POLITICAL HISTORY 



feudal benefice lasting till the Norman conquest of the district in 1092, 

 for which the kings of Scotland or their heirs did homage or military 

 service as occasion required. It was probably, he said, the earliest 

 instance in Britain of a fief in the strictest sense as opposed to a case of 

 commendation. 1 It is difficult to reconcile the events of subsequent 

 history with this view. Without attaching too much weight to the 

 gradual introduction of feudal ideas by the later chroniclers into the 

 earliest account of the grant, 2 it may be pointed out that a permanent 

 cession to Scotland was neither maintained nor recognized by those 

 who had the closest interest in the original agreement. It appears 

 improbable that King Ethelred regarded the grant by his prede- 

 cessor as permanent when he plundered Cumberland in iooo, 3 or that 

 Symeon of Durham should have stated that the district was under the 

 dominion of Malcolm III. in 1070, not possessed by right but subjugated 

 by force,* had he been aware of the compact. Scottish writers have put 

 forward sundry explanations to account for the non-admission of their 

 national claims upon the territory. Fordun 6 ascribed the raid of King 

 Ethelred to the refusal of the Prince of Cumbria to contribute to the 

 Danegeld, alleging that the Cumbrians owed no other tax than to be 

 ready at the king's command to defend their liberties with the sword. 

 An earlier Scottish writer better informed than Fordun, unable to close 

 his eyes to the facts of history, confessed that the province had not 

 remained in the uninterrupted possession of Scotland, for King Ead- 

 mund's donation had been often conquered and abandoned for the sake 

 of peace between the two kingdoms. 8 In view of this admission it is 



i Norman Conquest, \. 62, 124, 571-3. 



According to the statement of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under 945, ' Her Eadmund cyning 

 oferhergode eal Cumbraland and hit let eal to Malculme Scotta cyninge on thaet gerad thaet he waere 

 his midwyrhta aegther ge on sae ge on lande.' The compact is not noticed by Ethelwerd, but Florence 

 (Man. Hist. Brit. p. 574) and Symeon of Durham (ii. 126, ed. Arnold) render midwyrhta' as 'fidelis,' 

 thus importing into the word the feudal ideas of a later age. Henry of Huntingdon is more literal in 

 his translation : ' commendavit earn Malculmo Regi Scotiae hoc pacto, quod in auxilio sibi foret terra et 

 mari.' Subsequent chroniclers have transformed the agreement into a permanent feudal transaction. 

 On the death of Eadmund in 946, the same compact was renewed with his successor Eadred after he 

 had reduced all Northumberland under his power ' and Scottas him athas sealdan thaet hie woldan eal 

 thaet he wolde.' But we hear nothing more of the renewal of oaths on a succession to the English 

 Crown, nor do we read of the Scottish kings fighting often on the English side, as they were bound to 

 do by their oath of fealty, had this cession of Cumberland been a permanent agreement. In E. W. 

 Robertson's opinion Cumberland south of the Solway, ' when it was not under the authority of the 

 Northumbrian earls in whose province it was included, may be said to have remained in a state of 

 anarchy till the conquest' of 1092 (Scotland under Early Kings, i. 72). 



3 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Rolls Series), i. 249; Man. Hist. Brit. (Florence of Worcester), p. 583. 



* ' Erat enim eo tempore Cumbreland sub regis Malcolmi dominio, non jure possessa sed violenter 

 subjugata' (Hist. Regum, ii. 191, ed. Arnold). 



6 Unde rex Etheldredus, regulo Cumbrie supradicto Malcolmo scribens, per nuncium mandavit, 

 quod suos Cumbrenses tributa solvere cogeret, sicut ceteri faciunt provinciales. Quod ille protinus con- 

 tradicens rescripsit, suos aliud nullatenus debere vectigal, preterquam ad edictum regium, quandocun- 

 que sibi placuerit, cum ceteris semper fore paratos ad bellandum. Nam pulchrius esse, dicebat, ac multo 

 praestantius, viriliter cum gladio, quam auro defendere libertatem (Chrmica Gentis Scotorum, iv. c. 35 ; 

 Historians of Scotland, i.) 



6 Donald Mac Dunstan ij. aunz. Edmound, freir Athelstan, duna a cesti Donald, roy Descoce, 

 tout Combirland, pur quo! lez Escoces ount fait clayme, tanque al Reir croiz de Staynmore : mais eel 

 doune ad este souent conquys puscedy et relesse en maint peise fesaunt (Skene, Chron. of Picts and Scots, 

 p. 204). The date of the chronicle from which the above extract is taken has been ascribed to 1280. 



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