1133 Thurstan consecrated a for
bishop
Carlisle, Adelulf, prior of Nostell, but Adelulf did not enter his see
before 1135 and may indeed have been unable to do so because of
David.83 In effect, therefore, David had not made any major
concessions, and had emerged in a relatively strong position. Not
only that, but he was also holding onto the lands of the earldom of
Huntingdon.
The situation here was that David was technically only custodian
of the honour, for his wife had had at least two sons by her first
marriage. One of them, Waltheof (St Waldef) entered the commu
nity at Nostell in about 1128. Matilda de Senlis herself died in 1130
or 1131, and by this time her other son, Simon II de Senlis, must
have been of age, for his father, who was living in August 1111, is
thought to have died not long after that date.84 It may well have
been the issue of Simon's claim to Huntingdon which brought
David south in 1130 as well as the wider issue of the Empress and
the succession. Yet, so far as we know, Simon was not allowed to
have the
lands, and David probably continued to hold them until

Henry I's death. This is the earliest known example of what became
known as the 'curtesy of England', by which a second husband, if he
had a child by his marriage, was allowed to retain for life the lands
of his first wife.85 Political considerations here seem to have

82
Hugh the Chanter, History of the Church of York, 212.
83 relations', 63; for Whithorn, see further Oram, 'A family
Green, 'Anglo-Scottish
business?', 113-14.
84
RRAN, ii, no. 988.
85 F. Pollock and F. W. Maitland, The History Law reissued
of English (2nd edn,
Cambridge, 1968), ii, 414.
DAVID I AND HENRY I 17

moulded custom, and the issue also indicates what a premium was
on David's support, because
placed by Henry continuing Henry's
own were still precarious.
plans for the future
Meanwhile, David's position in Scotland was challenged by the
outbreak of revolt in Moray in 1130 led by Earl Angus. He was
killed in that year, but one of his allies, Malcolm MacHeth, was not
until 1134. The northern lords are reported to have
captured
assembled at Carlisle and to have marched to David's aid.86 That
they were involved at all is an interesting insight into the relation
ship between the two kings at this stage.
Although his nephew William Clito had died in 1128, Henry still
had cause for concern over the succession because Matilda, by now
married to Geoffrey of Anjou, had not yet produced a son, and
there were evidently discussions afoot about her future, in which
David would have been involved. David was also involved in
over the cause celebre of 1130, the charge of treason
presiding
brought against the king's chamberlain and treasurer, Geoffrey de
Clinton.87 The charge may have been instigated as a
political
manoeuvre by the Beaumonts, as has been suggested, but the basis
may have been related to a financial shortfall in the previous year.88
If, let us say, there were difficulties over the Empress's
meeting
marriage expenses, then Henry may have been sufficiently angry
to set proceedings in hand against leading financial officials.
Bishop Roger of Salisbury, his chief minister who presided at the
Exchequer, made his only known visit to Normandy after being
made a in 1129.89 He survived the crisis, as did the other key
bishop
chamberlain, William de Pont de l'Arche;90 Geoffrey may therefore
have been a scapegoat.
The year 1130 may have witnessed the last occasion when David
and Henry were in each other's This had been a
company.91

86 'Relatio de in Chronicles II and Richard

Ailred, Standardo', of Stephen, Henry I, iii,
193.
87 s.a.
1130.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
88 D. Crouch, de Clinton and Roger, Earl of Warwick: new men and
'Geoffrey
magnates in the Reign of Henry I', Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, lv
(1982), 120.
89
RRAN, ii, nos. 1575-6.
90 William de Pont de l'Arche was sheriff of Dorset and Wiltshire in 1130, and was
holding the keys of the treasury at Winchester in 1135: Green, Government of
England under Henry I, 267-9; Gesta Stephani, ed. K. R. Potter, rev. R. H. C. Davis
(Oxford, 1976), 8.
91 It may not have been the last favour David received from Henry, however, for the
marriage of David's chamberlain, Herbert, to a and heiress of
granddaughter
Osbert the sheriff, later attributed to Henry, occurred after 1130 when
presumably
Milicent's uncles William Turniant and Richard were still trying to recover
portions of their father's lands: RRAN, ii, no. 1930. For the estates in question,
see
Early Yorkshire Charters, vol. XI, ed. C. T. Clay (Yorkshire Archaeological Soc,
1963), 213-19.
 18 JUDITH A. GREEN

