DAVID I, KING OF SCOTLAND

Reigned 1124 to May 24, 1153; b. c. 1080; d. Carlisle. The sixth son of Malcolm III and St. margaret of scotland, David succeeded to the crown in 1124 just when his country was ready to enter into the mainstream of ecclesiastical reform then invigorating Western Christendom. His mother and brother had already introduced Anglo-Norman religious communities into the country in an attempt to break down the prevailing Celtic parochialism of church life. David's greatness lay in peaceably completing their policy. He founded at least 12 of the major benedictine, cistercian, and augustinian abbeys of Scotland, reorganized six of the ten dioceses, successfully resisted the encroachments of york, and forged the independence of the Scottish Church. A just and saintly ruler, he was popularly venerated as a saint after his death.

Feast: May 24.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum May 5:274. j. de fordun, Scotichronicon, ed. w. goodall, 2 v. (Edinburgh 1759) 1:292–313. a. c. lawrie, ed. Early Scottish Charters (Glasgow 1905). a. o. anderson, ed. and tr., Early Sources of Scottish History, a.d. 500–1286, 2 v. (Edinburgh 1922). g. w. s. barrow, The Acts of Malcolm IV, King of Scots, 1153–1165 (Edinburgh 1960); Feudal Britain (London 1956) 134–145; ed., The Charters of King David I (Rochester, NY 1999). r. l. g. ritchie, The Normans in Scotland (Edinburgh 1954). Easson. w. daniel, The Life of Ailred of Rievaulx, tr. f. m. powicke (London 1950).

[l. macfarlane]