Chapter VIII: The Kingdom of Scotia (2)

Of the events of his thirty-five years’ reign, however, very few have been recorded. The combination of so many advantages in his own person would naturally lead to a further amalgamation of the different provinces of the kingdom, with their varied population, into one monarchy; but this is a silent process, which little attracts the notice of the chroniclers of the time. The personal character of Margaret, no doubt, was one to exercise a great influence upon the internal condition and progress of the people, as we learn to some extent from her life by Turgot; but this belongs to a different part of our subject, and beyond a few isolated notices we know really nothing of the internal history of his reign.

[Sidenote: Malcolm invades Northumbria five times.]

As to external events, Simeon of Durham, whose language, however, is coloured by an indignant hatred of the Scots on account of their frequent attacks upon Durham, tells us that Malcolm had ‘five times wasted the province of Northumbria with a savage devastation, and carried captive the wretched natives to reduce them to slavery: once in Eadward’s reign, when Tostig, earl of York, had gone to Rome;’ twice in the reign of King William the Conqueror; and twice in that of his successor.[601]

The first we have already noticed. The two next were probably connected with the claims of the Aetheling; but it is also possible that Malcolm may now have begun to realise the growing importance of Lothian and its Anglic population as an integral portion of its dominions, and been not unwilling to take advantage of the unsettled state of the north of England to extend to the Tyne the limits of that province which was now assuming the prominent place it ever after occupied in the future Scotland. Simeon seems to hint at some such motive, when he accuses him of being ‘instigated by avarice.’ If this was Malcolm’s real object, his policy seems to have been, by harassing and devastating the earldom north of the Tyne, from time to time, to force them to put themselves under his protection—a policy not unknown to the descendants of a part of his subjects, when black mail was a familiar term.

During the first three years of the reign of William the Conqueror, he had little real power or authority beyond the Humber, and it was not till the end of the year 1069, when he invaded Northumbria, and laid the country entirely waste with fire and sword, that he may be said to have actually conquered the country. Previous to that expedition he exercised a merely nominal authority, through earls of his own appointment, who no sooner attempted to exercise their functions within the earldom than they were ere long slain.

It was in Northumbria that the cause of the Aetheling was mainly supported, and that part of it which was north of the Tyne presented a tempting field for the incursions of the Scots. On the death of Siward in 1055 an earl was for the first time appointed who was not of Northumbrian race. Tostig, the son of Earl Godwine, was appointed earl by King Eadward, but, after a ten years’ rule, we are told by the Saxon Chronicle that in 1065 ‘all the thanes in Yorkshire and Northumberland gathered together, and outlawed their Earl Tostig, and slew all his household-men that they could come at, both English and Danish, and took all his weapons at York, and gold and silver, and all his treasures which they could anyway hear of, and sent after Morkere, son of Earl Aelfgar (of Mercia), and chose him for their earl,’ which was confirmed by King Edward. Morkere does not seem, however, to have been accepted by the Northumbrians beyond the Tyne, as Simeon of Durham tells us that he transferred that part of the earldom to Osulf, son of Earl Eadulf, of the line of the native earls, who had been slain in the year 1041. In the year 1067 King William summoned Earl Morkere to attend him on his voyage to Normandy, and retained him beside him, and at the same time sent Copsige, who had been an adherent of Earl Tostig, to govern, as procurator, that part of the earldom under Osulf; but Simeon tells us that ‘Osulf, driven by Copsige from the earldom, concealed himself in the woods and mountains in hunger and want, till at last, having gathered some associates whom the same need had brought together, he surrounded Copsige while feasting at Newburn. He escaped through the midst of confused crowds, but, being discovered while he lay hid in the church, he was compelled, by the burning of the church, to go out to the door, where, at the very door, he was beheaded by the hands of Osulf, in the fifth week of his charge of the earldom, on the fourth of the ides of March. By and by, in the following autumn, Osulf himself, rushing headlong against the lance of a robber who met him, was thrust through, and there perished. At his death Gospatric, the son of Maldred, the son of Crinan, going to King William, obtained the earldom of the Northumbrians, which he purchased for a great sum, for the dignity of that earldom belonged to him by his mother’s blood. His mother was Algitha, the daughter of Earl Uchtred, whom he had by Algiva, daughter of King Agelred.’[602] Gospatric, by paternal descent, was nearly connected and a member of the same house with Malcolm, the king of the Scots, while the means by which he obtained his earldom ranged him among the followers of King William, and he thus placed himself in a position which it was very difficult for him to maintain without alienating from him either the one or the other. In the following year, therefore, the Saxon Chronicle tells us that, in 1067, after Whitsunday, ‘it was then announced to the king that the people of the north had gathered themselves together and would stand against him if he came. He then went to Nottingham, and there wrought two castles; and so went to York, and there wrought two castles, and in Lincoln, and everywhere in that part. And Earl Gospatric and the best men went to Scotland.’ The same Chronicle tells us that in the following year, 1068 according to the Chronicle, but correctly given by Simeon in 1069, ‘King William gave to Earl Robert (de Comines) the government over Northumberland; but the men of the country surrounded him in the burgh at Durham, and slew him and nine hundred men with him. And immediately after Eadgar Aetheling came, with all the Northumbrians, to York, and the townsmen made peace with them; and King William came unawares on them from the south with an overwhelming army, and put them to flight, and slew those who could not flee, which were many hundred men, and plundered the town, and defiled St. Peter’s monastery, and also plundered and oppressed all the others, and the Aetheling went back again to Scotland.’

