Thomas I, the Noble, MacDrostan
Lived: 900-966
Head of House MacDrostan: 936-966
King of Scotland: 936-966
Taking his father’s legacy forward, Thomas I took great strides towards a new era of prosperity and stability after the chaos of the preceding century. Noted for his piety and nobility in stature, Thomas enhanced Scotland’s position on the international stage through his participation in the First Crusade whilst overseeing a folk religious revival focussed around the presence of ‘Annabella the Maid’ at his court. Thomas’ reign marked the moment when the first shimmers of light at the end of the Dark Ages began to illuminate Scotland.
Within a year of Thomas I’s coronation, Scotland had descended into a chaotic three way civil war whilst at the same time facing invasion from the Mercians to the South and Norse warlords from the East. Thomas’ claim to the Scottish throne was disputed by his half-brother Duncan, who rallied the Duchies of Lothian and Galloway around his cause, and a cabal of Northern barons who sought to restore the now elderly Gilchrist MacAilpin – the last King of the MacAilpin dynasty – to the throne. The conflict raged from 936 until 942, the King winning widespread acclaim for his bravery and martial skill as he vanquished all the foes that lay before him. At the battles’ end Thomas’ position appeared unquestionably secure.
During the Dark Ages the prestige of the Papacy delved to new lows. Under Sergius III the debauchery in Rome appeared to reflect the corrupted, worldly, nature of Western Christendom itself. Following the hated Pope’s death his successors sought to pursue a radical programme of reform across the Church – seeking to radically increase the power of the Papacy, free the Church from secular influence and forge a united Christendom. The infamous trial of Sergius III’s corpse in 935 marked the beginning of this Papal revival, its past demons being publicly exorcised. In 943 it took another, dramatic, step forward as the Pope called for the faithful to launch a grand military expedition to Palestine – to reclaim the Holy Land from its Muslim masters.
Although drawing a great deal of popular enthusiasm, the First Crusade was largely ignored by the Kings of Western Europe, with the Byzantines regarding it with a similar level of disdain. However, Thomas I boldly travelled to the Levant with an army of around 3,000 men – fighting valiantly against the tremendous power of the Caliph. Despite the success of Thomas, and other Crusaders, in capturing a series of Levantine port cities – the Holy City itself eluded the expedition as its Muslim rulers made it impossible for the Crusaders to make significant advances in land. By 947, with the expedition rapidly running out of steam, it was clear that the Crusade had been a failure as a truce was agreed. The failure of the Crusade would strike another blow against Papal prestige, knocking the cause of reform back for almost another century. However, Thomas of Scotland’s reputation rose significantly for his pious service.
Whilst the King had been far away in the Near East, something extraordinary was happening back in Scotland. During the 9th and early 10th centuries substantial numbers of Norse had settled between the Firth of Forth and the Humber River – to such an extent that the constituted a majority in parts of Yorkshire, Northumbria and East Lothian. Even after the collapse of the Norse Kingdoms in the early 10th century, these populations remained stubbornly Pagan – making them the inevitable target of suspicion and repression by their new overlords. With Scotland deprived of fighting men after Thomas set sail for Palestine in 943, the Norse-Pagan population of the South-East of the Kingdom rose in revolt – rapidly advancing towards Stirling and Scotland’s heartlands.
With Scotland’s nobles floundering in the face of the Norse rebellion, it took a remarkable popular movement to save Scottish Christianity. In the Lothians thousands of common folk began to rally around a young peasant girl who claimed to be possessed by the spirit of God – Annabella the Maid. Professing to a thrusting, evangelical, Christianity she was equally compelling proselytiser and military genius. Outnumbered and outclassed by the Norse rebels, her ramshackle army crushed their forces allowing her to rapidly advance into their Northumbrian heartlands. There, for the first time, great swathes of the Norse population began to convert to Christianity as Annabella’s missionary army spread the gospel in a manner they had never witnessed before. Seeing their revolt unravel, the Norse turned to the King of Denmark for assistance.
In 945 King Haakon of Denmark arrived in Northumbria with a 6,000 men, grouping with the remains of the Norse revolt he forced Annabella into retreat. Slipping seamlessly from regular to irregular warfare, Annabella began to lead a sort of ‘guerrilla war’ with her forces harassing and harrying the Danes as they moved to occupy a large part of Scotland. With the Danes on the verge of breaking by the time Thomas returned from Crusade in 948, the King’s veteran army united with Annabella’s forces to defeat the Danes once and for all – bringing to an end the last great attempt of the Vikings to conquer Scotland. It is notable that the son of the Danish King, who would later convert to Christianity following his ascension to the Danish throne in 961, fought against Annabella’s armies – many believed that their religious fervour left a lasting imprint upon him.
Whilst the rise to prominence of a heretical peasant girl worried and angered a large part of the Scots nobility, Thomas, whose own experiences of religious warfare in the Near East had shaped him, was captivated by Annabella. To widespread shock, in the years after 948 Annabella was made the Marshal of the King’s armies and became one of his closest advisors at court. Annabella would establish a series of garrisons and forts around key settlements around Scotland – creating the first effective and centrally organised defence against the incessant raiding of the Vikings. The stemming of the flow of booty across the North Sea that resulted would play a major role in enabling Scotland’s prosperous 11th century. Meanwhile, in 957, Annabella once again took to the field to lead the King’s armies to a rapid victory over a rebellious nobility that continued to despise the MacDrostan monarchy.
Through this period, Annabella became a folk hero – widely praised as the chief of all Saints, despite only being officially recognised by the Catholic Church as a Saint as late as the 14th century. The energetic zeal of Annabella and her followers combined with the religious enthusiasm that Thomas and his fellow Crusaders had been immersed in during their war against the Arabs to create an explosion in religious piety across Scotland. Dozens of monasteries and abbeys were established with the ranks of the clergy rapidly expanding whilst the common people appeared to grow far closer to their faith than ever before. This religious revival of the mid-10th century would leave a permanent imprint upon Scotland.
Thomas I died peacefully at the age of 66 in 966 after three decades on the Scottish throne. It had been a turbulent period punctuate by a growing divide between an increasingly powerful monarchy and a shunned nobility. Yet the Kingdom had remained outwardly powerful – defeating numerous invasions and even contributing significantly to the failed First Crusade. Thomas’ grandson, Adam, was left with a hefty legacy to live up to.