AGAINST David’s Wessex dragon, Thurstan, Archbishop of York, brought a waggon bearing the standards of three saints beloved in Yorkshire, showing that even Normans could feel local identity and pride: the Apostle Peter, patron of York; John, the eighth-century bishop of Beverley; and Wilfred, the bishop of Ripon who so invigorated English Christianity in the 660s.* A rousing speech to well-armed Norman knights and sturdy Yorkshire bowmen met with a chorus of ‘Amen!’.
Meanwhile, Robert de Brus was urging David to retreat, and reducing him to tears by the tale of his warriors’ barbarity.* But at daybreak on August 22nd, 1138, the ungovernable Scots threw themselves at the English on Cowton Moor near Northallerton with shuddering cries; by ten the Scots, routed, were scattering in every direction. David took refuge in Carlisle.
Nonetheless, Stephen badly needed his support. At Durham in 1139, he gave David wide lands in Northumberland and Cumbria, which David’s grandson Malcolm IV returned after Henry II, Matilda’s boy, inherited the English crown in 1154.
Charlotte Yonge states that the banner of St Cuthbert was there too, but modern historians do not agree, saying it is first mentioned at the battle of Neville’s Cross in 1346. Geoffrey Rufus, Bishop of Durham, was not involved in the dispute, and indeed appears to have sat on the fence throughout the Anarchy.
Not Robert the Bruce (1274-1329), King of Scots, and 7th Lord of Annandale, but his forefather Robert de Brus (?1070-1142), 1st Lord of Annandale. Robert resigned his command in protest.