This unsuccessful attempt seems to have led to a more general combination of the northern powers in favour of the Aetheling, in which the aid of Swein, king of Denmark, had been solicited and obtained; and in autumn ‘came from Denmark,’ the Saxon Chronicle tells in 1069, ‘three sons of King Svein and Asbiörn Jarl, and Thorkell Jarl, with two hundred and forty ships, into the Humber; and there came to meet them Eadgar child and Earl Waltheof, and Maerleswegen, and Earl Gospatric, with the Northumbrians, and all the country people, riding and walking, with a countless army, greatly rejoicing; and so all unanimously went to York and stormed and demolished the castle, and gained innumerable treasures therein, and slew there many hundred Frenchmen, and led many with them to the ships.... When the king learned this, he went northward with all his force that he could gather and completely harried and laid waste the shire. And the fleet lay all winter in the Humber, where the king could not come at them. And the king was in the day of Midwinter at York, and so all the winter in the land.’ Florence of Worcester tells us that ‘King William ceased not, during the whole winter, to lay waste the land, to murder the inhabitants, and to inflict numerous injuries.’[603] This devastation of the land, however, does not appear to have extended beyond the Tyne, or to have affected the districts on the coast; but what was left undone by William was completed by Malcolm, king of the Scots, for Simeon of Durham tells us that in the spring of the year 1070, after King William had returned to the south of the Humber, ‘a countless multitude of Scots marched through Cumbreland, under the command of King Malcolm, and turning to the east ravaged with fierce devastation the whole of Teesdale, or the vale of the river Tees, and the parts bordering it on each side.’ Then, ‘having pillaged Cleveland in part, by a sudden foray he seized Holderness, and thence savagely overrunning the territory of St. Cuthbert, between the Tees and the Tyne, he deprived all of their property, and some of their lives. Then he destroyed by fire, under his own inspection, the church of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, at Wearmouth. He burnt also other churches, with those who had taken refuge in them.’[604] Whether this inroad was made as part of the plan for a combined attempt in favour of Eadgar, which failed the preceding year, and that Malcolm had been too late in putting his part of it into execution, or whether, as seems more probable, he thought it a favourable opportunity for carrying out the policy which he hoped might lead to his extending his frontier to the Tyne, it seems difficult to say; but Gospatric, who had fled to Scotland before the approach of King William the preceding year, had now become reconciled to him, as Orderic of Vital says that while King William had pursued his foes to the river Tees, he ‘there received the submission of Waltheof in person, and of Gospatric by his envoys, who swore fealty on his part,’[605] and he seems to have thought that he might win favour by acting against Malcolm. Simeon therefore tells us, ‘Having called in some bold auxiliaries, he made a furious plundering attack upon Cumbreland. Having done this with slaughter and conflagration, he returned with great spoil and shut himself with his allies into the strong fortress of Bamborough, from which making frequent sallies, he weakened the forces of the enemy.’ Malcolm ‘having heard, while still gazing on the church of St. Peter as it was being consumed by the fire of his men, of what Gospatric had committed against his people, scarcely able to contain himself for fury, ordered his troops no longer to spare any of the English nation, but either to smite all to the earth, or to carry them off captives under the yoke of perpetual slavery.’ Simeon then gives us his usual picture of the barbarity with which such inroads were carried on by the Scots, and adds as the result, ‘Scotland was therefore filled with slaves and handmaids of the English race; so that even to this day, I do not say no little village, but even no cottage, can be found without one of them.’[606] Simeon inserts the following tale in his account of this inroad by Malcolm the king of the Scots. He says that ‘when he was riding along the border of the river (Wear) beholding from an eminence the cruel exploits of his men against the unhappy English, and feasting his mind and eyes with such a spectacle, it was told him that Eadgar Aetheling and his sisters, who were beautiful girls of the royal blood, and many other very rich persons, fugitives from their homes, lay with their ships in that harbour. When they came to him with terms of amity, he addressed them graciously, and pledged himself to grant them and all their friends a residence in his kingdom as long as they chose.’ And Simeon afterwards adds, ‘After Malcolm’s return to Scotland, when Bishop Egelwin was commencing his voyage towards Cologne, a contrary wind arising soon drove him back to Scotland. Thither also it bore with a favourable course Eadgar Aetheling with his companions before named. King Malcolm, with the consent of his relatives, took in marriage Eadgar’s sister Margaret, a woman noble by royal descent, but much more noble by her wisdom and piety. By her care and labour the king himself, laying aside the barbarity of his manners, became more gentle and civilised.’ But this story, if it has any foundation at all, appears to be misplaced, and the marriage which followed it had already taken place. Placed as it is in this year, it is quite inconsistent with the previous narrative. Simeon had recorded two years before the flight of Eadgar with his mother Agatha, and his two sisters Margaret and Cristina, by sea, to Scotland, where he says they passed the winter. It is therefore in the highest degree improbable that when Eadgar went in the following year to Northumbria to join the Danes in seizing the country, he should have taken his mother and sisters with him, from their secure refuge at the court of Scotland, to join him in so hazardous an expedition. Then the story as told implies that Malcolm now heard of these sisters and their charms for the first time; while, according to Simeon himself, they had already passed a winter with him in Scotland. The story really belongs to the first flight of Eadgar to Scotland, with his mother and sisters, in 1068, and not to his return from Northumbria in 1070, and seems to be the same tale which Fordun tells, on the authority of Turgot, that King Malcolm, when residing at Dunfermline, heard of the arrival of Eadgar and his sisters in St. Margaret’s Bay, and sent messengers to ascertain who they were, who brought him precisely the same report of the beauty of the sisters, in consequence of which he invited them to his court, and married Margaret.[607]

