ABSTRACT
The decline of Norman power has so far been considered in an appropriately broad
setting. In this chapter the discussion is extended by focusing more sharply on the
strengths and successes of Stephen’s main opponents. The Scottish resurgence was
largely the work of one man: David I (1124-53), a formidable state-builder, whose great
achievement was to lay lasting foundations for a stronger Scottish kingdom and to
transform, albeit temporarily, the political map of Britain. Since his English conquests did
not endure, modern historians, with the outstanding exception of Geoffrey Barrow (1985,
1989), have tended to play down Scottish intervention in the Anglo-Norman succession,
as if David were merely championing the cause of his niece, Empress Matilda. But
although David was sympathetic to her claims, the interests of his own kingdom came
first. His overriding goal was to advance his frontiers, and from 1141 he effectively ruled
over an enlarged Scottish realm which, at its widest extent, included the whole of
England north of the Ribble and the Tees.
