David 1 of Scotland 27 April

On this day in 1124, David I, known as "the Saint", became King of Scotland. On the death of Edgar, king of Scotland, in 1107, the territories of the Scottish crown were divided between his two brothers, Alexander and David. The death of Alexander in 1124 gave David possession of the whole starting on April 27 of that year. After some of the usual medieval skulduggery, David marched into England in 1138, and sustained, in traditional Scottish fashion, a crushing defeat on Cutton Moor in the engagement known as the Battle of the Standard. Despite this minor setback, David was the king who effectively created the kingdom of Scotland as we would now recognise it. The man was an utter swine by modern standards but then, who wasn’t in those days? Wallace and Bruce may well be remembered as the patriotic heroes who rescued Scotland from the tyranny of foreign oppression but it was David who projected Scottish royal power further than any of his predecessors and extended it more effectively than any of his successors before the fifteenth century. Nevertheless, the Scottish propensity for losing battles to the English was set and on this day in 1296 the Scots lost the Battle of Dunbar against Edward I and also on this day, but in 1650, they lost the Battle of Carbisdale. Porridge, haggis, kilts and losing battles – great nation Scotland!