During the early years of the reign of the Conqueror, Scotland had not only been the refuge of his discontented subjects, and the haven in which those who unsuccessfully opposed him could at all times shelter themselves from his vengeance and renew their attempts when opportunity offered, but its king had afforded the Aetheling three times a refuge at his court, and had now identified himself with his cause by marrying his sister. King William therefore felt the necessity of establishing at once a more definite relation between himself and the Scottish king, and of convincing him that his power was not to be opposed with impunity. It was not till the year 1072 that he was able to turn his attention seriously to this object, but in that year the Saxon Chronicle tells us ‘King William led a naval force and a land force to Scotland, and lay about that land with ships on the sea-side, and himself with his land force went in over the ford.’ This was precisely the same disposition of his forces which Earl Siward had made when he invaded Scotland in 1054, and no doubt with the same object, that of investing Scone, the capital of the country. King William, we know, marched with his land army through Lothian and Stirlingshire, and entered Scotland proper by the ford over the Forth[608] there, and the only object in sending a fleet could have been to penetrate into the interior of the country by the Firth of Tay. We are then told that ‘King Malcolm came and made peace with King William, and gave hostages and became his man, and the king went home with all his force.’ Florence of Worcester says that ‘Malcolm, king of Scots, met him in a place called Abernethiei’[609] or Abernethy on the Tay, which is quite in accordance with this view. What the precise nature or extent of the homage was which Malcolm agreed at Abernethy to render, there are no materials now to determine. When the possessions of the king of the Scots were confined to the kingdom proper north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, the expression ‘he became his man’ would have a definite significance; but after the cession of Cumbria and Lothian it loses its force, as we cannot tell whether the homage was paid for the kingdom or for one or both of these outlying dependencies. The hostage given was, as we are afterwards informed by the Saxon Chronicle, Duncan, the eldest son of Malcolm by Ingibiorg, his first wife, who must then have been a boy of about ten years of age. Simeon tells that on the return of King William from this expedition, he deprived Gospatric of his earldom, ‘charging him with having afforded counsel and aid to those who had murdered the earl (Robert de Comines) and his men at Durham, although he had not been present in person, and that he had been on the side of the enemy when the Normans were slain at York’ in the same year; and he adds that, ‘flying therefore to Malcolm, he (Gospatric) not long after, made a voyage to Flanders; returning after a little time to Scotland, the king bestowed upon him Dunbar with the adjacent lands in Lothian.’ [610] King William seems now to have thought it more politic to place one who had some hereditary claim to the earldom than a stranger over the Northumbrians, and bestowed Gospatric’s earldom upon Waltheof, ‘which,’ says Simeon, ‘was his right by his father’s and brother’s descent, for he was the son of Earl Siward by Elfleda, daughter of Earl Aldred.’

Eadgar Aetheling appears to have taken refuge, when King William invaded Scotland, in Flanders; but two years after, when King William went to Normandy, ‘Eadgar child came,’ the Saxon Chronicle tells us, ‘from Flanders to Scotland on St. Grimbald’s mass day, or the 8th of July, and King Malcolm and his sister Margaret received him with great worship. At that same time Philip, king of France, wrote to him and bade him come to him and he would give him the castle of Montreuil, that he might then daily do harm to his enemies. Moreover, King Malcolm and his sister Margaret gave him and all his men great gifts and many treasures in skins decked with purple and in pelisses of marten-skin and weasel-skin and ermine-skin, and in palls and in golden and silver vessels; and led him and all his ship men with great worship from his dominion.’ No doubt, in the relation in which Malcolm then stood to King William, his presence was an embarrassment to him; and as he was not disposed to assist him himself at this time, he was glad to be relieved from his difficulty by the king of France discovering that he might make use of him to annoy the king of England from another quarter. But King Malcolm was not to be so easily freed from the embarrassment of his presence as he expected; for we are told that ‘on the voyage evil befell them when they went out at sea, so that there came on very rough weather, and the raging sea and the strong wind cast them on the land so that all their ships burst asunder, and they themselves with difficulty came to land, and almost all their treasures were lost, and some of his men also were seized by the Frenchmen; but he himself and his best men went back again to Scotland, some ruefully going on foot and some miserably riding. When King Malcolm advised him that he should send to King William over the sea and pray his peace; and he also did so, and the king granted it to him and sent after him. And King Malcolm and his sister again gave him and all his men innumerable treasures, and very worthily again sent him from their jurisdiction.’ Malcolm was more fortunate the second time. Eadgar succeeded in reaching the court of King William in safety, where he was well received, and remained with him.

Malcolm appears now to have turned his attention more to the amalgamation of the provinces he held, instead of attempting to enlarge his dominions at the expense of Northumbria, and in the year 1078 he appears to have invaded the province of Moray. The hereditary ruler of the province at this time was Maelsnectan, the son of that Lulach who had borne the title of king for four months, and his son appears under the Celtic title of ‘Ri Moreb,’ or king of Moray. Malcolm seems to have been successful in his attempt, as the Saxon Chronicle tells us in an imperfect notice that ‘in this year King Malcolm won the mother of Maelslaeht ... and all his best men, and all his treasure and his cattle, and he himself escaped with difficulty.’ He may have taken refuge in the remote stronghold of Loch Deabhra in Lochaber, which St. Berchan tells us had been the habitation of his father Lulach, and here he died seven years after.[611]

Malcolm appears to have been emboldened by this success and by the continued absence of King William in Normandy to make another attempt to extend his frontier to the Tyne, notwithstanding that his son Duncan was still retained as a hostage at the English Court, as Simeon of Durham tells us that in 1079 ‘Malcolm, king of Scots, after the Assumption of St. Mary on the 15th of August, devastated Northumberland as far as the great river Tyne, slew many, took more prisoners, and returned with great spoil;’ but when King William returned in the following year to England, ‘he sent in the autumn his son Robert to Scotland against Malcolm, but having gone as far as Egglesbreth he returned without accomplishing anything, and built the new castle on the Tyne.’[612] Egglesbrech is the Gaelic name of Falkirk,[613] so that Robert penetrated as far as the river Carron, but did not venture to proceed farther, and it is probable that he contented himself with repaying the devastation of that part of Northumbria north of the Tyne by pillaging Lothian and Calatria, and was forced to retreat by the want of supplies; and while he protected Northumbria south of the Tyne by the castle he erected on that river, he virtually surrendered the district north of it to the incursions of the Scots.

