Chapter XXVI: Section IX

_Gradual Extension of the Kingdom to the End
of the Eleventh Century._

After the historic kingdom was founded, and while its development was proceeding from the centre outward, it was persistently attacked by external enemies. The Danes and Norwegians, under the name of Norsemen, threatened its total overthrow. The racial movement of the Saxons had been proceeding onward, since their settlement in the Lothians, slowly but effectively. The powerful tribes occupying the parts of the country not yet included in the kingdom were still warring against it. Thus there were external and internal conflicts going on at the same time; yet the natural vigour and energy of the people enabled them to struggle for centuries with these difficulties and adverse circumstances, and finally to attain success.

Kenneth M‘Alpin was succeeded by his brother Donald, who reigned four years. Constantine I., a son of Kenneth M‘Alpin, then ascended the throne, and soon found himself face to face with the Norsemen. In the middle of the ninth century these ruthless warriors extended their destructive ravages along the east and west coasts of Scotland; they entered by the firths and inlets, and penetrated far into the interior of the country, ransacked it on every side, inflicted much suffering and privation on the people, and prolonged the reign of confusion. They slew many of the inhabitants, and carried numbers of them off as captives, and at length they obtained a footing in Caithness, Sutherlandshire, and other parts along the coasts, where they established lasting memorials of their prowess in the memory of succeeding generations.

In 877 the Norsemen invaded the country in force, and entered Fife, attacked and defeated the Scots, and pursued them through the county. The Scots made a stand at Inverdovet, in the parish of Forgan, but they were completely defeated, and Constantine and many of his followers slain.¹ He was succeeded by his brother, Aed, who reigned one year. Eocha, a Briton, was then placed on the throne, but being too young to reign alone, another king called Giric was associated with him, and they both disappeared about 889. Donald, a son of Constantine I. ascended the throne in 889, and during his reign the Norsemen had obtained possession of Caithness, Sutherland, and Ross. Afterwards they invaded the southern districts; and the king, when fighting against them, was slain at Dunnotter, in Kincardineshire, in 900. He was succeeded by Constantine II., who soon found himself engaged in the struggle with the fierce and implacable Norsemen. They plundered Dunkeld and the surrounding country, but in 904 Constantine invoked the aid of St. Columba, and with the saint’s crozier carried at the head of his army, he attacked the Norsemen in Strathern, and completely defeated them and slew their leader.²

¹ _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, pages 9, 21.

² _Ibid._, pages 9, 21, 362; Robertson’s _Early Kings_, Volume
I., pages 44, 45, _et seq._

In 906 Constantine II. directed his attention to the affairs of the Church, and held an assembly on the Mote Hill of Scone. There the king and Cellach, the bishop of St. Andrews, and the people, all solemnly vowed to observe the laws and the discipline of the faith, and preserve the rights of the Church, and the record adds, “from this day the hill merited its name, the ‘Mount of Belief.’”¹ The stone on which the kings were installed to the throne had long been in Scone, many important meetings had been held there, and henceforth this sacred spot became inseparably associated with the sovereignty and the freedom of the kingdom.

¹ _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, page 9.

Distinct indications now appear of attempts to extend the dominion of the kingdom to the south-west, as when Constantine II. contrived to obtain the election of his own brother Donald as king of Strathclyde in 908, and thenceforth a branch of the Scottish line gave princes to Strathclyde, and thus facilitated its complete annexation in the near future.¹

¹ _Ibid._

Constantine II., wearied with the struggle and the difficulties connected with his position, retired to the monastery of St. Andrews in 942, and resigned the throne to Malcolm, a son of his predecessor, Donald. Constantine lived ten years after his retirement, and died in 952. Malcolm I. was a bold man, and attempted to extend his power beyond the river Spey, but he failed. He seems to have obtained some footing in the region to the south of the Forth, sometimes called the Cumbrian kingdom, which was then in a state approaching disintegration. Malcolm reigned eleven years, and was slain at Fetteresso, in Kincardineshire. The struggle between the tribes in the northern and the southern districts of the county still continued to rage, and on the death of Malcolm, Indulf, the son of Constantine II., mounted the throne at Scone in the year 954. He extended the kingdom southward by taking advantage of the distracted and confused state of Cumbria; he seized possession of Edinburgh and added it to the kingdom. Indulf also repelled an attack of the Norsemen in Buchan, Aberdeenshire, and after a reign of eight years he died in 962. A contest for the throne then ensued between Duff, the son of Malcolm I., and Colin, the son of Indulf, and a battle was fought at Drumcrub, in Strathern, in which Duff defeated Colin; but two years later Colin expelled Duff, who died shortly after, and Colin was slain by the Britons in 971.¹

