THE WAR WITH MACBETH. 617 and Bromton, as we have seen, speaks only of a victory over Macbeth, not of his death. Fordun (v. 7) is equally clear. He quotes and rejects William of Malmesbury's account, and tells us that Macbeth "partibus subitò relictis australibus boreales petiit, ubi terrarum angustis anfractibus et silvarum abditis tutiùs sperabat se tueri." He adds that the Scots, unwilling to fight against Malcolm, fled at the first sound of the trumpet, quite a different picture from the hard fought fight spoken of by the English and Irish writers. 5. The distinct statement of Florence that Siward made Malcolm King ("Regem constituit ") does not seem to me to be at all contradicted by the facts that the war lingered on several years, and that Malcolm was not solemnly crowned at Scone till after the death of the competitor who succeeded Macbeth. The result of the battle doubtless was that Malcolm was acknowledged King of Scots by the English King, by at least his own English subjects in Lothian, and probably by the southern parts of Scotland proper ("partes australes" in Fordun just above). But the war still went on in the North. It is worth notice that Florence is satisfied with the practical expression of Eadward's supremacy-"ut Rex jusserat, Regem constituit." But Roger of Wendover (i. 493), in whose time the homage of Scotland was becoming a matter of debate, is more special and more feudal in his language. He improves the statement of Florence into "Rex regnum Scotiæ dedit Malcolmo, Cumbrorum Regis filio, de se tenendum." 6. The remaining events of the war I have described in the text. Our accounts are very meagre, but there can, I think, be little doubt that Malcolm continued to be powerfully supported by English help under Tostig, the successor of Siward. That such was the case is distinctly affirmed by Eadward's Biographer (416), though, as usual, he wraps his story in such a cloud of words that we cannot make out much as to time, place, or circumstance. Macbeth, the King whose barbarous name he cannot write or remember, was first ("primùm ") defeated by Siward, then by Tostig. Secundò, ducatum agente Duce Tostino, quum eum Scotti intentatum haberet, et ob hoc in minori pretio habitum, latrocinio potiùs quam bello sæpiùs lacesserent; incertum genus hominum, silvisque potiùs quam campo, fugæ quoque magis fidens quam audaciæ virili in prælio, tam prudenti astutiâ quam virtute bellicâ et hostili expeditione, cum salute suorum prædictus Dux attrivit, ut cum Rege eorum delegerint ei Regique Edwardo magis servire quam rebellare, id quoque per datos obsides ratum facere." He then formally declines to go further into the matter. The meaning of the passage is by no means clear. Indeed I do not feel certain whether the Biographer has not confounded Macbeth and Malcolm. It is hard to conceive any time when Macbeth can have given hostages; Malcolm may have done so on his first appointment, or it is possible, though we have no other account of it, that Malcolm's raid in 1061 (see p. 459) may have been avenged by a Scottish expedition on the part of Tostig. The Biographer's authority on these matters, which he seems purposely to slight, is far from being so great as it is when he is dealing with those affairs of the Court which went on under his own eye. Still his account shows that a Scottish war of some sort or other, whether against Macbeth or against Malcolm, went on under Tostig as well as under Siward. The sworn brotherhood again between Tostig and Malcolm (see P. 384) can hardly have any other reference than to a joint war against Macbeth. There is also a statement in Fordun (v. 8), which, though utterly confused as it stands, may probably help us to an important fact. Fordun clearly conceived Siward as continuing to wage war in Scotland after the battle of 1054, for he describes him as being summoned back by Eadward to help in the war against Gruffydd, after the destruction of Hereford in 1055 ("Hoc statim Siwardus, postquam à suo Rege per certum audierat nuncium, confestim jussus domi rediit, nequaquam ulteriùs Malcolmo ferre præsidium rediturus"). Now Siward died in 1055, before the war in Herefordshire began; but, if we read Tostig for Siward, a summons to the Welsh war is in every way probable. Fordun, though he preserves the fact of Macbeth's escape from the battle of 1054, confounds that battle with the battle of Lumfanan in 1058, and places them together in 1056, on December 5th (v. 7). Nevertheless he makes (v. 8) the battle to have happened at the same time as Gruffydd's destruction of Hereford in But Siward's battle is fixed by the English Chronicles to 1054, and the battle in which Macbeth died is equally fixed by the Irish Chronicles to 1058. So the Ulster Annals; "Macbeath filius Finnliachi, supremus Rex Albaniæ, occisus est à Malcolmo filio 1055. THE RETURN OF THE ÆTHELING EADWARD. 619 Donnchadi in prœlio." (See also Robertson, i. 123; Burton, i. 373.) The successor of Macbeth is called by Fordun (v. 8) "suus [Machabei] consobrinus, nomine Lulach, cognomine Fatuus." Tigernach calls him "Lulacus Rex Albaniæ," and fixes his death, which was "per dolum," to 1058. The Ulster Annals call him "Mac Gil Comgen" (see Robertson, i. 120). Mr. Burton (i. 374) calls him a son of Gruach. The coronation of Malcolm comes from Fordun (v. 9). Cf. O'Conor's note on the Ulster Annals, Rer. Hib. Scriptt. iv. 338. NOTE Y. p. 370. THE MISSION OF EALDRED AND THE RETURN OF THE THE sources of our information with regard to Bishop Ealdred's mission to the Imperial Court curiously illustrate the occasionally deficient nature of our authorities, and the way in which one writer fills up gaps in another. The mission of Ealdred in 1054 and the return of the Ætheling in 1057 are both of them distinctly recorded in our national Chronicles. They are indeed much more than recorded; each