HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



Tyrrel, in the New Forest, in the year noo. 

 Towards the close of this reign, the whole of 

 Christian Europe was agitated by the first Cru- 

 sade an expedition for the recovery of the Holy 

 Land from the Saracens. Robert of Normandy 

 had a high command in this enterprise, and 

 gained much fame as a warrior, having even 

 mortgaged his dukedom for the means with which 

 to go to Palestine; but while he was in Italy, on 

 his return, his youngest brother Henry usurped 

 the throne left vacant by William, so that he was 

 again disappointed of his birthright. HENRY I. 

 surnamed Beauclerc, from his being a fine 

 scholar was a prince of some ability ; but he dis- 

 graced himself by putting out the eyes of his 

 eldest brother, whom he defeated at Tinchebrai 

 in Normandy, in 1106, wresting his dukedom 

 from him, and keeping him nearly thirty years in 



finement. 



It was in the reign of William II. or Rufus, 

 at Scotland came first into notable connection 

 and collision with England. Allusion has been 

 already made to Malcolm II. as the first monarch 

 who could claim anything like supremacy over 

 the whole of Scotland, although even he had 

 but scant obedience from communities of mixed 

 but mainly Celtic origin in the north, which 

 were generally under chiefs called Maarmors, 

 and were also generally engaged in hostilities 

 with each other. Malcolm, who had obtained 

 the throne by slaying his predecessor Kenneth 

 IV. seems to have been succeeded by his grand- 

 son Duncan. He in turn was slain by Mac- 

 beda, the Maarmor of Ross, whose wife, Gruach, 

 was, according to tradition, the grand-daughter 

 of Kenneth IV. Macbeda is the Macbeth of 

 Shakspeare ; but although in popular belief a 

 monster, he was the most powerful monarch that 

 had yet ruled in Scotland, holding sway over the 

 whole of the country, except the isles and a por- 

 tion of the Western Highlands ; and, curiously 

 enough, he appears in history as the first Scotch 

 monarch that was a benefactor of the church and 

 offered his allegiance to Rome. Duncan had 

 married a sister of Siward, Earl of Northumber- 

 land, and on the death of the former, his two sons 

 sought refuge with their uncle. Fifteen years 

 after Duncan's death, the elder of these, Malcolm, 

 invaded Scotland with a large army. A battle 

 was fought at the famed Dunsinane; but the 

 decisive engagement of the war was at Lum- 

 phanan in Aberdeenshire, in 1056, where Macbeda 

 was killed. The war was carried on for a short 

 time by Lulach, a son of Queen Gruach by a 

 former marriage. But he also was slain ; and 

 MALCOLM (surnamed Canmore, or Bighead) was 

 crowned at Scone, this being the first Scottish 

 coronation mentioned in history. In the reign of 

 Malcolm, a number of Saxons, on account of the 

 Norman Conquest, sought refuge in Scotland. 

 Among these were Edgar yEtheling, the Saxon 

 pretender to the throne, his mother, and two 

 sisters. Malcolm married Margaret, one of these 

 sisters, and endeavoured to assist Edgar, his 

 brother-in-law, against the Conqueror. After a 

 struggle, the ancient chronicle informs us that 

 ' Malcolm became agreed with King William, 

 and became his man.' In the reign of Rufus, 

 however, the struggle was renewed; and in the 

 course of an invasion into the north of Eng- 

 land, in 1093, Malcolm was surprised and slain 



near Alnwick, by Robert, Earl of Northumber- 

 land. Both Malcolm, who was a sagacious and 

 energetic ruler, and his wife Margaret, who was a 

 woman of high culture and great piety, did a 

 great deal to improve Scotland. At Malcolm's 

 death, the crown was contested for a time by 

 Donald Bane, a brother of Malcolm, and by 

 Duncan, a son by a former wife; but in 1097, 

 EDGAR, a son by Margaret, ascended the throne. 

 He, in turn, was succeeded by his two brothers, 

 ALEXANDER I. in 1107, and DAVID I. in 1124, 

 who, as Earl of Huntingdon, had been a powerful 

 English nobleman. In the reign of David, the 

 Church of Rome gained complete ascendency 

 in Scotland, and a large number of churches and 

 monasteries were founded. 



Henry Beauclerc of England, in order to 

 strengthen his claim to the throne of England 

 and the loyalty of its people by a Saxon alliance, 

 married Matilda or Maud, the daughter of Malcolm 

 Canmore and of the Princess Margaret. By her 

 he had an only daughter of the same name, whom 

 he married first to the Emperor of Germany, and 

 then to Geoffrey Plantagenet, eldest son of the 

 Earl of Anjou, in France. Through the death by 

 drowning, in the English Channel, in 1120, of 

 Henry's only son William, this lady, and her 

 children by Plantagenet; were properly the heirs 

 of the English crown ; but on the death of Henry, 

 in 1135, it was seized by STEPHEN of Blois, Count 

 of Boulogne, and son of Henry's sister Adela, and 

 a man of easy and popular manners, who reigned 

 for nineteen years, during which the country was 

 rendered almost desolate by civil contests, in 

 which David of Scotland joined in the interests of 

 Matilda. The most remarkable conflict of the 

 war was ' The Battle of the Standard,' which was 

 so named from a tall cross raised on a car accom- 

 panying the English army which ventured to 

 oppose David, and which was fought at North- 

 allerton in Yorkshire, in 1138. After a severe 

 engagement, David, baffled rather than beaten, 

 withdrew from the field. 



On the death of Stephen, in 1 1 54, the crown fell 

 peacefully to HENRY II. who was the eldest son 

 of Maud, and the first of the Plantagenet race of 

 sovereigns. Henry's reign was principally marked 

 by a series of measures for reducing the power 

 of the clergy, in the course of which some of his 

 courtiers, in 1171, thought they could not do him 

 a better service than to murder Thomas-a-Becket, 

 archbishop of Canterbury, who had been the chief 

 obstacle to his views, and a man of great ability 

 and ambition. For his concern in this foul trans- 

 action, Henry had to perform a humiliating pen- 

 ance, receiving eighty lashes on his bare back 

 from the monks of Canterbury. 



Henry was the most powerful king that had yet 

 reigned in Britain. Besides the great hereditary 

 domains which he possessed in France, and for 

 which he did homage to the king of that country, 

 he exacted a temporary homage from WILLIAM of 

 Scotland, the grandson of David, a monarch of 

 great valour, who took the surname of the Lion, 

 and who reigned from 1165 to 1214. Henry also 

 added Ireland to his dominions. This island 

 had previously been divided into five kingdoms 

 Munster, Leinster, Meath, Ulster, and Con- 

 naught. The people were perpetually quarrel- 

 ling among themselves ; and this fact, taken in 

 conjunction with their heathen religion, furnished 



