SCOT 
in ships, when a violent storm arose, and occasioned the 
wreck of half of their fleet. This event so weakened their 
forces, that they were induced to conclude a peace with the 
Scots, upon the condition of their abandoning all the 
country southward of the Forth and Clyde. Of the Piets 
nothing was said in the treaty, and hence most of them, 
deceived in their hopes, passed over into Denmark and 
Norway. Donald, having returned from captivity, still con¬ 
tinued his voluptuous conduct, which so exasperated the 
nobles, that they committed him to prison, where he laid 
violent hands upon himself in the year 858. Such is the 
account of Buchanan; but Chalmers speaks of him with 
praise, and says that he died at the palace of Balachoir in 
the year 863, and was buried at Icolm-kill. 
Constantine, son of the great Kenneth, now mounted the 
throne. Being a prince of great valour and lofty spirit, says 
Buchanan, he was anxious to eradicate the ignominy which 
Donald had brought upon the kingdom, and to recover the 
territories he had lost, but his nobles dissuaded him from 
the attempt. He therefore directed his attention to the 
reformation of the public morals, particularly those of the 
military and priesthood. In this reign the Danes invaded 
Scotland, by landing a large army in two divisions in the 
isthmus of Fife. Constantine hastened to oppose them, and 
fortunately overthrew one division before the other could 
arrive to its assistance. Upon this, the rest of the Danes 
retreated to an intrenched camp, which they had constructed 
near their landing-place. The Scots, flushed with victory, 
too rashly assaulted the Danish works, and were defeated 
with the loss of their king and half their army. The Danes, 
however, had suffered so much, that notwithstanding this 
success, they immediately re-embarked for their own country. 
Othus, or Aodth, brother to Constantine, succeeded him 
in the regal dignity. His reign was short, and disturbed by 
rebellion; and terminated, according to Chalmers, in conse¬ 
quence of a wound received in the battle of Strathal. Bu¬ 
chanan, on the other hand, asserts that he was thrown into 
prison by the nobles for his tyrannical and licentious con¬ 
duct, and that he died there before he completed the first 
year of his reign. Gregory, or Grig, who next reigned, 
emulated the virtues and achievements of the great Kenneth. 
While his internal policy was mild and just, he rendered 
himself feared and respected by foreigners. The Danes hav¬ 
ing seized from the English the greater part of the country 
south of the Forth, he drove them out of it, and once more 
established the Solway and the Tyne as the northern boun¬ 
daries of Scotland. He afterwards defeated the English, who 
had entered the western district of the kingdom, and com¬ 
pelled them to give up Cumberland and Westmoreland to 
the Scots. Gregory afterwards landed in Ireland, and hav¬ 
ing defeated the Irish in a battle fought on the river Bann, 
advanced to Dublin, which surrendered without resistance. 
Here he found king Duncan, then a minor, with whom he 
concluded a peace, and immediately returned to his own 
dominions, where he died in 892, greatly regretted by his 
own subjects. Such was the life of Gregory, as represented 
by the Scottish historians; but the researches of Chalmers 
have discovered, that instead of being a hero and a con¬ 
queror, he was a man of unprincipled morals, an usurper, 
and a hypocrite; and was driven from his throne by the in¬ 
dignation of his people. Gregory was succeeded by Donald, 
the son of Constantine, during whose reign the Danes made 
several descents upon Scotland, but were, in every instance, 
repulsed. Chalmers informs us, that the king fell, gallantly 
fighting in defence of his kingdom against a body of these 
invaders, who had penetrated almost to the Scottish capital. 
Buchanan, on the other hand, states that he died during an 
expedition to quell a feud betwixt the Russians and the 
Merch-men ; and Boethius asserts that he expired in North¬ 
umberland in 903. His successor was Constantine, the son 
of Aodth, the early part of whose reign was equally disturbed 
by the inroads of the Danes. He afterwards engaged in a 
war with Athelstan, king of England, who ravaged all the 
sountry as far as the Forth and Clyde, and forced Constan- 
Vol. XXII. No. 1543. 