In the year 1085, the same year in which Maelsnectan died, Malcolm appears to have lost a son, Domnall, probably another son by his first marriage, who seems to have died a violent death;[614] and two years afterwards William the Conqueror died and was succeeded by his son William Rufus. By the death of his great and imposing antagonist Malcolm seems to have considered himself relieved from the necessity of further observing any engagements he may have entered into towards the king of England; and though his eldest son was still retained as a hostage at the English Court, he had now around him a flourishing band of youthful sons, the fruit of his union with Queen Margaret, the eldest of whom may now have been approaching majority, and he may have felt less hesitation in exposing the son whom he had not seen since he was a boy, and by a mother whom he had forgotten, to have the consequences of any act of hostility visited upon him. Accordingly, when in the year 1091 Eadgar Aetheling had been deprived of the lands which had been given him in Normandy by the new king, and went to Scotland to his brother-in-law and to his sister, Malcolm had no hesitation in this time adopting his cause. As the Saxon Chronicle tells us, ‘While King William was out of England King Malcolm of Scotland came hither into England and harried a great deal of it, till the good men who had charge of this land sent a force against him and turned him back. When King William in Normandy heard of this he made ready for his departure, and came to England, and his brother the Count Robert with him, and forthwith ordered a force to be called out, both a ship force and a land force; but the ship force, ere he could come to Scotland, almost all perished miserably a few days before St. Michael’s mass,[615] and the king and his brother went with the land force. But when King Malcolm heard that they would seek him with a force, he went with his force out of Scotland into the district of Lothian in England, and there awaited.[616] When King William with his force approached, there intervened Count Robert and Eadgar Aetheling, and so made a reconciliation between the kings, so that King Malcolm came to our king and became his man, with all such obedience as he had before paid to his father, and that with oath confirmed. And King William promised him in land and in all things that which he had had before under his father. In this reconciliation Eadgar Aetheling was also reconciled with the king, and the kings then with great good feeling separated.’ This passage seems very clearly to imply that the expression ‘and Malcolm became his man’ does not refer to any homage rendered by Malcolm for the kingdom of Scotland, either on this or the former occasion, but for land held under the king in England; and although Malcolm may have considered that he had a hereditary right to the district of Lothian, and was not inclined to admit its dependence upon the king of England when he could help it, yet it can hardly be doubted that when forced to recognise the claims of the king of England he conceded that Lothian was not an integral part of Scotland but of England, and, in becoming the king’s man, acknowledged his supremacy over it.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1092.
Cumbria south of the Solway wrested from the Scots.]

The Chronicle adds, in narrating this reconciliation, ‘but that stood only a little while;’ and accordingly in the following year King William, who apparently coveted that part of the Cumbrian territory which extended from the Solway to the river Derwent and the Cross at Stanmore, and probably considered that if his right as overlord had been recognised he might resume any part of it, ‘with a large force went north to Carlisle and restored the town, and raised the castle and drove out Dolphin, who had previously ruled the land there, and garrisoned the castle with his own men, and then returned south hither. And very many country folk, with wives and with cattle, he sent thither to dwell and to till the land,’ Dolphin was probably the son of Earl Gospatric, and held this part of Cumbria under Malcolm, and this was a direct invasion of his rights, as the kings of Scotland unquestionably were in legitimate possession of the whole of the ancient British kingdom of Cumbria, which extended from the Clyde to the Derwent and to Stanmore; but he appears to have endeavoured at first to obtain redress by negotiation, for the Chronicle tells us that ‘after this, the king of Scotland sent, and demanded the fulfilment of the treaty which had been promised him. And King William summoned him to Gloucester, and sent him hostages to Scotland, and Eadgar Aetheling afterwards, and the men back again, who brought him with great worship to the king. But when he came to the king he could not be held worthy either the speech of the king or the conditions that had been previously promised him; and therefore in great hostility they parted, and King Malcolm returned home to Scotland. But as soon as he came home he gathered his army, and marched into England, harrying with more animosity than ever behoved him. And then Robert the earl of Northumberland ensnared him with his men unawares and slew him. Morel of Bamborough slew him, who was the earl’s steward and King Malcolm’s gossip. With him also was slain his son Eadward, who should, if he had lived, have been king after him.’ Simeon of Durham adds that he was cut off near the river Alne, and that ‘his army either fell by the sword, or those who escaped the sword were carried away by the inundation of the rivers which were then more than usually swollen by the winter rains. Two of the natives placed the body of the king in a cart, as none of his men were left to commit it to the ground, and buried it at Tynemouth.’[617]

By some of the Scotch Chronicles Malcolm is said to have been slain at Inneraldan or the mouth of the river Alne, by others at Alnwick, and to have been buried at Tynemouth;[618] and thus terminated his long reign of thirty-five years.[619] The character of Malcolm was variously regarded by the English and by his own subjects. The English historians, who had mainly to record his frequent invasions of Northumberland, regarded him as a man of barbarous disposition and a cruel and pitiless temper, who delighted to ravage and devastate the northern districts of England, instigated by avarice; while they attributed any better traits in his character to the humanising influence of his Saxon consort Queen Margaret. By his Celtic subjects he was known as Malcolm Ceannmor, or ‘great head,’ and was regarded, according to the testimony of St. Berchan, as

A king, the best who possessed Alban;
He was a king of kings fortunate.
He was the vigilant crusher of enemies.
No woman bore or will bring forth in the East
A king whose rule will be greater over Alban;
And there shall not be born for ever
One who had more fortune and greatness.

[Sidenote: State of Scotland at Malcolm’s death.]

On his death he left the kingdom in possession for the first time of the same southern frontier which it ever after retained. It was now separated from the kingdom of England by the Solway Firth, the range of the Cheviot Hills, and the river Tweed. From the Solway to the Clyde extended that portion of Cumbria which still belonged to the Scottish king; from the Tweed to the Forth, the district of Lothian. From the Forth to the Spey was Alban or Albania, now called Scotia. Beyond it, on the north, the province of Moravia; on the west, Airergaidhel or Argathelia; while beyond these were, on the north, Caithness and the Orkney Isles forming the Norwegian earldom of Orkney; and, on the west, the Sudreys or Western Islands still occupied by the Norwegians, though since the death of Thorfinn belonging nominally to Scotland.

-----

Footnote 548:

1006 Bellum itir firu Albain et Saxanu coromaid for Albanchu co
fargabsat ar an degh doine.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 366.

