David I King of Scotland

David I of Scotland

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David I

"King of the Scots"

Reign April or May 1124 – 24 May 1153

Coronation: Scone, April or May 1124

Full name: Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim

Titles: Prince of the Cumbrians

Earl [ in Huntingdon and Northampton ]

Born 1084

Died 24 May 1153

Place of death Carlisle

Buried Dunfermline Abbey

Predecessor

Alexander I

Successor

Malcolm IV

Consort

Matilda, Countess of Huntingdon

Offspring

Henry, Earl of Northumberland,

Hodierna,

Claricia

Royal House

Dunkeld

Father

Malcolm III

Mother

Margaret of Wessex

Linguistic division in early twelfth century Scotland.

Gaelic speaking

Norse-Gaelic zone, characterized by the use of both languages

English-speaking zone

Cumbric may have survived in this zone; more realistically a mixture of Cumbric, Gaelic (west) and English (east)

David I (Medieval Gaelic: Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim; Modern Gaelic: Daibhidh I mac [Mhaoil] Chaluim;[1] 1084 – 24 May 1153) was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians (1113–1124), Earl of Northampton and Huntingdon and later King of the Scots (1124–1153). The youngest son of Malcolm III of Scotland (Medieval Gaelic:Máel Coluim III) and Margaret of Wessex, David spent his early years in Scotland, but was forced on the death of his parents in 1093, into exile by his uncle and new King, Donald III of Scotland.[2] Perhaps after 1100, he became a dependent at the court of King Henry I of England. There he was influenced by the Norman and Anglo-French culture of the court.

When David's brother Alexander I of Scotland died in 1124, David chose, with the backing of Henry I, to take the Kingdom of Scotland (Alba) for himself. He was forced to engage in warfare against his rival and nephew, Malcolm, Alexander I's son. Subduing the latter seems to have taken David ten years, a struggle that involved the destruction of Óengus, Mormaer of Moray. David's victory allowed expansion of control over more distant regions theoretically part of his Kingdom. After the death of his former patron Henry I, David supported the claims of Henry's daughter and his own niece, the former Empress-consort, Matilda, to the throne of England. In the process, he came into conflict with King Stephen and was able to expand his power in northern England, despite his defeat at the Battle of the Standard in 1138