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These changes didn’t pacify the country – revolts continued – but they helped ensure that royal power would ultimately prevail. No previous Scottish king had ever exercised the apparatus of military power that William had available to him, but then you could argue he needed it more than they did!
Big Bad John
Richard the Lionheart’s reign lasted only ten years, and he was replaced by King John I, which was bad not only for the English but also for the Scots. The two kings initially were on friendly terms, meeting amicably in 1206 and 1207 – however, not
that
amicably: John turned down William’s request for the earldom of Northumbria to be restored to him. Things began to change due to William’s repeated raids into the disputed territories, especially when John got wind of information that he was seeking an alliance with Phillip II of France.
In 1209, John marched a large army to Norham, near Berwick, to reassert his sovereignty over the disputed territories of the northern counties of England and to demand the homage of the king of Scotland. Again humiliated, William was force to sign the Treaty of Norham, which gave the English king control of his daughters and a payment of 10,000 merks. The treaty was renewed three years later.
The pious king
In line with other kings of the MacMalcolm Dynasty, William sought to advertise his piety through the building of churches and the founding of monasteries. He founded the Tironensian Abbey at Arbroath in 1178, where he was eventually laid to rest, and established the bishopric of Argyll in 1192 in the same year as papal confirmation of the independence of the Scottish Church was declared by Pope Celestine III.
Lamb or lion?
By the turn of the century, William’s powers were begi
The Middling Reign of Alexander II(1214–1249)
Alexander was only 16 when he inherited the throne of Scotland, and no sooner had he been crowned at Scone on 6 December 1214 than he faced a rebellion from the north. Yes, Donald Meic Uilleim was at it again, this time in league with the MacHeth clan. Fortunately for Alexander, the revolt was speedily put down by loyalist forces, which allowed the young Scottish king to look southward. Indeed, Alexander has the honour of having taken an invasion force farther south into England than any other Scottish monarch – all the way to Dover.
Troubles with John
What caused Alexander to go all the way to Dover? On the face of it, his actions were rather ungracious. He had lived in England as a boy, and John had previously knighted him at Clerkenwell Priory in 1213. But Alexander coveted the areas of Cumbria and Northumbria, and by aligning himself with the rebel English barons against the king, he felt he would be rewarded by having his claims to the disputed territories recognised. However, the first Scottish invasion was repelled by John in 1215, and in consequence Berwick was sacked (yes, again!), as were Roxburgh, Haddington and Dunbar. With the Scottish threat seemingly neutered, John headed south to deal with the English rebels, who by this time had chosen Prince Louis of France as his replacement.
Alexander led a second invasion force south in September 1216.They reached the southeast coast of England. Entering Dover, Alexander paid homage to the French pretender for his lands in England. However, the death of King John on 18 October ended the rebellion. Alexander’s hopes of taking Cumbria and Northumbria as a reward for supporting the rebels were dashed.
The English aristocracy and the pope threw their support behind Henry III, the 9-year-old son of John. This forced the French and Scottish armies homeward. But Henry’s accession to the English crown ushered in a period of peace between these warring nations. By the Treaty of Kingston of 12 September 1217, peace was declared; this was further strengthened in June 1221 with the marriage of the English king’s 10-year-old sister, Joan, to Alexander. She died in 1238, childless. Alexander’s sister, Margaret, was in turn married off to a former regent of Henry’s.
The Treaty of York
After Alexander’s marriage to Joan, relations between Scotland and England were fairly amicable. In this new era of mutual understanding, the Treaty of York was signed with Henry III in 1237. This treaty was very important because for the first time the border between England and Scotland was officially defined. The border was to run from the Solway Firth (in the west) to the mouth of the River Tweed (in the east). However, by signing the treaty Alexander abandoned his forefathers’ claims to Northumbria and Cumbria.
Expansion of the kingdom
The settled state of his relations with England allowed Alexander to look inward and deal with the questions of expanding royal power and the boundaries of his realm. His main interest was the Western Isles, which had long been controlled by Norse rulers. Alexander made a number of attempts to purchase the islands from Hakon IV of Norway, but the offers were rejected. When diplomacy and bribery failed, Alexander opted for a new strategy.
