The kingdom of Northumbria did not enter Norman rule placidly but Gospatric, who was related to Malcolm Canmore was eventually stripped of his power and died in Scotland. The Scottish king had given him Dunbar Castle and his eldest son became the Earl of Dunbar. Another, Dolphin, ruled Carlisle on Malcolm’s behalf.
We had arrived at the Treaty of Abernethy in 1072.
1079 The Normans invade Scotland to remind Malcolm not to keep raiding Northumbria and to reinforce the Treaty of Abernethy.
1092 William II, better known as William Rufus, drives Dolphin out of Carlisle. Malcolm doesn’t immediately respond to this.
13 November 1093 Malcom III killed with his eldest son by Margaret of Wessex at the Battle of Alnwick on his way home from a spot of light raiding. It is said that Margaret died from a broken heart three days later. Malcolm’s brother Donald Bane took the throne as Donald III but was driven from it six months later by Duncan – who had been handed to William the Conqueror as a hostage at the signing of the Treaty of Abernethy. Rufus accepted Duncan II’s homage – however, despite the political expedient, it wasn’t long before Donald regained the throne. The turmoil in Scotland was matched by the dispute in England between William Rufus and his elder brother Robert Curthose who was Duke of Normandy but who wanted his brother’s crown as well.
1095 Duncan II murdered.
1097 Edgar, the fourth son of Malcolm, takes the Scottish throne. He has received English support.
1100 William Rufus killed in a hunting accident in the New Forest. His brother Henry ascends the throne as Henry I and marries Edith of Scotland – the daughter of Malcolm III and Margaret of Wessex. As well as helping to secure his northern border, it also helps to stabilise his throne. Edith changes her name to Maud when she marries.
1107 Edgar dies and his younger brother, Alexander the Fierce, became king in his stead – with the approval of King Henry I. This accord was cemented by Alexander’s marriage to Sybilla of Normandy who was one of Henry’s illegitimate daughters.
Henry is able to cement his control of the north and establish lordships to rule Cumbria and the borders on his behalf – e.g the de Hottons of Hutton.
1124 Alexander died without children and was succeeded by his brother David who becomes King David I.
King Henry I died on 1 December 1135. He had wanted his only legitimate child, the Empress Matilda, to rule after him but despite having made his barons agree to the plan, its actually his nephew Stephen of Blois who nabs the crown. In 1138 a civil war known as the Anarchy erupts between supporters of Stephen and Matilda.
King David I had already seized the opportunity to extend his kingdom south once more on the pretext of supporting Matilda’s claim. The local militia and baronial retinues of Yorkshire and the North Midlands  fight back against the Scottish incursion to the West and south. In Northumbria the castles at Bamburgh and Wark  hold out against the Scots
January 1136 Treaty of Durham – King Stephen cedes Cumberland to the Scots – Carlisle is part of Scotland once more. The earldom of Huntingdon and its associated land is transferred to David’s son Henry.
22 August 1138 •The Battle of the Standard on the Great North Road – north of Northallerton. The Scots are defeated but retreat in good order they regrouped in Carlisle. There is another meeting and another treaty at Durham. Cumberland would remain part of Scotland for the next 20 years and Northumberland was ceded to Earl of Huntingdon as a fief.
It was King David I who built the first stone castle at Carlisle and where he died on 24 May 1153. He had extended his rule to both the north and the south and through the Second Treaty of Durham he was an independent king who did not have to take oaths of vassalage to the English… which brings us to the end of the Norman period.
The Plantagenets in the form of King Henry II, son of Empress Matilda and Geoffrey of Anjou, ascended the throne in 1154. Obviously Henry had other plans for the north but for the time being Scotland held the upper hand in the matter of the borders.
In 1415 there were about 78 peel or pele towers in Northumberland.  These towers were essentially private fortifications for protection in the event of Scottish raids – or neighbours you  didn’t necessarily agree with.  The idea was that you could secure your family and portable valuables until it was safe to emerge or help arrived – beacons were kept on the top of the towers which could be lit to summon help and to worn the surrounding countryside of danger. 
