General Notes

Name Prefix:<NPFX> King
Also Known As:<_AKA> The Saint
Ancestral File Number:<AFN> 8XJB-C4
1  NAME David I the Saint //
2  SOUR S001965
3  DATA
4  TEXT Date of Import: Oct 12, 2001
1  NAME David /Dunkeld/
2  SOUR S005101
3  DATA
4  TEXT King of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon, in England
2  SOUR S002205
2  SOUR S004198
3  DATA
4  TEXT Date of Import: Oct 7, 2001
2  SOUR S005416
3  DATA
4  TEXT Date of Import: Oct 7, 2001
2  SOUR S004198
3  DATA
4  TEXT Date of Import: Oct 7, 2001


TITLE:  King of SCOTLAND
Earl of HUNGTINGTON
NICK;  "The Saint"
NOTE:
One of the most powerful Scottish kings (reigned from 1124). He admitted into Scotland an Anglo-French (Norman) aristocracy that playeda major part in the later history of the kingdom. He also reorganized ScottishChristianity to conform with continental European and English usages and founded many religious communities, mostly for Cistercian monks and Augustinian canons.
The youngest of the six sons of the Scottish king Malcolm III Canmore and Queen Margaret (afterward St. Margaret), David spent much of his early life at the court of his brother-in-law King Henry I of England. Through David's marriage (1113) to a daughter of Waltheof, earl of Northumbria, he acquired the English earldom of Huntingdon and obtained much land in that county and in Northamptonshire. With Anglo-Norman help, David secured from his brother Alexander I, king of Scots from 1107, the right to rule Cumbria, Strathclyde, and part of Lothian. In April 1124, on the death of Alexander, David became king of Scots. Davidrecognized his niece, the Holy Roman empress Matilda (died 1167), as heir to Henry I in England, and from 1136 he fought for her against King Stephen (crowned as Henry's successor in December 1135), hoping thereby to gain Northumberlandfor himself. A brief peace made with Stephen in 1136 resulted in the cession of Cumberland to David and the transfer of Huntingdon to his son Earl Henry. David, however, continued to switch sides. While fighting for Matilda again, he was defeated in the Battle of the
Standard, near Northallerton, Yorkshire (Aug.22, 1138). He then made peace once more with Stephen, who in 1139 granted Northumberland (as an English fief) to Earl Henry. In 1141 David reentered the war on Matilda's behalf, and in 1149 he knighted her son Henry Plantagenet (afterward King Henry II of England), who acknowledged David's right to Northumberland.
In Scotland, David created a rudimentary central administration, issued the first Scottish royal coinage, and built or rebuilt the castles around which grewthe first Scottish burghs: Edinburgh, Stirling, Berwick, Roxburgh, and perhapsPerth. As ruler of Cumbria he had taken Anglo-Normans into his service, and during his kingship many others settled in Scotland, founding important families and intermarrying with the older Scottish aristocracy. Bruce, Stewart, Comyn, and Oliphant are among the noted names whose bearers went from northern France toEngland during the Norman Conquest in 1066 and then to Scotland in the reign of David I. To these and other
French-speaking immigrants, David granted land in return for specified military service or contributions of money, as had beendone in England from the time of the Conquest. (source: www.scotlandroyalty.org)