First, he tried to persuade Ewen, Lord of Argyll, to renounce his allegiance to the Norwegian king. When Ewen rebuffed the overtures, he turned to force. In July 1249, Alexander assembled a fleet and army to compel Hakon and his ally Argyll to agree to his offers. However, on the way to battle, he suffered a fever and, while resting on the Isle of Kerrera, across the bay from what is now the town of Oban, he died at the age of 50.
Alexander had successfully subdued Argyll, but the Isles would have to wait for another time and another king. But at least for the first time during his reign, Scotland as a territorial unit had been officially defined and recognised by the English. This was not Alexander’s only achievement. There were others of a religious and political nature:
In 1227, Alexander founded a number of religious establishments, such as the Cistercian abbey at Balmerino in Fife.
The first Scottish Parliament of barons and bishops for which there is a surviving record was held at Kirkliston, near Edinburgh, in 1235.
Alexander encouraged leading English families such as the Balliols to marry into the Scottish aristocracy.
The Golden Age of Alexander III (1249–1286)
The reputation of Alexander III as one of Scotland’s greatest monarchs is founded on the twin pillars of peace and plenty. But unlike his ancestor David I, Alexander III was never seen as a legend in his own lifetime. His legendary status was conferred by later generations of chroniclers, the first of whom was John of Fordun, writing in the 1380s, nearly a hundred years after Alexander III’s death.
However, such high esteem was as much a matter of timing as anything else. Alexander’s demise in 1286 plunged the country into a succession crisis (see Chapter 7), which marked the begi
The boy king
Alexander was only 7 when his father died and he assumed the throne of Scotland – the first boy king in more than a hundred years. But his reign lasted 36 years – only William the Lion reigned longer in the 12th and 13th centuries. As with all minorities, a power vacuum developed, with ambitious noble families only too happy to act as regents for the young king. Scotland was no different to other societies. Two rival families – the Comyns and the Durwards – vied with each other for control over the affairs of state.
The Comyns were widely regarded as Scotland’s most powerful family, while the Durwards, who had little influence among the Scottish aristocracy, sought English support to advance their interests. With the approval of the mother of the boy king, Marie de Coucy, Alan Durward was initially in control of the government of Scotland. To shore up his position, he arranged a marriage between Alexander, at the age of 10, and Margaret, the 11-year-old daughter of Henry III, on Boxing Day in 1251.
The marriage was a mistake because it allowed the English to interfere, once again, in Scottish affairs. After the wedding ceremony, Henry III demanded homage from Alexander for the lands he held in England. The latter demand was refused and no further discussion of the matter took place. End of story? No. The English king couldn’t stop interfering in matters not of his concern.
As a result, the balance of power in Scotland began to shift toward the Comyns. Henry engineered the resignation of all the main officials of the Scottish household and the appointment of a new royal council dominated by the Comyn family and their allies. The plan was a cu
The Scots nobles showed little respect for the interfering English king. In Gascony in 1253, his demands for military assistance fell on deaf ears; only the ousted Alan Durward, who had made his peace with Henry, went on campaign with the English magnates. Another source of contention was the money ordered to be levied by the papacy in Scotland to support an English crusade. Not surprisingly, the Scots refused to pay because the enterprise was only intended to win the throne of Sicily for Henry III’s second son, Edmund.
By the summer of 1255, the situation had become intolerable to Henry. His solution: remove the Comyn party from office. But neither the English king nor the Scottish king realised the amount of power enjoyed by the Comyns. In 1257, negotiations were held aimed at ensuring peace, but they broke down without an agreement. In retaliation, Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith, and his followers kidnapped Alexander and his queen at Kinross in October that year. Henry III threatened invasion to put down the rebellion, but it seems to have been an empty bluff. By this time, the warring factions realised that the only hope for stability was to unite behind the king. So, a compromise was reached in September 1258, in which the regency was to be representative of both parties.
Coming of age
Henry III realised that he had little influence left in Scotland now that Alexander was coming of age and clearly in personal control of the Scottish government. So, Henry requested a visit of the Scottish king and queen to England, which took place in November 1260. The visit marked the end of faction and signalled the begi