Footnote 549:

Sim. _de obsessione Dunelm._ Simeon places this war in the year 969,
but Durham was not founded till the year 995, and Malcolm did not
begin to reign till 1005. Mr. Freeman, in his _History of the Norman
Conquest_, vol. i. p. 357, rightly places it in the year 1006. He
says, “If it happened at all, it must have been in this year, the only
one which suits the position of the king, bishop, and earl spoken of.
Ealdhun became bishop in 990, and removed the see to Durham in 995.
Malcolm began to reign in 1004. A Northumbrian earldom became vacant
in 1006. This fixes the date. The authority of Simeon is, I think,
guarantee enough for the general truth of the story, and the silence
of the Chronicles and Florence is not conclusive as to a Northumbrian
matter.” This conclusion of Mr. Freeman is the more striking as he
appears not to have been aware of the passage in the Ulster Annals
placing what is obviously the same event under the year 1006.

Footnote 550:

Olaf Tryggvesson’s Saga, cap. 52.

Footnote 551:

The tract on the Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill says that one wing
of Brian’s army consisted of ten mormaers of Brian with their foreign
auxiliaries. The word Gall, here translated ‘foreign,’ usually means
the Northmen, but it seems here used in its general sense of foreign.
Though the Mormaer of Marr is the only one named, the whole force of
Alban was probably here arrayed on Brian’s side.

Footnote 552:

The passage in the tract on the Wars of the Gaedhil enumerates the
auxiliary Galls as those of ‘Insi Ore ocus Insi Cat; a Manaind ocus a
Sci ocus a Leodus; a Cindtiri ocus a h-Airergoedel ocus a Barru ocus a
Coir breathnaibh ocus a Cornbliteoc ocus a Breathnaibh Cillemuine.’ A
copy of a tract on the battle of Cluaintarbh in the author’s
possession gives them thus:—‘Sitric mac Lodar Iarla Innsehorc go
sluagh (with the host of) Innsehorc ocus Oilein Lochlannach (the
Norwegian islands), sluagh (the host of) Innse Cath ocus Maininn,
Scithidh, Lodhusa, Cinntire ocus Oirer Gaoidhil ocus Corbrethnuibh
(district Britons of) Cille Muine ocus Cor na liagog gona
rioghruidhibh (with their kings).’ Though Cath is here ranked among
the islands, it is probable that Caithness is meant, and that the
Irish writer rendered Cathness by Innsi Cath, supposing the
termination ‘ness’ to be Innis. The others are easily recognised
except the two last. Cillemuine is the Irish name of St. Davids, which
implies they were the Britons of South Wales; but who were the
Cornbliteoc of the one list and the Cor na liagog of the other? One
would have expected to find Galloway included, and this district may
be meant, though the author can give no explanation of the name.

Footnote 553:

See for a full account of the battle, the tract on the _War of the
Gaedhil with the Gaill_: edited by Dr. Todd, in the Master of the
Rolls’ series; also Dasent’s _Saga of Burnt Njal_.

Footnote 554:

Orkneyinga Saga. _Collect. de Rebus Albanicis_, p. 340.

Footnote 555:

_Ibid._ p. 346.

Footnote 556:

Earl Gilli had his seat in Colonsay, and as Lewis and Skye were
separately named as sending their quota to the Norwegian forces at
Cluantarbh, it is probable that the islands under his rule consisted
of those lying to the south of the Point of Ardnamurchan. St. Berchan
seems to indicate that King Malcolm had acquired some right over them
when he calls him

Danger of Britons, extinction of Galls,
Mariner of Ile and Arann.
_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 99.

Footnote 557:

The Nials Saga tells of Kari Solmundson, that on hearing of the battle
of Cluantarbh he sailed south to Wales. ‘Then they sailed north to
Beruwick and laid up their ships, and fared up into Whitherne in
Scotland, and were with Earl Melkolf that year.’ Beruvik is probably
the bay in the parish of Whitehern now called Port Yarrock.

Footnote 558:

_Orkneyinga Saga_, c. 1. _Saga of Saint Olaf_. _Collectanea de Rebus
Albanicis_, pp. 340, 346.

Footnote 559:

Simeon of Durham gives the following picture of the Durham clergy in
the tenth century. In mentioning the slaughter of the monks of
Lindisfarne, and the escape of the bishop with the body of St.
Cuthbert, he adds that ‘Tradita sibi districtione paulatim postposita,
ecclesiasticam disciplinam odio habuerunt, remissioris vitæ illecebras
secuti. Nec erat qui eos sub ecclesiastica censura coerceret, utpote
cultura Dei destructis monasteriis et ecclesiis pene deficiente.
Seculariter itaque omnino viventes carni et sanguini inserviebant,
filios et filias generantes. Quorum posteri per successionem in
ecclesia Dunelmensi fuerunt nimis remisse viventes, nec ullam nisi
carnalem vitam quam ducebant, scientes nec scire volentes. Clerici
vocabantur, sed nec habitu, nec conversatione clericatum
prætendebant.’—Sim. _Hist. Ec. Dun._ Pref. The step was but a short
one from this state of matters to that of lay possessors of the
benefices. The oldest legend of St. Andrew bears a title which
contains the following: ‘Et quomodo contigerit quod tantæ abbatiæ ibi
factæ antiquitus fuerint quas multi adhuc seculares viri jure
hereditario possident.’—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 138.

Footnote 560:

A.D. 865 Tuathal mac Artguso primus episcopus Fortrenn et abbas
Duincaillenn dormivit. 873 Flaithbertach mac Murcertaigh Princeps
Duncaillden obiit.—_Ann. Ult._ See Reeves’s _Adamnan_, ed. 1874, p.
cxxiii, for the meaning of ‘princeps.’

Footnote 561:

Fordun calls Crinan ‘Abthanus de Dull et seneschallus insularum.’
There was no such title as Abthanus de Dull, but there was an Abthania
de Dull, consisting of the possessions of that monastery. They were of
great extent, and embraced the whole of the present parishes of Dull
and Fortingall. If this monastery had become secularised, they may
have belonged to the lay abbot of Dunkeld, and if Malcolm had now
re-acquired part of the Western Isles, Crinan may have occupied some
important position in connection with them also.