¹ _Ibid._, pages 10, 151, 171, 288, 302, ♦363, 364.

♦ Numeric misprint in original;
“63” replaced with “363” as probable

The same year Kenneth II., a son of Malcolm I., ascended the throne at Scone; and immediately proceeded to throw up entrenchments at the fordable points of the Forth, and attempted to extend the limits of the kingdom southward. He attacked the Britons of Strathclyde and wasted a portion of their territory; and then turned his attention to Northumbria, which he invaded twice, and seems to have subdued and taken possession of some portions of it. Kenneth gave Brechin to the Lord, and thus endeavoured to strengthen his hold on the district around it by securing the influence of the Church. A gradual encroachment upon the local kings and chiefs was effectively proceeding from Scone, the centre of the monarchy; the kingdom was slowly extending in every direction, and the people under the influence of the Church and other attracting affinities were silently becoming a nation. Kenneth II. did much to consolidate the power of the Scots, and after reigning twenty-four years he was slain at Fettercairn, in Kincardineshire in 995.¹

¹ _Ibid._, pages 10, 152, 289, 365; _Chartulary of Brechin_,
Preface, page 4.

Constantine III., a son of Colin, then succeeded to the throne, but his right was contested by Kenneth M‘Duff. After a severe struggle Constantine was slain in the second year of his reign. M‘Duff reigned eight years, and was killed in Strathern. He was succeeded by Malcolm II., a son of Kenneth II., who ascended the throne in 1005. Malcolm II. began his reign by an invasion of Northumberland, but was defeated, and many of his followers slain. He next attempted to extend his influence over the northern region of the country by the marriage of his daughter with Sigurd, the ruler of the Orkney Islands, and they had a son, Thorfinn, who after his father’s death was confirmed by Malcolm in the possession of Caithness and Sutherland. Having established his grandson in the northern extremity of the country, Malcolm again turned his attention towards the south. In the year 1018, twelve years after his former defeat, he took advantage of the distracted state of Northumbria, mustered all his followers, and marched southward to the Tweed, where he found the Northumbrian army. At Carham a great battle was fought, and Malcolm completely defeated his enemies, many of whom perished in the rout. The result of this battle was the cession of Lothian and the whole of the territory north of the Tweed, and thus Malcolm II. obtained a more important success than any of his predecessors had ever achieved. During his reign the kingdom of Strathclyde became incorporated into Scotland without any serious conflict.¹ The country then began to be called Scotia, and it had reached its permanent frontier on the south side, as it stood when the great struggle with England began, toward the end of the thirteenth century. But in the outlying districts of the north and the west there were still a number of small local powers not under the authority of the monarchy, and it was long ere the King of Scots overmastered them.

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, page 594; _Chronicles of the Picts and
Scots_, 131; Robertson’s _Early Kings_, Volume I., pages
92‒96.

The great Dane, Canute, had subdued England, and was at this time reigning as king of that country. It is stated in the Saxon Chronicle that in 1031 Canute marched with an army to the north and met Malcolm II. upon the borders of their dominions, that Malcolm submitted to him and became his man, but “retained his allegiance for a very short time.” Canute and his army returned to the south, and the result of the meeting disappeared with them. Malcolm reigned twenty-nine years, and died on the 25th of November, 1034.¹

¹ _Saxon Chronicle_; Skene’s _Celtic Scotland_, Volume I.,
page 398.

