In January, we find two from our native land. King David and Charles
Mackenzie (11 & 31 respectively).
The name of this king occurs in several old Scottish calendars and more
than one modern Catholic church is dedicated in his honour; he belongs to
the category of popularly canonized national heroes; the particulars of
whose life belong mainly to secular history. He was born about 1080, the
youngest of the six sons of King
Malcolm Canmore and his
queen, St Margaret. In 1093 he
was sent to the Norman court in
England, where he remained for
some years. When his brother
Alexander succeeded to the
Scottish throne in 1107, David
became prince of Cumbria
(roughly the Lowlands), and by
his marriage in 1113 to Matilda,
widow of the earl of
Northampton, he became earl of
Huntingdon. In 1124 he
succeeded his brother as King
David I.
"St Ælred of Rievaulx was in his
Steel engraving and enhancement of
earlier years master of the
the reverse side of the Great Seal of
household to David with whom
David I, a picture in the Anglo-
he kept up a close friendship,
Continental style depicting David as a
and after the king’s death he
warrior leader.
wrote an account of him. In it he
speaks of David’s reluctance to
accept the crown, of the justice of his rule, of his alms deeds and his
accessibility to all, of his efforts to maintain concord among the clergy, of his
personal piety, and in general of the great work he did for the consolidation
of the kingdom of Scotland. Ælred’s only criticism was of his failure to control
the savagery and rapacity of his troops when he invaded England, on behalf
of his niece Matilda against Stephen. For this David was very contrite and is
said to have looked on his defeat at the Battle of the Standard and
elsewhere and the early death of his only son as just retribution therefor.
It was afterwards complained that King David’s benefactions to the Church
impoverished the crown, among the critics being his fifteenth-century
successor, James I. For not only did he found the royal burghs of Edinburgh,
Berwick, Roxburgh, Stirling and perhaps Perth, but he also established the
bishoprics of Brechin, Dunblane, Caithness, Ross and Aberdeen and
founded numerous monasteries.
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