William I 'The Lion' (1165 - 1214)

In 1165 William became king after his brother, Malcolm, died at age 23. William's reign was much longer than his predecessor lasting 49 eventful years, a notable achievement at this period. It is likely that he was known as 'the Lion' because he adopted the use of the lion rampant as his coat of arms. William remained unmarried until 1186, although he did have several illegitimate children, when he married Ermengarde de Beaumont. He was 56 when his first legitimate child was born, the future king Alexander II. In 1201 William held an assembly at Musselburgh to ensure the smooth transition of the crown to his son, he must have felt insecure about the succession as he also extracted promises from the leading barons at his deathbed.

William I coin

William strengthened the feudal system in Scotland and founded burghs at Ayr, Dumfries, Dundee, Inverness and Elgin. Although unpopular he also extended the network of sheriffs and justices - often employing Anglo-French officials, this possibly explains the unpopularity of these measures.

William I Great Seal

Galloway was still a problem to the crown and in 1174 there was a rebellion there led by Gilbert, the son of Fergus who had led a rebellion against Malcolm. After Gilbert died in 1185 the rebellion was crushed and William instigated the building of castles and the establishment of royal burghs in the area. Under William the north was finally brought under royal control, he subdued Easter Ross in 1179 and built castles at Redcastle on the Black Isle and Dunskeath on the Cromarty Firth. In 1187 these castles helped William withstand the revolt of Donald MacWilliam who was killed by the loyal Roland of Galloway near Inverness. In 1197 an army advanced as far north as Thurso to defeat Harald Maddadson, Earl of Orkney. Four years later, however, Harald Maddadson was back invading Scotland and on this occasion he also mutilated the Bishop of Caithness before being defeated yet again. This time Harald's son, Thorfin was blinded and castrated as a punishment. One more raid was led by Guthred but this too was a failure and this left William as undisputed master of the whole of the Scottish mainland.

The King and Pope had been in dispute between 1178 and 1182 when Scotland was briefly put under an interdict over the appointment of the Bishop of St Andrews, but it was also during William's reign that the Pope declared Scotland to be under his jurisdiction and not that of the English church. This was declared in the Bull Super Anxietatibus which was confirmed in 1192.

Throughout his reign William had an obsession with obtaining Northumberland but during the first eight years of his reign a tense peace existed between Scotland and England. In 1173 he made the mistake of joining Henry II's sons in a rebellion against their father demanding Northumberland as the price of his loyalty. William was not a great general and was captured at the Battle of Alnwick in 1174. He had his legs chained together beneath his horse and was taken to Henry at Falaise in France. He was then forced to accept some humiliating terms - he did homage to Henry for the kingdom of Scotland and also surrendered some key castles, such as Edinburgh and Stirling, to the English. Edinburgh Castle was returned in 1186 on William's marriage to Ermengarde de Beaumont. It was only because Richard I desperately needed funds for the Crusades that Scotland gained its freedom from Henry's demands. In the Quit Claim of Canterbury Richard revoked the treaty of Falaise for 10,000 merks. Now William only had to do homage to the English king for his lands in England. William never gave up his dream of ruling Northumberland but although he held protracted negociations with Richard's brother, John, he was no nearer his ambition when he died in 1214.

History Books on William I:

Author	Title	Published	Price	Order Now From:
Owen, D. D. R.	William the Lion, 1143-1214: Kingship & Culture	1998	£14.99	Amazon.co.uk
This is the first biography of independent Scotland's longest-reigning monarch. William the Lion, despite holding his throne for longer than any other Scottish king, has not attracted the attention of modern biographers. This present work marshals the known facts of his life and presents them within the broad context of the country's early history and culture. While much of the story centres on the often brittle relationship with the English Plantagenets, Scotland emerges as a European power, respected not least for its now largely forgotten cultural flowering. This is demonstrated in the later chapters by an examination of a body of hitherto undervalued texts, notably a delightful skit on the Grail legend. Set in Scotland, the romance was probably composed by a St Andrews bishop for the court circle, and can claim to be the country's earliest surviving vernacular work. This interdisciplinary approach, by juxtaposing established facts with literary interpretations, offers historians as well as the general reader a new and more rounded view of both domestic conditions and the reputation abroad of William the Lion's Scotland.

History Books on this time period:

Author	Title	Published	Price	Order Now From:
Duncan, A. A. M.	Scotland: the Making of the Kingdom	1975	£16.99	Amazon.co.uk
Scotland: the Making of the Kingdom is the first "straight" history of Scotland from pre-history to 1286 to be published since 1862. It starts with the evidence on pre-historic and Roman Scotland and covers in some detail the incursions and amalgamations of races who made up the Celtic Kingdom, the impact of the Vikings and the forging of a single kingdom. Professor Duncan looks at the Anglo-Norman influence on Scotland and gives a full account of Anglo-Scottish relations up to 1214. The growth of towns is discussed together with the expansion of trade and the place of Scottish evidence in the evolution of rural and urban society in north-west Europe. The closing chapters narrate the progress which made possible the establishment of an efficient and unoppressive administrative system.
Barrow, G. W. S.	Kingship & Unity: Scotland 1000-1306	1989	£9.95 or $16.50	Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Professor Barrow takes up the history of a Scotland which in the eleventh century already has the beginnings of a clear sense of identity, and a successful expansion policy. Emphasising in particular the kingdom's political growth and the evolution of a distinct Scottish nation, Professor Barrow narrates the story of Scotland's remarkable Medieval kings and their development of a kingship and the institutions of government which provided the unity and administration to fend off Edward I's onslaughts in the thirteenth century. This is a thoroughly readable and comprehensive account of the building of medieval Scotland, and a welcome reissue from the New History of Scotland series (formerly published by Edward Arnold).