Kings and their demesnes · Kingdom of Scotland · as at first light, 1 January 1200

King's demesne

What the king holds in his own hand on 1 January 1200: the royal castles with their shires, the royal burghs with their markets and tolls, the thanages of the old Gaelic kingdom north of the Forth (lands farmed by hereditary thanes for the king, paying cain and conveth), the royal forests, and the king's residences.

It runs in a broad band down the east and centre of the kingdom from Inverness to the Tweed, and into Clydesdale, Nithsdale and Kyle in the west, with Ross held only by two castles. The earldoms and the great baronies lie between and around these blocks.

Who he is

Name
William I, the Lion
Title
King of Scots
Since
9 December 1165
Born
About 1142-1143
Family
See Scotland
Confidence
high

The demesne is run through sheriffs (who keep the royal castles and answer for the king's farms), thanes (hereditary managers of the royal thanages north of the Forth), foresters and burgh reeves. William added Ayr (1197), the Ross castles (1179) and Dumfries (after 1186) to what David I and Malcolm IV left him.

What it holds

  • Royal castles: Berwick and Roxburgh (restored by the Quitclaim of 1189), Jedburgh, Edinburgh, Stirling, Linlithgow (a royal manor), Perth, Forfar, Kincardine in the Mearns, Aberdeen, Banff, Cullen, Elgin, Forres, Nairn (Invernairn), Inverness, Dunskeath and Redcastle in Ross (built 1179), Lanark, Rutherglen, Dumfries, Ayr (built 1197), Peebles, Selkirk, Traquair (a hunting residence)
  • Royal burghs: Berwick, Roxburgh, Edinburgh, Stirling, Linlithgow, Haddington, Perth, Dunfermline, Inverkeithing, Kinghorn, Crail, Forfar, Montrose, Aberdeen, Kintore, Banff, Cullen, Elgin, Forres, Auldearn or Nairn, Inverness, Lanark, Rutherglen, Peebles, Selkirk, Jedburgh, Dumfries (see the town records)
  • Thanages: Glamis, Tannadice and others in Angus; Kincardine, Fettercairn, Cowie and Durris in the Mearns; Kintore, Aberdeen and Belhelvie in Mar and the Aberdeen country; Boyne and Enzie in Banff; Cawdor in Nairn; Dingwall? (not pinned); Scone and others in Gowrie (thin)
  • Royal forests: Ettrick (Selkirk and Traquair), Jedburgh, Clydesdale, Stocket by Aberdeen, Drum, the forests of Moray (thin for 1200)
  • Residences: Stirling, Edinburgh, Perth and Scone, Forfar, Haddington (where Alexander was born in 1198), Kinghorn, Selkirk, Traquair, Elgin
  • Kyle Regis around Ayr; the royal manor of Cadzow (Hamilton) in Clydesdale

How it was acquired

The crown lands of the kings of Scots, organised into sheriffdoms by David I (1124-1153) and his grandsons; Moray was taken into royal hands after 1130; Ross castles 1179; Ayr castle 1197.

Allies and rivals

The sheriffs and thanes are the king's men; the earls and the church are the other great landholders; the burgesses pay the king for their privileges.

How things stand that morning

Held by the king. Moray and Ross are quiet since 1187; the castles there are garrisoned.

Wealth

Burgh rents (the burgh ferme), tolls and customs, cain and conveth from the thanages, fines of justice, wardships, the profits of the forests and the salmon fisheries. No figures.

Military

The royal castles with castle-guard owed by knights of the south; the sheriffs lead the shire levies; the king's household knights. No numbers.

Threats

  • MacWilliam raids into Ross and Moray
  • Harald Maddadsson north of the Oykel
  • The cost of the claim to the English northern counties

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. 1203-1206 (outside 1200)The new castle at Ayr receives a burgh: William's charter founding the burgh of Ayr is dated between 1203 and 1206.Depends on: Peace in Kyle and Carrick Stopped by: War in the south-west

Places of note

  • Edinburgh castle: Royal castle; queen's dower
  • Roxburgh castle: Royal castle, returned 1189
  • Berwick castle: Royal castle, returned 1189
  • Forfar castle: Royal castle and residence
  • Inverness castle: Royal castle of the north
  • Dunskeath castle: Royal castle on the Cromarty Firth, 1179
  • Redcastle (Eddirdovar): Royal castle on the Beauly Firth, 1179
  • Ayr castle: New royal castle of 1197 between the Doon and the Ayr
  • Traquair: Royal hunting residence in Ettrick Forest

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Castles and burghs are well attested in William's charters; the thanages are known mostly from later records (thin for 1200).

On the map: Only the main blocks of demesne are drawn; the burghs are separate town records and scattered royal manors are left out. Thanage boundaries are approximate.

Primary sources for Scotland

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Chronicle of Holyrood, Anonymous (canons of Holyrood, Edinburgh) (about 1150 to 1170, with later additions). Gives nothing for 1200: its original text ends in 1163 and the few additions stop before William the Lion's last decades. Read online
  • Chronicle of Melrose, Anonymous (monks of Melrose abbey) (about 1173 to 1270, in many hands; the 1200 entries are near contemporary). The main Scottish annal for the year, kept at a Cistercian house on the Tweed. Read online
  • Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
  • Chronicle of the Kings of Mann and the Isles, Anonymous (monks of Rushen abbey, Mann) (about 1257, with continuations to 1316). The only native record of the kingdom of Mann and the Hebrides. Read online
  • History of English Affairs, William of Newburgh (about 1196 to 1198). Ends in 1198, so it gives no 1200 entries of its own; the Stanley continuation has only a line or two for 1200. Read online
  • Saga of the Earls of Orkney, Anonymous (Icelandic) (about 1200 to 1230; surviving text mainly from Flateyjarbok, about 1390). The saga's last chapters are about Earl Harald Maddadsson, who in 1200 held Orkney under King Sverre of Norway and Caithness under William the Lion: his long rule, his quarrel with the Scottish king that cost him Caithness in 1196 to 1197, his recovery of it, and the maiming of Bishop John of Caithness and the king's revenge in 1201 to 1202. Read online
  • The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
  • The Great Life of Saint Hugh of Lincoln, Adam of Eynsham (about 1210 to 1215). The last book is a day by day account of Hugh's final year by the chaplain who was with him: his dealings with John at the start of the reign, his journey to France and the Grande Chartreuse in 1200, his illness in London, his death at the Old Temple on 16 November 1200 and the funeral at Lincoln on 23 November attended by King John, William the Lion of Scotland, three archbishops and a crowd of bishops and earls. Read online

2 more in the sources library for The British Isles.

Sources and studies

  1. G. W. S. Barrow, Regesta Regum Scottorum II (1971) and The Kingdom of the Scots (1973), on thanages and sheriffdoms
  2. Royal burgh (Wikipedia)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.