In March 1054, with the fall of the Scottish capital of Gori, the Kingdom of Scotland, which had survived in the highlands, was officially declared extinct.

This good news was passed to William along the border of the kingdom with the post post system on the borders, and with it the Duke of Rodrigo and others asked for merit.

For Rodrigo and others, it is nothing more than to seal some territories, give some titles, and have a large territory in the newly conquered Sogra Heights, even if it is canonized according to military merits, there is still most of the territory left.

However, William felt that it was a little difficult to deal with the fact that although the Scottish Highlands were subjugated, there were still many clans in the local area that maintained a strong independent nature, and if they were left alone, I am afraid that a situation of local secession would be formed.

In addition, the outer islands around the Scottish Highlands were home to numerous Norwegian immigrants and Nosgaelians who had settled here, and these unruly barbarians were also a major concern for William.

In addition, there is a Duchy of Orkney belonging to the Kingdom of Norway in the high north of Scotland, which rules part of the territory of the Duchy of Mali in the northernmost part of Scotland and a large number of important islands, this Duchy is like a sword of Damocles, hanging over the head of the Scottish region, which makes William a little uneasy.

At this time, William did not want to start another large-scale war with the Kingdom of Norway as soon as he ended one war, so he had to take a slow path to recover northern Mali and the surrounding island possessions.

However, William could not devote all his energy to the administration of the Scottish Highlands and the disputed territories, so he decided to follow the example of the Marco Frontier system of the Holy Roman Empire and set up a border vassal in the northern part of the Scottish Highlands to suppress the Scottish Highland clans and the Nosgaeles, and to defend and fight for the Duchy of Orkney in the north.

The Border Lords were extremely important, as they were between dukes and counts, but they had much greater ruling power than the first two, such as the ability to design and build their own military fortresses such as castles, to have more low-ranking vassals and vassals than in the realms of the kingdom or the center of the empire, and to mobilize armies independently to defend their territory.

The function of the Scottish Highland Territory Domain is more like that of a military governor of the Territory, whose main task is to defend the Frontier and govern the people of the Territory.

As a result, the rulers of the "Mak" Frontier Princes of the Territory had a more independent position than the ordinary rulers of the Frontier and held greater military power, especially military power, and the Border Lords themselves even had the right to initiate conquests of foreign territories, a power that even the Duke did not have.

However, the Marquis of Scottish Frontier was geographically so remote from William's ruling center that the Paris court could not directly exert influence, and its relationship with the Paris court was more like a bond.

Therefore, in order to prevent the border vassal from becoming larger, William decided to choose a trusted vassal to serve as the border vassal of the Scottish Highlands.

Ferdinand, Earl of Lancaster. Grylls, who was originally the son of Martin, the chief knight under the Duke of Richard, followed William on his expeditions to the Quartet, and made great achievements, and after conquering the Kingdom of England, he was canonized as the Earl of Lancaster, and defended the northern territory of England for William.

Honest and trustworthy, hardworking, and unambitious, he was worthy of William's trust, and he decided to make the Earl of Lancaster a vassal of the Scottish Highlands.

William defined a large number of newly conquered territories for the Mali border vassals, including the former Scottish King Macpeth's family fiefdom of Mali and the two Counties of Rosser, the Highlands of Atholl, and the outer islands of the Minchi Strait and the Argyl Empires adjacent to Mali.

The nowhere states of Mali, Rother, Asol, the Outer Isles, and Argyle formed the new Scottish Highland Frontier States.

In addition to this newly established princely state, William also planned to establish a border prince, the border of Barcelona, including the two newly conquered kingdoms of Lleida and Tarragona, as well as the kingdoms of Cacasson and Fuiber at the northern foot of the Pyrenees.

The title of Marquis of Barcelona, William awarded him to Rodrigo, Duke of Munster, who had played a great role in the battle.

The territory of Barcelona was established because of the complex strategic situation, with the newly annexed Toulouse and Gascony to the north, the powerful independent principality of Barcelona to the east, the two Spanish Christian kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre to the west, and the Moors of the Emir of Toledo to the south.

These forces were either rebellious or hostile to the Norman kingdom, and the strategic situation was very serious, but by this time William had already devoted most of his energy to the strategy of conquering Italy, and it was impossible to have much energy to take care of this.

As a vassal of the Barcelona region, Duke Rodrigo naturally wanted to take on the important task of intimidating the princes and expanding the territory for William.

At present, in the British Isles, Normandy and France controlled by William, except for the Scottish Highland Border Princes and Barcelona Border Princes, William does not want to continue to add border regions for the time being.

At present, the Norman kingdom ruled by William includes all of the British Isles (including England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland), all of the Kingdom of France (including Normandy, Brittany, Flanders, Burgundy, Orleans, Anjou, Aquitaine, Jascot, etc.), the entire territory of the Kingdom of Lorraine (including Belgium, Luxembourg, Alsace Lorraine and other places in later generations), and the two Earl States of Spain.

It can be said that William's Norman kingdom was almost the sum of England and France, and it had expanded to its greatest limits, reaching its zenith.

However, William was faced with a very embarrassing situation, that is, his kingdom was too vast to rule the Norman kingdom in the manner of the previous feudal princes, and William could not even exercise direct rule over some remote territories, such as Scotland, Ireland, Aquitaine, Gascony, and Toulouse.

In order to urgently change this situation, William spent the night consulting with the kingdom's prime minister, Rudorf, in an attempt to devise an administrative system suitable for ruling the Norman kingdom.

At this time, the provincial system of ancient Rome came into the eyes of William, and it was indeed the most suitable administrative system for the Norman kingdom at present.

The situation of the Norman Kingdom is very similar to that of the Roman Empire, one is that the population of the subject nation is limited, most of the Romans at that time lived in Italy and the city of Rome, and the rest of the newly conquered places such as Gaul, Britain, Spain, Romania, the Balkans, Asia and other places are mostly rebellious aliens, if they are left unchecked, it is easy to create a power vacuum, and the final result can only be the loss of these newly conquered territories.

The provincial system, on the other hand, was able to fill the power vacuum caused by the vast territory, which was conducive to maintaining the stability of the Roman state itself, and on the other hand, it was also conducive to stabilizing the social order of the conquered countries and regions.

The establishment of the Roman provincial system consolidated the unity of the Roman state itself and the security of its territory, and was of great political significance and value.

Similarly, most of the main ethnic groups of the Norman kingdom lived in Normandy and Wessex on both sides of the English Channel, and the Normans in the northwestern and central parts of France were more numerous, but the rest of the territory was sparsely populated by Normans, which was not conducive to the long-term rule of the Norman kingdom.

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