Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 01.djvu/274

Alexander Invergowrie, Perth, Scone, and Stirling. The exact date of the war with some northern clans, which probably gave him the name of ‘The Fierce,’ cannot be fixed, but as he founded a church at Scone in commemoration of his victory in 1114 or 1115, it was probably shortly before that he was suddenly attacked at Invergowrie by the men of Moray and Mearns. He escaped, and collecting an army pursued and defeated them in their own country, either on the Spey or the Moray Firth. This was a continuation of the opposition of the pure Celts of the north to the introduction of English customs through the union of Saxon and Scottish blood in the persons of Margaret and her children.

Canons regular of St. Augustine were brought by Alexander to his new foundation at Scone from St. Oswald's, near Pontefract, and the names of Gregory, bishop of Moray, and Cormac, bishop of Dunkeld, in a charter granting the right to hold a court to the prior and canons of Scone show that Alexander had laid the basis for the diocesan episcopate which David was to complete. The same foundation-charter proves by the names of Beth, Mallus, Madach, Rothri, Gartnach, and Dufagan, who are each designated ‘comes,’ the transition from the Celtic mormaers to the earls—a step in the direction of normanising and feudalising the civil government, similar to that which had been taken with regard to the ecclesiastical government, by introducing diocesan bishoprics, with chapters of regulars, in place of the monastic Celtic establishments, chiefly Culdee. It is in this reign that we have the first recorded evidence of the existence of the offices of chancellor and constable, which were held respectively by Hubert, abbot of Kelso, and in David's reign bishop of Glasgow; and by William, a brother of Queen Sibylla; the office of sheriff (vice-comes) is also met with for the first time in Scotland within David's earldom, although not in Scotland proper. The origin of parishes is also marked by the foundation of Ednam in Roxburghshire by Thor the Long, who built the church on waste lands given him by king Edgar. To the same period are attributed the earliest known Scottish coins.

In the year of the foundation of Scone, 1115, Alexander applied to Ralph, Anselm's successor, for a qualified person to fill the vacant see of St. Andrews, and from the fortunate circumstance of Eadmer, the friend and biographer of Anselm, having been selected, a fuller account has been preserved of this than of any other incident in the reign. With boldness of assertion Alexander informed the archbishop that in ancient times the bishop of St. Andrews had been consecrated by the pope or the archbishop of Canterbury, and this had only been broken by Lanfranc, who had yielded to the claim of York. Notwithstanding the opposition of Pope Calixtus II, who supported the pretensions of York, Ralph sent Eadmer, with the consent of Henry I, in 1120, that he might learn whether the king's request was consistent with the honour of God and of the see of Canterbury, advising that he should return as quickly as possible for consecration. Eadmer was accordingly elected, but the day after his election he found that Alexander would not consent to subject the church of St. Andrew to that of Canterbury, and possession of the lands of the see being given to a monk who had administered it during the vacancy, Eadmer was preparing to return when he was with difficulty persuaded to accept the ring of investiture from the king and to take the staff, the symbol of the pastoral office, from the altar as if from the hand of God. This compromise, like so many others between church and state in the great controversy as to investiture, broke down, and Eadmer, having surrendered the ring to Alexander and the staff to the altar, retired to Canterbury, as Alexander informed Archbishop Ralph, because he would not comply with the customs of the country, but, as he himself represented it, because he would not yield to the temporal power. Eadmer, two years afterwards, distracted by contradictory advisers—the pope directing him to go to York for consecration, the Archbishop of Canterbury to remain at Canterbury till Alexander yielded, one of his friends suggesting that he should go to Rome, and another that it was his duty to return to St. Andrews, as he had been duly elected bishop—seems to have yielded to the last advice and offered to submit, but Alexander, distrusting his submission, did not accept the offer. On Eadmer's death, in January 1124, Robert, the prior of Scone, was chosen bishop of St. Andrews, but before the difficulty as to his consecration could be settled Alexander himself died. The importance of this dispute to Scottish, as distinct from ecclesiastical history, is that it was a forerunner of the graver contests with regard to the independence of Scotland in the following centuries which were only decided by the ultimate issue of the war of independence and the long-deferred grant of the pall to St. Andrews in the reign of James III. Throughout Alexander showed himself, notwithstanding his English education and connections, and his evident desire to benefit his church by the superior learning of the English ecclesiastics, a