Introduction
Arguably, David I of Scotland’s invasion of England in 1138 was a legitimate attempt to keep England English, after the Kings of the House of Wessex were usurped in the Norman invasion of 1066. David certainly argued it that way, but his rabble of an army had less lofty goals in mind.
ON the death of Henry I in 1135, his daughter Matilda was pushed aside by her more popular cousin Stephen, Duke of Normandy, and Matilda’s uncle, King David of Scotland, leapt to her defence.
David and Matilda were both descended, through David’s grandfather Edward the Exile, from King Edmund ‘Ironside’ of England.* Aware of Northumbria’s particularly bitter sufferings during William the Conqueror’s ‘Harrying of the North’, David spun his campaign as a long overdue revolt against the Normans, and marched under the ancient White Dragon of Wessex.*
His scheme was frustrated, however, by shaggy Scots warriors from the Highlands and Galloway. They preferred to treat David’s campaign in Northumberland as a joyous slave hunt, skewering the new-born, the old and the sick on their spears, then roping together miserable herds of able-bodied men and women as trophies. The English Church, which had just managed to extinguish slavery in England, easily united the free people of the north, Norman and English alike, in a common defence.
David was actually quite an English Scot. His mother was Margaret of Wessex, daughter of Edward the Exile and granddaughter of Edmund Ironside; his sister Matilda was Henry I’s wife; his late father-in-law was Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria, executed by William in 1076. One intriguing theory makes David’s grandmother Agatha, whom Edward the Exile married in Hungary, a daughter of Kievan Prince Yaroslav the Wise and his wife, Ingigerd of Sweden. See also Gytha and Vladimir.
Wessex was the kingdom of southwest England which Alfred the Great and his successors had turned into the Kingdom of England by 927.
Précis
Hoping to keep his niece Matilda on the English throne, David I of Scotland invaded England in 1138, portraying himself as an heir of rightful English kings against Norman misrule. However, his army was ill-disciplined and violent, and squandered any sympathy that the people of northern England might have felt for David. (52 / 60 words)
Hoping to keep his niece Matilda on the English throne, David I of Scotland invaded England in 1138, portraying himself as an heir of rightful English kings against Norman misrule. However, his army was ill-disciplined and violent, and squandered any sympathy that the people of northern England might have felt for David.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 45 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, because, despite, may, or, ought, who.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
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