event finds at least one Chronicler to dwell upon it with special interest. But from the Chronicles alone we should never find out that there was any connexion between the two events. The coming of the Etheling is recorded by the Peterborough writer, and it attracts the special attention of his Worcester brother, who bursts into song on the occasion. But there is not a word in either to connect his coming with the German mission of Ealdred. About that mission the Peterborough writer is silent, just as he is silent about the Scottish war of Siward. Abingdon (1054) records Ealdred's journey, but says only, "On þam ylcan geare ferde Ealdred biscop suð ofer sæé into Sexlande, and wearð þær mid mycelre arwarðnesse underfangen." From this account we might guess, but we could do no more than guess, that Ealdred went in some public character. The Worcester writer is naturally fuller on the doings of his own Bishop; still what chiefly occupies his attention is the "mickle worship" with which Ealdred was received by the Emperor, the long time that he was away, and the arrangements which he made for the discharge of his duties during his absence (see p. 372). He does indeed tel us that Ealdred went on the King's errand; but he does not tell us what the King's errand was, any more than he did in recording Ealdred's earlier mission to Rome in 1049. His words are; "Dæs ilcan geres for Aldred biscop to Colne ofer sæ, pas kynges ærende, and wear þær underfangen mid mycclan weordscipe fram þam Casere, and þær he wunode wel neh an gér; and him geaf ægðer peneste, ge se biscop on Colone and se Casere." So William of Malmesbury (Vit. S. Wlst. Ang. Sacr. ii. 249) looks on the objects of the embassy as best summed up in the Herodotean formula eidus où λéyw. Ealdred goes to the Emperor, "quædam negotia, quorum cognitionem caussa non flagitat, compositurus." But he has much to tell us about Ealdred's reception by the Emperor ("quum in Imperatoriæ Augustæ dignationis oculis invenisset gratiam, aliquot ibi dierum continuatione laborum suorum accepit pausam"), and still more about the presents which he received. As the biographer of Wulfstan, he could not fail to tell us about two service-books in which Wulfstan was deeply interested (see p. 462), and which Ealdred now received as a present from the Emperor. In his history he does speak of an embassy to bring about the return of the Ætheling, but he altogether misconceives the circumstances (see p. 371), he makes no mention of Ealdred, and he fancies that the embassy went direct to Hungary ("Rex Edwardus misit ad Regem Hunorum." ii. 228). It is from Florence, and from Florence only, that we get a complete and accurate filling up of all our gaps. He tells us, under 1054, "Aldredus Wigorniensis Episcopus. . . magnis cum xeniis Regis fungitur legatione ad Imperatorem, à quo simul et ab Herimanno Coloniensi archipræsule magno susceptus honore, ibidem per integrum annum mansit, et Regis ex parte Imperatori suggessit ut, legatis Ungariam missis, inde fratruelem suum Eadwardum, Regis videlicet Eadmundi Ferrei Lateris filium, reduceret, Angliamque venire faceret." We now know what the King's errand was on which Ealdred was sent, and, knowing that it was to bring back the Ætheling, we might guess for ourselves why the Etheling was to be brought back. But Florence afterwards expressly tells us this also, under the year 1057; "Decreverat enim Rex illum post se regni hæredem constituere." . . . THE RETURN OF THE ÆTHELING EADWARD. 621 That Ealdred had Abbot Elfwine for his companion in this embassy (see p. 372), I infer from a remarkable entry in Domesday (208) which can have no other meaning. Land in Huntingdonshire is said to have been granted by Eadward "Sancto Benedicto de Ramesy, proper unum servitium quod Abbas Alwinus fecit ei in Saxonia." I can conceive no other service in Saxony which Elfwine could have rendered to the King, save this share in Ealdred's mission to "Sexland." Elfwine's former mission to Rheims is not to the purpose, as no geography can put Rheims in Saxony. Nor do I understand the remark of Sir Henry Ellis (i. 306), that we have here " allusion to the Confessor's residence abroad before he came to the throne." What dealings had Eadward with Saxony in those days? The only difficulty is that the local historian of Ramsey, who is very full on the doings of Ælfwine, and who speaks of his going to Rheims, says nothing of his embassy to Köln. But the silence of this writer has equally to be explained on any other view of the "servitium in Saxoniâ." an One would like to know a little more than we do about the residence of the Ethelings in Hungary, and the position which they held there. We do not know what became of their mother Ealdgyth, whether they were accompanied by any English attendants, or whether they kept up any kind of intercourse with England. Eadmund must have died young; at least this seems to be implied by William of Malmesbury (ii. 180), who says that the children reached Hungary "ubi, dum benignè aliquo tempore habiti sunt, major diem obiit." ("Processu temporis ibidem vitam finivit," says Florence, 1017.) But William's ideas must have been a little confused, as he makes the Ethelings themselves go to Hungary (Hunorum Regem petierunt "), as if they were capable of personal action, whereas it is plain that they were still mere babes. William of Malmesbury also makes Eadward marry a sister of the Queen of the Hungarians. That is, I suppose, the meaning of his words, "Minor Agatham Reginæ sororem in matrimonium accepit." I have not found, in such German and Hungarian writers as I have been able to refer to, any mention of Eadward's marriage, or indeed of his sojourn in Hungary at all. But there is no doubt that the wife of Saint Stephen, who was reigning in Hungary when the Æthelings came there, and who died in 1038, |