LAND. 833 
tine to sue for peace. Constantine, however, only observed 
it till an opportunity for revenge occurred, and then, joining 
with Anlaf, one of the most powerful of the Anglo-Danish 
princes, their united forces sailed for the Humber, and dis¬ 
embarked without opposition. Athelstan, who had foreseen 
and prepared for this event, soon came up with the invaders, 
and after a battle, till then unexampled in the English or 
Scottish annals, gained a complete victory, and Constantine 
and Anlaf only saved the remains of their army by a speedy 
re-embarkation. In this action, Constantine having lost 
his son, and most of his nobility, resigned the kingdom in 
favour of Malcolm, the son of Donald, and retired to a mo¬ 
nastery at St. Andrews, where he ended his days. Soon 
after the accession of Malcolm, the conquered provinces of 
Cumberland and Westmoreland revolted from the English 
monarch, who, fearful of his ability to retain them, agreed 
to surrender both to the king of Scotland, on condition, as 
Buchanan states, that Malcolm and his successors would 
acknowledge they held them of the crown of England, in 
fealty; the condition was accepted, and Malcolm passed 
the remainder of his reign in reforming the administration 
of justice, and the licentious character of his subjects. 
With this view he made a tour through the whole of his do¬ 
minions every two years, and is stated to have been paying 
his last biennial visit to the north, when he was assassinated 
in Moray, in the fifteenth year of his reign. His successor 
was Indulfus, who formed an alliance with the English, and 
enjoyed peace during the first seven years of his rule. At 
length the Danes unexpectedly disembarked in Lothian; the 
Scottish king marched and gave them battle, overthrew 
them with great slaughter, but unfortunately perished himself 
in the ardour of pursuit. 
Duffus, the son of Malcolm, next swayed the sceptre, 
and appointed Culenus, the son of Indulfus, governor of 
Cumberland. This monarch having held the reins of go¬ 
vernment with a firm hand, many of his nobles rose in open 
rebellion against the royal authority. By his vigorous mea¬ 
sures, however, he was enabled to crush the insurrection, 
and to bring the leading offenders to punishment. He af¬ 
terwards directed his endeavours to crush the banditti who 
infested the counties of Moray, Ross and Caithness. Many 
of these were slain in various skirmishes, but the principal of 
them were secured and brought to the town of Forres, in 
order to render their fate more exemplary. Here the king 
was assassinated by the governor and his wife, who had 
vainly interceded to save some of the criminals, their re¬ 
lations. 
Culenus, the son oflndulphus, now mounted the throne; 
and immediately instituted an inquiry into the murder of his 
predecessor, and visited with condign punishment all who 
were concerned in that tragical event. But with these acts 
the merits of his reign cease, for scarcely had the executioner 
performed his duty, before the king abandoned himself to 
every species of vice, and gave equal licence to the younger 
nobility. Having been, in consequence, summoned to an¬ 
swer for his conduct in an assembly of the states convened at 
Scone, he was assassinated on his journey thither by the 
Thane of Methven, whose daughter he had injured. Culenus 
was succeeded by Kenneth, the brother of Duffus, a man 
in every respect the reverse of him in character and conduct. 
His first object was to put an end to the abuses of the former 
reign; which he had scarcely accomplished, when the Danes 
made a descent on Aberdeenshire, and pillaged the country 
as far as the town of Perth, to which they laid siege. The 
king hastened to give them battle, and after an obstinate and 
bloody contest, was defeated and put to flight. This dis¬ 
aster being perceived by the chief of the clan, Hay, he, and 
his sons and vassals, placed themselves in a narrow pass, 
through which the main body of the Scots fled, and by 
their exhortations and courageous conduct succeeded in 
changing the fortune of the day. The Scots turned upon 
their conquerors, and after a second rencounter, still more 
furious than the first, gained a con;pleie victory. The gal¬ 
lant Hay was rewarded with extensive estates, and raised to 
10 C the 
