Transcript for HoS 18

Last time then, we looked at how David finally establish his authority by 1134, by hook, crook and a little help from his enemies; and we looked at one of those debates of his realm – the introduction of a consciously European and Feudal culture. We concluded, or at least I concluded, you may well have thought I was talking rubbish, that while David’s reign without doubt saw the introduction of a new nobility from England, Normandy, Brittany and Flanders, the process was one of assimilation rather than conquest, in which the traditional Gaelic lords and families continued to play a central part. I could of course be accused of being an Ultracrepidarian, but I hope not.
This time, it’s that other debate; David, like any other honest to goodness self-respecting medieval king was quite clear that his main job lay in expanding the borders of his reign, ensuring an inheritance for his children worthy of the name, and diverting the efforts of the Scots to the greater glory of the greatest Scot of all, otherwise known as David King of Scots. Now in the light of the career of his grandson, William the Lion, the argument goes that all David achieved was to commit Scotland to a struggle in Northumbria and Cumbria they could not win and which would lead to national humiliation. The counter argument is pshaw, and I say again pshaw, David came this close to making it stick, while holding up a thumb and index finger held nanometres apart. Well, gentle listeners, let us see. I’m rather aware that I argued rather for the former, the pointless national humiliation argument, in the History of England, in so far as I argued for either.
We should start by briefly talking about David’s immediate family since his wife Matilda de Senlis, is fundamental to much of what follows. Matilda had been a great catch for David; I say catch, though that probably gives a misleading idea of the process, since essentially Matilda was given to David by Henry I of England in marriage in traditional style in order to secure a relationship between David and Henry. Anyway, Matilda was the daughter of Judith of Lens and Earl Waltheof Earl of Northumbria. In 1076 it was Judith, the tinker, who betrayed her husband’s treacherous conversations while in his cups at a Bride’s Ale to her uncle, Billy the conq; which doesn’t suggest it’d been a great marriage. Hubby lost his head, and Judith was therefore in control of 2 great honours, hmm, the wages of sin; she was countess of Huntingdon and of Northumbria. So, Billy the Conq turned to Judith, and told her to marry one of his Norman pals, a baron called Simon de Senlis, from St Liz in Normandy. Judith felt she’d done her duty, that Billy’s last choice had been a smelly AS, maybe she didn’t like the cut of Simon’s jib, so she said no. While Billy boiled up, she fled the country before the volcano could blow it’s top. When he’d recovered his wa, the Conqueror’s son Rufus instead gave Judith’s daughter, Matilda in marriage to Simon instead, since Judith appears to have forgotten to pack Matilda in the rush, a bit like Kevin.

Matilda was about 16 ish probably perhaps maybe at the time of the marriage in 1090, and brought Simon the honour of Huntingdon. They had 3 children together, one of whom interestingly was called Waltheof which suggests an honourable memory of the Grandfather especially since by this time AS names were seriously uncool. But another was called Simon Senlis again, and you’ll need to keep an eye on him, just because you know, he’s trouble.
Anyway, Simon Senior died around 1111, and Matilda was a very eligible heiress then, still just 27 and countess of Huntingdon. Henry I was king in England by this time, and so he cast his matchmaking runes and got Matilda and his best Pal David of Scotland together – it was the making of David, giving him rights to the vast honour of Huntingdon and a supremely connected wife. It could also be noted that, should he choose to be difficult, he could also lay a claim to Northumbria give that Grandpa Waltheof had been earl of the place. Obviously he didn’t mention this at the time. Meanwhile Simon de Senlis junior, Matilda’s son by her first marriage was in seriously miffed territory; Hey, what about my honour of Huntingdon? Simon and David would squabble.

Anywho, David and Matilda had 4 children; but three of them would die young and unmarried – Malcolm, Claricia and Hodierna, interesting names. One young lad survived – and his name was Henry, nice name, born around 1114. On him would rest his doting father’s hopes for his dynasty.
And probably Matilda’s too, of course, but sadly by the time David’s leftenant Edward had won his kingdom for him by defeating Angus of Moray at Stracathro, Queen Matilda was dead. Slightly curiously, little was done to preserve her memory or build a cult around her; it’s strange given her importance to what came next, that is David and the Scottish kings struggle to claim owenership of Northumbria – which were entirely based on Mathilda’s claim to Northumbria through her grandfather Waltheof. But anyway, Matilda died and was buried at Scone.

