A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



is possible that Siward had seized Carlisle after his successful expedition 

 into Scotland against Macbeth in 1054,' and that the gyrth spoken of in 

 Gospatric's writ may have been extended to the Cumbrians as a result of 

 the war. In this connection we should not pass over the statement of 

 Gaimar, not found elsewhere, that ' Earl Syward made an agreement 

 with the King of Scotland when he went ; but Macbeth destroyed the 

 peace and ceased not to carry on war.' 2 There is little need to accept 

 every statement in the mythical history of Siward 3 or to press unduly 

 the testimony of Bromton 4 in support of Gospatric's writ, but the story, 

 common to both of these authorities, that Siward was made Earl of West- 

 morland, Cumberland and Northumberland, and was the means of effect- 

 ually tranquillizing (potenter pacificavit) these territories cannot be rejected 

 without some show of reason. The Norse names borne by the potentates 

 of the district seem to lend probability to the conclusion that the Danish 

 earl found sympathetic associates in establishing his peace in the western 

 province of his charge. 



In the statement of Gospatric's deed that the magnates of Cum- 

 berland held their lands free of geld we may find some explanation of 

 Earl Siward's success as a legislator. To what does this tribute refer ? 

 As it cannot be suggested that no territorial service was exacted from the 

 chief tenants of the district, we are compelled to assume that some 

 extraordinary or exceptional burden on the land is referred to. It is 

 possible that Fordun used the exemption of Cumberland from the 

 Danegeld as the pretext whereon to build his argument that it was the 

 refusal of the inhabitants, as subjects of the Prince of Scotland, to con- 

 tribute to the tax which stirred up the energies of King Ethelred in 1000 

 and brought about the invasion. However that may be, the fact of the 

 freedom from geld is incontestable, and there seems to be no good 

 ground for rejecting its identity with the Danegeld. 8 The district 

 comprised a strong Scandinavian settlement ; while Siward held the reins 

 of power, it was ruled by a Danish earl ; the people were reduced to 

 order by Northumbrian legislation. Everything appears to suggest the 

 influence and protection of Northumberland at this period. 



1 Siward's expedition into Scotland in 1054 is mentioned by most of the chronicles, but the dnnals 

 of Ulster (i. 595, ed. Hennessy) add the interesting fact that 'three thousand of the men of Alban were 

 slain, and fifteen hundred of the men of Saxonia with (ini) Dolfinn mac Finntuir (Thorfinn).' 



a Man. Hist. Brit. p. 825. 'Li quens Syward done s'accordat al rei d'Escoce, u il alat ; mais Mache- 

 den defuit la pes : de guerreier ne fist releis." 



3 The tract ' Origo et gesta Siwardi Dani ' has been often printed, but see it in Langebech, 

 Serif tores Rerum Danicarum, iii. 287 : also 'Vita et Passio Waldevi Comitis' in Original Lives of Anglo- 

 Saxons before the Conquest (Caxton Soc.), 8, 22-3. Mr. Freeman has rejected the whole story with the 

 exception of ' the one bit of history which lurks in all this,' viz. ' the fact of the union of the earldoms 

 of Northumberland and Huntingdon in the person of Siward ' (Norman Conquest, i. 768-9). 



* Twysden, Decem Serif tores, col. 946. 



6 It is thought that Danegeld was a popular name of dislike for the tax originally applied to pay- 

 ments made to buy off the Danes and afterwards transferred to these other payments made to Danish 

 and other mercenary forces (Freeman, Norman Conquest, ii. 124, 574-5). In that case it was unlikely 

 that the nickname should be used by Gospatric in his declaration of its remission to one of hi vassals. 

 The earliest occurrence of the word seems to be in Domesday (336^), but instances of its payment 

 during the reign of Ethelred are often alluded to by later writers. Though the Danegeld was remitted 

 by the Confessor, its payment was revived at an early period by the Conqueror. It had afterwards 

 become subject to numerous exemptions (Ellis, Introduction to Domesday, \. 350-1). 



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