Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/124

 had not only destroyed the church but laid waste the whole region, and that the tribes of different languages now inhabiting it had relapsed into a condition more resembling heathens than christians, and that God had now sent to them David, the brother of the king of Scotland, as their prince. It then recites that David through zeal for religion had ordered an inquest to be made of the possessions formerly belonging to the see of Glasgow that they might be restored to it. The names of the lands of the church thus restored are, as might be expected, chiefly Celtic, and formed, whether they had originally belonged to the see of Kentigern or not, the later diocese of Glasgow. The inquest concludes with the names of five witnesses who swore to it and a larger number who were present and heard it read. Their names, a strange medley of Celtic, Saxon, and Norman, afford a pregnant proof of the mixed population even among the class of landowners. Matilda the countess, David's wife, and her grandson William were parties to the inquest.

To the see of Glasgow he procured the appointment of his tutor John in 1115. He also enriched the see with the gift of his kain or tribute from Strathgrife, Cunningham, Kyle, and Carrick, and the eighth penny of the fines of court of all Cumbria, and erected the cathedral of Glasgow in 1136. David, while still prince of Cumbria, also showed his zeal for the church by founding in 1113 a Benedictine abbey at Selkirk (afterwards moved to Kelso) and a monastery of canons of Augustine at Jedburgh in 1118.

On the death of Alexander I in 1124 David became king of Scotland. The commencement of his reign was occupied with a dispute as to the consecration of the bishop of St. Andrews, over which see York claimed supremacy. A council at Roxburgh in 1125, held by Cardinal John of Crema as legate of Pope Honorius II, failed to settle the dispute, and three years later Thurstan, archbishop of York, consented to consecrate Robert, bishop of St. Andrews, ‘for the love of God and of King David,’ under a reservation of the claim of York and of the rights of St. Andrews, without receiving the usual promise of obedience from a suffragan to his metropolitan. In 1127, the only son of Henry I having been drowned in the Blanche Nef, that monarch procured the recognition by his barons of the right of succession of his daughter Matilda, widow of the Emperor Henry V and wife of Geoffrey, count of Anjou. Among those who attended the English court and took the oath of homage to Matilda were David in his capacity as English baron and Stephen, count of Blois and earl of Mortaine, the son of Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror. On the death of Henry in 1135 Stephen broke his oath and seized the throne of England. David at once declared in favour of the right of his niece, and Matilda had no more active supporter. He invaded Northumberland and obtained from its barons an acknowledgment of her right, but Stephen advancing to meet him with a large force he was compelled to give up the territory he had conquered on condition that his son Henry should be confirmed in the honour of Huntingdon, to which Doncaster and Carlisle were added and a promise given by Stephen that no grant of the earldom of Northumberland should be made until Henry's claim to it as prince of Scotland was considered. In return for these grants and promises Henry did homage to Stephen, thus saving his father's oath. The peace of Durham was not kept, and during the next three years David carried on war in Northumberland, with great barbarity according to the English chroniclers, although they attribute this to his troops, especially the Galwegians, rather than to the king. The war in the north was brought to a close by the signal defeat of David at the battle of the Standard at Cowton Moor near Northallerton on 22 Aug. 1138. Of this famous engagement, a landmark in the history of the two kingdoms which finally decided that the northern counties were to be English and not Scotch territory, Ailred of Rievaulx has left a picturesque account. It was won by the Norman barons, led by Walter L'Espec and encouraged by the blessing of the archbishop, who placed at their head a standard composed of the banners of St. Peter of York, St. John of Beverley, and St. Wilfrid of Ripon, attached to a mast at whose point the consecrated host was fixed in a small casket. The headstrong vanity of the men of Galloway, who insisted on leading the van of the Scottish army, though unfit to cope with the mail-clad Norman knights, contributed to the defeat. The victory was certainly on the English side, but David was able to withdraw the remnant of his forces to Carlisle, where terms of peace were negotiated by the cardinal of Ostia, supported by Matilda, Stephen's queen. ‘The glory of victory,’ says Mr. Freeman, ‘fell to England, but the substantial gain to Scotland.’ The earldom of Northumbria was ceded to Prince Henry, who held it, however, as an English fief, and allowed Stephen to retain the castles of Bamborough and Newcastle. The laws of Henry I were guaranteed to the Northumbrians, and David gave as hostages for his good behaviour the sons of five of his nobles. Only two years later he was again in arms, and his niece