Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/338

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nation on 15 June, probably for the fief of Huntingdon, which William now surrendered, by the form of subinfeudation to his brother.

In 1173, after Becket's murder, Henry II was confronted by a formidable conspiracy of his three sons, in alliance with the kings of France and Scotland. In return for his aid the younger Henry granted William the earldom of Northumberland, and his brother David that of Cambridge. William at once attempted to take possession of the coveted earldom. He wasted the English borders, but failed in the sieges of Werk and Carlisle. Richard de Lucy [q. v.], the English justiciar, retaliated by a raid on southern Scotland, and succeeded in obtaining a truce, which was renewed till the close of Lent 1174. This enabled him to send a reinforcement to the south of England, where David, earl of Huntingdon, was assisting Robert de Beaumont, earl of Leicester (d. 1190) [q. v.], against Henry. On the expiry of Lent William invaded Northumberland, wasting the country round Alnwick, which was his headquarters. The Yorkshire barons, led by Ranulf de Glanville [q. v.], came to the rescue of Northumberland, and on 13 July, while riding with a small band of followers near Alnwick, William was taken prisoner. On 31 July he was brought to Henry at Northampton, tied, it is said, under a horse's belly. He was confined for a time in Richmond Castle, but was soon removed to Falaise in Normandy. There, on 8 Dec. 1174, he agreed, as the price of his release, to the ignominious treaty of Falaise.

Its terms were: (1) William became liegeman of Henry against every man for all his lands, and took an oath of fealty to him as his liege lord and to his son Henry. (2) The bishops, abbots, and clergy of Scotland were to take the oath of fealty in like manner. (3) William, his brother David, and his barons agreed that the church of Scotland should be subject to the church of England, as in the days of his predecessors the kings of England. (4) The barons and other men of Scotland were to do homage and fealty to Henry and his son. (5) The castles of Roxburgh, Jedburgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling were to be delivered as pledges, and certain nobles and their heirs as hostages. (6) When the castles had been delivered, William and David were to be liberated. The nobles not present when the treaty was made were to agree to the same terms, and those present promised to assure their doing so. The bishops, earls, and barons promised, if William receded from the terms of the treaty, they would side with Henry and his son against him. The subjection of Scotland was never so clearly stated in words, and the terms contrast strongly with prior and subsequent cases of ambiguous homage.

Next year, on 10 or 17 Aug. 1175, the treaty of Falaise was confirmed at York, and William, with the Scottish barons and clergy, did homage to Henry. But at the council of Northampton in January 1176, held by Cardinal Petreleonis, the papal legate, the Scottish prelates, relying on the terms of the treaty by which the Scottish church was only bound to acknowledge the same subjection to the English ‘as it had been wont to acknowledge in the days of Henry's predecessors,’ and taking advantage of the rival claims of the sees of Canterbury and York, declined to submit to either of the English archbishops as their superiors, and Henry permitted them to depart without requiring their submission. The pope, Alexander III, supported the Scottish bishops, and in answer to a letter—extorted or possibly forged—from William, in which he asked the pope to recognise the supremacy of York, wrote to the Scottish bishops on 30 July 1176 forbidding them to do so (Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, ii. 245).

In 1178 William founded the abbey of Arbroath for Tyronensian Benedictines from Kelso, whose abbot surrendered all claim of jurisdiction over the new abbey, but its consecration was delayed till 1197. It was dedicated to St. Thomas à Becket, whom William had known when at the court of Henry at the commencement of his reign, and who had been specially commended to William by Pope Alexander III (Materials for History of Becket, Rolls Ser., v. 243), and, although William's conflict with the pope shows he did not accept the high-church doctrine of Becket, the dedication can hardly have been intended otherwise than as a side-blow at Henry II. Arbroath was his only personal foundation, and there, as was natural, he was buried. Before his death he had enriched it with thirty-three parish churches, lands from the Forth to the Ness, and the custody of the Brecbennach, the sacred banner of St. Columba. Arbroath became one of the richest monasteries in Scotland. Its association with the great Scottish saint and the great English martyr undoubtedly had political as well as religious motives.

About this time began the contest between William and the pope as to the see of St. Andrews. It was a step towards the complete severance of the church of Scotland from the church of England and