Notizen zu dieser Person
1 NAME The /Lion/
2 GIVN The
2 SURN Lion
2 NSFX King Of Scotland
1 _UID 169DFCF501E84B31AE20F51385D01E7DCF21
1 _UID A4FF2A4988C2FD45ADBC40F0476C785AC09D
1 BIRT 2 DATE 1148
Another name for William was William The Lion. Reigned 1165 - 1214WILLIAM, surnamed THE LION, one of the most distinguishedofourearlymonarchs, was born in the year 1143. He was the secondsonofHenry,prince of Scotland, the son and heir-apparent of DavidI.,butwhopredeceased his father in 1152. On the death of hisson,Davidproclaimedhis eldest grandson Malcolm as the heir ofhisScottishdominions, and,destining William for a separateprincipalityinNorthumberland, causedthe barons of that district to givehimtheirpromise of obedience, andtook hostages for itsperformance.Malcolmaccordingly succeeded David in1153, as king of Scots,whileWilliam, thenonly ten years of age, becamesuperior of the territorynowconstitutingthe northern counties ofEngland.
In 1157, an agreement took place between Malcolm and HenryII.ofEngland,by which Northumberland was ceded to the latter, whogaveinreturn theearldom of Huntingdon; an exchange whichproducedgreatdissatisfaction inScotland, and the utmost displeasure inthesubject ofthis memoir. Fromthis time Malcolm became unpopularinScotland, and itis not improbablethat William took advantage ofthenational prejudicesto advance his ownambitious views. It isrepresentedby the Scottishhistorians that, in1164, the people obliged himtoundertake the regencyof the kingdom,while the king his brothergavehimself up to religiousmeditation; a verydecent description of whatmusthave been little elsethan a usurpation.On the 28th December,1165,Malcolm died, and Williamsucceeded to thecrown.
William, having repeatedly but vainly solicitedtherestitutionofNorthumberland from Henry II., at length joined inaconfederacy withhisson, the celebrated Coeur de Lion, for the purposeofdethroningthatmonarch; Richard not only assuring him of the territoryhedesired,butalso granting the earldom of Cambridge to his youngerbrotherDavid.In1174, William served the purposes of this confederacy byaninvasionofNorthumberland, which he spoiled without mercy. Hewasprosecutingthesiege of Alnwick with a small party, when a largebodyofYorkshirehorsemen came upon him unexpectedly. Though he hadonlysixtyhorse topresent against four hundred, he gallantly chargedtheenemy,crying out,'Now we shall see who are true knights.' Hewasunhorsed,disarmed, andmade prisoner, while his companions, andsomeothers whowere not thenpresent, submitted to the same fate, fromasentiment ofduty. Henry didnot make a generous use of this triumph.Hecaused thecaptive monarch tobe brought into the presence of hiscourtatNorthampton, with his feettied together under the belly of ahorse, asifhe had been a felon; andafterwards placed him in strictconfinementinthe castle of Falaise inNormandy. The Scots, towards theclose oftheyear, recovered theirmonarch from captivity, but at theexpense ofatemporary surrender oftheir national independence. In terms ofthetreatyformed on thisoccasion, William was to do homage to theEnglishking forthe whole ofhis dominions; an object at which the latterhadlongunjustly aimed: andthe castles of Roxburgh, Berwick,Jedburgh,Edinburgh,and Stirling, weresurrendered as pledges on the partof theking ofScots, for theperformance of his promise. The independenceoftheScottish church wasat the same time impignorated, butwithcertaincautious ambiguities ofphrase that reflect great credit ontheingenuityof its dignitaries, whomanaged this part of the treaty.Theclaims of theEnglish church overScotland, however, disturbed severalofthe ensuingyears of the reign ofWilliam, who, in resisting them,backedas they wereby the pope and allhis terrors, showed surprisingfortitudeandperseverance.
In 1189, Richard Coeur de Lion, having acceded tothethrone,andconsidering that William of Scotland had forfeitedhisindependenceinconsequence of an attachment to his own interest,restoredit tohim,along with the castles of Berwick and Roxburgh. Perhapsitwasnotaltogether from a generous or conscientious motivethatthekingperformed this act of justice. He was about tocommencehiscelebratedcrusade, and it might be apparent to him that theking ofScotswas not aneighbour to be left dissatisfied: he alsostipulated fortenthousandmerks as the price of the favour he was grantingto hisbrothermonarch.The treaty, however, which these mingled notionshaddictated,was theblessed means of preserving peace between thetwocountries forupwardsof a century. When Richard was afterwardssounfortunate as tobecome acaptive in a foreign land, Williamcontributedtwo thousand merkstowardshis ransom. Such transactions afforda pleasingrelief to thegeneralstrain of our early history.
After a long reign, of which the last thirty years appear tohavebeenspentin tranquillity, and without the occurrence ofanyremarkableevent, Williamdied at Stirling, December 4, 1214, intheseventy-secondyear of his age,and the forty-ninth of his reign,leaving,by his wife,Ermingarde deBeaumont, one son, who succeeded himunder thetitle ofAlexander II.William also had six illegitimatechildren. He isallowedby historians tohave been a vigorous and judiciousprince, notexempt ofcourse from thevices of his age, among which must bereckoned arashvalour, but adornedalso by some of its virtues. Williamwas thefirstScottish sovereign whobore a coat armorial. He assumed thelionrampantupon his shield, and fromthis cause, it is supposed, heobtainedthedesignation of William the Lion.A curious portrait of Williamhasbeenpreserved from time immemorial in theTrinity hospital atAberdeen,andwas lately engraved and published in theTransactions oftheAntiquariansociety of Scotland.
1 _UID 4B6F09380E5B214EBB09386C381500CA528C
1 REFN M4259
2 _PREF Y
1 _UID 9BF330AE9EDDDA45B961FC538B26C3593CAE
Thomas
Schäfer
