David I c.1080-1153
King of Scotland

He was the youngest of the six sons of Malcolm Canmore and St Margaret. In 1100 his sister Matilda married Henry I of England, and he accompanied her to the English court. When his brother Alexander I succeeded to the throne (1107), David became Prince of Cumbria, and, through marriage, became Earl of Huntingdon (1113). He was therefore loyal to England under Henry I's daughter, Matilda, Empress Maud, when he succeeded Alexander (1124), until Stephen took the English throne (1135). He invaded northern England in support of Matilda but made peace at the Treaty of Durham (1136), and when war broke out again (1138), he made a further treaty (1139). During his reign the authority of the monarch was consolidated, the first Scottish royal coinage issued, a common law of Scotland produced, and trade encouraged. The Scottish Church was reformed and reorganized, and three new dioceses established by 1154. Twenty monasteries were founded, including the Cistercians at Melrose and the Premonstratensians at Dryburgh. By 1154 the transformation of the Scottish Church that had begun with Malcolm Canmore and St Margaret was near-complete.

Bibliography: Marjorie O Anderson, Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland (1973)