So that’s the situation then; in 1134, Malcolm had finally been captured, and English support from Henry I had helped David and this foreign knights and, maybe more reluctantly, some of his Gaelic Earls, suppress rebellion in West and north.

After 1134, David expanded in 3 directions – north, west and south. The victory at Stracathro gave David the confidence and authority at last to demonstrate and actively exercise his kingship outside of his Lothian heartlands. So the tradition is that after Stracathro, David descended on Moray with a massive, country-sized rubber stamp and hammered Scotland all over the Moravian map.

Well it wasn’t quite like that, though that was probably the intention – it’s just that things tend to be more complicated in practice and take a little longer. One reason for this is that the situation in Moray was itself a good deal more complicated than it might appear. Constantly talking of Moray and their Mormaers gives the impression that Moray was itself a simple, fully coherent statelet. It very probably wasn’t; the mormaers of Moray themselves probably had problems enforcing their authority away from the coast and lowlands. Which makes it harder, actually, to impose a new authority – you can’t just take over existing networks and structures. Nonetheless there is clear enough evidence that David and his closest supporters implemented a strategy to end this ‘north of the mounth’ stuff podcasters go on about so much. Over time, Moray would be brought under Alban rule, good and proper, make no mistake mrs.

Central to this is William mac Duncan. Just cast your mind back to the death of Malcolm III and all the kerfuffle about his accession, with eldest son Duncan taking the throne from Donald Ban, only to be killed, leaving a son, William. Or William MacDuncan. William made a jolly sensible decision not to make a stink about the fact that actually he was from the senior line when Edgar became king, and by Norman rules of primogeniture he would have been the heir. Partly because Gaelic inheritance didn’t work that way; and partly because he would have been about 4 years old. So instead he decided to concentrate on growing up; and then entered the service of the Canmore dynasty, in a loyal kind of way – a strategy of loyalty to the Canmores which would be strikingly different to his descendants, who would be known as the MacWilliams. Actually, it might have been that for a while he still hoped his might come into his inheritance anyway – given that neither Edgar nor Alexander managed to produce an heir. He might initially have figured that David might have the same problem, and if so that would leave him, William, as the tanaiste. But when David’s Henry came of age around 1134, those hopes were dashed. But never mind, he kept, in the words of Churchill to his son and if you will forgive me, he kept buggering on.
However, despite the fact that the only reference to this action is a 13th century manuscript, it is reasonably widely accepted that one of David’s made William MacDuncan the earl of Moray. Now William will later on marry one Alice of Rumilly all the way south in England, but it’s possible at this time that he married a Moravian and had a son, one Donald Mac William, who would believe that held a right to be Earl of Moray. Names are a nightmare I realise, and this is a big episode for names, but you know, just remember the MacWilliam family as they will be called they will be bone fide troublemakers, and that family starts here. There’s a family tree on the internet for members. But look, this is all very well, but if you want to bring a region into the genuine control of the crown, just putting your favourite strongman in there is not sufficient. Cultural integration is important too.

David established two monasteries in Moray; the foundation at Urquhart was probably in celebration of his victory at Stracathro. David seized Agnus’s estates and built royal castles in Moray– 4 or 5 of them, motte and Bailey castles now becoming part of Scotland’s landscape every bit as much as England’s. The parish system of churches was extended there; and there is evidence of shires and royal Thanes in Moray which may well be further evidence of royal control. None of this means that the Moravians decked themselves out in I love David badges, and this is no more than the start of a process which was long and for the moment shallow rooted; but the days of the Kings of Moray are numbered.
David gave attention also to the diplomatic environment around Moray; after all there’s no point re-establishing control of Moray just for the Earls of Orkney to come and trample all over your crops. Now you may remember the chaos we’ve been having with the sons of Paul and Erlend, and the long and short is that the earldom of Orkney and its north west mainland territories of Caithness and Sutherland were not in the best of nick. This again might seem good news – a weak enemy on your doorstep and all. But in fact, chaos might well beget chaos; it raised the potential for a new strongman to ride into town with aggressive intent, building his new regime on foreign conquest and glory. So the 3 cornered struggle in the Orkneys between Pauls’ family, Erland’s family and the Norwegians was not good news as far as David and the safety of Moray was concerned. There are some lovely stories in the Orkeyninga saga about the Paul side of the family where a landowner called Frakkok tried to kill her opposing Erlend joint ruler with a poison shirt, played the big game and ended up been killed in the traditional manner, burned within her hall in Caithness. There’s a danger I’ll get embroiled and I’ve got to get out of this place, so suffice it to say that David’s approach is to advance the cause of one of the factions, marrying the Earl of Athol into the Paul family, and for a while their candidate, Harald Maddadson, was a friendly power in the Earldom of Orkney.
Thus the north. In the west David’s power stopped short of Galloway in SW Scotland; and it also stopped along the Clyde – east of the Clyde, there may have been some nominal rights for the King of Alba, but the word is nominal. They may have also claimed some rights in Argyll, given the history of Dal Riada, but the ruler there, Gillebrigte, and his son Somerled would behave as though they believed themselves fully independent.