Footnote 562:

In his history of the kings, Simeon has under the year 1018, ‘Ingens
bellum apud Carrum gestum est inter Scottos et Anglos, inter Huctredum
filium Waldef Comitem Northymbrorum, et Malcolmum filium Cyneth regem
Scottorum. Cum quo fuit Eugenius Calvus, rex Lutinensium;’ but we have
the authority of the Saxon Chronicle for the fact that Huctred was
slain two years before, and that Cnut had made Eric, a Dane, his
successor, while Simeon makes his brother Eadulf Cudel succeed him.
Lutinensium is with reason supposed to have been written for
Clutinensium.

Footnote 563:

Siquidem paulo post, id est, post triginta dies, universus a flumine
Tesa usque Twedam populus dum contra infinitam Scottorum multitudinem
apud Carrum dimicaret, pene totus cum natu majoribus suis
interiit.—Sim. _Hist. Ec. Dun._ c. v.

Footnote 564:

Quo occiso (Ucthredo) frater ipsius Eadulf, cognomento Cudel, ignavus
valde et timidus ei successit in comitatum. Timens autem ne Scotti
mortem suorum quos frater ejus, ut supradictum est, occiderat, in se
vindicarent, totum Lodoneium ob satisfactionem et formam concordiam
eis donavit. Hoc modo Lodoneium adjectum est regno Scottorum.—Sim. _de
Obsess. Dun._

Footnote 565:

The _Annales Cambriæ_ have, in 1015, ‘Owinus filius Dunawal occisus
est,’ which appears to refer to this Owen, and the event is antedated
a few years. Duncan is afterwards called ‘rex Cumbrorum’ by the
English chroniclers, a title he must have borne independently of that
of king of the Scots. Simeon tells us that Aldgetha, daughter of
Uchtred, earl of Northumbria, by Elgifa, the daughter of King
Ethelred, was married to Maldred, son of Crinan Tein, or the thane, by
whom she had Gospatrick, afterwards earl.—Sim. _de Obsess. Dun._ The
hereditary ‘præpositi’ or provosts of the church of Hexham also bore
the title of Tein.—_Priory of Hexham_ (Surtees Soc.), vol. i. p. 4.
There seems no reason to doubt that Maldred was a son of this same
Crinan who was the father of Duncan, and may have been joined with him
in the rule of these southern districts. The name Gospatrick comes
probably from the British Gwas Patrick, the servant of Saint Patrick,
and connects him with Strathclyde.

Footnote 566:

Ultra (Tede flumen) usque ad flumen Forthi magni, scilicet, Loonia, et
Galweya, et Albania tota, quæ modo Scotia vocatur, et Morovia, et
omnes insulæ occidentales oceani usque ad Norwegiam et usque Daciam,
scilicet, Kathenessia, Orkaneya, Enchegal, et Man et Ordas et Gurth,
et ceteræ insulæ occidentales oceani circa Norwegiam et
Daciam.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 154. The names of the districts
and islands comprehended under Norwegia and Dacia are in a very
corrupt form; but a comparison of them with the list of those which
sent their quota to the Danish army at Cluantarbh will throw light on
their identity (see p. 387, note 5). Kathenessia and Orkaneya
correspond with Insicath and Inishore; ‘Man et Ordas et Gurth,’ with
‘Manand, Sgithidh, Lodhusa,’ and ‘Enchegal’ with ‘Airergaidhel.’

In the tract on the Wars of the Gaidhil with the Gaill, Brian is said,
when he became king of all Ireland, to have sent a naval expedition
upon the sea, ‘and they levied royal tribute from Saxan and Bretan,
and Lemnaigh and Alban, and Airergaoidel, and their pledges and
hostages, along with the chief tribute’ (p. 137). Here Saxan and
Bretan represent Loonia et Galweya. Lemnaigh is the district of the
Lennox. Airergaoidel is Argathelia; and all are distinguished from
Alban, or the kingdom proper.

Footnote 567:

A.D. 1029 Maelcolaim mac Maelbrigdi mic Ruadri Ri Alban mortuus
est.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 77.

Footnote 568:

St. Berchan gives Macbeth a reign of thirty years, which, reckoning
from his death in 1058, places its commencement about this time.

Footnote 569:

In the Orkneyinga Saga, Airergaidhel, or at least that part of it
formerly known as Dalriada, appears under the name of Dali or the
Dales, and we are told that Sumarlidi Höldr had possessions in Dali,
and that he and his sons were called the Dalveria aett, or the family
of the people of Dali. This is, however, the Sumarled who appears in
the Chronicle of Man as Somerled Regulus de Herergaidel. His pedigree
is given in the Book of Ballimote. He is there said to be son of
Gillibrigde, son of Gilliadamnain, son of Solaimh, son of Imergi; and
this Imergi, from whom Somerled, slain in 1166, was fourth in descent,
and who therefore must have flourished in the early part of the
eleventh century, was probably the Jehmarc of the Saxon Chronicle.
Caradoc of Llancarvan terms the two kings, kings of Orkney and Ewyst.
How Macbeth came to be called king of Orkney will appear hereafter.

Footnote 570:

1034 Maelcolaim mac Cinaetha Ri Alpan ordan iarthair Eorpa uile
deg.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 77. Ordan means nobility, dignity.
The Chronicle of 1165 says, ‘Ipse etiam multas oblationes tam
ecclesiis quam clero ea die distribuit’ (_Ib._ p. 131), which may
account for the epithets applied to him.

Footnote 571:

1034 Moelcoluim Rex Scotiæ obiit 7 Kal. Decembri.—_Marianus Scotus._

The later chronicles state that he was slain by treachery at Glammis,
and Fordun adds, by some of the stock of Constantin and Grym; but this
tale is quite inconsistent with the older notices of his death, which
clearly imply that he died a natural death.

