William the Rough and the Lion of Scotland

King William I is no doubt best known for adopting Scotland's royal Lion Rampant banner, hence his sobriquet 'the Lion'. He was not called that during his lifetime, however, but rather Garbh, 'the Rough'. His reign definitely had its ups and downs, and whether 'the Lion' is appropriate or not is open to question.

There is no clear evidence when William first used the lion rampant as a banner, but it was in used before his son Alexander inherited the throne. It was Alexander who added the fleur de lis border. 

The royal Lion Rampant Banner

Born in 1142, he was the younger grandson of King David I. His father,  Henry, Earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria. Those earldoms were attached to the Scottish crown at the time, gifts from King David's brother-in-Law, England's King Henry I. Earl Henry died when William was ten years old. William inherited the earldoms, a very rich prize indeed, leaving his religious and sickly older brother, Malcolm as heir to the throne of Scotland.

Malcolm inherited from their grandfather in 1153, but soon died in 1165 at the age of 24. Now young William was both King of Scots and Earl of the profitable earldoms of Huntingdon and Northumbria. He granted the earldoms to his younger brother, David (the direct ancestor through his daughter of King Robert the Bruce). William had a perfectly legitimate claim to the earldoms but it so infuriated Henry that even the slightest mention of him threw Henry into one of his infamous furies. William attempted to meet with Henry in 1170 to patch up their badly deteriorated relationship, but Henry refused.

In 1173, three of Henry's sons, Henry (called the Young King), Richard, and Geoffrey along with their mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, rebelled against the king in Normandy which soon spread to England. Since the two kings were on such bad terms, it is not surprising William and his brother decided to join them, leading an army into England, and laying siege to Prudhoe Castle. 

Now we come to the 'he may not deserve the sobriquet' part.

King Henry was in Normandy, fighting when the rebellion broke out in England, but he quickly returned. While Henry was in York doing penance for the murder of Thomas Becket quite some time previously, a force of some of Henry's supporters surprised William at night in camp, protected by only a small group of bodyguards. His army was spread out with the siege. William and his men quickly mounted and met the attackers. There is story that King William shouted, "Now we will see who is the better knight!" as he charged impetuously into the fray. Since Henry was not there for him to shout at and it was a surprise attack, I suggest taking the story with a whapping large grain of salt. At any rate, they took him prisoner. 

In the aftermath, Henry readily defeated the English rebellion, dragging William about with him and then back to Normandy where he pretty quickly convinced his three sons to surrender and return to his service. In the meantime, he had William in chains in the imposing fortress of Chateau de Falaise. His sons and wife taken care of, Henry sent his army to occupy the southern part of Scotland including its five strongest castles, to which, its king imprisoned and far from his kingdom, Scots put up very little resistance. 

Chateau de Falaise, Normandy

Totally at King Henry's mercy, a man who had no fondness for him at all, after about six months of imprisonment, William agreed to the terms of the Treaty of Falaise. It is hard to say what was the worst part of the treaty. He accepted the English king as Scotland's overlord, agreed for the English to hold the castles they had seized, had to get Henry's permission to put down local rebellions, declared the church in Scotland under the authority of the English, gave up his claim to English earldoms, was forced to agree to send his son to England when he had one, and even had to agree for Henry to choose his own bride. It is difficult to imagine the extent and depth of the humiliation. The personal nature of some of it, such as choosing William's bride, seems to indicate personal hatred on the part of King Henry.

As you can well imagine this caused a lot of problems for William in Scotland and causes later generations to question whether he deserved the nickname of 'the Lion'. 

However, now we come to the part where he may deserve the name.

Galloway, Moray and Ross all almost immediately saw uprisings. William and his brother David personally led the response to the rebellion in Easter Ross. The rebellion in the north was put down, started up again and was once more put down. With the aim of enforcing the peace, they built a castle on the Black Isle and another and another at Dunkeath. In the meantime, he had a castle built at Dundee to contain the Galloway rebellion. He was also appealing to the pope to overturn the English control of the church in Scotland. He finally achieved a papal bull overturning that part of the treaty by the pope issuing a bull in 1184.

In July 1189, King Henry II died to be succeeded by his son Richard, later referred to as the Lionheart. And unlike the very hostile King Henry, Richard and William had a good relationship thanks to William having sided with him in the Rebellion of 1173. Richard was also in serious need of money and money was something that William had. (The belief that Scotland was always an indigent nation is false which I will discuss another time)

Richard was eager to leave on his planned crusade, so he was happy to agree to nullify the Treaty of Falaise, including the Scotland's subservience to the English king, for a payment of 10,000 marks. The main issue that remained was the Northumbria earldom that William believed still belonged to Scotland by right, but because William wanted the castles as well as the lands and title, Richard refused to sell it back.

William then led several campaign to Caithness and Southerland in the far north of Scotland, bringing them under the Scottish crown for the first time. He achieved finally putting down rebellion in Galloway and Easter Ross. His other achievements were substantial as well. He increased Scotland's growing trade, largely with the Hanseatic League, clarified Scottish laws, and increased the number of burghs. By the time of his death, had there been made a map of Scotland, it would have been near to the Scotland we see on the map today for the first time in history, not a minor achievement.

William the Lion, whether a lion or not, in my view was a successful king - even with the pretty substantial 'down' part of his reign.