remarkable relationship, sustained over three decades or more, and

its political repercussions were considerable. Peace in northern
England permitted the Normans to dig themselves in more
securely, and the good relationships with northern magnates
established by David were to pay dividends after Henry's death
when he established his authority over the northern counties of
Cumberland, Westmorland, Northumberland, and also the two
parts of Lancashire.92 To David, as Barrow rightly reminds us,
Cumbria and Northumbria were not part of another kingdom but
territories which had belonged to his forebears.93 And Northumbria
had, at its greatest extent, stretched as far south as the Humber.
David's actions under Stephen indicate that he did not necessarily
its boundary as the Tyne or even the Tees, for he tried, for a
regard
time at least, to secure Durham for his chancellor William Cumin,
and he extended his influence in Yorkshire.94 In 1149 he planned
an attack on York with Henry FitzEmpress and Ranulf of Chester.95
David, like his sister, was very aware of his ancestry as a descen
dant of Edmund Ironside. It was no coincidence that William of
Malmesbury included David with the Empress in the dedicatory
letter the Deeds of the Kings of the English
of tracing the illustrious
descent of the family.96 Who knows? Perhaps David secretly
believed his claim to the English throne was better in terms of
hereditary descent than that of the Norman kings. That there was,
an alternative, 'Anglo' view of the succession circulating in the
twelfth century in northern England is demonstrated by the writing
of Ailred of Rievaulx and Jocelin of Furness, the biographer of
Waltheof (Waldef). Although God had given victory to the Normans
at the battle of Hastings, the descent of Margaret and her sons from
Edmund Ironside could not be gainsaid.97 Whilst David was a

younger son, and Henry I had a legitimate son, David's illustrious

ancestry was on the back burner; after 1124, it may well have
more potency.
gained
Yet during Henry's lifetime he remained loyal, and in 1136 the
as
chronicler Richard of Hexham reported David taking oaths of
to the Empress from northern magnates.98 It cannot be
loyalty
92
J. A. Green, 'Earl Ranulf II of Lancashire', Journal of the Chester Archaeological Soc,
lxxi (1991), 97-108; The Reign of Stephen: Kingship, Warfare and
K.J. Stringer,
Government in Twelfth-Century England (London, 1993), 28-37.
93 'Scots and the north of England'.
Barrow,
94 For David in Yorkshire, see P. Dalton, and Lordship: Yorkshire,
Conquest, Anarchy
1066-1154 (Cambridge, 1994), 211-30.
95 Gesta Stephani, 216.
96 E. Konsgen, 'Zwei unbekannte Briefe zu den Gesta Regum des Willelm
Anglorum
von Malmesbury', Deutsches Archiv fur Erforschung des Mittelalters, xxxi (1975).
97 Walter Daniel's Life of Ailred ofRievaulx, ed. F. M. Powicke 1950), p. xlvi.
(Edinburgh,
98 Richard of Hexham, 'De Gestis et de Bello Standardo', in
Regis Stephani
Chronicles of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I, iii, 145.
DAVID I AND HENRY I 19

coincidental that David's eldestsurviving son was named Henry.

Some years after the old king's death, David gave land in Scotland
to the Cluniac monks of Reading, Henry's foundation and burial
to establish a priory in Scotland." In personal terms,
place,
therefore, their relationship was characterised on the one side
by
loyalty and probably respect, and on the other, possibly, by affec
tion. In political terms, I would argue, the relationship was far from
one-sided, for the scale of Henry's commitments and the challenges
to his authority gave an importance to David's and
position
opportunities which he was later able to with
exploit outstanding
success.

99 186.
Barrow, Kingdom,