Upon the death of Malcolm the lineal descendants in the male line of Kenneth M‘Alpin, the founder of the Scottish dynasty, became extinct, and he was succeeded by his grandson Duncan, the son of one of Malcolm’s daughters. But other aspirants to the throne disputed Duncan’s right, and he soon became involved in a desperate struggle with the local chiefs beyond the Spey, and Earl Thorfinn, his own cousin, who was ruler of the Orkney Isles, of Caithness and of Sutherland. Duncan seems to have been a very able man; but when he ventured beyond the Spey, Thorfinn and Macbeth joined their forces and proved too strong for him, and after a severe struggle Duncan was slain by Macbeth, near Elgin.¹

¹ _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, pages 63, 65, 152, 175,
206; _Historians_, Fordun, pages 179, 180, 419.

Macbeth, the Mormaer of Moray, then marched southward and mounted the throne in 1040, and for five years reigned undisturbed. According to some authorities he was descended from Ferchar, the fifteenth King of Dalriada, and his wife, Gruoch, was a daughter of Bode, son of Kenneth, and thus related to the royal line; and, no doubt, Macbeth advanced his claim on these grounds to secure the allegiance of the people. In 1045 Crinan, father of the late King Duncan, and lay Abbot of Dunkeld, mustered all his followers and the opponents of Macbeth, and attempted to drive him from the throne; a severe battle ensued, in which Crinan was slain, and Macbeth gained a complete victory. Macbeth seems to have sent money to Rome, while he was liberal to the Church at home, as it is recorded that ‘Macbeth and his wife Gruoch, King and Queen of Scotland, confirmed to the monks of Lochleven the lands of Kirkness, with freedom from the king, or the king’s son, or the sheriff.’¹ He proved himself an able and vigorous ruler, and the kingdom seems to have enjoyed unusual tranquillity and prosperity under his sway.

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, page 437; _Register of the Priory of St.
Andrews_, page 114. Dr. Skene thinks that Macbeth visited
Rome, but this is not likely, as he could hardly have
ventured to leave Scotland so long.

But the late King Duncan left two sons――mere children at the time of his death, their mother being related to Siward, the Earl of Northumberland. This Earl was of Danish descent, and became connected with the Earls of Northumberland through marriage. In 1054 he mustered a large and well-equipped army, and a naval force to co-operate with it, and invaded Scotland to drive Macbeth from the throne. This army marched northward in quest of Macbeth, crossed the Forth at Stirling, and proceeded towards the Tay; the advance was opposed by the people at several points. Macbeth took up his position around the Hill-Fort of Dunsinnane, a great battle ensued, in which many were slain on both sides. But the result was not decisive, as Siward retired southward, and returned home to Northumberland; and he died in 1055. It seems, however, that Siward’s expedition had enabled Malcolm, son of Duncan, to obtain possession of the country between the Forth and the Tweed; but Macbeth was still king of the country beyond the Forth, and young Malcolm had to depend on his own resources to recover the kingdom from the grasp of his opponent. Malcolm was a prince of much energy, and after feeling his way, and gaining the support of a portion of the people; in 1057 he resolved to try issues with Macbeth. The war was carried beyond the river Dee, and on the 15th of August, 1057, Malcolm overtook Macbeth, and defeated and slew him at Lumphanan, in Aberdeenshire. But the struggle for the throne was continued by Lulach, who, on the death of Macbeth, became Mormaer of Moray; he was defeated and slain at Essy, in Strathbogie, on the 17th of March, 1058.¹

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, page 453; _Chronicles of Picts and
Scots_, pages 65, 78, 175, 206, 210, 309; _Saxon Chronicle_.

Having thus subdued his opponents, Malcolm III., son of Duncan, usually called Canmore, mounted the throne at Scone in March 1058. As a King of Scotland he had many advantages. He represented the powerful lay abbots of Dunkeld in the male line, and thus inherited their influence associated with the religious foundations dependent upon this monastery; in the female line he represented the royal family who had ruled over the kingdom for a hundred and fifty years; and he married the widow of Thorfinn, the late ruler of Orkney and the Northern district of Scotland, by whom he had a son Duncan. Malcolm’s dominions included the whole of modern Scotland on the south side; but to the northward his actual power terminated at the river Spey, his authority beyond this point was merely nominal. He was too much engaged in attending to the other portions of the kingdom, to find time to subject the northern region.

