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The Battle of the Standard Scottish King David I hoped to exploit the unpopularity of the Normans by trading on his own English heritage.

In two parts

1138
King Stephen 1135-1154
Music: Malcolm Arnold

Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. Source

About this picture …

This illustration from the Kelso Abbey Charter of 1159 shows David I of Scotland and his grandson Malcolm IV. David’s son Henry predeceased him, and Malcolm succeeded him on the Scottish throne in 1153, aged just fourteen. David’s father, Malcolm III ‘Canmore’, is the Malcolm of Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’.

The Battle of the Standard

Part 1 of 2

Arguably, David I of Scotland’s invasion of England in 1138 was a legitimate attempt to keep England English, after the Kings of the House of Wessex were usurped in the Norman invasion of 1066. David certainly argued it that way, but his rabble of an army had less lofty goals in mind.

ON the death of Henry I in 1135, his daughter Matilda was pushed aside by her more popular cousin Stephen, Duke of Normandy, and Matilda’s uncle, King David of Scotland, leapt to her defence.

David and Matilda were both descended, through David’s grandfather Edward the Exile, from King Edmund ‘Ironside’ of England.* Aware of Northumbria’s particularly bitter sufferings during William the Conqueror’s ‘Harrying of the North’, David spun his campaign as a long overdue revolt against the Normans, and marched under the ancient White Dragon of Wessex.*

His scheme was frustrated, however, by shaggy Scots warriors from the Highlands and Galloway. They preferred to treat David’s campaign in Northumberland as a joyous slave hunt, skewering the new-born, the old and the sick on their spears, then roping together miserable herds of able-bodied men and women as trophies. The English Church, which had just managed to extinguish slavery in England, easily united the free people of the north, Norman and English alike, in a common defence.

Jump to Part 2

David was actually quite an English Scot. His mother was Margaret of Wessex, daughter of Edward the Exile and granddaughter of Edmund Ironside; his sister Matilda was Henry I’s wife; his late father-in-law was Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria, executed by William in 1076. One intriguing theory makes David’s grandmother Agatha, whom Edward the Exile married in Hungary, a daughter of Kievan Prince Yaroslav the Wise and his wife, Ingigerd of Sweden. See also Gytha and Vladimir.

Wessex was the kingdom of southwest England which Alfred the Great and his successors had turned into the Kingdom of England by 927.

Précis

Hoping to keep his niece Matilda on the English throne, David I of Scotland invaded England in 1138, portraying himself as an heir of rightful English kings against Norman misrule. However, his army was ill-disciplined and violent, and squandered any sympathy that the people of northern England might have felt for David. (51 / 60 words)

Part Two

© Roger Templeman, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0. Source

About this picture …

Detail of the gateway to the inner keep of Carlisle Castle, which King David used as his base following defeat near Northallerton on August 22nd, 1138.

AGAINST David’s Wessex dragon, Thurstan, Archbishop of York, brought a waggon bearing the standards of three saints beloved in Yorkshire, showing that even Normans could feel local identity and pride: the Apostle Peter, patron of York; John, the eighth-century bishop of Beverley; and Wilfred, the bishop of Ripon who so invigorated English Christianity in the 660s.* A rousing speech to well-armed Norman knights and sturdy Yorkshire bowmen met with a chorus of ‘Amen!’.

Meanwhile, Robert de Brus was urging David to retreat, and reducing him to tears by the tale of his warriors’ barbarity.* But at daybreak on August 22nd, 1138, the ungovernable Scots threw themselves at the English on Cowton Moor near Northallerton with shuddering cries; by ten the Scots, routed, were scattering in every direction. David took refuge in Carlisle.

Nonetheless, Stephen badly needed his support. At Durham in 1139, he gave David wide lands in Northumberland and Cumbria, which David’s grandson Malcolm IV returned after Henry II, Matilda’s boy, inherited the English crown in 1154.

Copy Book

Charlotte Yonge states that the banner of St Cuthbert was there too, but modern historians do not agree, saying it is first mentioned at the battle of Neville’s Cross in 1346. Geoffrey Rufus, Bishop of Durham, was not involved in the dispute, and indeed appears to have sat on the fence throughout the Anarchy.

Not Robert the Bruce (1274-1329), King of Scots, and 7th Lord of Annandale, but his forefather Robert de Brus (?1070-1142), 1st Lord of Annandale. Robert resigned his command in protest.

Précis

The Normans secured the loyalty of the people of Yorkshire against David’s Wessex Dragon by flying the banners of local saints (hence the engagement is called the Battle of the Standard). Their united army routed the undisciplined Scottish invaders, though King Stephen nonetheless thought it prudent to give David control over much of northern England. (55 / 60 words)

Source

Based on The Chronicle of Richard of Hexham (1141), The Annals of Roger of Hovedon (1201), and Cameos from English History (1868), by Charlotte Yonge.

Suggested Music

1 2

Four Scottish Dances

1: Pesante

Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)

Performed by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Penny.

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English Dances Set 2 No. 3: Grazioso

Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)

Performed by the Queensland Philharmonic with Andrew Penny.

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