William de Warenne: The Lion of Scotland (1143-1214)

We begin the last month of the year with William of the House of Dunkeld, first of his name to rule over Scotland from 1143 until his death in 1214. He, who was known as the lion of the Scots after his life, was a contemporary of another lion: the king of England, Henry II, and his sons, Richard I and John. Perhaps if he was not a contemporary of the Plantagenets, the Angevin Emperors, William I of Scotland would be luckier? A question we might never get the answer. 

William, who received the nickname "the Lion" after his death because of his association in using a lion in his flag and preferred to be identified as "William de Warenne", was born circa 1143 as the second son of Henry of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon, son of King David I of Scotland, and Ada de Warenne. We've had no access to William's education, and what we know of him is after 1165, the year he succeeded his older brother Malcolm IV as King of Scotland and crowned at Scone Abbey on 24 December that same year. In comparison to his late brother, William was:

"powerfully built, redheaded and headstrong. He was an effective monarch whose reign was marred by his ill-fated attemps to regain control of Northumbria from the Normans."

From the beginning, as we can perceive from the quote above, William attempted to regain the earldom of Northumbria that his brother Malcolm IV was forced to give to Henry II of England under the threat of invasion. This would be a point of William's reign where he had based many of his decisions in taking the earldom back, probably because he looked back at the reign of his grandfather, David I. But, in reality, David of Dunkeld was only lord of half of the English lands because he took advantage from the Civil War between Matilda and Stephen.

Nonetheless, the refusal of Henry II in giving William the earldom leaded to the complications of the Anglo-Scottish relations. Where government is concerned, William was energetic and stubborn. In one of his -almost- constant conflicts with England, he is support to have:

"(...) recklessly charged the English troops himself, shouting: "Now we shall see which of us are good knights!". He was unhorsed and captured by Henry's troops led by Ranulf de Glanvill and taken in chains to Newcastle, then Northampton, and then transferred to Falaise in Normandy. Henry then sent an army to Scotland and occupied it. As ransom and to regain his kingdom, William had to acknowledge Henry as his feudal superior and agree to pay for the cost of English army's occupation of Scotland by taxing the Scots. The church of Scotland was also subjected to that of England. This he did by signing the Treaty of Falaise. He was then allowed to return to Scotland. In 1175, he swore fealty to Henry II at York Castle."

As a result of the signing of this Treaty, Henry II chose William I a wife, this being a great-granddaughter of King Henry I of England. Her name was Ermengarde de Beaumont, with whom he had four children, Alexander II and three girls who were married into English aristocracy. By the time they were married, William was in his 40's and, despite having sired a few illegitimate children with two mistresses -or more-, he remained faithful to Ermengarde. They were married thus at Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire. His faithfulness might be explained based on his fondness of the Norman chilvaric culture that was a trending back then: in fact, he had brought to his court constantly young knights, with great festivities and tournments. William also did not speak Gaelic or English, but French instead. It is also why he used his maternal surname, for he felt more connected with his Norman connections than to those of his father's. 

However, to many Scots this treaty represented one of its worst ways of humiliations so, consequently, revolts broke out. One of them came from the descendants of Duncan II, but it was severely repressed, and eventually agreements were dealt in order to favour both parts. Relations with England were marked by these tensions caused by the ambitions of the monarchs from both countries. Yet, where William is concerned, we must remember that he:

"(...) had an agressive personality- ambitious, headstrong and driven by an obsessive crusade to recover the earldom of Northumberland, which Malcolm had been forced to concede to Henry II in 1157. It would prove to be the driving force of his long reign and not surprisingly a cause of tension with Henry II. After persistently failing to persuade Henry to just give it back, William angered him further by making overtures to his great rival, Louis VII of France. Impressively, William was responsible for a legendary display of Plantagenet rage on Henry's part:

"On a certain day when King Henry was at Caen, and was eagerly conducting the affair that he had with the king of Scotland, he broke out in insulting language against Richard de Hamez, who seemed to be speaking to some extent in the king of Scotland's favour. And the king, roused to his usual fury, flung his cap from his head, put off his belt, threw far from him the mantle and clothes that he had on: removed with his own hands the silken coverlet that was over the couch: and, sitting as it were in a manure-heap, began to chew the stalks of straw." [John of Salisbury to Thomas Becket]

When Henry II was succeeded by his oldest surviving son, Richard I, Anglo-Scottish relations were hardly improved, with Richard refusing the earldom to William. He, however, did not support John's rebellion against Richard and when John became king, with the continue decline of having the earldom restaured, William threatened to support Arthur of Brittany's claims to the English crown, Despite the constant tensions and threatenings from both sides, William would never get the earldom he so desired.

Nonetheless, though his reign was mainly marked by tensions with Scottish earls and English kings, it must be remembered that it was under William's reign that the famous Auld Alliance with France was established. Considering also Scotland as a whole country, economy was satisfying and relations with the Church were good also, with the Pope claiming that the Church of Scotland was a "favourite daughter" of Rome. In other words:

"He [William] threw himself into government with energy and diligently followed the lines laid down by his grandfather, David I. Anglo-French settlements and feudalization were extended, new burghs founded, criminal law clarified, the responsibilities of justices and sheriffs widened, and trade grew. Arbroath Abbey was founded (1178), and the bishopric of Argyll established (c.1192) in the same year as papal confirmation of the Scottish church by Pope Celestine III."

Also:

"William's long reign was an important one for the growing nation state in Scotland. John of Fordun's moniker of 'the lion of justice' is perhaps a little strong, but royal justice was now spreading further over Scotland and with more central control than ever before. William himself  presided over cases and Scottish law codes tended to match the law codes coming out of England, where Henry II was introducing major reforms. William also oversaw improvements to Scotland's economy, fouding various new burghs (i.e market towns), levying customs duties at seaports and overseeing a transition to a money economy (rather than just bartering goods) thanks to a significant improvement in Scottish mints, which were now equal in value to English coins and so viable abroad."

It is said, according to a legend, that in 1206 he cured a case of a child with scrofula by the touch of his hands whilst blessing the child. Six years later, in December 12th, William died, at Stirling Castle. He would be buried at Arbroath Abbey, which was founded by him to honour, some say, Thomas Beckett, and was succeded by his only son Alexander II, who reigned in Scotland from 1214 until his own death in 1249.

Bibliography:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Lion

http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/dunkeld_9.htm

https://rexfactor.wordpress.com/2016/07/26/william-the-lion-1165-1214/

http://www.timeref.com/people/hpr383.htm

https://thehistoryjar.com/tag/william-the-lion/

http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/E0036924109000869

http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/william-i-king-of-scots-the-lion/

http://www.scottish-history.com/origins5.shtml