Kenneth MacAlpin (AD 843-59) invaded Lothian, held by the Angles, six times without success. Malcolm I (d. AD 954) too had warred with the Northumbrians but it was not until Malcolm II won a great victory over them at Carham on the Tweed in 1018 that Lothian was finally added to Scotia. He was succeeded by his grandson Duncan I, who ruled over most of Scotland. He too attempted expansion southwards but a long and unsuccessful siege of Durham weakened his position. He was killed by Macbeth in 1040. After William the Conqueror's victory at Hastings, many English refugees fled to Scotland, among them the heir to Harold's throne, Edgar the Aethling and his sister Margaret. In 1069, Malcolm III Canmore, King of Scotland, a formidable warrior (and slayer of Macbeth) married (Saint) Margaret and dreamed of extending his rule into England. The Conqueror, however, defeated him on Gateshead Fell in 1068. He later advanced into Scotland in 1072 and Malcolm submitted, giving up his son Duncan as a hostage. Malcolm was ambushed and killed at Alnwick in 1093 on his fifth invasion of England. Malcolm III was buried at Tynemouth after his death at Alnwick in 1093, but his body was disinterred in 1117 by Alexander I and probably taken to Dunfermline.

The great Scottish king David I (1124-53) took advantage of the confusion after the death of the English king Henry I to press into England, capturing Carlisle and Newcastle before being defeated at the Battle of the Standard near Northallerton in 1138. However, by the Treaty of Durham in 1139, David gained control of Northumbria. David is supposed to have built St Andrew's church in Newcastle; the dedication to Scotland's patron saint makes this the more likely. In 1157 Malcolm IV, however, was forced to renounce his rights to Northumbria.

William the Lion (1165-1214), who is said to have given Scotland its rampant lion flag, embarked on a brutal invasion of England in 1174, only to be ignominiously defeated and taken prisoner at Alnwick. He was released on acknowledging the English king Henry II as overlord. Later on he bought the sovereignty of Scotland from Richard the Lionheart for 10,000 merks of silver to go towards Richard's third crusade. In 1209 we find him paying tribute money to King John of England at Norham Castle. Alexander II besieged Norham unsuccessfully for forty days five years later.

The fortunes of the kings of Scotland fluctuated thereafter, low under the ceaseless pressure of Edward I, the 'Hammer of the Scots', high under Robert the Bruce, the victor of Banockburn, who harried the North after the triumph which effectively secured Scottish independence. The disaster of Halidon Hill, near Berwick in 1333, when the English archers gave a bitter foretaste of their coming victories in France, however, resulted in a temporary renewal of English influence through Edward Balliol who did homage to Edward III at Blackfriars in Newcastle in 1334.

In 1341 David II invaded England in support of France. While his army lay encamped on the Forth outside Newcastle, a few 'gallant gentlemen' made a night sally at the Postern Gate, near the present Central Station and captured the Earl of Mar in his nightshirt. A furious attack by the Scots was beaten off. David was later defeated and captured by Queen Philippa (q.v.) at the Battle of Neville's Cross near Durham in 1346, while her husband, Edward III was winning the great battle of Crecy in France. After being incarcerated in the castle at Newcastle, David remained Edward III's prisoner for 11 years.

In 1503, James IV of Scotland married Henry VII's daughter (and Henry VIII's sister) Margaret Tudor. On her way to Scotland, the princess attended 'the Church messe' in St Nicholas Newcastle. She had a gorgeously attired retinue of nobles, conspicuous among them the Earl of Northumberland. She stayed in the Austin Friars at the Manors. Alas, James IV later invaded England in obedience to the auld alliance with France and on 9 September 1513, the greatest Scottish army ever to cross the border was destroyed at Flodden in Northumberland, James being killed along with the flower of the Scottish nobility.

Mary, Queen of Scots' turbulent and tragic reign in Scotland is well-known from the many poems, plays and histories that have portrayed her. When, in 1561, she came back to Scotland from France, whose king Henri II had declared her to be the rightful queen of England, the country had become firmly protestant under the influence of John Knox. Her secretary and confidant, David Rizzio was murdered in 1566 on the orders of her husband Lord Darnley, and the assassins fled to Newcastle. Ruthven died there. It was Mary's son, James VI who was to succeed to the English throne after Elizabeth's death, in 1603, as James I of what he called Great Britain.

James passed through the North East on the way to his coronation in London, staying in Widdrington on the first night, and at Chillingham Castle. At Hexham he is supposed to have declared: 'verily this is the heart of all England'. He is said to have lodged at the Nag's Head in Newcastle, at the foot of what is now Akenside Hill, where he was entertained by the mayor and prominent citizens for three days. The Bishop of Durham preached before him on 10 April and the king admired the Quayside and bridge. He also knighted Robert Dudley, mayor of Newcastle, though this honour was not the rarity it has become - James knighted nearly 1,000 men in the first year of his reign. The scene is described as being on the Tyne Bridge which contradicts the king's supposed phobia about crossing bridges, based on an unpleasant experience at Berwick. A bridge only needs to fall once, are his supposed words, or, more precisely, 'a brig could but fa' ance'. The king spent a night at Durham and was entertained at Lumley Castle. James also stayed at Walworth near Heighington. Here he was 'so bountifully entertained by the gentlewoman of the house (Mrs Jennison) that it gave His Excellence very high contentment.' James only revisited Scotland once, in 1617. In Durham, he received public complaints from the citizenry about their own bishop. This irked the king, as did the stale beer offered. On 1 May of that year James was entertained in Heaton by Henry Babington; Henry was of course knighted.