Now this was an area where in all likelihood David had been forced to fight Malcolm and his rebellion in his first 10 years; and his victory may have brought more influence. The trouble was of course that he wasn’t alone in his interest in Argyll and the western Isles; the whole area looked westwards towards Ireland and the isle of man, and to a degree southwards into England. Henry I in particular had been interested in stabilising his relationships with Galloway, to protect his interests in Cumbria just to the south of Galloway, and so he had married one of his illegitimate daughters to an ambitious Gallowegian called lord Fergus. Fergus was able to build his position in Galloway, marrying his daughters into the family of the lords of Man, and David would have been concerned of the threat to his western and southern borders from Fergus’s success. Good news for David therefore that he had installed the Bruce family as a powerful lordship in Annandale, which lay along the Gallowegian border.
In general it’s hard to get too excited by David’s progress westwards, but his objective and position was different; he was not looking to establish control directly in the west as he had in Moray in the north; his rights to do this were not established. Like Orkney and Caithness, he simply wanted to stabilise and protect his borders. It is probable that with victory over Malcolm’s rebellion came with some sort of submission from Gillebrigte. We see him granting away rights in lands to the west of the Clyde, suggesting he had extended his right directly there; and significantly, at royal gathering at Glasgow in 1136 included Fergus of Galloway, suggesting that Fergus by that stage was recognising David’s lordship and the appearance of the new realities.

I say new realities – what on earth am I talking about I hear you ask? Well, so far, David and Henry I of England have been pretty much in cahoots, hand in hand like lovers are supposed to. David could scarcely claim that Henry had been other than incredibly generous, essentially giving him the honour of Huntingdon, pressurising Alexander I into giving David a fair proportion of Scotland, and helping to keep him on the throne when Malcolm rebelled. And in 1127, David had been part of the oath taken swearing to support the succession of Henry’s sole remaining legitimate offspring Matilda to become Queen of England, so, Henry and David is shoulder to shoulder stuff. But David was an ambitious chap, and he’d just proved to himself that actually he could do it; and it’s difficult to believe he didn’t dream himself to sleep each night thinking of how nice it would be to add Cumbria and Northumbria to his possessions. Afterall, Cumbria had once been part of the kingdom of Strathclyde, and much of that ancient kingdom was firmly part of the Scottish portfolio now. And through his wife his son Henry had a legitimate claim to Northumbria. Wouldn’t it be nice? But while Henry was there, it was very unlikely David would have pushed his claims.

But then, in 1135, Henry died. And instead of honouring their pledge to support Matilda’s claim to the throne of England, the vast majority of English lords supported Henry’s nephew instead, Stephen, and at the end of 1135 Stephen was duly crowned. Now here was anarchy – and in anarchy lay opportunity.
David was mustard. Within 4 weeks he had declared his outrage at the injustice visited on poor old Matilda, and indignantly led an army south, purely in defence of her rights you understand, nothing at all to do with Cumbria and Northumbria – to which his son, by the way had he mentioned, has a cast iron claim by right. Nothing to do with them, nothing at all.