Warkworth Castle was not always in the hands of the Percy family. Â It was presented to them in 1332 by Edward III. Â Our interest today is in the 1st earl of Northumberland who was so created at the coronation of Richard II. Â The earl’s mother was Mary of Lancaster, a great granddaughter of Henry III. Â Ultimately the 1st earl sided with his cousin Henry Bolingbroke and helped to topple Richard II from power in 1399. Â Henry, who had been exiled by Richard II returned to Ravenspur after his father’s death ostensibly to claim the Duchy of Lancaster which Richard had decided to confiscate upon John of Gaunt’s death. Â Richard II was in Ireland at the time of Henry’s arrival at Ravenspur. Â Richard returned to England via Wales. Â He found himself in Conway Castle having a discussion with the Earl of Northumberland and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Â From there he found himself in the Tower of London, deposed by Parliament on an assortment of charges agains this realm and from there sent to Pontefract where he died- either because he was starved, forgotten about or refused to eat. Â Henry IV did not see himself as a usurper because legally the throne became vacant when Richard was deposed by Parliament. He had merely stepped up to take the role.
Now in 1403 the initially pro-Lancastrian Percies needed a reason to turn against Henry IV as they discovered that their courses were not running in parallel. Â They had initially supported Henry Bolingbroke to regain what was rightfully his but he had then taken matters further and toppled Richard II from the throne – or so they said- demonstrating the History is about stories and that one person’s story is another person’s work of fiction. Â Having been badly disappointed in Henry IV who had taken what was not his, the Percies now decided that it was only right and proper that they help put Mortimer on the throne.
The grief-stricken earl of Northumberland made his peace with Henry IV on that occasion but it was not long before he rebelled once again, fled to Scotland with his grandson and finally returned to die at Bramham Moor.
Alnwick, like most of the great castles, has had a succession of owners  beginning with Ivo de Vesci who married the granddaughter of Gilbert Tyson, a Saxon killed at Hastings in 1066. The zigzag moulding on the arch in the arch that leads to the inner courtyard reminds visitors that Alnwick has been a fortification for the better part of a thousand years.  The barony of Alnwick and its castle continued in the de Vesci hands until the fourteenth century with intermittent lapses into the hands of David of Scotland and William the Lion although it should be noted that during the reign of Henry I Eustace FizJohn was the castle’s owner.  He married the de Vesci heiress of the period and their son William assumed his mother’s name.
Ivo built a motte and bailey castle from timber – by which we can suppose some hapless Saxons found themselves moving soil and digging ditches. There were two baileys – one to the east and one to the west. Â Over the years fortifications were added to the central shell keep and to de Vesci’s two baileys. By 1135 it was one of the strongest castles in Northumberland. In actual fact when William the Lion besieged the castle in 1172 he was unable to capture the castle from William de Vesci. In 1174 the Lion had another go at it and was captured by the English. Â Part of the reason why William spent so much time hammering on Alnwick’s doors was that he had originally been the Earl of Northumberland but Henry II had removed it from him some twenty years earlier. Perhaps that was why William joined in the revolt by Henry II’s sons and his queen against Henry II in 1173. Â William found himself bundled off to Newcastle and from there to Normandy. Â William was forced to recognise Henry II as his feudal overlord and in so doing sewed the seeds of the Scottish Wars of Independence when Edward I insisted on the right to naming the Scottish king and to being the feudal overlord of Scotland.
The outer wall, around those two baileys encloses something like five acres of ground. Â The wall contains several towers and turrets. Â One of them houses a water tower and very sensibly it was here that the castle’s laundry was done. Â There is also a rather fine well in the inner court yard near the entrance to the keep. Â The Constable’s Tower is open to the public
The fortunes of the Percys declined with the Wars of the Roses and the accession of the Tudors. Â Margaret of Anjou had garrisoned Alnwick with three hundred french troops in the aftermath of Town in a bid to retain a toehold on her husband’s kingdom. It was a Scot who rode to the garrison’s rescue on that particular occasion so that Margaret’s troops could make good their escape from the forces of the Earl of Warwick.