David I King of Scotland (1080 – 1153)

David, who was the son of Malcolm Canmore, spent a number of years at the English court together with his sister Matilda, who married Henry I of England in 1100.  In 1107 David became Prince of Cumbria, and in 1113 he married Matilda, the widow of the earl of Northampton.  Succeeding his brother as King of Scotland in 1124, he founded the Sees of Brechin, Dunblane, Caithness, Ross, and Aberdeen, and erected the burghs of Edinburgh, Berwick, Roxburgh and Stirling.  The picture shows him watching the masons at work building a church.  David introduced Norman feudal law into Scotland, and James I described him as “ane sair sanct for the crown”.