It could be at this stage that some were fooled by this appeal to honour and moral rectitude; very few were left fooled two months later. David’s march southwards created a scar and a memory that would do him no service; even the pro David chroniclers described his campaign as one of unusual barbarity in an age where quite a lot of barbarity was considered pretty acceptable in war. But it was or appears to have been a very successful campaign militarily. What really disabused everyone of the honourable motives thing was that he almost immediately then struck a deal at Durham with Stephen, when Stephen came to meet him. David gave up most of the land he had taken; but his son Henry was given both the Honour of Huntingdon and, very significantly, made guardian of the north of England, and of the Castle and Burgh of Carlisle. For these, Henry did homage to Stephen; David had no truck with any homage taking of any kind for his part. It was a reasonable deal for both men in a way – Stephen secured the north and detached David from Matilda’s cause; David acquired Carlisle, in his son’s name but yeah whatever, he gained Carlisle. So fine, but as a basis for lasting peace it was a lot more treaty of Versailles than Treaty of Vienna. It left the ownership of Northumbria completely unresolved.
It was never going to last, essentially, and hey presto just a year later when Stephen was in Normandy fighting for his rights there, David gathered his earls and his great men at Glasgow and the result was a new invasion of northern England. It didn’t help that Stephen had allowed the old claims by the ABY for supremacy over the Scottish church to be revived; it didn’t help that Stephen appeared to recognise the rights to the honour of Huntingdon of Simon of Senlis, despite his deal with David and Henry at Durham.

This time as David prepared to invade, Stephen’s Northumbria loyalists gathered at Newcastle to defend Northumbria, and so David negotiated. His price was ownership of Northumbria – so he’d now come clean about the real reason for his invasions. But Stephen held firm, and David turned to war. This time he was able to break the unity of the lords facing him in Northumbria, as one of them, Eustace son of John defected to his side on behalf of Matilda. William mac Duncan was at David’s side as the Scots ravaged their way across northern England, and again the chronicles were full of the failure of David to control his army, and a legacy of hatred was born and a reputation of Scottish barbarity.

“an execrable army, more atrocious than the pagans, neither fearing God nor regarding man, spread desolation over the whole province”
“they carried off, like so much booty, the noble matrons and chaste virgins, together with other women. These naked, fettered, were herded together; by whips and thongs they drove before them, goading them with their spears and other weapons. “

Meanwhile, William Mac Duncan was sent to besiege the castle of Warkworth, the key to eastern Northumbria in January 1138; Norham castle fell, but the Bishop of Durham would not open his gates. As Stephen hurried north David retreated, but Stephen could not maintain himself in the north while the south burned and so was pulled away.

This time David decided to cut the Gordian’s knot. Forget all these blessed castles – afterall no one seemed to be able to get through Wark’s walls. Let’s just go for the jugular – let’s go for the capital of the north, York.

The army that marched south in 1138 was described as the largest Scottish army ever. The contingents in his army demonstrated if nothing else that David had successfully imposed his rule on all of his kingdom, with Gaelic and Anglo French lords, and a big contingent of the unwashed from Galloway. There was a Brus in the Scottish contingent, the son of the head of the Bruce family marching with David in respect of Annandale while his father fought with the English.
Stephen was again unable to come north; so the English were led by Thurstan the ABY and William of Aumale. The language was all of the beleaguered Romans against the barbarian horde; when negotiations failed the English army drew up around a cart mounted with religious flags.

The story of the battle is a little suspect, because it’s through English chroniclers already upset at the violence visited on their country, and the description was designed to build a story, a message. Just to kindle the fire of Anglo Scottish rivalry, the message was one of Scottish cultural and moral inferiority; cultural inferiority as evidenced by rubbish equipment, and ill-discipline as evidence of their moral inferiority.

Whatever the bigging up of the story, there is evidence that the Gaelic lords and Anglo French knights in David’s army were grabby, and argued over who should have the honour of being in the vanguard. As a result the mass of Gallowegians and the Earl of Stathearn charged forward like mad things so as to grab that honour, and died in their thousands at the hands of the English secret weapon, the Longbow, which gave due warning should anyone have cared to listen that the English were coming. Henry, David’s son led a counter attack which allowed David to retreat, and away they went to Carlisle to do a bit of wound licking.

Now obviously, the defeat at Cowton Moor on 22nd August 1138, the Battle of the Standard as its called, wasn’t a good thing for David, it wasn’t in the playbook, and it saved York without doubt; but really its impact on David’s campaign was reasonably minimal. Within a couple of months he was back in the field, and by November Warkworth finally surrendered to William mac Duncan after 11 heroic months. In 1139 David met Matilda and cut a great deal – Henry was to be granted Northumbria and Cumbria, except a few royal castles, and Huntingdon to boot. He then coolly negotiated the same agreement with Stephen. Stephen has been given serious grief about the agreement but he was in a dreadful negotiating position given the civil war with Matilda – it’s not clear he had much choice.

