Norman Expansion 1080–1200

Preoccupied with a series of rebellions, William the Conqueror largely ignored Scotland and Wales. His son, Robert Curthose, built the castle at Newcastle (1080), and the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, defeated the Scots at Alnwick (1093) The invasion of the Scots king, Malcolm, was probably provoked by Norman land grants in Cumbria; he was slain during the battle. Henry I, who prized the nearby silver mine, fortified Carlisle, but David I of Scotland regained Cumbria by the Treaty of Durham (1139). Henry II demanded its return in 1157; in the same year he barely escaped with his life in the first of two disastrous Welsh campaigns. But despite military failures, quasi-independent Norman Marcher lords wrested control of South Wales, building strings of castles and new towns. The Scots kings also valued the can-do of the Normans. David I granted Annandale to Robert de Brus (1124) and made similar grants in Moray and Ross.