Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/126

 manner the feudal customs which regulated the baronage were transferred from England, and though at a somewhat later date were embodied in the treatises called ‘Regiam Majestatem,’ a copy of the work of Glanville, the justiciar of Henry II, and the ‘Quoniam Attachiamenta.’ The authentic records of David's legislation are contained in the assizes, as his laws are called, which were enacted by the king and the council of his chief nobles and clergy with the tacit assent of the people. The feudal court was also organised by David and the great officers—the justiciar, who administered justice at the eyres (itinera) or circuits in the king's name; the seneschal or steward, who regulated the king's household; and the chamberlain, who collected the royal revenues, and held a circuit for the burghs—though probably known earlier, now became distinct and important personages. The first chancellor whose name is on record, Hubert, abbot of Kelso, appears in this reign, and while he never, as in England, became the head of a rival jurisdiction in equity, his office of the chancery was the source from which the most important judicial writs, as well as the royal charters, were issued, and thus established uniformity in procedure. Another Norman institution, the inquest or jury for the ascertainment of rights to land, was also introduced, of which the Glasgow inquest before noticed is a conspicuous example. Although the lords still retained a large jurisdiction in their counties, the vicecomes, or sheriff, as a royal officer now first assumes importance. While delegating much of the judicial business to these various officers, David, like all the early feudal monarchs, took personal part in the administration of justice. Ailred of Rievaulx records that he had seen him take his foot from the stirrups and forego a day's hunting in order to hear the suit of a humble petitioner.

The same author gives many personal details, interesting as illustrations of David's character and the manners of the times. The king bestowed special care on gardens and orchards, and set the fashion of cultivation of fruit by grafting. He improved the dress and the domestic customs of his rude subjects, following in this his mother's example. He enforced the sanctity of the marriage bond, to which, unlike many other kings, he was himself faithful. He reformed the morals and repressed the quarrels of the clergy.

He had only one fault, according to his panegyrist, the monk of Rievaulx, that he did not sufficiently control the license of his forces when engaged in war.

His zeal for the church swelled the fame of David in an age when churchmen were the only historians. But no contrary voice has been raised in after ages to dispute his claim to the title of ‘the good king,’ which even Buchanan allows him, or of ‘the saint,’ which he secured by the popular verdict, though he did not, like his mother, obtain a place in the calendar. The jest of his successor, James VI, that he was ‘a sair saint for the crown,’ alluding to the large extent of his ecclesiastical foundations, was really an encomium on a monarch who lived when the church was still the chief civilising element in society, and he cannot be fairly blamed for its subsequent corruption. Apart from the defeat of an isolated rising by Angus, the Mormaer of Moray, at Strathcathro in Forfarshire in 1130, and some desultory incursions under an impostor, Wymund, bishop of Man, who pretended to be a son of the Mormaer of Moray, aided by Somerled, lord of the isles, which were finally suppressed by Wymund's capture in 1137, David maintained peace within his own kingdom, and his political reforms appear to have been completely successful.

In 1149 David knighted Henry of Anjou, the son of Matilda, at Carlisle, and the Earl of Chester having promised his support, David and Henry invaded England as far as Lancaster, but Chester having failed to join them, and Stephen having come north with a large force, David was compelled to retreat.

His only son Henry died the year before his father, on 12 June 1152, leaving by his wife Ada two sons, afterwards Kings Malcolm and William the Lion, as well as David, earl of Huntingdon, from whom the competitors in the disputed succession at the death of Alexander III traced their descent, and three daughters, of whom Ada married the Count of Holland, Margaret the Duke of Brittany, and Matilda died unmarried. David died at Carlisle on 24 May 1153, with such tranquillity, says Ailred, that after his death he seemed still living, and with such devotion that his hands were found on his breast crossed and turned towards heaven. He was succeeded by his grandson, Malcolm IV.

[The Scottish authorities for David's reign are Wyntoun and Fordun; the English more nearly contemporary Ailred of Rievaulx, Ordericus Vitalis, William of Newburgh, and William of Malmesbury. Of modern historians Lord Hailes's Annals; Robertson's Scotland under her Early Kings; Skene's Celtic Scotland; and Munck's Notes to the Chronicle of Man are the most instructive.]  DAVID (d. 1176), bishop of St. David's, called David the Second to distinguish him from the founder of the see, was the son of Gerald of Windsor, castellan of Pembroke,