At least Henry did homage for Northumbria to the English monarch, though Cumbria and Carlisle were gone, gone to be part of David’s Scottish kingdom, though in his son’s possession. Stephen for two years made the best of it – fine, Henry was now one of his major barons, so that’s the way it was, and Henry joined Stephen in his campaigns in the anarchy. Meanwhile David simply treated Cumbria as part of the Scottish kingdom, gaily ignoring the legal niceties that it was supposedly his son’s territory.

Then in February 1141, Stephen was captured at Lincoln. Oh joy. Forget that treaty then, David was back at war – you can see why the accusation of a lack of honour was chucked at David, it was pretty blatant. Suddenly he was Matilda’s best mate again – but then hey he was scarcely the only baron in the anarchy to jump ship when occasion suggested it. This time the target was Lancashire, north west England, where William mac Duncan now claimed land in respect of his wife, and also Durham. David was at Matilda’s side as a close adviser, and from 1141 Henry now held Northumbria not from the English, but from David as King of Scots.

This is dramatic enough. But almost as impressive as the way David exploited the anarchy, was the way that David and Henry secured their authority in their new territories. So, you might imagine and build a picture of the English North west and Northumbria groaning under the Scottish tyranny; really such was not the case. David and Henry secured the support of their lords and tenants by providing stability and good governance. We are in an age here where our modern concepts of nationhood have little relevance – moving from the protection of one lord to another was far from uncommon in such times, and David and Henry by 1149, 10 years after the campaign was launched, were well integrated into not just the secular power structure, but also the ecclesiastical. Actually, the rights of presentation to the see of Durham remained a thorn in David’s side and an outlier of support for Stephen, but elsewhere there is little sign of discontent at the change of masters.

William MacDuncan was at this time married to the heiress Alice de rumilly, and confirmed in land in the North west in Lnacashire; the Earl of Chester, Ranulph switched his allegiance. This was a game changer if you’ll pardon the almost unforgivable bit of business jargon; Earl Ranulph was the most powerful lord in the north west, and at the same time renounced his claim to Carlisle. At one point, David actually confirms Ranulphs rights around Shropshire for crying aloud, Shropshire, that’s English Midlands stuff. I want to make a couple of points about this. Firstly, just how far south David had come; at one point he looked set fair to capture York, and control all of England north of the Humber. David hatched a plan to capture York in a series of co-ordinated surprise attacks – but Stephen learned of the plan and was able to counteract it – but had no hope of advancing any further. And even then, the ABY Henry Murdac remained unreconciled with Stephen, and looked to David to secure his place – and the concept of pro-Scottish ABY could have brought back once again that dream of a greater Scotland all the way down to the Humber.

Secondly, to make again the point that David and Henry quickly generated support from their Northumbrian tenants and lords. And thirdly, victory in England won David full acceptance from his Gaelic lords in Scotland; he had been able to demonstrate his authority, his ability to enrich his followers, lead them to victory in war. His prestige and the prestige of the Alban and Scottish monarchy had never been stronger. The battle of the Standard in 1138 looks little more than a hiccup from the perspective of 1149.

But then, you know, the best laid plans of mice and men as Rabbie would have said. Death decided he’d make sure the ride wasn’t all too easy. The first to go was William Mac Duncan, in 1147. His death was a blow in that he had been a great warrior and utterly loyal supporter for David, when he could have made serious trouble; it was a blow also in that his claims to land in Lancaster had been a handy legal aid to conquest. And his death caused some unpleasantness with the Mac William family. He left sons; one of them probably illegitimate called Wimund raised a rebellion which had to be supressed, and a deal was allow him to come into some inheritance. Meanwhile in Moray William’s heir, Donald, was denied the Earldom of Moray, and David took it into his own hands. There will be blood, ladies and gentlemen, there will be blood. But we will leave the MacWilliam story there for a moment.

Next came the winds of change in the far north, in the earldom of Orkney where a new power arose – King Eystein II of Norway who arrived with fire and sword and reduced Harald Maddadsson, David’s client, to submission. David’s northern borders were no longer safe. Then in York even worse – Henry Murdac the ABY made his peace with Stephen. While David went vigorously back into bat to keep St Andrews and the Scottish bishops independent of York, the dream of a Greater Scotland down to the Humber was gone.

