affirm that it was subject to the Danes, who paid ho、 mage to Alfred. Donald, however, continued to live on good terms with the English monarch, and sent him a body of forces, who proved of considerable advantage to him in his wars with the Danes. The clans of the Murrays and Rosses, having invaded each other, and commenced a bloody civil war, Donald came upon them with a great army, and punished the ringleaders, in the year 903. He died at Forres, in the year 905.

Donald was succeeded by Constantine III. the son of Eth, who married a daughter of the prince of Wales; he also entered into an alliance with the Danes against the English. The reason of this confederacy was, that the English monarch, Edward the Elder, finding the Scots in possession of the northern Counties of England, made such extravagant demands upon Constantine, as obliged him to enter into an alliance with the Danes, to preserve his dominions in security. However, the league subsisted only for two years; after which the Danes found it more to their advantage to resume their ancient friendship with the English. Constantine afterwards appointed the presumptive heir to the Scottish crown, Malcolm, or, according to some, Eugene, the son of the late king Donald VI. prince of the southern counties, on condition of his defending them against the attacks of the English. The young prince had soon an opportunity of exerting his valour; but not behaving with the requisite caution, he was defeated, with the loss of almost all his army, he himself being carried wounded out of the field; and in consequence of this disaster, Constantine was obliged to do homage to Edward for the possessions he had to the south of the Scots boundary.

In the beginning of the reign of Athelstan, the son of Edward the Elder, the northern Danes were encouraged, by some conspiracies formed against that monarch, to throw off the yoke; and their success was such, that Athelstan entered into a treaty with Sithric, the Danish chief, and gave him his daughter in marriage.

riage. Sithric, however, did not long survive his nuptials; and his son Guthred, endeavouring to throw off the English yoke, was defeated, and obliged to fly into Scotland. This brought on a series of hostilities between the Scots and English, which, in the year 938, issued in a general engagement. At this time the Scots, Irish, Cumbrians, and Danes, were confederated against the English. The Scots were commanded by their king Constantine, the Irish by Anlaf, the brother of Guthred the Danish prince; the Cumbrians by their own sovereign, and the Danes by Froda. The generals of Athelstan were Edmund his brother, and Turketil his favourite. The English attacked the entrenchments of the confederates, where the chief resistance they met with was from the Scots. Constantine was in the utmost danger of being killed or taken prisoner, but was rescued by the bravery of his soldiers; however, after a most obstinate engagement, the confede rates were defeated with such slaughter that the slain are said to have been innumerable. The consequence was, that the Scots were deprived of all their possessions south of the Forth; and Constantine, quite dispirited with his misfortunes, resigned the crown to Malcolm, and retired to the monastery of the Culdees, at St. Andrew's, where he became a canon, and died five years after, in A. D. 943. The distresses which the English sustained in their subsequent wars with the Danes gave the Scots an opportunity of retrieving their affairs; and in the year 944, Malcolin I. the successor of Constantine, was invested with the sovereignty of Northumberland, on condition of his holding it as a fief of the crown of England, and assisting in the defence of the northern border. Soon after the conclusion of this treaty, Malcolm going to the county of Moray, to settle some disturbances, was treacherously murdered in the ninth year of his reign. The murderers were all apprehended, tortured, and put to death. Malcolm was succeeded, in the year 952, by his son Indulfus, in whose reign the Danes became ex

& 3

tremely

tremely formidable by their invasions, which they now renewed with greater fury than ever, being exasperated by the friendship subsisting between the Scots and English monarchs. Haquin, king of Norway, also attempted an invasion, but was defeated by Indulfus.

