General Notes

REFN: 1807AN
Alias:<ALIA> The /Saint/
REFN: P1807
David I the Saint of Scotland, King of Scotland
Born: ABT 1084
Acceded: 23 APR 1124
Died: 24 MAY 1153, Carlisle, Cumbria
Interred: Dunfermline Abbey, Fife, Scotland
Notes:
Earl of Huntingdon. United Alba with Strathclyde.
Earl of Northampton. Popularly reputed as a Saint, His feast day is 24th M
ay.
The Complete Peerage vol.V,pp.641-2.
Father: , Malcolm III Caennmor of Scotland, King of Scotland, b. ABT 1031
Mother: Atheling, Margaret (St.) the Exile, b. 1045
Married 1113 to , Matilda of Northumberland
Child 1: , Malcolm, b. AFT 1113
Child 2: , Henry of Huntingdon, Earl of Huntingdon, b. ABT 1114
Child 3: , Claricia
Child 4: , Hodierna
DAVID I., a celebrated Scottish monarch, was the youngest of the six so
ns of Malcolm III., who reigned between 1057, and 1093, and who must be fa
miliar to every reader, as the overthrower of Macbeth, and also the fir
st king of the Scots that was entitled to be considered as a civilized pri
nce. The mother of king David was Margaret, the sister of Edgar Athelin
g, heir to the Saxon line of English princes, but displaced by William t
he Conqueror. The year of David’s birth is not known; but it is conjectur
ed to have been not long antecedent to the death of his father, as all h
is elder brothers were then under age. It is conjectured that he must ha
ve received the name of David, from having been born at a time when his mo
ther had no hope of more children, in reference to the youngest son of Jes
se. Owing to the usurpations of Donald Bane, and Duncan, he spent his ear
ly years at the English court, under the protection of Henry I., who had m
arried his sister Matilda or Maud, the celebrated founder of London bridg
e. There, according to an English historian, "his manners were polished fr
om the rust of Scottish barbarity." Here also he took to wife, Matilda, t
he daughter of Waltheof, earl of Northumberland, and widow of Sim
on De St Liz, earl of Northampton. After the Scottish throne had been occu
pied successively by his elder brothers, Edgar and Alexander, he acced
ed to it on the 27th of April, 1124, when he must have been in the very pr
ime of life. Soon before this time, namely, in 1113, he had manifested th
at zeal for the church, which distinguished him throughout his reign, by b
ringing a colony of Benedictine monks from Tyron, in France, whom he settl
ed at Selkirk. These he subsequently translated to Roxburgh, and finall
y, 1128, to Kelso. In the latter year, besides founding the magnificent mo
nastery of Kelso, he erected that of Holyrood at Edinburgh, which he endow
ed in the most liberal manner.
During the reign of Henry I., David maintained a good understanding with E
ngland, and seems to have spent a considerable part of his time in the cou
rt of his brother-in-law and sister. The following curious anecdote of o
ne of his visits, is related in a volume entitled "Remaines concerning Bri
tain," published in 1614. "Queen Maud was so devoutly religious, that s
he would go to church barefooted and always exercised herself in wor
ks of charity, insomuch, that when king David her brother came out of Scot
land to visit her, he found her in her privy chamber with a towell about h
er middle, washing, wiping, and kissing poore people’s feete; which he dis
liking, said, ‘verily, if the king your husband knew this, you should nev
er kisse his lippes!’ She replied, ‘that the feete of the king of heaven w
ere to be preferred before the lippes of a king in earth!’" On the dea
th of Henry, in 1135, his daughter Maud was displaced by the usurper Steph
en, and, to enforce her right, David made a formidable incursion into Engl
and, taking possession of the country as far as Durham. Not being supporte
d, however, by the barons, who had sworn to maintain his niece in her righ
t, he was obliged, by the superior force of Stephen, to give up the count
ry he had acquired, his son Henry, acc