One effect of the Norman Conquest of England was to drive a number of the Saxon people northward into Scotland. In the summer of 1068, Edgar, a representative of the Saxon line of kings, his mother, and his two sisters, came to Scotland, and were warmly received by Malcolm. One of these distinguished visitors, Margaret, especially attracted Malcolm’s attention, and she became his wife; hence he had a strong motive to interest himself in the Saxon claims. Queen Margaret seems to have been an excellent wife, and she had a large family by the King. Her influence over her husband and the people of Scotland was reported to have been very great; it has been said that she softened and polished the King’s manners and taught him many important things, and that the Scots owe to her a deep debt of gratitude. No doubt she was a good wife, and an accomplished princess, and a very religious woman; still it is just possible that the compass of Queen Margaret’s influence over the people of Scotland may have been a little overdrawn. Dunfermline was her favourite place of residence, and doubtless the inhabitants of that town, and the people of Fife, were greatly benefitted by the Queen and her court in their midst.¹

¹ Turgot’s _Life of Queen Margaret_. “Her court was a model of
purity. In it no wicked or scandalous word was spoken, and
more civilised customs were introduced in dress and for the
table, the use of linen more probably than tartan, though
both have claimed her as their earliest patron. Charity
was taught by example. The Queen fed the poor with food
she prepared herself; at her cost were erected the first
Scottish inns, resting-places on the roads and guest-houses
on either side of the Forth for the pilgrims who came to
Dunfermline by the ferry, called after her the Queen’s ferry,
as that near Wemyss was called the Earl’s ferry, after the
Earl of Fife. Her prayers were constant; and the little
cave on the Linn, just below the present Drill Hall of the
Volunteers, enabled her to practise them in secret. Such are
some of the traits in the life by her confessor Turgot. It
is the portrait of a friendly and courtly hand, but it bears
marks of truth. Only one miracle is recorded.” _A Sketch of
the History of Fife and Kinross_, by Sheriff Æ. J. G. Mackay,
page 16, 1890.

Malcolm III. naturally lent his support to the cause of Edgar, and the disaffected chiefs of Northumbria, who were opposed to William the Conqueror. In 1070 Malcolm entered Cumberland with a large army, marched through it, and turning to the east ravaged Teesdale and the North Riding of Yorkshire; and drove a number of the inhabitants into Scotland as captives. These proceedings seem to have aroused the wrath of the Norman Conqueror, and he prepared to meet the Scottish King. In 1072 he mustered an army and a naval force to co-operate with it, and marched northward. The army crossed the ford and advanced into Scotland, while his ships lay in shore: but the record adds that “there they found nothing for their pains.” Malcolm and King William met and agreed to make peace on the conditions that the Scotch King was to receive a grant of certain fiefs in England, with the promise of an annual payment of twenty marks of gold, performing the usual homage in respect of these lands, and giving Duncan, his son by his first wife as a hostage, and promised to become William’s man or friend. Then King William returned home with all his forces.¹ Such are the facts recorded concerning what passed between the two Kings at this meeting, although groundless assumptions and futile inferences have often been founded upon it.

¹ _Saxon Chronicle_, Volume II., page 177; _Simon of Durham,
de Gestis Regum_; _Historians_, Fordun, pages 203‒204.

