The prominent facts in the brief reign of David's son Malcolm the Maiden,
crowned (1153) at the age of eleven, were, first, a Celtic rising by
Donald, a son of Malcolm MacHeth (now a prisoner in Roxburgh Castle), and
a nephew of the famous Somerled Macgillebride of Argyll. Somerled won
from the Norse the Isle of Man and the Southern Hebrides; from his sons
descend the great Macdonald Lords of the Isles, always the leaders of the
long Celtic resistance to the central authority in Scotland. Again,
Malcolm resigned to Henry II. of England the northern counties held by
David I.; and died after subduing Galloway, and (on the death of
Somerled, said to have been assassinated) the tribes of the isles in
1165.
WILLIAM THE LION.
Ambition to recover the northern English counties revealed itself in the
overtures of William the Lion,--Malcolm's brother and successor,--for an
alliance between Scotland and France. "The auld Alliance" now dawned,
with rich promise of good and evil. In hopes of French aid, William
invaded Northumberland, later laid siege to Carlisle, and on July 13,
1174, was surprised in a morning mist and captured at Alnwick. Scotland
was now kingless; Galloway rebelled, and William, taken a captive to
Falaise in Normandy, surrendered absolutely the independence of his
country, which, for fifteen years, really was a fief of England. When
William was allowed to go home, it was to fight the Celts of Galloway,
and subdue the pretensions, in Moray, of the MacWilliams, descendants of
William, son of Duncan, son of Malcolm Canmore.
During William's reign (1188) Pope Clement III. decided that the Scottish
Church was subject, not to York or Canterbury, but to Rome. Seven years
earlier, defending his own candidate for the see of St Andrews against
the chosen of the Pope, William had been excommunicated, and his country
and he had unconcernedly taken the issue of an Interdict. The Pope was
too far away, and William feared him no more than Robert Bruce was to do.
By 1188, William refused to pay to Henry II. a "Saladin Tithe" for a
crusade, and in 1189 he bought from Richard I., who needed money for a
crusade, the abrogation of the Treaty of Falaise. He was still disturbed
by Celts in Galloway and the north, he still hankered after
Northumberland, but, after preparations for war, he paid a fine and
drifted into friendship with King John, who entertained his little
daughters royally, and knighted his son Alexander. William died on
December 4, 1214. He was buried at the Abbey of Arbroath, founded by him
in honour of St Thomas of Canterbury, who had worked a strange posthumous
miracle in Scotland. William was succeeded by his son, Alexander II.
(1214-1249).
ALEXANDER II.
Under this Prince, who successfully put down the usual northern risings,
the old suit about the claims to Northumberland was finally abandoned for
a trifling compensation (1237). Alexander had married Joanna, daughter
of King John, and his brother-in-law, Henry III., did not press his
demand for homage for Scotland. The usual Celtic pretenders to the
throne were for ever crushed. Argyll became a sheriffdom, Galloway was
brought into order, and Alexander, who died in the Isle of Kerrera in the
bay of Oban (1249), well deserved his title of "a King of Peace." He was
buried in Melrose Abbey. In his reign the clergy were allowed to hold
Provincial or Synodal Councils without the presence of a papal Legate
(1225), and the Dominicans and Franciscans appeared in Scotland.
ALEXANDER III.
The term King of Peace was also applied to Alexander III., son of the
second wife of Alexander II., Marie de Coucy. Alexander came to the
throne (1249) at the age of eight. As a child he was taken and held
(like James II., James III., James V., and James VI.) by contending
factions of the nobles, Henry of England intervening. In 1251 he wedded
another child, Margaret, daughter of Henry III. of England, but Henry
neither forced a claim to hold Scotland during the boy's minority (his
right if Scotland were his fief), nor in other respects pressed his
advantage. In February 1261-1262 a girl was born to Alexander at
Windsor; she was Margaret, later wife of Eric of Norway. Her daughter,
on the death of Alexander III. (March 19, 1286), was the sole direct
descendant in the male line.
After the birth of this heiress, Alexander won from Norway the isles of
the western coast of Scotland in which Norse chieftains had long held
sway. They complained to Hakon of Norway concerning raids made on them
by the Earl of Ross, a Celtic potentate. Alexander's envoys to Hakon
were detained, and in 1263, Hakon, with a great fleet, sailed through the
islands. A storm blew most of his Armada to shore near Largs, where his
men were defeated by the Scots. Hakon collected his ships, sailed north,
and (December 15) died at Kirkwall. Alexander now brought the island
princes, including the Lord of Man, into subjection; and by Treaty, in
1266, placed them under the Crown. In 1275 Benemund de Vicci (called
Bagimont), at a council in Perth, compelled the clergy to pay a tithe for
a crusade, the Pope insisting that the money should be assessed on the
true value of benefices--that is, on "Bagimont's Roll,"--thenceforth
recognised as the basis of clerical taxation. In 1278 Edward I. laboured
to extract from Alexander an acknowledgment that he was England's vassal.
Edward signally failed; but a palpably false account of Alexander's
homage was fabricated, and dated September 29, 1278. This was not the
only forgery by which England was wont to back her claims.
A series of bereavements (1281-1283) deprived Alexander of all his
children save his little grandchild, "the Maid of Norway." She was
recognised by a great national assembly at Scone as heiress of the
throne; and Alexander had no issue by his second wife, a daughter of the
Comte de Dreux. On the night of March 19, 1285, while Alexander was
riding from Edinburgh to visit his bride at Kinghorn, his horse slipped
over a cliff and the rider was slain.