General Notes

REFN: 2718AN
Alias:<ALIA> The /Lion/
REFN: P2719
Another name for William was William The Lion.
Reigned 1165 - 1214
WILLIAM, surnamed THE LION, one of the most disting uished of our early
monarchs, was born in the year 1143. He was the second so n of Henry,
prince of Scotland, the son and heir-apparent of David I., but wh o
predeceased his father in 1152. On the death of his son, David proclaimed
his eldest grandson Malcolm as the heir of his Scottish dominions, and,
dest ining William for a separate principality in Northumberland, caused
the baron s of that district to give him their promise of obedience, and
took hostages for its performance. Malcolm accordingly succeeded David in
1153, as king of Scots, while William, then only ten years of age, became
superior of the terr itory now constituting the northern counties of
England.
In 1157, an agreeme nt took place between Malcolm and Henry II. of
England, by which Northumberla nd was ceded to the latter, who gave in
return the earldom of Huntingdon; an exchange which produced great
dissatisfaction in Scotland, and the utmost dis pleasure in the subject of
this memoir. From this time Malcolm became unpopul ar in Scotland, and it
is not improbable that William took advantage of the n ational prejudices
to advance his own ambitious views. It is represented by t he Scottish
historians that, in 1164, the people obliged him to undertake the regency
of the kingdom, while the king his brother gave himself up to religi ous
meditation; a very decent description of what must have been little else
than a usurpation. On the 28th December, 1165, Malcolm died, and William
su cceeded to the crown.
William, having repeatedly but vainly solicited the rest itution of
Northumberland from Henry II., at length joined in a confederacy w ith his
son, the celebrated Coeur De Lion, for the purpose of dethroning that
monarch; Richard not only assuring him of the territory he desired, but
al so granting the earldom of Cambridge to his younger brother David. In
1174, W illiam served the purposes of this confederacy by an invasion of
Northumberla nd, which he spoiled without mercy. He was prosecuting the
siege of Alnwick w ith a small party, when a large body of Yorkshire
horsemen came upon him unex pectedly. Though he had only sixty horse to
present against four hundred, he gallantly charged the enemy, crying out,
"Now we shall see who are true knigh ts." He was unhorsed, disarmed, and
made prisoner, while his companions, and some others who were not then
present, submitted to the same fate, from a sen timent of duty. Henry did
not make a generous use of this triumph. He caused the captive monarch to
be brought into the presence of his court at Northampt on, with his feet
tied together under the belly of a horse, as if he had been a felon; and
afterwards placed him in strict confinement in the castle of Fa laise in
Normandy. The Scots, towards the close of the year, recovered their
monarch from captivity, but at the expense of a temporary surrender of
thei r national independence. In terms of the treaty formed on this
occasion, Will iam was to do homage to the English king for the whole of
his dominions; an o bject at which the latter had long unjustly aimed: and
the castles of Roxburg h, Berwick, Jedburgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling, were
surrendered as pledges on the part of the king of Scots, for the
performance of his promise. The indep endence of the Scottish church was
at the same time impignorated, but with ce rtain cautious ambiguities of
phrase that reflect great credit on the ingenui ty of its dignitaries, who
managed this part of the treaty. The claims of the English church over
Scotland, however, disturbed several of the ensuing year s of the reign of
William, who, in resisting them, backed as they were by the pope and all
his terrors, showed surprising fortituDe and perseverance.
In 1189, Richard Coeur De Lion, having acceded to th