the Treaty of York (1236). Some trifling incidents and the second
marriage of Alexander, which brought Scotland into closer touch with
France (he married Marie, daughter of Enguerand de Coucy), nearly
provoked a rupture in 1242, but the domestic troubles of Henry and
Alexander alike prevented any breach of the long peace which had
subsisted since the capture of William the Lion. In 1249, the Scottish
king died, and his son and successor,[40] Alexander III, was knighted by
Henry of England, and, in 1251, married Margaret, Henry's eldest
daughter. The relations of Alexander to Henry III and to Edward I will
be narrated in the following chapter. Not once throughout his reign was
any blood spilt in an English quarrel, and the story of his reign forms
no part of our subject. Its most interesting event is the battle of
Largs. The Scottish kings had, for some time, been attempting to annex
the islands, and, in 1263, Hakon of Norway invaded Scotland as a
retributive measure. He was defeated at the battle of Largs, and, in
1266, the Isles were annexed to the Scottish crown. The fact that this
forcible annexation took place, after a struggle, only twenty years
before the death of Alexander III, must be borne in mind in connection
with the part played by the Islanders in the War of Independence.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 34: _Art of War in the Middle Ages_, p. 391.]

[Footnote 35: Cf. App. A.]

[Footnote 36: In the final order of battle, David seems to have
attempted to bring all classes of his subjects together, and the
divisions have a political as well as a military purpose. The right wing
contained Anglo-Norman knights and men from Strathclyde and Teviotdale,