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Rex in sua acie Scotos et Muranenses retinuit, nonnullos etiam de militibus Anglis et Francis ad sui corporis custodiam deputavit." Aelred, De Bello Standardii, Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. cxcv, col. 702-712.
His brother Simon took such offence at his lowliness, that he actually threatened to burn down the convent of Waldon, where Waltheof was living, because he thought it shame to see a descendant of Siward a common monk in a poor monastery. However, in time, promotion was thrust on them. Aelred became Abbot of Rivaux, and Waltheof Abbot of Melrose.
And in a short time he died, in the year 1159. Aelred lived seven or eight years longer, and was highly honored and trusted by the young Malcolm of Scotland. On his behalf the old Abbot undertook a journey, to treat with the wild men of Galloway, whom Malcolm had three times defeated in battle, and now wished to bring to terms.
Lang has pointed out that we do not hear "of feuds consequent on the eviction of prior holders.... The juries, from Angus to Clyde, are full of Celtic names of the gentry. The contemporary chronicler, Aelred, gives no hint that David replaced his Scottish subjects by an Anglo-Norman population; he admits that he was terrible to the men of Galloway, but insists that he was beloved of the Scots.
Two sons were likewise born to David; but the eldest was killed in his infancy by an accident: and shortly after David took home as a companion to the little Henry, Aelred, the son of a Saxon priest at Hexham. These four boys were brought up "in the nurture of good learning," and in godliness; but their different tempers soon showed themselves.
Ere long Aelred became a monk, and Waltheof was not slow in following his example. Both entered the Cistercian order, and led holy lives, avoiding all preferment a difficult matter for Waltheof, stepson to one king and cousin to another.
It was shortly after this that Aelred, the good Abbot of Rivaux, came to Dunfermline, on the affairs of his order; and in the presence of this holy man, the adopted brother of his beloved Henry, one of the four promising boys who had gladdened the early days of his reign, the King's grief broke freely forth, though still it was not the sorrow of one who had no hope.
His mother, Empress Maude, had in the meantime retired to Anjou, where she led a quiet life, giving up her rights to her son, and apparently profiting by the lesson she had been taught when her prosperity was turned at its full tide by her own pride and presumption. Of the boys bred up in the good household of Dunfermline, Aelred was the last survivor.
Andrews, and Aelred, as head of the Cistercians in Britain, came to Melrose, to order him, on his canonical obedience, to accept the see. But Waltheof was weak in health, and knew that another call had gone forth. He pointed to a stone slab on the floor of the chapter-house. "There," said he, "is the place of my rest. Here will be my habitation, among my children."
Aelred, the third abbot of Rievaulx, was a man of great literary qualifications, and this abbey possessed an extensive library, which was destroyed by the Scots, in one of their lawless incursions when the studious produce of the holy brotherhood, assembled by years of incessant study was committed to the reckless flames and doubtless amongst the collection were many works of the learned abbot Aelred; a character from whom we might suppose the "northern magician" had sketched the striking portraiture of the enthusiastic father Eustace, in his "Monastery."
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