The seeds of revolution

James Irvine Robertson looks at the events that build the second war of independence

The prime interest of the Plantagenet dynasty of English monarchs was their rich possessions in France. There they were Dukes of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony as well as Counts of Anjou, Maine and Nantes. At their peak they controlled four times as much as the French king and were lords of territory from the Channel to the Spanish border. Holding these lands demanded constant attention and much of their time. Yet when they concentrated on France, the Scots would threaten the northern border of their English kingdom or, worse, would ally themselves with the French, the first occasion being 1173 when William the Lion and Louis VII supported a rebellion against Henry II. Though weak and impoverished, Scotland could be extremely irritating.

King David I (1124-1153) spent his early life at the court of his brother-in-law Henry I of England and when he succeeded his brother Alexander I as king of Scotland, he brought with him men he knew and understood to administer the country.

They came from the French-speaking aristocracy of England whose ancestors had arrived following Duke William of Normandy's conquest. David parcelled land out among these followers and they married heiresses. Soon they had largely supplanted the native ruling class and, 150 years later when the succession to the Scots throne was disputed following the death of Alexander III and his daughter the Maid of Norway, all the claimants came from this stock.

Many of these Scots nobles owned estates on either sid...

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• By : James Irvine Robertson
• In : History
• Issue : 54
• Page : 68
• Words : 1,001