The Power ivliich Enabled and Suggested the Production 319 



verting him into a feudal baron ; and many years before he was called 

 upon to fill the throne (1124-1153), he had gathered around him in his 

 Cumbrian principahty a body of knights and barons, from whom sprung 

 the older Norman chivalry of Scotland.^ 



The fear of the mail-clad auxiharies, whom the long residence and 

 popularity of the Earl at his sister's court would have enabled him to 

 call to his aid, at length extorted from Alexander a tardy and reluctant 

 recognition of his brother's claims upon Scottish Cumbria. ^ 



David was thus, to all intents and purposes, a Norman baron when 

 the death of his brother Eadgar placed him, by his bequest, in possession 

 of almost the entire Scottish territory south of the Firths of Forth and 

 Clyde.3 



The dignitaries at the court of Alexander were exclusively . . . the 

 nobility of ancient Alban and the Lothians ; whilst around Earl David 

 gathered Moreville and Somerville, Lindsaj' and Umphraville, Bruce 

 and Fitz-Alan, Norman names destined to surround the throne of his 

 descendants, two of them to become royal, and all to shed a lustre upon 

 the feudal chivalry of Scotland.^ 



But it was during David's own reign that the Norman element attained 

 such a predominance as to become the great formative influence in the 

 Scottish kingdom. Many circumstances combined to make Da%ad 

 a strong and fortunate monarch, yet the most potent influence that 

 sustained him in all his undertakings was the discipUned strength of 

 the Norman knights and barons behind him.^ 



Both Normans and EngUsh came to Scotland in crowds in the days 

 of Margaret, Edgar, and Da^nid. In Scotland again the Norman settlers 

 were lost in the mixed nationahty of the country, but not till they had 

 modified many things in the same way in which they modified things 

 in England.® 



FoUoAving the example of his fellows elsewhere, the southern baron 

 planted a castle on the most advantageous site on his new estate. With 

 him he brought a body of retainers, by whose aid he at once secured 

 his own position, and wrought such changes in his neighborhood as were 



Robertson 1. 187. 



Ibid. 1. 171. 



Skene 1. 455. 



Robertson 1. 184. 



Brown 1. 73. 



Encyc. Brit., 9th ed., 17. 551. 



(107) 