But the worst was yet to come. In 1152, Henry of Northumberland, David’s son, died. Henry was but 38 but he and his wife Ada de Warenne had been busy and they had 3 sons and 3 girls. The heir was Malcolm, who was 11. David by now was in his late 60’s, and had to expect that he might not live to see Malcolm’s majority.
His main worry was that England would decide that losing Cumbria and Northumbria was a bad idea and challenge the settlement. He’d done his best there to protect Malcom’s future; Stephen had lived with the changes for the last 11 years or so. But David had covered his bases; so if there was a change of dynasty and Stephen lost, David had managed to persuade Henry of Anjou, Matilda’s son, to swear in 1149 to abide by the northern settlement, making the most of Henry’s need for David’s support. There was little more that David could do.

No formal regency was planned in the eventuality, but it seems likely that a sort of advisory council was prepared. And David had Duncan, the Earl of Fife take Malcolm on a tour of Scotland, clothed in splendour and accompanied by a large military retinue, and presented to the people as David’s heir. Meanwhile, David took the next in line, William, down to Northumbria where oaths of loyalty were taken from the great men – and some hostages too just to make absolutely sure.
All that could be done, had been done when David died on 29th May 1153. Immediately the pens were sharpened and the English eulogies rolled forth, of cultured David in a land of the barbarous Scot, the pious and even saintly David – though flawed by the death and destruction he’d visited on England.
So there we go. On the question we started with – did David embroil Scotland in a hopeless dream to possess the unpossessable northern England – well I think we need to leave it until we have done with William the Lion. All I’ll say is that I doubt anyone in 1153 thought that; Northumbria and Cumbria were well governed by a Christian king, what more is there to say?

Malcolm IV was crowned almost immediately – just 3 days after his grandfather’s death. Why so quickly you might ask, and that would be the right question to ask I think. The answer is not obvious, no one left a note to explain it which is both unfortunate and thoughtless, doom on you as it were. But it could be that the Scottish monarchy, unfortunately, was accreting alternative claimants to the throne like barnacles on a boats bottom. The mac Williams could claim descent from the elder line of Duncan II as we have discussed; and the Sons of Malcolm, son of Alexander I were still out there, illegitimate though they were. It’s in situations like this that the advantages of primogeniture become obvious. If the eldest son was automatically the heir you might be unlucky and get one like Henry VI, but on the other hand at least you know who you are dealing with. In this situation, where the concept of primogeniture was far from accepted, and was most certainly not the Gaelic tradition, the danger was a bun fight every time. Now as it happens the mac William claimant, just like his dad, drew back at this point; probably because Donald MacWilliam was not much higher than the knee of a grasshopper at this stage. Phew!

The next news to hit town was that in England Stephen and Matilda’s son Henry of Anjou had come to an agreement; Stephen would remain king until his death, at which point Henry would become king. Actually this wasn’t terrible news; as we said, in 1149 Henry of Anjou had agreed to recognise the Scottish ownership of Cumbria and Northumbria, so as long as he honoured his word, Malcolm IV was away and clear.

Sadly the sons of Malcolm son of Alexander I were less accommodating; and they had found themselves a champion. Once again, their support came from Argyll in the west; this time Gillebrighte’s son, Somerled. Now sadly what happens is absolutely obscure until 1160 when Somerled formally submitted to Malcolm IV. But the end to the war probably came much earlier than this – it probably came in 1156 when the Holyrood Chronicle tells us this:
Donald son of Malcolm was captured at Whithorn, and he was imprisoned with his father

Somerled had great ambitions, many of which in fact he would fulfil; and wasting his time against an adversary who seemed to be winning, was not one of them. In the Irish sea, the Isle of Mann was in chaos, and looked like a much more interesting opportunity to Somerled’s canny eye – and so the cause of the sons of Malcolm was dumped into the out tray, and Somerled turned to the Isle of Mann.

On December 19th 1154, the next stage in the drama played out when Henry II was crowned king in England, heralding the arrival of the Angevins, born of the devil. Breaths all over the Scottish court were baited; would Henry recognise the status quo or would he challenge it? Well, neither was the answer – there was silence on the matter; but at least he did not actively challenge it nor does he appear to have demanded Malcolm’s homage. So, by 1156, Malcolm IV seemed to have managed to shut and bar the door and lock out the flurry of driving snow and freezing wind.

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