In 1078 Malcolm appears to have penetrated into the province of Moray beyond the Spey. There is only an imperfect notice in the _Saxon Chronicle_ of his proceedings, but so far he seems to have been successful in asserting his authority for a time. The following year Malcolm marched with his army into Northumberland, advanced to the river Tyne and wasted the country, slew some of those who offered resistance, and returned with a number of prisoners and much spoil. In the autumn of the following year, King William sent his brother Robert with an army to punish Malcolm. This army seems to have advanced some distance into Scotland; but Robert effected nothing of importance, and soon returned south to the Tyne, where he built a new castle. William the Conqueror died in 1087, and after this event a number of State prisoners and others kept under restraint in England, were then set at liberty. Malcolm’s son Duncan thus obtained his liberty, received the honour of knighthood, and was dismissed with marks of honour and presents. Still Duncan appears to have remained in England. Four years after the death of the Conqueror, Malcolm III. again advanced into Northumberland with an army, but on learning that a hostile force was mustering to oppose him, he returned home. The English king sent a fleet northward, and prepared to follow it with a land force, but the greater part of the fleet was destroyed by a storm before the land army reached Scotland. When the opposing armies approached each other, Malcolm who knew the condition and strength of the enemy, resolved to risk a battle. So Count Robert the leader of the English army offered to parley, and a peace was patched up, which King William shortly after declined to fulfil. So in the autumn of 1093 Malcolm once more mustered his army, and advanced into Northumberland. When attacking the castle of Alnwick he was slain along with his eldest son and the greater part of his army on the 13th of November;¹ and thus ended his reign of thirty-five years and seven months.

¹ _Saxon Chronicle_, Volume II. page 198; _Hexham Priory: Its
Chronicles, etc._, Volume I. pages 177‒181, 207, 208, 216;
Appendix pages 14‒16; _Simon of Durham, de Gestis Regum_.

Malcolm Canmore was a man of great natural energy and ability. He acted his part well in the rude and tumultuous times in which his lot was cast. The different races and tribes of the country acquiesced pretty generally in his government, and in his long reign the existing elements of nationality received a considerable turn in the lines of development, to which his personal characteristics, bravery and judgment, contributed their share. Four days after his death, Queen Margaret, his beloved wife, succumbed to the intense grief caused by the unexpected blow, and died. Malcolm III. left six sons, Duncan, the eldest, by his first wife; by Margaret, his second wife, Edmund; Ethelred, who was Lay Abbot of Dunkeld and Earl of Fife; Edgar, Alexander, and David. Then there occurred a political phenomena similar to that which had frequently happened in preceding times, and also in subsequent times, namely, a contest amongst different claimants of the throne.

On the death of Malcolm Canmore, his brother, Donald Bane, at once mounted the throne, and a conflict ensued between him and Malcolm’s sons. Donald Bane appears to have been well supported by the people between the Spey and the Forth, and he held his ground for six months. But when Duncan returned from England, where he had been retained as a hostage for his father, he brought with him a band of Norman adventurers and others, who expelled Donald Bane from the throne. The struggle, however, was continued. After a reign of six months, Duncan was slain at Mondynes in Kincardineshire. Then Donald Bane again ascended the throne at Scone, and reigned three and a half years. In 1097, Queen Margaret’s brother Edgar resolved to make an effort to place his nephew on the throne. He gathered a force in England, and with the sanction of the English King, advanced into Scotland. After a severe struggle, Donald Bane was defeated, and Edgar placed on the throne, and his uncle then returned to England. In 1099 Donald Bane was captured, and condemned to imprisonment for life at Rescobie, where he died, and was interred in Dunfermline. Edgar reigned eight years, died at Edinburgh in January 1107, and was buried at Dunfermline. The most important event of his reign was his surrender of the whole of the Western Isles to Magnus, the King of Norway.¹

¹ _Saxon Chronicle_, Volume II., pages 196, 197, 202;
_Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, page 175; Chalmers’
_Caledonia_, Volume I. page 618; Skene’s _Celtic Scotland_,
Volume I., page 442.

The close of the eleventh century marks the beginning of a most important period in the history of Scotland, as new historic conditions then arose which operated upon the people and the organisation of society externally and internally. Seeing that I have found it necessary to render an interpretation of these new historic conditions, which differs somewhat from the current views of Scottish historians, this seems to be the most appropriate place for presenting an account of the social state of the people, their organisation, art, and culture, prior to the end of the eleventh century. At the end of that period the Celtic race still occupied the greater part of Scotland, and their language was spoken over a much wider area than that of any of the other races, although there were many Angles or Saxons in the southern portion of Scotland, where Celt and Saxon had been in contact for five centuries and had partly commingled, still the Saxons retained their own speech and, in some measure, their distinctive customs. In this region Celtic speech ceased and was superseded by Saxon, and latterly English.