] c.s 



was only announcing an ancient law of North Briton, when he said that 

 though a woman could not reigu she could transmit her right. The son 

 of the daughter was succeeded by the son of Constantine, then by the son 

 of Hugh. The order is next Constanthie s grandson, Hugh's grandson, 

 Constantine s great-giundson, Hugh's great-grandson, a younger great- 

 grandson of Constantine, a great-great-grandson of Hugh, a great-great- 

 grandson of Constantine. This last was Kenneth IV., called the Grim, 

 who succeeded in 994. The descendants of the daughter had been 

 overlooked for two generations, but Malcolm, her grandson, asserted his 

 right, conquered Kenneth the Grim, and in 1004 ascended the throne 

 as Malcolm III. The slightness of their relationship may be inferred 

 from the fact that he was third cousin to Kenneth's father. He died in 

 10'29, leaving an only daughter, Dorcha. Kenneth the Grim had left 

 a son and a daughter: the former ascended the throne as Malcolm III., 

 and, dying in 1033, left an only daughter. 



The whole of the males of the royal line being extinct, the representa- 

 tion was vested in three daughters. Dorcha, the daughter of Malcolm II., 

 married Finlay, Thane of Angus, and was the mother of Macbeth; Bethoc, 

 daughter of Malcolm III., married Crinan, the Culdee abbot of Dunkeld, 

 who was also Thane of the district now called Atholl, and Seneschal of the 

 Isles. This lady was the mother of Duncan. Macbeth, therefore, was the 

 grandson of one king, through his mother ; Duncan was grandson of 

 another in the same way. It is true that Duncan's grandfather was the 

 more recent king ; but that which might have been a reason among the 

 Saxons of England, was, as we have seen, no reason whatever to the Celts 

 in Caledonia (just now beginning to be called Scotland, as the term had 

 been quite dropped in reference to Ireland). If to the claims thus nearly 

 balanced we add that Duncan was a youth, Macbeth a man of strength 

 and years, the circumstances seem changed in favour of the latter. Be- 

 sides, he married Gruoch (" Lady Macbeth"), the daughter of Kenneth 

 the Grim, and the sister of Malcolm III. ; so that, being related to the 

 crown through two of the three ladies who represented it, by alliance as 

 well as by descent, his claim in that age was in-esistible. But what 

 Duncan wanted in right, he possessed in influence. His father Crinan, 

 though a chui'chman (the ceUbacy of the clergy was then unknown), was 

 a distinguished warrior ; and his younger son, Maldred, had married the 

 daughter of Uchtred, the great Earl of Northumberland, who was the 

 sou-in law of Ethelred II. of England. Such a powerful support as this 

 gave him in the adjacent lowlands, and in the whole of England, easily 

 accounts for his claim succeeding for a time ; especially as Macbeth re- 

 sided in the remote north, and is supposed to have been, through his 

 father, allied to the Norwegians who had settled there. 



