My Rampant Lion Tattoo

William, a clever and ambitious king, began an alliance with France that would eventually lead to the "Auld Alliance." Lowland Scotland and England previously had fought a series of battles over the Scots' possession of Northumbria in northern England. William the Lion wanted these lands back, and started the alliance with France which naturally led to a conflict with Anglo-Norman England. He launched an invasion of England in 1174 to reclaim Northumbria. Henry II was now involved in France, so William invaded whilst he was otherwise occupied. But the enterprise misfired, due to the rashness of the invading Scots, and to an east coast mist, attributed by both sides to divine intervention. The Scots were heavily defeated at Alnwick and King William himself taken prisoner, and sent to Normandy. There he was forced to sign the Treaty of Falaise. According to this humiliating document, Scotland was placed under feudal subjection to England, the Scottish church put under the jurisdiction of the English Primate, Northumbria confirmed as English territory and the castles of Southern Scotland garrisoned by English troops.

Fifteen years would pass before William was able to redress the balance for this setback. In 1189, Richard Coeur de Lion, needing money for his proposed Crusade, agreed to give back the castles and renounce his feudal superiority over Scotland in return for 10,000 merks. This was a monumental sum of money for Scotland to pay, being not the richest nation on earth at the time, and it took them many years and much taxation before they were able to repurchase what were actually their own castles and land. Three years later, Pope Celestine III released the Scottish church from English supremacy and declared that thenceforth, it should be under the direct jurisdiction of Rome. This was the beginning of nearly 100 years of relative peace between England and Scotland.

The Scots king had many other problems to worry about though. The Celtic Chieftains of the west (who still enjoyed a great measure of independence) were more or less in a permanent state of insurrection against the central monarchy. Fergus, the Prince of Galloway, had rebelled no less than three times against Malcolm IV, and now in William's reign, Fergus's sons rose again, massacring with particular gusto the Anglo-Norman garrisons which had been stationed in south-east Scotland following the Treaty of Falaise. It would be a long time before this last Celtic stronghold in the south-west was pacified and brought fully under crown control.

Further to the north and west were the dominions of the Lords of the Isles and the Lords of Lorne. These regarded themselves as fully independent rulers of their own kingdoms. These were Norse-Scots, who held no particular loyalty or obligations to the Royal House of Scotland, their allegiance being (somewhat loosely) to the Kings of Norway. In the reign of Malcolm IV, William's predecessor, Somerled (progenitor of the great Clan Donald), King of Morvern, Lochaber, Argyll and the southern Hebrides, and uncle by marriage to the Norwegian King of the Isles, had shown his contempt for the Scottish Kings by sailing up the River Clyde in his ships and sacking Glasgow. They were eventually overcome by Malcolm's High Steward, Walter FitzAlan, and Somerled himself was laid low by an unlucky spear thrust. But to the island warriors, this was a mere setback, and Somerled's descendants, the MacDougall Lords of Lorne, and the MacDonalds Lord of the Isles; as well as the MacLeods and the MacLeans were, in their turn, to carry out the tradition of independence. This situation would last many years past the reign of William.

William himself died in 1214, after reigning for well over 40 years, and was succeeded by his son Alexander II. The Lion had been a capable ruler who put to good use the administrative machinery created by David I. The legacy of the Treaty of Falaise, however, was to haunt Scotland down through the ages, with its claims of English hegemony.