Footnote 572:

The Ulster Annals have in 1033 ‘Mac meic Boete meic Cinaedha do
marbhadh la (slain by) Maelcolaim meic Cinaedha.’ It has usually been
assumed that this Boete was the son of Kenneth, son of Dubh, the
predecessor of Maelcolm mac Kenneth, and thus represented a rival
branch of the house; but the dates will not admit of this, and his
father Kenneth must be placed a generation further back. He may either
have been the same Kenneth who was father of Malcolm, thus making
Boete his brother, or the Kenneth, son of Malcolm, who slew
Constantin, son of Cuilein, in 997, and who is supposed by Fordun to
be his illegitimate brother. Fordun tells us that ‘the old custom of
the succession of kings lasted without a break until the time of
Malcolm, son of Kenneth, when, for fear of the dismemberment of the
kingdom, which might perhaps result therefrom, that king by a general
ordinance decreed as a law for ever that henceforth each king after
his death should be succeeded in the government of the kingdom by
whoever was at the time being the next descendant—that is, a son or a
daughter, a nephew or a niece, the nearest then living. Failing these,
however, the next heir begotten of the royal or a collateral stock
should possess the right of inheritance.’—Fordun, _Chron._, Ed. 1872,
B. iv. c. 1. Whether Malcolm actually issued a formal decree to this
effect rests on the authority of Fordun alone, which can hardly be
accepted for the events of this early period. Malcolm seems to have
taken the readier mode of removing from life any competitor who could
claim as a male descendant.

Footnote 573:

Post fratris interitum Ealdulfus comes efficitur Northymbrensium, qui,
cum superbia extolleretur, Britones satis atrociter devastavit: sed
tertio post anno, cum ad Hardecanutum reconciliandus in pace venisset,
interfectus est a Siwardo, qui post illum totius provinciæ
Northanhymbrorum, id est ab Humbra usque Tuedam Comitatum habuit.—Sim.
Dun. _Hist. Con._

As the _Saxon Chronicle_ records the death of Eadulf in 1041, this
places this invasion in 1038.

Footnote 574:

Simeon, _Hist. Ec. Dun._ cxliv. Simeon places this event in the year
1035, upon the death of Cnut, but he also says that it took place when
his son Harold was in the fifth year of his reign and Bishop Eadmund
in the twentieth of his episcopate, which would place it in the year
1040; but this was the last year of Duncan’s reign when he was engaged
in his northern war, and it could hardly have taken place then. It
seems to be obviously connected with Eadulf’s invasion of Cumbria, but
whether it preceded or followed it there is nothing to indicate.

Footnote 575:

A suggestion made by the author in an early work (_The Highlanders of
Scotland_, published in 1837), in which, he believes, the Sagas were
for the first time used in Scotch history, that two kings of Scotland
of the name of Malcolm have been confounded—one who died in 1029, and
Malcolm mac Kenneth who died in 1034, and that the latter was Kali
Hundason—has unfortunately been adopted by Professor Munch in his
_History of Norway_. The author has long since come to the conclusion
that this theory is untenable.

Footnote 576:

It is unnecessary here to enter into any detail of the history of
these three brothers; and how Thorfinn acquired a portion of the
islands as each died. The last of them was Brusi, who is stated in the
Olafs Saga to have died in the lifetime of King Cnut, soon after his
conquest of Norway, that is, about 1029.

Footnote 577:

St. Berchan calls Malcolm Duncan’s grandfather, ‘son of the woman of
Leinster,’ and also ‘son of the cow-breast from the banks of the
Liffey.’ The kings of Leinster are at this time often called kings of
Liffey, and this connection probably gave Duncan a claim on their
assistance.

Footnote 578:

Orkneyinga Saga. _Collect. de Rebus Albanicis_, p. 341. See also Mr.
Anderson’s edition, p. 17.

Footnote 579:

1040 Donnchad rex Scotiæ in autumno occiditur (19 Kal. Sept.) a duce
suo Macbethad mac Finnloech, cui successit in regnum annis 17.

Donnchad regnavit annis 5, hoc est, a missa Sancti Andreæ (14 Novr.)
ad eandem et insuper ad nativitatem Sanctæ Mariæ.—_Chron. Picts and
Scots_, p. 65. By this last festival Marianus means that of the
Assumption, which was on the 15th of August. A poem quoted in the
Orkneyinga Saga says the battle was fought on a Monday. The 19 Kal.
Sept. or 14th of August fell in the year 1040 upon a Thursday, and the
15th on a Friday. Tighernac has under 1040 ‘Donnchadh mac Crinan
Airdri Alban immatura ætate a suis occisus est.’ The later chronicles
all agree that he was slain by Macbeth, in a place called Bothgouanan
near Elgin. This is probably the place now called Pitgaveny; and if
the battle was fought at Burghead, Duncan would retreat upon Elgin.

Footnote 580:

St. Berchan calls Duncan Ilgalrach, and also as Ri Galrach. Galrach
means diseased, and may have given rise to the name Kali.

Footnote 581:

The Chronicle of Huntingdon says, ‘Comes Northumbriæ Siwardus Scotiam
ingressus Maket regem nepotem dicti Malcolmi cum xv. annis regnaret, a
regno fugavit.’

Footnote 582:

Caradoc of Llancarvan calls the two kings Maelbeathe and Jehmarc,
kings of Orkney and Ewyst. See Note ^{569}, p. 397.

Footnote 583:

_Collect. de Rebus Albanicis_, pp. 346, 347.

Footnote 584:

Machbet filius Finlach contulit per suffragiis orationum et Gruoch
filia Bodhe rex et regina Scotorum, Kyrkness Deo omnipotenti et
Keledeis prefatæ insulæ Lochlevine cum suis finibus et terminis.

Cum omni libertate collata fuit villa de Kyrkenes Deo omnipotenti et
Keledeis, aliique omni munere et onere et exaccione regis et filii
regis, vicecomitis et alicujus et sine refectione pontis et sine
exercitu et venatione, sed pietatis intuitu et orationum suffragiis
fuit Deo omnipotenti collata.

Cum summa veneratione et devotione Makbeth rex contulit Deo et Sancto
Servano de Lochlevyn et heremitis ibidem Deo servientibus Bolgyne
filii Torfyny cum omni libertate et sine onere exercitus regis et
filii ejus, vel vicecomitis, et sine exactione alicujus, sed caritatis
intuitu et orationum suffragiis.—_Chr. of St. Andrews_, p. 114, 12.

Gruoch being united with him in the first of these grants rather
points to the family of Bodhe being peculiarly connected with Fife.

