David I "the Saint" King of SCOTLAND

Sources:

The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by WalterLee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999, 139-1
Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles MosleyEditor-in-Chief, 1999, 1474
Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edition, by FrederickLewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Shippard Jr.,, 89-25
GEDCOM File : ~AT1255.ged

Notes:

                   David I (b. c. 1082--d. May 24, 1153, Carlisle, Cumberland, Eng.), one ofthe most powerful Scottish kings (reigned from 1124). He admitted intoScotland an Anglo-French (Norman) aristocracy that played a major part inthe later history of the kingdom. He also reorganized ScottishChristianity to conform with continental European and English usages andfounded many religious communities, mostly for Cistercian monks andAugustinian canons.

The youngest of the six sons of the Scottish king Malcolm III Canmore andQueen Margaret (afterward St. Margaret), David spent much of his earlylife at the court of his brother-in-law King Henry I of England. ThroughDavid's marriage (1113) to a daughter of Waltheof, earl of Northumbria,he acquired the English earldom of Huntingdon and obtained much land inthat county and in Northamptonshire. With Anglo-Norman help, Davidsecured from his brother Alexander I, king of Scots from 1107, the rightto rule Cumbria, Strathclyde, and part of Lothian. In April 1124, on thedeath of Alexander, David became king of Scots.

David recognized his niece, the Holy Roman empress Matilda (died 1167),as heir to Henry I in England, and from 1136 he fought for her againstKing Stephen (crowned as Henry's successor in December 1135), hopingthereby to gain Northumberland for himself. A brief peace made withStephen in 1136 resulted in the cession of Cumberland to David and thetransfer of Huntingdon to his son Earl Henry. David, however, continuedto switch sides. While fighting for Matilda again, he was defeated in theBattle of the Standard, near Northallerton, Yorkshire (Aug. 22, 1138). Hethen made peace once more with Stephen, who in 1139 grantedNorthumberland (as an English fief) to Earl Henry. In 1141 Davidreentered the war on Matilda's behalf, and in 1149 he knighted her sonHenry Plantagenet (afterward King Henry II of England), who acknowledgedDavid's right to Northumberland.

In Scotland, David created a rudimentary central administration, issuedthe first Scottish royal coinage, and built or rebuilt the castles aroundwhich grew the first Scottish burghs: Edinburgh, Stirling, Berwick,Roxburgh, and perhaps Perth. As ruler of Cumbria he had takenAnglo-Normans into his service, and during his kingship many otherssettled in Scotland, founding important families and intermarrying withthe older Scottish aristocracy. Bruce, Stewart, Comyn, and Oliphant areamong the noted names whose bearers went from northern France to Englandduring the Norman Conquest in 1066 and then to Scotland in the reign ofDavid I. To these and other French-speaking immigrants, David grantedland in return for specified military service or contributions of money,as had been done in England from the time of the Conquest. [EncyclopaediaBritannica CD '97]

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Upon the death of Simon de St. Liz, Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton,David, son of Malcolm III, King of Scotland, had m. the deceased earl'swidow, the Countess Maud, under the especial sanction of King Henry I.This nobleman succeeded to the Scottish throne on the decease ofAlexander, his elder brother, in 1124, and, invading England, was metupon the border by King Stephen, when their differences were amicableadjusted. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and ExtinctPeerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 468, St. Liz, Earls ofHuntingdon]

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on the history of the Earldom of Huntingdon:

After Earl Simon's [Matilda's 1st husband] death, his Widow married DavidI of Scotland, who consequently became Earl of Huntingdon too, keepingthe Earldom even after he succeeded his brother as King of Scots.  Hesided with the Empress Maud against Stephen I but came to terms with thelatter and made the Earldom over to his son Henry.  [Burke's Peerage]

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Earl of Huntingdon. United Alba with Strathclyde. Earl of Northampton.Popularly reputed as a Saint, his feast day is 24th May. [Brian Tompsett,Directory of Royal Genealogical Data -http://www.dcs.hull.oc.uk/public/royal]