The chief interest, for our purpose, attaching to the battle of the
Standard, is connected with the light it throws upon the racial
complexion of the country seventy years after the Norman Conquest. Our
chief authorities are the Hexham chroniclers and Ailred of Rivaulx[35],
English writers of the twelfth century. They speak of David's host as
composed of Angli, Picti, and Scoti. The Angli alone contained mailed
knights in their ranks, and David's first intention was to send these
mail-clad warriors against the English, while the Picts and Scots were
to follow with sword and targe. The Galwegians and the Scots from beyond
Forth strongly opposed this arrangement, and assured the king that his
unarmed Highlanders would fight better than "these Frenchmen". The king
gave the place of honour to the Galwegians, and altered his whole plan
of battle. The whole context, and the Earl of Strathern's sneer at
"these Frenchmen", would seem to show that the "Angli" are, at all
events, clearly distinguished from the Picts of Galloway and the Scots
who, like Malise of Strathern, came from beyond the Forth. It is
probable that the "Angli" were the men of Lothian; but it must also be
recollected both that the term included the Anglo-Norman nobility
("these Frenchman") and the English settlers who had followed Queen
Margaret, and that David was fighting in an English quarrel and in the
interests of an English queen. The knights who wore coats of mail were
entirely Anglo-Norman, and it is against them that the claim of the
Highlanders is particularly directed. When Richard of Hexham tells us
that Angles, Scots, and Picts fell out by the way, as they returned
home, he means to contrast the men of Lothian and the new Anglo-Norman
nobility with the Picts of Galloway and the Highlanders from north of
the Forth, and this unusual application of the term _Angli_, to a
portion of the Scottish army, is an indication, not that the Lowlanders
were entirely English, but that there was a strong jealousy between the
Scots and the new English nobility. The "Angli" are, above all others,