The first descent of the Danes was upon East Lothian, from whence they were soon expelled, but they crossed over to Fife: here they were again defeated, and driven out; and so well had Indulfus guarded the coasts, that they could not find an opportunity of landing; till having seemed to steer towards their own country, the Scots were thrown off their guard, and the Danes, on a sudden, made good their landing, at Cullen, in Banffshire. Here Indulfus soon came up with them; attacked their camp, and drove them towards their ships; but he was killed in an ambuscade, into which he fell during the pursuit, in the ninth year of his reign. He was succeeded by Duffus, the son of Malcolm I. in the year 961, to whom historians have given an excellent character; but who, after a reign of five years, was murdered in the year 966. He was succeeded by Culen, the son of Indulfus, who had been nominated prince of Cumberland, in his father's life time, as heir-apparent to the throne. He is represented as being a very degenerate prince; and is said to have given himself up to sensuality, in a manner almost incredible, being guilty of incontinence, not only with women of all ranks, but even with his own sisters and daughters. The people in the mean time were fleeced, to support the extravagance and luxury of their prince. In consequence of this, an assembly of the states was convened, at Scone, for the resettling of the government; but, on his, way thither, Culen was assassinated, in the fourth year of his reign, near the village of Methven, by Rohard, or Rodard, thane of Fife, whose daughter he had debauched. The provocations which Culen had given to his nobility seem to have rendered them untractable and licentious; which gave occasion to a remarkable revolution, in the

reign of Kenneth III. who succeeded Culen in the year 970. This prince being a man of great resolution, began with relieving the common people from the oppressions of the nobility, which were now intolerable; and this plan he pursued with so much success, that having nothing to fear from the great barons, he ordered them to appear before him, at Lanerk; but the greater part, couscious of their demerits, did not attend. The king so well dissembled his displeasure, that those who came were quite charmed with his affability, and the noble entertainment that he gave them; in consequence of which, when an assembly was called next year, the guilty were encouraged to appear as well as the innocent. No sooner had this assembly met, however, than the place of meeting was beset with armed men. The king then informed them, that none had any thing to apprehend, excepting such as had been notorious offenders; and these he ordered to be immediately taken into custody; telling them, that their submitting to public justice must be the price of their liberty. They were obliged to accept the king's offer, and the criminals were punished according to their deserts. About this time, Edgar, king of England, finding himself hard pressed by the Danes, found means to unite the king of Scotland and the prince of Cumberland along with himself in a treaty against the Danes: which gave occa sion to a report, that Kenneth had become tributary to the king of England. This, however, is utterly denied by all the Scots historians; who affirm that Ken-· neth cultivated a good correspondence with Edgar, both because he expected assistance in defending his coasts, and because he intended entirely to alter the mode of succession to the throne.

About this time the Danes made a dreadful invasion. Their original intention seems to have been, to land on some part of the English coasts; but finding them, probably, too well guarded, they landed at Mon trose, in Scotland; committing every where the most

dreadful

dreadful ravages. Kenneth, at that time, was at StirAng, and quite unprepared; having, however, collected a few troops, he cut off many of the enemy, as they were straggling up and down, but could not prevent them from besieging Perth. Nevertheless, as the king's army constantly increased, he resolved to give the enemy battle. The scene of this action was at Luncarty, near Perth. The king is said to have offered ten pounds in silver, or the value of it in land, for the head of every Dane which should be brought him; and an immunity from all taxes to the soldiers who served in his army, provided they should be victorious: but, notwithstanding the utmost efforts of the Scots, their enemies fought so desperately, that Kenneth's army fled, and must have been totally defeated, had not the fugitives been stopped by a yeoman, named Thomas, and his two sons, who were coming up to the battle. Buchanan and Boece inform us, that those countrymen were ploughing in a field, hard by the scene of action, and perceiving that their countrymen fled, they loosed their oxen, and made use of the yokes as weapons, with which they first obliged their countrymen to stand, and then fell upon their enemies. The fight was now renewed with such fury, on the part of the Scots, that the Danes were utterly defeated; and, after the battle, the king rewarded Thomas with the barony of Errol, in the Carse of Gowrie ; ennobled his family, and gave them an armorial bearing of a bloody yoke in a field, alluding to the rustic weapons with which they had atchieved this glorious exploit; and gave them also the sirname of Hay, hecause when weary with the fatigue of his exertions, he had said, Oh, Hay!" After this, Kenneth stained all his glory by poisoning prince Malcolm, lord of Cumberland, &c. the heir-apparent of the crown; and to secure the succession more effectually in his own family, prevailed on the states to make the succession hereditary, without regard to infancy or age. After this, either the king's conscience persuaded him, or

the