William I 1143-1214
King of Scotland

He was the grandson of David I, and brother of Malcolm IV, whom he succeeded in 1165. His epithet, 'the Lion', was not contemporary. He continued the consolidation of Scotland as a feudal kingdom and defended it from the Angevin kings of England, but was forced to pay Henry II explicit homage for Scotland and his other lands (1174). This Treaty of Falaise was revoked by Richard I (1189) with the Quitclaim of Canterbury in return for payment of 10,000 marks. He enjoyed a reputation for personal piety and was buried in the abbey church at Arbroath, which he had founded in 1178.

Bibliography: G W S Barrow, The Acts of William I (1971)