Many years elapsed before the Scottish king was again induced to enter upon the scene of English politics--internal rather than external policy appearing to have occupied his attention during this period of his reign, and many of the alterations he had previously set on foot were now probably completed and confirmed. He had not lost sight, however, of the interests of the empress and her son; and in his anxiety to further the designs of the latter, [Sidenote: A. D. 1149.] about eight years after the siege of Winchester, upon the crown of England, he was again brought to the verge of a rupture with Stephen. The youthful Henry Fitz Empress suddenly arrived at Carlisle to receive the honour of knighthood from the hands of his venerable kinsman, Ranulph of Chester, who had purposely repaired to the same city, with Henry of Scotland, assisting in the solemnities of the occasion. Ceremonial and festivity, however, only served to cover the real object of the meeting, and arrangements were set on foot, at the same time, for cementing an alliance which was to place young Henry upon the English throne. The Earl of Chester, consenting to waive all claims upon Carlisle, performed homage to David on receiving in exchange the fief of Lancaster, with a promise that a daughter of Prince Henry should be given in marriage to his son. Henry Fitz Empress bound himself, if ever he regained his grandfather’s throne, to confirm, without let or hindrance, to David and his heirs, Newcastle and Northumberland, from Tyne to Tweed, with all the other English fiefs that belonged to the heir of the Scottish crown, in right of his descent from Earl Waltheof; and, these preliminaries being adjusted, it was agreed that the earl was to concentrate his followers upon Lancaster; and that the Scottish army, strengthened by his retainers and by the barons of the western counties who adhered to Henry, should at once advance against Stephen, who, suspecting the proceedings at Carlisle, had already reached York on his march towards the north. In accordance with this arrangement, David and his young relative lost no time in reaching Lancaster; but Randolph, fickle and treacherous as usual, was as faithless to his new allies as he had been ever false to Stephen. He failed in his appointment at Lancaster, Henry recrossed the sea to Normandy, and the two kings, mutually averse to the hazard of an open rupture, led back their armies without a contest.[259]