Chapter VIII: The Kingdom of Scotia (3)

Sim. Dun. _de Gestis Reg._ ad an. 1072.

Footnote 603:

Flor. Wig. _Chron._ ad an. 1069.

Footnote 604:

Sim. Dun. _de Gestis Reg._ ad an. 1070.

Footnote 605:

Orderic. Vit. B. iv. c. v.

Footnote 606:

Sim. Dun. _de Gest. Reg._ ad an. 1070. Simeon of Durham died in 1130.

Footnote 607:

See Fordun, _Chronicle_, book v. chap. xiv., ed. 1874, vol. ii. p.
201. The story as here told is too long for insertion, but it is
obviously the same, the scene of it being removed to Scotland. In
consequence of the marriage being placed under this year by Simeon, it
appears in the Chronicle of Melrose and in Fordun under this year, and
in the former also under the year 1067 on the authority of the Saxon
Chronicle.

Footnote 608:

Ailred, in the battle of the Standard, makes Walter l’Espec say,
‘Angliæ victor Willelmus per Laodoniam, Calatriam, Scotiam usque ad
Abernith penetraret.’ The river Avon was the boundary of Laodonia.
Between that river and the Carron was the district called Calatria.
Dufoter de Calateria witnesses a charter of King David I. in the
Glasgow Chartulary, and he appears in the Chartulary of Cambuskenneth
as ‘vicecomes de Strivilyn.’

The ford King William crossed was the great entrance into Scotland
proper, which King Kenneth fortified when ‘vallavit ripas vadorum
Forthin.’

Footnote 609:

Flor. Wig. _Chron._ ad an. 1072.

Footnote 610:

Sim. Dun. _de Gest. Reg._ ad an. 1072.

Footnote 611:

The Ulster Annals have at 1085, ‘Maelsnectai mac Lulaigh Ri Muireb,
suam vitam feliciter finivit.’—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 370.

Footnote 612:

Sim. Dun. _de Gestis Reg._ ad an. 1079.

Footnote 613:

Falkirk is termed in Latin ‘Varia Capella,’ and is still known to the
Highlanders by the name of Eaglesbreac, or the ‘speckled church.’
Falkirk, or rather Fawkirk, is the Saxon equivalent, and has the same
meaning from A.S. _Fah_, ‘of various colours.’

Footnote 614:

The Ulster Annals have in 1085, ‘Domhnall mac Malcolm Ri Albain, suam
vitam infeliciter finivit.’

Footnote 615:

In the end of September, one of the most stormy months in the Scotch
seas.

Footnote 616:

Mr. Burton considers that the place meant (Lothene) was the district
of Leeds. The author dissents entirely from this, and is surprised
that a writer of his acuteness and sagacity should have adopted this
view. Scotia was still confined to the country north of the Firth of
Forth, which still separated it from Anglia. William the Conqueror,
who made the same preparation, went through Laodonia into Scotia. How
could Malcolm await the king’s approach at Leeds?

Footnote 617:

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

Footnote 618:

Interfectus in Inveraldan.—_Chron. St. A._ Fust tue a Alnewyk et
enterrez a Tynmoth.—_Scala. Cron._ _Chron. Picts and Scots_, pp. 175,
206.

Footnote 619:

Mr. Burton gives Malcolm a reign of forty-six years. He says, ‘He is
the first monarch of whose coronation we hear. The ceremony was at
Scone near Perth—a place which had become the centre of royalty,
though it hardly had the features which make us call a town a capital.
History now becomes precise enough to fix the day of this event as the
25th of April 1057.’ By history Mr. Burton here means John of Fordun,
whose authority ought not to be relied upon for such an event. The
statement is quite incorrect. The first authentic record of a
coronation at Scone is that of Malcolm the Fourth in 1154, and Malcolm
Ceannmor reigned from 17th March 1057-8 to 13th November 1093, the day
on which he was slain, or exactly thirty-five years and nearly eight
months. The author has preferred narrating the events of his reign as
nearly as possible in the words of the Chronicles which record them,
as in fact we know nothing beyond what they tell us. All else is mere
speculation, and adds nothing to our information. Mr. Burton
introduces under this reign some remarks on the effect of the Norman
influences and the feudal system upon Scotland. Excellent as these
observations are, they are here out of place, and belong more properly
to a later period. It was an old notion that feudalism came into
Scotland in the reign of Malcolm, but it will not bear a close
examination, and these influences were in fact very slight in the
kingdom of Scotland proper, which still continued essentially in all
its characteristics a Celtic kingdom till the reign of David the
First, who was the first feudal monarch of Scotland, and when these
influences became permanent. The author must, however, protest against
one statement. Mr. Burton says (vol. i. p. 372), ‘Whether the thanes
had or had not a distinct feudal existence independent of the power of
the Crown to deal with them as official subordinates, it seems clear
that the Abthane was placed among them as a royal officer, deriving
his dignity and power from the Crown, and that it was his function to
see to the collection of the royal dues payable from the landed
estates—something, on the whole, bearing a close resemblance to feudal
holding and its casualties.’ This account of the Abthane Mr. Burton
has too readily adopted from Fordun, without proper examination; for
nothing is more certain than that no such office, either in name or in
reality, ever existed.