Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/342

 at this, John sent in the end of October the bishop of Durham and several nobles with letters of safe conduct, and William at last consented to meet the English king at Lincoln on 22 Nov. 1200. He did homage to John, ‘saving his own rights,’ and renewed his demand for the northern counties as part of these.

John promised to give his reply on Whit-Sunday 1201, but instead of complying with the demand, which was not to be expected, he began the erection of a border fortress at Tweedmouth, on the English side of the river, which William twice destroyed. A personal conference at Norham, which passed without result, is mentioned by Fordun as having taken place in 1203; but it is difficult to fit in this interview with John's known movements during 1203–4. A state of armed neutrality represented the position of the two countries till 1209. William was too much occupied with the affairs of his own kingdom, John with the French war and his contest with the pope, for open hostilities. In August 1209 John advanced with a large army to Norham, and William led his forces to Berwick; but neither the Scottish nor the English barons were inclined to fight, and peace was made. John engaged not to rebuild Tweedmouth; William agreed to pay fifteen thousand merks, gave hostages, and delivered his daughters Margaret and Isabella, for whom John promised to find suitable husbands. According to the Scottish chroniclers the elder was to be married to the heir to the English crown, but this is not stated in the English accounts of the treaty, and was expressly denied by Hubert de Burgh [q. v.], who married Margaret after the death of King John. William and John met at Durham in February 1212, and afterwards at Norham, where Queen Ermengarde is said to have assisted in negotiating peace. The dates of the treaty as given by Fordun and the ‘Patent Rolls’ do not afford materials for checking it, but the treaty was made immediately before the visit of Prince Alexander to London, in the spring of 1212. It was agreed that on the death of either king the other should support his heir, and William granted John the marriage of his son Alexander within a period of six years, provided the marriage was not a disparagement to the son of a Scottish king. Both William and Alexander took an oath of fealty to Henry, the son of John. Alexander, the heir-apparent of William, did homage at Alnwick for the English fiefs which his father resigned to him [see ].

It is not clear why William yielded so much to John, whose throne was already beginning to totter. Something was no doubt due to his age and infirmity. Possibly, too, his English wife, a cousin of John, may have exercised some influence over her aged husband, and she may not unnaturally have preferred English marriages for her daughters. But the granting of the marriage of his son Alexander to John is not easy to explain, and appears more favourable to the view that he acknowledged John as his superior, not only for his English fiefs, but for his kingdom, than many other matters which have been pressed into its support. Bishop Stubbs inclines to adopt it, and points to numerous attendances of William at the English court from 1176 to 1186, and his meeting Richard at Canterbury in 1189. But, on the other hand, the treaty of Canterbury expressly relieved him from the treaty of Falaise, and the only homage he paid to John was at Lincoln in 1200, when his own right was specially saved. The homage of Prince Alexander for the English fiefs appears to have been partly devised to solve the question on the Scottish side, as, according to Fordun, it was stipulated that the homage should be paid in future always by the heir-apparent, and not by the king, which would have prevented any ambiguity as to its nature (cf., Constitutional History, i. 556 n.)

William died at Stirling on 4 Dec. 1214, and was buried at Arbroath. His son was crowned at Scone on the following day, a celerity which shows that his death must have anticipated. He had two bastards, Robert and Henry, and several illegitimate daughters, whom he married to Norman nobles settled in Scotland. His legitimate daughter, Margaret, was married by Henry III to Hubert de Burgh, earl of Kent [q. v.] and justiciar of England; and Isabella to Roger Bigod, fourth earl of Norfolk [q. v.] Little is known of William's personal character, much of his character as a ruler and his public acts. He secured the freedom of the Scottish church from dependence on any English bishop, and its liberties from the aggression of the see of Rome. He freed the Scottish kingdom, though not so decisively, from the vassalage to the English king, which had been the result of his capture at Alnwick. He extended the acknowledged boundaries of the Scottish kingdom, both in the south and north, though he failed to recover the northern English earldoms. He improved the law, and by founding so many burghs took an important step towards the development of the constitution. Till old age overtook him he did not shrink from military expeditions, which, except in his mishap at Alnwick, were usually successful. But the more his his-