Men from the country would, for reasons of
protection, or from the impulse of commerce, find their way into the
towns; it is certain that the population of the towns did not migrate
into the country. The real importance of the towns lies in the part they
played in the spread of the English tongue. To the influence of Court
and King, of land tenure, of law and police, of parish priest and monk,
and Abbot and Bishop, was added the persuasive force of commercial
interest.
The death of David I, in 1153, was immediately followed by Celtic
revolts against Anglo-Norman order. The province of Moray made a final
effort on behalf of Donald Mac Malcolm MacHeth, the son of the Malcolm
MacHeth of the previous reign, and of a sister of Somerled of Argyll,
the ancestor of the Lord of the Isles. The new king, Malcolm IV, the
grandson of David, easily subdued this rising, and it is in connection
with its suppression that Fordun makes the statement, quoted in the
Introduction, about the displacement of the population of Moray. There
is no earlier authority for it than the fourteenth century, and the
inherent probability in its favour is so very slight that but little
weight can reasonably be assigned to it. David had already granted Moray
to Anglo-Normans who were now in possession of the Lowland portion and
who ruled the Celtic population. We should expect to hear something
definite of any further change in the Lowlands, and a repopulation of
the Highlands of Moray was beyond the limits of possibility.
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