Footnote 585:

A.D. 1045 Cath etir Albancho araenrian cur marbadh andsin Crinan Ab.
Duincalland ocus sochaighe maille fris .i. nae xx laech.

Footnote 586:

A.D. 1050 Rex Scottiæ Macbethad Romæ argentum pauperibus seminando
distribuit.—According to the Orkneyinga Saga, Thorfinn, earl of
Orkney, went to Rome in the same year, ‘and saw the Pope, from whom he
obtained absolution for all his sins.’—Mr. Anderson’s edition, p. 43.
This is either another instance of the confusion between Thorfinn and
Macbeth, or they went together for the same purpose.

Footnote 587:

Simeon of Durham says of Earl Eadulf, ‘qui postmodum, regnante
Eadwardo, occisus est a Siwardo, qui post illum totius
Northanhymbrorum provinciæ, hoc est, ab Humbra usque ad Tweodam
suscepit comitatum.’ The Saxon Chronicle, however, says, under 1041,
‘In this year Harthecnut betrayed Earl Eadulf while under his
safeguard, and he was then a belier of his pledge,’ and has no hint of
Siward being concerned in his death, but mentions Earl Siward two
years after, in the first year of King Eadward.

Footnote 588:

This is the combined account of the editions of the Chronicle.

Footnote 589:

A.D. 1054 Cath etir Albancho ocus Saxancho in artoitset moran do
mileadaib.

Footnote 590:

1054 Cath itir fhiru Albain et Saxanu itorcradar tri mile doferaib
Albain et mile coleth di Saxanu im Dolfinn mac Finntuir.—_An. Ult._
The tract ‘Origo et Gesta Sivardi Ducis,’ printed in Langebek’s
_Scriptores_, iii. p. 287, says of this expedition, ‘Exercitum
congregavit, in subsidium Regis usque ad Dunde progrediens, ubi
nunciatum fuit ei, quod homines sui de Northumbreland jam in eum et
suos adeo insurrexerunt, quod Osbertum Bulax filium suum
interfecerant. Comes autem reverti compulsus,’ etc. The tract is not
of much authority. Other authorities state that Siward’s son was slain
in the Scotch war.

Footnote 591:

‘Li quens Syward donc s’accordat
Al rei d’Escoce, u il alat,
Mais Macheden defuit la pes
De guerrier ne fist releis.
_Mon. Hist. Brit._ p. 825.

Footnote 592:

The Saxon Chronicle makes no mention of Malcolm in connection with
this expedition; but Florence of Worcester adds to an account,
apparently taken from the Saxon Chronicle, that it was made ‘jussu
regis,’ that the forces on the one side were ‘Scoti et Normanni,’ on
the other ‘Angli et Dani,’ and that Siward ‘Malcolmum regis Cumbrorum
filium ut rex jusserat regem constituit.’ Macbeth, however, appears in
the Irish Annals as Ri Alban till 1057, and Marianus states distinctly
that he reigned till that year, which is conclusive as to Malcolm not
having been made king of Scotland in 1054. It is remarkable, however,
that in this passage he is not called ‘filius regis Scottorum’ but
‘filius regis Cumbrorum;’ and Simeon seems not to have recognised
Duncan as king of the Scots, for he makes Macbeth the immediate
successor of Malcolm, son of Kenneth, ‘Anno mxxxiiij Malcolm rex
Scottorum obiit, cui Macbethad successit.’ The solution seems to be
that he was established in 1054 as king of Cumbria, and at this time
Lothian seems to have been included in the territories under the rule
of the rex Cumbrorum.

Footnote 593:

Marianus has in 1057 ‘Macfinlaeg occiditur in Augusto;’ and again,
‘Inde Macfinlaeg regnavit annis 17 ad eandem missam Sanctæ Mariæ’
(15th August). Tighernac under 1057: Macbethadh mic Findlaich Airdri
(sovereign of) Alban domarbad do (slain by) Maelcolaim mic Dondcadha,
to which the Ulster Annals add ‘i cath’ (in battle).—_Chron. Picts and
Scots_, pp. 65, 78, 369.

Marianus and Tighernac are contemporary authorities. The later
chronicles add that he was slain in Lumfanan.

Footnote 594:

Marianus has in 1057, ‘Lulag successit et occiditur in Martio;’ and
again, ‘Lulach a nativitate Sanctæ Mariæ ad missam Sancti Patricii in
mense Martio regnavit’ (17th March). Tighernac under the same year,
‘Lulach Rig Albain domarbadh Coluim mic Donchadha per dolum;’ and the
Ulster Annals, ‘Lulach mac Gillcomgan Ardri Albain domarbhadh la
Maelcolaim meic Donchadha i cath’ (in battle).

St. Berchan says of him

And at Loch Deabhra his habitation.

Loch Deabhra is a small lake in the district of Mamore in Lochaber, on
an island in which there was formerly a small castle, called the
castle of Mamore. The glen leading to it is called Glenrie or the
King’s glen.

Footnote 595:

_Collect. de Reb. Alb._ p. 346.

Footnote 596:

The author agrees with Professor Munch (_Chron. Man._ p. 46) in
thinking that the place called Gadgeddli, where Thorfinn is said by
the Saga to have frequently dwelt, was Galloway.

Footnote 597:

1061 Interim rex Scottorum Malcolmus sui conjurati fratris, scilicet
comitis Tostii, comitatum ferociter depopulatus est, violata pace
Sancti Cuthberti in Lindisfarnensi insula.—Sim. Dun. _Hist. Con._

Footnote 598:

The Saxon Chronicle states that in the same year ‘the king came to
Winchester, and Easter was then on the x. Kal. of April,’ that is,
March 23d, but Easter fell on that day in the year 1068.

Footnote 599:

Flor. Wig. _Chron._ ad an. 1068.

Footnote 600:

Fordun’s Chronicle, ed. 1872, vol. ii. p. 202. For the marriage having
taken place here we have the distinct authority of Turgot, in his life
of Saint Margaret, who says that King Malcolm and his queen founded a
church to the Holy Trinity in the place where they were married.

Footnote 601:

Sim. Dun. _de Gest. Reg._ ad an. 1093.

Footnote 602: