Chapter IV: Kenneth the Second--971–995

No opposition seems to have been offered upon the death of Colin to another son of Malcolm the First, [Sidenote: A. D. 971.] who ascended the throne as Kenneth the Second; though the subsequent death of Colin’s brother Olave, about six years later, may point to a continuance of the struggle between the rival branches of the reigning family, and appears to have established Kenneth for the remainder of his life in undisputed possession of the throne.[94] Immediately upon his accession, after providing for the safety of his kingdom by throwing up entrenchments at the fordable points of the Forth, he followed up the successes of his predecessor Indulf, ravaging Cumberland to Stanemoor and Deerham, and carrying off a captive of high rank amongst the neighbouring Saxons of Northumbria.[95] Unfortunately the old chronicle, which has hitherto so faithfully noted down the events of this distant period, breaks off abruptly at the approach of a more interesting epoch, and the history of Scotland must for many years be sought for principally in the chronicles of other countries. Considerable light is thrown upon the state of the extreme northern districts during the reign of Kenneth by the accounts in the Norwegian Sagas, as in the time of this king the powerful Jarls of Orkney were first brought into collision with the neighbouring Mormaors on the mainland.

[Sidenote: A. D. 875.]

When Rognwald, Jarl of Mæri, heard of the death of his nephew Guttorm Sigurdson,[96] he immediately dispatched Hallad, one of his own sons, to take possession of the Orkneys; but after a year’s experience of the troublesome acquisition the newly appointed Jarl abruptly relinquished his dominions, preferring the comparative peace of a _Holder’s_ life in Norway to the arduous dignity of a Jarl amongst the Vikings. Vehemently incensed at his return, Rognwald bitterly reproached Hallad and his brother with inheriting the servile blood of their mother,[97] upon which Einar, hitherto conspicuous only for his excessive ugliness, and the harshness of whose features was increased by the loss of an eye, professed his readiness to undertake the government of the Orkneys, remarking that he should relinquish a home which he had little cause to love, and only requiring to be supplied with a ship and a sufficient force to enable him to assert his claims successfully. He added a promise, that if his offer were accepted his father should see his face no more, a stipulation, as he drily observed, that was likely to prove the most gratifying part of the arrangement. In his estimate of his father’s feelings he was not mistaken, Rognwald frankly avowing that were it for this sole purpose he should be provided with a ship, though he feared little honour would result from the expedition. Such were the circumstances under which the ancestor of the powerful Jarls of Orkney first set sail from his native shores of Norway.

Arrived amongst the islands he soon cleared them of the Vikings, who found in Einar a far more formidable opponent than the indolent and peaceful Hallad. His promise to his father he kept to the letter, and he saw his face no more; though when the increasing favour shewn to Rognwald so provoked the jealousy of two of Harold’s sons that they burnt the Jarl in his own house, Einar gloried in becoming his avenger. Halfdan, one of the murderers, flying from the vengeance of his incensed father, arrived so unexpectedly at the Orkneys that Einar was taken by surprise and had barely time to escape to the mainland; but his absence was of short duration, and surprising Halfdan in his turn, he seized upon the wretched prince, inflicting on him the cruel death of the Spread-eagle. Whatever punishment Harfager might have intended for his son, he was exasperated on learning that Einar had forestalled him, and immediately prepared a fleet for an expedition against the Orkneys; but he suffered himself in the end to be diverted from his intention, and was eventually satisfied with the exaction of a heavy fine from the islands. Einar, however, turned even the intended punishment to his own advantage, undertaking to pay the whole sum on condition that the Odallers or Freeholders resigned their Odal rights in his favour, or in other words submitted to be taxed and to hold their lands of the Jarl; and from the date of this arrangement all the lands in the earldom remained for many years the sole property of the Jarls.

The rest of Einar’s life was passed in undisturbed possession of the earldom he had so unexpectedly acquired; and upon his death it was equally divided, according to the ancient custom, amongst his three surviving sons. Arnkel and Erlend, the two eldest, followed the fortunes of Eric Blodæxe, losing their lives in his service, when the whole earldom was again reunited under the sole authority of the surviving brother Thorfin the Skull-cleaver. In spite of his formidable name, Thorfin was of a peaceful character, resembling his uncle Hallad in his aversion to war, rather than his father Einar; and when the sons of Eric arrived in the Orkneys with the shattered remnants of their followers, he at once acknowledged their claim to his allegiance, submitting without a struggle to their authority;[98] though they soon released him from further annoyance by sailing for Norway to try their fortunes in their ancestral dominions, when Thorfin ruled his earldom in peace, dying about the commencement of Kenneth’s reign.[99] He married Grelauga, a daughter of Duncan Mormaor of Caithness, by Groa, the sister of Thorstein Olaveson, and upon his death left five sons to inherit his island earldom, and possibly with some claims upon the mainland inheritance of their maternal grandfather.[100]

Three of the brothers in succession married Ragnhilda, the daughter of Eric and Gunhilda. The mother had been celebrated as the most treacherous, as well as the most beautiful woman of her time, and the daughter appears to have inherited a full share of both the maternal qualities. After contriving the murder of her first husband Arnfin, she married his brother Havard, but soon repenting of her second choice, she released herself with as little compunction as before, exerting her influence over the Jarl’s favourite nephew with such success that the luckless Havard was surprised and put to death by a kinsman of whom he harboured not the remotest suspicion; and the scene of the foul murder, the mysterious and once sacred “stones of Stennis” are still sometimes known as Havard-Steigr. The first to exclaim against the treacherous deed was the widowed consort of the Jarl, and Ragnhilda’s whole soul appeared absorbed in a burning desire for vengeance, until the hope of winning the favour of the beautiful mourner induced another relative to undertake the sacred duty of revenge. Upon his return to claim the promised reward--a fair wife and an earldom--he found them both in the possession of the third brother Liotr, and he lost his life in a vain attempt to wrest, at least the latter, from the more fortunate son of Thorfin. Whilst Liotr was in possession of the earldom, Skuli, one of his surviving brothers, presented himself at the court of the Scottish king Kenneth, and obtained from him either a grant of the possessions of his maternal ancestor the Mormaor of Caithness, or a promise to support the pretensions he was encouraged to raise upon the island dominions of his brother. Collecting an army in Caithness, Skuli crossed the Pentland Firth to establish his claim upon the Orkneys, but he failed in his attempt and was driven out of the islands; when Liotr, emboldened by success, passed over to the mainland and again defeated his brother in the Dales of Caithness, where Skuli lost his life, continuing to fight bravely after the rout and dispersion of his army. Liotr then subdued the whole of Caithness, a proceeding which aroused the jealousy of his powerful neighbour Malbride MacRory the “Earl,” or rather perhaps the “Oirrigh of Moray,” and both parties preparing for a contest, Malbride advanced to Skida Moor to drive the intruder from the country. The struggle was obstinate, victory in the end declaring for the Orkneymen, though it was purchased with their leader’s life, Liotr dying soon afterwards of a wound he received in the battle. Lodver, the last surviving son of Thorfin, now succeeded to the earldom, bequeathing it very shortly to his son Sigurd. He was the only member of his family who died a peaceful death, owing perhaps to his marriage with Auda, a daughter of an Irish king Kerval, an alliance through which he was fortunate enough to escape the dangerous fascinations of Ragnhilda.

Jarl Sigurd Lodverson retained forcible possession of Caithness, intrusting it to the charge of his brother-in-law Havard, until intelligence reached him ere long that two Scottish nobles, whom the Saga describes as “Earls,” had slain Havard in Threswick and were ravaging his territories on the mainland. The Jarl waited only to collect his followers from the Orkneys, and crossing the Firth was joined by the men of his other earldom, who informed him that the Scottish leaders, to whom the Saga gives the names of Hundi and Malsnechtan, were at that moment in the neighbourhood of Duncansby Head. Unlike Sigurd, who was now advancing with his whole force united, the Scots allowed themselves to be drawn into action before the arrival of an expected reinforcement; and although victory inclined to their side in the early part of the battle, Malsnechtan was slain at the close, and Hundi driven from the field; though any advantage that might have arisen from Sigurd’s success was neutralized by the approach of “Earl” Malcolm, who appears to have landed during the contest with a considerable force at Dungall’s Bay. The Jarl’s men, already exhausted by a protracted and hardly contested struggle, were in no condition for a second engagement with the fresh army advancing under Malcolm, so collecting the trophies of his barren victory, Sigurd retreated to his island fastnesses, and the mainland conquests of the Orkney Jarls reverted for the time to other possessors.[101]

It must have been soon after this battle that Olave Tryggveson, returning from England to Norway, touched at the Orkneys, and seizing upon Sigurd, who was totally unprepared for an attack, with all the zeal of a recent convert, offered him the alternative of immediate execution or of at once embracing the Christian faith, and acknowledging himself a tributary of Norway. Any lingering love of Odinism vanished before the necessity of the case, Christianity became the religion of the islands, and Olave carried off Hundi Sigurdson as a hostage for the fidelity of his father. His allegiance to Norway sat lightly on the Jarl, and ceased with the life of his son a few years afterwards; but as the conversion of the Orkneymen dates from this summary proceeding, and no allusion is ever made to a relapse, it may perhaps be concluded that his Christianity was more enduring.[102]

Whilst these events were occurring in the North, and the attention of the Moray chieftains was fully occupied by the encroachments of their powerful neighbours, Kenneth, who appears to have been an able and energetic prince, seems to have been actively engaged in another quarter of his dominions; and although no account has been handed down of the nature of the transaction which eventually cost the king his life, there is much reason to connect it with an attempt on his part to reduce under his more immediate power a portion of the kingdom which had hitherto continued in a condition of comparative independence.

Extending along the eastern coast of Scotland was a district of which the whole or part was known as Angus, though it would be difficult to define its ancient limits with accuracy. In later days the name of Angus has been looked upon as equivalent to Forfarshire, but the old Pictish kingdom may once have reached to the Isla and the Tay, on its southern frontiers, whilst towards the north it bordered on the marches of Mar, or by whatever name the district may have been known, which was once the principality of Cyric.[103] Originally an independent province, it probably became subordinate at some remote period to the kingdom of which the foundations were laid by the elder Angus and Constantine, in other words, the lord of the district paid _can_ or _cios_ to the king of Scots in peace, or acknowledged his authority in some similar manner, and led his followers to support the royal cause in war; but beyond such vague tokens of dependence he ruled with undiminished authority over all who acknowledged his claim to be their _Cen-cinneth_, or the head of their race by “right of blood.”

During the earlier reigns of the kings of the line of Kintyre, the “Mormaors” of Angus were evidently personages of considerable importance, as their deaths are occasionally entered in the oldest existing chronicle, the latest notice of a member of the family occurring during the reign of Colin. In the time of Kenneth the direct male line appears to have ended in Cunechat or Connor, who transmitted his rights to a daughter of the name of Finella, and she hoped in her turn to bequeath them to her son. In this expectation she was disappointed, for upon some long forgotten pretext the heir of Angus was condemned and executed at Dunsinnan;[104] and as the greater part of this province was included in the deaneries of Gowrie, Angus, and the Merns, which, after the changes introduced into the constitution of the Scottish church by David the First, appear under the episcopal jurisdiction of St. Andrews, it is highly probable that the “Bishop of the Scots” first acquired his spiritual authority in this direction when “the King of Scots” cut off the last heir of the ancient line of princes and annexed his province to the crown, exercising the rights of a conqueror by “giving Brechin to the Lord.”[105]

The bereaved mother never forgave the outrage, and the scene of Kenneth’s death, Fettercairn in Kincardineshire, where he is said to have perished through the treachery of his immediate attendants, favours the tradition connecting the catastrophe with the vengeance of Finella. If any credit can be attached to the accounts of authorities who wrote four centuries after the occurrence, policy induced her to wear the appearance of forgetfulness until she had succeeded in persuading the king to entrust himself within the walls of her “castle of Fettercairn,” where he lost his life by a curious and complicated machine, most ingeniously contrived for the fatal deed! [Sidenote: A. D. 995.] Be this as it may, Kenneth was assassinated after a reign of twenty-four years, and if Finella, as is not improbable, was the author of his death, it is likely that her purpose was accomplished without the aid of any very elaborate mechanical contrivance, and scarcely within the walls of a feudal castle.[106]

Fordun has attributed to this king the idea of limiting the succession to his immediate family, gravely adding, that the example of the German empire exercised much influence in deciding Kenneth to adopt this line of policy.[107] The fate of Olave MacIndulf, at the commencement of this reign, lends some degree of probability to the suggestion of the historian, though the king was hardly successful in his supposed policy, as the usual order of succession was preserved, and two princes intervened before the accession of his son Malcolm. More than one fabrication has been palmed upon this reign, and the memory of the king has been needlessly blackened by the assumed murder of Malcolm MacDuff, a personage of more than questionable reality, for whose existence Fordun is the earliest authority; though it is possible that some confusion may have arisen between the imaginary king of the Cumbrians and the real Olave, whose death is noticed by Tighernach the Irish annalist, a few years after the accession of Kenneth to the throne.[108]

Hector Boece is the first writer who places the victory of Loncarty in this reign, for Fordun makes no allusion to it, though his continuator Walter Bowyer mentions “the wonderful battle of Loncarty,” fought at a time when a Norwegian army, after ravaging the country in every direction, had shut up a Pictish king within the ancient city of Perth. The provisions of the besieged were upon the point of failing, when the wily Pict, by a judicious present of his two last casks of wine, reduced his enemies to a state that ensured him an easy victory. A successful sortie was directed against the invaders’ camp, their ships were burnt and sunk at the mouth of the Tay, obstructing the river, and originating the sandbanks of Drumlay, and every subsequent invasion of the northern foe, down to the expedition of Haco, in the reign of Alexander the Third, was supposed to have been undertaken in revenge for this fatal disaster.[109]

Such is the earliest account of the famous battle of Loncarty. There can be little doubt about its real occurrence, and it was fought probably upon the occasion of one of the earlier inroads of the Northmen at the most formidable epoch of their power. The recollection of a great victory gained upon this spot would long be preserved in the traditions of the surrounding neighbourhood, but for the circumstantial narrative embellishing the pages of Boece, that ingenious historian was probably indebted to the same sources from which he procured such accurate information about the elaborate machine for accomplishing the vengeance of Finella.[110]

_Constantine the Third_ 995–997.
_Kenneth the Third_ 997–1005.

The assassination of Kenneth at Fettercairn raised Colin’s son Constantine to the throne of Scotland. The last inheritor of the blood of the second Constantine, his reign, like his father’s, was short and troubled, as he lost his life two years after his accession, in a vain attempt to resist the pretensions of Kenneth MacDuff.[111] [Sidenote: A. D. 997.] Upon the extinction of the Scottish branch of the “Clan Aodh MacKenneth,” the radical defect of the old system of succession was at once developed in the immediate division of the “Clan Constantine MacKenneth,”--hitherto united by a common enmity,--into two hostile “factions,” headed respectively by the grandsons of the first Malcolm. Nothing whatever is recorded of the reign of Kenneth the Third, sometimes known as Grim or Græme, a name supposed to signify the profession of great strength, or a certain sternness of character. The chronicles are silent beyond the barren facts of his accession and death, [Sidenote: A. D. 1005.] placing the latter at Monaghvaird in Strathearn, where his defeat eight years after his victory over Constantine raised his cousin Malcolm, the son of Kenneth the Second, to the vacant throne of Scotland.[112]

_Malcolm the Second._ 1005–1034.

In imitation apparently of the example of his father, Malcolm signalized his accession by one of those inroads upon Northumbria which point significantly to the gradual extension of the Scottish kingdom on her southern frontier. Borne down by the weight of years, Ealdorman Waltheof, shutting himself up within the walls of Bamborough, placidly let the storm sweep by; but his son Uchtred, who had married the daughter of the bishop, was neither of an age nor of a temperament to look quietly on while the broad lands he had received in dowry with his bride were wasted by the northern invaders. Summoning the men of Northumberland and Yorkshire to join his standard, he soon collected a numerous force, [Sidenote: A. D. 1006.] and suddenly attacking Malcolm before the gates of Durham drove him from the territory of St. Cuthbert.[113]

The next step of the victorious Uchtred affords a singular example of the manners of the age. Severing from the bodies of the fallen Scots a sufficient number of the best-looking heads, he committed them to the charge of four women, each of whom was to receive a cow in payment for plaiting the hair and arraying to the best advantage these grim relics of the foe, which were then placed on stakes at equal intervals around the walls of Durham, to answer the double purpose of striking terror into any future band of marauding Scots, and of recalling to the grateful townsmen the services of their brave deliverer. Having cleared the country of the enemy and seen to the arrangement of his revolting trophies, Uchtred bore to Ethelred the welcome news of his victory, and was rewarded for his gallantry with the hand of the king’s daughter--he seems to have had neither scruple nor difficulty in releasing himself from his former wife--as well as with a grant of the _eorldom_ of the Yorkshire Danes, in addition to his father’s _ealdordom_ beyond the Tyne.[114]

About the same time as Malcolm’s disaster before Durham, Finlay MacRory, who had succeeded his brother Malbride in the chieftainship of Moray,--in the words of the Norwegian Saga--“marked out a battle-field for Jarl Sigurd on Skida Moor.” To decline the proffered contest would have been disgraceful, but the Jarl had serious doubts about the result, for he was afraid that the Scots would outnumber him; and as his followers were infected with a similar misgiving, they murmured at the risk until Sigurd promised to restore the Odal privileges which their ancestors had resigned in the days of Einar Rognwaldson. On this agreement they followed him with alacrity, and to increase their confidence Sigurd bore with him one of those mystic banners, so famous amongst the ancient Northmen, wrought in the form of a flying raven whose wings expanded in the wind. It was the work of the Jarl’s mother, the daughter of the Irish Kerval, and upon it she had expended all the magic lore for which she was renowned, promising victory to all who followed, but death to him who bore it. On this occasion the charm was successful, three warriors who carried the fated standard falling one after the other in the battle; but Jarl Sigurd won the day, and the Bonders of Orkney were rewarded for their valour by the restitution of their Odal privileges.[115]

The success of Sigurd against the Moray Mormaor, far from embroiling him with Malcolm, appears to have been rather gratifying to the Scottish king, who immediately gave him the hand of his younger daughter in marriage; and from this union sprung Thorfin Sigurdson, who upon the death of his father in the memorable battle of Clontarf, was immediately confirmed by Malcolm in the mainland earldom of Sutherland and Caithness, whilst the Orkneys and other island possessions fell to the share of the elder sons of Sigurd.[116]

Soon after Malcolm had thus established his grandson in the northern extremity of his kingdom, an opportunity again occurred for extending his dominions on the Northumbrian frontier, which ever since the days of Indulf had been the object of the aggressions of the Scottish kings. The sceptre of a great nation was fast escaping from the feeble grasp of Ethelred, and Uchtred, the opponent of Malcolm’s earlier years, after twice submitting to the Danish invaders, had been put to death with the connivance of Canute from mingled motives of policy and revenge.[117] The guardianship of the northern frontiers then fell into the hands of Eadulf Cudel, the imitator of the supineness of his father Waltheof, rather than of the energy of his brother Uchtred. He could expect but little assistance from the Yorkshire Danes, who upon the death of Uchtred had been placed under the authority of their countryman Eric, and as the distracted state of Northumbria was not lost upon Malcolm, twelve years after his former disaster, collecting his followers for a second invasion, he prepared to exact a fearful retribution for the trophies mouldering around the walls of Durham.

[Sidenote: A. D. 1018.]

During thirty days and nights, a comet, a baleful and ill-omened prodigy in the eyes of the Northumbrians of the eleventh century, blazed forth, a presage of impending woe; and when the men of St. Cuthbert’s joined their countrymen at Carham, on the banks of the Tweed, it was only to participate in the disasters of a defeat, and to perish in multitudes in a disorderly flight. The aged bishop sunk under the shock, dying within a few days of the battle, and such was the confusion throughout the diocese of St. Cuthbert’s that for three years no successor was elected. Despairing of resistance against the power of the conqueror, Eadulf Cudel purchased an inglorious peace at the price of relinquishing Lothian, the whole of ancient Bernicia beyond the Tweed was ceded to the Scottish king, and Malcolm returned in triumph to the north, having effectually obliterated the remembrance of his failure by a more brilliant and substantial success than any of his predecessors had hitherto achieved.[118]

[Sidenote: A. D. 1031.]

Towards the close of his life, and about thirteen years after his successful invasion of Northumbria, Malcolm was brought into contact with the most formidable antagonist that ever crossed his path, for upon his return from Rome, Canute, now king of England, Denmark, and Norway, marched with an army to the north, and both kings met upon the frontiers of their respective dominions. As no allusion is made to the cause which led to the expedition of Canute, it would be impossible to determine whether it had any reference to Malcolm’s acquisition of Lothian. A brief notice in the Saxon chronicle--all that is known of the transaction--barely records that Malcolm met Canute, “bowed to his power, and became his man, retaining his allegiance for a very short time.” Canute with his army returned to the south, and the results of the meeting faded away with the retreating footsteps of the mighty Dane.[119]

[Sidenote: A. D. 1033]

Amongst the latest notices of this reign contained in the Irish annals, an action is recorded of Malcolm, towards the close of his career, which clearly demonstrates his determined purpose to transmit the regal dignity to his own immediate descendants. According to the rule of alternate succession hitherto observed amongst the Scots--a rule which the later princes had invariably attempted to violate--the next king after Malcolm’s death ought to have been chosen from the family of his predecessor Kenneth. Boedhe, the late king’s son, was no longer living, but he had left a son whose name is no longer preserved, the last male representative of his race, and perhaps the Tanist, or heir apparent of the king. The death of this prince is attributed to Malcolm, whose aim it is evident in this deed of violence was to remove from the path of his grandson Duncan the sole rival claimant of the throne.[120] In this he was completely successful, no opposition awaiting his grandson when he was called soon afterwards to reign; nor had Duncan long to wait for the crown, for in the following year [Sidenote: A. D. 1034.] Malcolm was assassinated at Glammis, in the same province of Angus which forty years before had proved so fatal to his father.[121]

Of the direct male line of Kenneth MacAlpin, Malcolm the Second was the last and greatest king, his renown extending to the neighbouring countries, and procuring for him the title amongst the Irish annalists of the “Lord and Father of the West.” He enlarged and consolidated his ancestral dominions, advancing the frontier from the Pentland Hills to the Tweed, and effecting an object that his predecessors had vainly attempted--the transmission of the kingdom to his own immediate family. The means employed for this purpose, it is to be feared, were neither scrupulous nor just; but the annals of every country at this period prove but too clearly that it was an age in which neither the ties of relationship, nor indeed any other ties, were proof against the lust of ambition.

Scotland had now reached her permanent and lasting frontier towards the south, the dependent principality of Strath Clyde having apparently, during the course of this reign, been finally incorporated with the greater kingdom. When Donald, son of the Eogan who shared in the bloody fight of Brunanburgh, died on a pilgrimage in 975, he seems to have been succeeded by his son Malcolm, whose death is noticed by the Irish Tighernach under the date of 997.[122] The last king of Strath Clyde who has found a place in history is Eogan “the bald,” who fought by the side of the Scottish king at Carham,[123] probably a son of the British Malcolm whose family name he bears; and in the person of this Eogan the line of Aodh’s son Donald appears to have become extinct. The earliest authorities of the twelfth century give the title of “king of the Cumbrians,” meaning undoubtedly the northern Cumbria or Strath Clyde, to Malcolm’s grandson Duncan, and it is probable that upon the failure of the line of Scoto-British princes, the king of Scotland placed his grandson over the province, which from that time, losing the last semblance of independence, ceased to be ruled by a separate line of princes.[124]

To Malcolm the Second has sometimes been attributed the foundation of an Episcopal See at Mortlach, which was afterwards transferred to Aberdeen;[125] and though as far as relates to the establishment of a regular diocese this account must be rejected, Malcolm, in imitation of his father’s policy in the case of Brechin, may have “given Mortlach to the Lord;” or, in other words, he may have founded and endowed a Culdee monastery on this spot. As the erection of a religious establishment in those days necessarily implies the possession of the surrounding district, if the tradition is correct which connects Mortlach with the reign of Malcolm the Second, the plains of Lothian were not his only conquest; and, in the same manner as Kenneth acquired Angus, he must have annexed to the dominions of the Scottish crown some portion of the ancient kingdom which once aspired to be the leading principality amongst the Pictish provinces of the north.[126]

Certain other changes are attributed to this king, which, however they may have become warped and disguised by the _feudal_ ideas of the authorities in whose pages they are found, when they are considered in connection with the actual historical events of the period, undoubtedly seem to point to Malcolm’s reign as the era of a certain advance towards the consolidation of the royal authority, such as is distinctly traceable at different epochs in many other countries. A twofold bond of union existed from a very early period amongst the communities into which the Celtic and Germanic people were divided, and the noble, prince, or king, was followed either from the “tie of blood,” as the actual head of the race, or from “the tie of service,” as the lord and master who repaid all who rendered such service according to the prevalent customs of the age; and as the former tie was at the root of the _allodial_, so out of the latter gradually arose the theory of the _feudal_ system. Originally the tie of blood united freeman with freeman, whilst the tie of service connected the free with the unfree, but as inequality of rank grew up from various causes, the lesser freeman was glad to “take service” with the greater in return for his protection and support, thus forming the class known as _Gasinds_ (or _Gesiths_) amongst the Germans, and amongst the Gael apparently in early times as _Amasach_--a word evidently akin to the old Celtic _Ambact_--who were either quartered temporarily upon the unfree tenantry of their patron as military retainers, or at a later period frequently exercised a delegated authority over the crown lands as _Grafs_, _Gerefas_, or _Maors_. As the royal power was increased by acquisitions at the expense of a neighbouring state, or as the head of one community acquired a permanent superiority over the rest, the importance and numbers of the royal _Gasinds_ and _Amasach_ increased proportionally, and very frequently, instead of the original usage, according to which the greater part of the newly acquired territory would have been portioned out more or less permanently amongst the conquerors, as _Allod_, _Odal_, or _Duchas_, land--untaxed freehold held by right of blood--as it was more advantageous to the sovereign to reserve as much as possible for the use of the crown, the older proprietary were retained as a tributary class, remaining undisturbed under the authority of the Gasinds and Amasach, who, acting as royal deputies, collected the king’s rents and led his dependants to battle, reserving for their “service” a certain portion of the royal dues, almost invariably a third. Such was the original tenure of the _Graphiones_ of the early Frank kings, of the Ealdormen and Eorls, amongst the Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Danes, and of the royal Jarls established by Harald Harfagar and other kings throughout the north; in short, it was, in early times, the universal tenure of the royal _official_, before “knight service” and the _feud_ gradually superseded nearly every other tenure amongst the nobility.[127]

In Scotland, the royal official placed over the crown or fiscal lands appears to have been originally known as the _Maor_ (the type of the royal _Maer_ amongst the Cymri), and latterly under the Teutonic appellation of Thane, either a corrupted form of the Gaelic Ti’ern, or a title like _Earl_, arising from the prevalence of Anglo-Saxon law and technical phraseology after the introduction of feudalism; for the feudalism introduced by David and his successors, though Anglo-Norman, was very much based upon the Anglo-Saxon, or what was much the same, the Lothian law and customs. The epithet of Thanage was applied as well to the office as to the district over which it was exercised, of which the old Scottish name may have been _Triocha-ced_ or _Cantred_, a name long equivalent amongst the Irish to a _barony_.[128] The offices of _Maer_ and _Cynghellwr_ (or judge), amongst the Welsh, could never be conferred upon the head of a clan (or _Pencenedyl_), the same maxim of policy very probably being equally in force in Scotland, for it is in strict accordance with the immemorial Celtic principle “divide et impera;” though it may be equally referable to the invariable hostility of early royalty to _Allodial_ or _Duchas_ tenure from its independence of the sovereign authority. The original Thanage then would appear to have been a district held of the Crown, differing but little except in tenure, from a tract of land held by _Duchas_ right; the holder, Maor or Thane, being accountable for the collection of the royal dues, and for the appearance of the royal tenantry at the yearly “hosting,” and answering to the hereditary _Toshach_ or captain of a clan--for the king stood in the place of the _Cen-cinneth_, or chief--whilst the official who acted as judge, and was subsequently known as the _Deempster_ (the Welsh _Cynghellwr_) represented the hereditary _Brehon_ of the tribe, the place of the lesser _Duchasach_ or _Brugaidhs_ being generally supplied in course of time by the kinsmen of the Thane, planted on the Thanage to hold under the head of their race as _Ogtierns_, Mesne lords, or Vavassours.[129] The theory of “a _Toshach_ over every _Triocha-ced_, and a _Brugaidh_ over every _Baile_,” was equally familiar to the Irish Gael, and as the tie uniting the officials with the population of the whole Thanage was “service,” not “blood,” the Thane was often known amongst his followers as their _Toshach_ or captain, rather than their _Cen-cinneth_ or chief by right of blood.[130]

When lands were strictly retained in the crown, the Royal Thane or Maor was answerable directly to the king, but there was a still greater official amongst the Scots, untraceable apparently in his peculiar Scottish characteristics amongst the kindred Welsh and Irish, known under the title of the _Mormaor_ or Lord High Steward. One example of the peculiar tenure of the Mormaor was still existing in the thirteenth century in the Earl of Fife; for when the second Alexander and his “Parliament” levied fines upon all who had failed in their attendance on the occasion of his expedition against “Donald MacNiel of the Isles,” the earls and their “serjeants” were strictly prohibited from entering the lands of any “tenant _in capite_”--holding directly of the king--to exact the penalty imposed, excepting only the Earl of Fife, who exercised this privilege throughout his district, not as the Earl, but as the Royal _Maor_ of the county of Fife, “to claim his rights,” or, in other words, to secure his allotted portion of the mulct.[131] The ancient Scottish Mormaor, then, was evidently a Maor placed over a province instead of a thanage--an earldom or country instead of a barony--a type of Harfager’s royal Jarl, who often exercised as a royal deputy that authority which he had originally claimed as the independent lord of the district over which he presided. This change was rendered very popular amongst the aristocracy of the north, from the great increase of wealth they derived through retaining a third of the tribute exacted in the king’s name from the classes hitherto untaxed; and similar considerations may have exercised an influence in facilitating the conversion of the semi-independent Gaelic _Oirrigh_ into a dependent, but probably far wealthier, _Mormaor_.

The existence of the royal Maor and Mormaor--officials in direct dependence on the king, and resembling the royal Jarls and Lendermen amongst the Northmen, or the king’s Ealdorman and Gerefa amongst the Anglo-Saxons--implies a greater consolidation and compactness in the Scottish monarchy than was ever attained amongst the kindred Celts of Ireland or Wales; and it is to the policy pursued during the reigns of Malcolm and his father Kenneth that this result is probably to be attributed. The Maor, indeed, was an official familiar to the Gaelic people long before the era of Kenneth and Malcolm, and he probably played an important part in the conquered provinces annexed by the elder Angus and his successors; but the Mormaor--the head of a province ruling as a royal deputy instead of an independent prince--points to a revolution in the tenure of land resembling the changes introduced by Harfager, when he cancelled “_Odal_ right” wherever he could extend his authority, and levied _land-tax_ by means of his Jarls and Lendermen; and it was a revolution of this description that may possibly have been carried out in the course of Malcolm’s reign and that of his father. Scotland, according to Fordun, was portioned out in ancient times into Thanages, or Fee-farms paying rent, held of course of the crown--for any other theory was incompatible with the ideas of the feudal era--until Malcolm, remitting the rents, gave away the whole kingdom, only reserving to himself the Moot Hill of Scone, when in return for the royal prodigality his people confirmed their sovereign’s right to wardship, relief, and other feudal privileges. Lurking under this singular statement there are probably some grains of truth, thoroughly misunderstood by the chronicler; and as in the partition of Scotland into Thanages a tradition may be recognized of its ancient division into _Triocha-ceds_ and _Bailes_, or Baronies and Townlands--institutions of a character inseparable from the very existence of a _settled_ community--so the reduction of the kingdom of Scotland as it then existed to a more direct dependence upon the royal authority, entailing land-tax, _merchet_, and other Celtic mulcts, in quarters hitherto exempt from such exactions, seems to be shadowed out under the _feudal_ grant of the whole kingdom and the _feudal_ return made by the gratitude of the Scottish people. Like Wales and Ireland, the whole kingdom was probably divided in theory into _Triocha-ceds_, _Cantreds_, or Thanages, the tribe lands held by chieftains as untaxed _Duchas_, the crown-lands by Maors or Thanes answerable for the rents and dues; and if Malcolm, by cancelling “_Duchas_ right” as far as it lay in his power, assimilated the tenure of the whole kingdom to that of the royal Maor, or, in other words, taxed the hitherto untaxed _Duchasach_, he only brought about the same change which Harfager had already effected in Norway, and which the ministers of the Frank kings were continually aiming at five or six centuries before his era. As the Thanage was evidently regarded in feudal times as the ancient Scottish tenure throughout the whole kingdom, some such change must have been introduced upon the older state of society before the establishment of the feudal system, and both tradition and history seem to point to the second Malcolm as the sovereign who first carried out successfully a revolution so important for the aggrandizement of the royal authority.[132]

An apocryphal collection of laws, relating principally to the regulation of the court, has been also ascribed to the same king; and though the laws are unquestionably fabrications, it is not impossible that they were framed in a feudal era to represent the regulations which Malcolm was traditionally supposed to have enacted. The promulgation of a code of laws necessarily involves the acquiescence of all who submit to be bound by them in the supremacy of the lawgiver; and when a king is said to have established or re-enacted such a code, it may be regarded as an indirect proof of a certain stability in the authority thus centred in the royal person. When “the Gael” assembled at Forteviot to ratify with their king, Donald, the laws of his ancestor Aodh the Fair, and when they gathered round the Moot Hill of Scone, to confirm perhaps with Constantine the privileges conferred by Cyric on the See of St. Andrews, the superiority of the dynasty, whose representative presided in these assemblies, was evidently acknowledged by all who attended at their summons. The establishment of a court, the enhancement of the dignity of personal attendance on the sovereign, and the regulation of the duties and privileges attached to such service, point again to a further advance of the royal power, and to a certain increase in the kingly dignity attendant upon a fixed court and residence; marking as it were an approach to the gradual conversion of a _migratory_ king quartering himself during his yearly progresses upon the provincial aristocracy, and upon the stewards of the royal manors, into a _stationary_ monarch, summoning his dependent nobility to attend upon their sovereign’s person in his own court and palace. The laws of Howel Dha, relating entirely to the duties and privileges of “the Court of Aberfraw,” and the similar arrangements of the Norwegian Olaf, probably have reference to the commencement or the progress of a revolution of this description; and if the apocryphal regulations of the Scottish court may be regarded as the _feudal_ embodiment of a true tradition, Malcolm may be looked upon as the originator of that change through which the Scottish king, ceasing gradually to migrate from one province to another, enhanced the dignity of personal attendance upon the sovereign, and assembled his nobility in his own “palace” of Scone.