of Huntingdon; and it was by his advice that the unfortunate Robert Curtois was removed from the custody of the bishop of Salisbury, and placed in Bristol Castle under the safer charge of the Earl of Gloucester: [Sidenote: A. D. 1226.] for the fears of Henry were at this time directed against Robert and his son William, nor did he harbour any suspicion of his frank and jovial nephew, Stephen of Boulogne, upon whom he had heaped honours and dignities in return for his gallant services in war.[232] The feudal obligations of his English fief, and his anxiety to promote the interests of the future queen, led to the frequent and prolonged absence of David from his own kingdom at this period of his reign, offering many favourable opportunities for the inveterate enemies of his family to enter once more upon a struggle for the superiority. Heth the contemporary, and possibly the opponent of Alexander, was no longer living, but his hereditary animosity survived in his sons Angus and Malcolm, who availed themselves of one occasion when David was detained in England, [Sidenote: A. D. 1130.] about six years after his accession, to rise in arms and assert those claims upon the crown of Scotland which they inherited through their mother, the daughter of Lulach.[233] In the absence of the king, the leader of the royal forces was the Constable, and the safety of the kingdom now depended upon Edward, the first historical personage upon whom the dignity is known to have been conferred, and the son of that Siward Beorn who accompanied the Atheling into Scotland. Edward in this crisis proved himself to be worthy of the trust, and meeting the Moraymen at the entrance of one of the passes into the Lowlands of Forfarshire, overthrew them with a loss of four thousand men at Stickathrow, not far from the northern Esk--Angus the Earl, or as the Irish annalists call him, the king of Moray, being left amongst the dead, though Malcolm the other brother, escaping from the field, prolonged the struggle amidst the recesses of the remoter Highlands, and the contest was not brought to a conclusion until four years later.[234] [Sidenote: A. D. 1134.] The prestige of the Moray Mormaors was still very great throughout the northern and north-western Highlands, and as many of the national party, even though partisans of the reigning family, viewed with jealousy the increasing influence of “foreigners,” and the introduction of laws and customs against which they entertained a rooted antipathy, as long as a descendant of Kenneth Mac Duff remained at large, claiming to be the representative of one of their ancient line of kings, his standard became a dangerous rallying point both for open enemies and disaffected friends. David, seriously alarmed, besought the assistance of the barons of Yorkshire and Northumberland, who answering to his call with alacrity, the flower of the northern counties speedily assembled at Carlisle under the banner of Walter Espec. The numbers