[70] Olave was Constantine’s son-in-law at the time of the battle of Brunanburgh, but as Sitric died at an early age, and Olave survived his father for nearly sixty years, it is improbable that the connection could have existed till some years after Sitric’s death, when it will explain why Constantine, who at that time was not at variance with Athelstan, and who had supported the Northumbrian Saxons against their mutual enemies the Hy Ivar, became an object of suspicion to the English king when it appeared to be his aim to favour the establishment of his son-in-law in the Danish province, as he had already secured his brother upon the throne of Strath Clyde.
[71] Chron. Sax. Sim. Dun. ad an. “Athelstan went into Scotland as well with a land army as with a fleet, and there over-harried much.” Such are the expressions of the Chronicle, the earliest and best authority respecting an expedition which has grown in the pages of the Anglo-Norman annalists into the complete conquest of Scotland. Simeon gives three versions: in his first, from original sources, merely mentioning the extent of the incursion to Dunfœder (or Forteviot) and Wertermore. In his second, copying Florence, he makes Constantine purchase peace at the price of his son’s captivity; and in his third, in return for the gifts of Athelstan to the shrine of St. Cuthbert—and on such occasions the chronicler is never behind-hand in liberality—Scotland is thoroughly subdued (Twysden, pp. 134, 154, 25). It is a very appropriate occasion for the exhibition of the suffultum genus scribendi by the Anglo Norman writers; and the opportunity has not been passed over. According to Brompton (Twysden, p. 838), Athelstan demanded a sign from St. John of Beverley, “quo præsentes et futuri cognoscere possent Scotos de jure debere Anglis subjugari.” It was granted, and the king’s sword clove an ell of rock from the foundations of Dunbar Castle! “Possessiones, privilegia, et libertates,” rewarded the miracle, a price for which there was scarcely a patron saint in the country who would not have been made to confirm with signs and wonders the rightful supremacy of the English king over any people he chose to name. The monks of Newburgh outdid even Brompton, detaining Athelstan for three years in Scotland, whilst he placed “princes” over her provinces, provosts over her cities, and settled the amount of tribute to be paid from the most distant islands! (Doc. etc. Illus. Hist. Scot., No. 33.) The tale reappears, as might be expected, in the time of the first Edward, in its most exaggerated form, as “Inventa in quodum libro de vita et miraculis beati Johannis de Beverlaco quæ sunt per Romanam curiam approbata (Fœd., vol. i., p. 771). Dr. Lingard, through one of those oversights which occasionally serve to strengthen his arguments in Scottish matters, has transferred to this expedition the epithets applied by Æthelward to the battle of Brunanburgh.
[72] At this time there were two prominent characters amongst the descendants of Ivar of the name of Anlaf or Olave, who have frequently been confounded. Olave, the son of Sitric, known in the Sagas under the name of Olave the Red—the an t sainnr of the A. F. M. 978—sometimes as Olave Cuaran (for his son Sitric, who fought at Clontarf is called Olave Quaran’s son in the Niala Saga, Antiq. Celt.-Scand., p. 108), became the head of his family upon the death of his uncle Godfrey, and to him the Sagas invariably attribute the supreme rule over the Norsemen at Brunanburgh and elsewhere. Upon the death of Athelstan, the whole of England north of Watling Street was ceded to “Olave of Ireland,” and for four years Olave Sitricson retained his hold upon the conquered districts, until the successes of Edmund drove him across the channel to Ireland. He frequently appears in English history subsequently as the opponent of Eric of the Bloody Axe and the Anglo-Saxon monarchs; but his name does not occur in the Irish annals before he was driven from Northumbria in 944; and about eight years later, relinquishing all hopes of obtaining his father’s English kingdom, he established himself permanently in Dublin, ruling the Irish Norsemen for nearly thirty years, and bequeathing his dominion to his descendants. Olave, the son of Godfrey, succeeded his father in Dublin in 934, crossed the sea in the autumn of 937, and joining in the battle of Brunanburgh, reappeared in Ireland in the following year. He again appeared in England when Olave of Ireland was chosen by the Northumbrian Danes for their king, and shared the supremacy with his kinsman until his death at Tyningham in 941. Guthferd or Godfrey, the son of Hardacanute, a personage whose existence is somewhat doubtful, but who is supposed to have succeeded Halfdan, is often confounded with either Godfrey mac Ivar or Godfrey hy Ivar. The Irish annals, sagas, and Simeon, are my authorities for this sketch.
[73] Chron. Sax. 937. Egil’s Saga, Antiq. Celt.-Scand. The story of Olave’s adventures in the camp of Athelstan is also told of Alfred, and, if I recollect aright, of others. It is probably true in one instance, and ascribed to the rest. Eogan of Strath Clyde was probably amongst the kings who fell, as his son Donald soon afterwards appears as king of Strath Clyde.
[74] Heimskringla, Saga 4, c. 3. The tie of blood was the great bond of union in these days, and a member of a “royal race” could unite the most discordant elements under his standard. The invaders of the British Isles, like their greatest leaders Olave and Ivar—the one an Ingling, the other a Skioldung—were of Norwegian and Danish race, but after the death of Thorstein, Olave’s son, without known issue, as no prominent scion of the race of Halfdan Hvitbein remained, Dane and Norwegian both looked for their leaders to the family of Ragnar Lodbroc, the Hy Ivar. Eric, however, was of the blood of Halfdan Hvitbein, and by placing him amongst the Northmen, Athelstan skilfully sowed the seeds of discord, which yielded an abundant harvest a few years later in the contests between him and Olave Sitricson.
[75] It is doubtful which Olave is meant. When Edmund regained Northumbria, Olave Sitricson and Reginald Godfreyson appear to have been joint kings, so that it is probable that the two Olaves divided the supremacy in return for the assistance of the son of Godfrey in reinstating his kinsman. The death of Athelstan is assigned to the years 939 and 941. Ethelward places his death two years after Brunanburgh, in 939, and the charter 411 (Cod. Dip. Ang. Sax., vol. ii.) would favour this date. There are many charters of Edmund in 940, none of Athelstan after 939.
[76] Heimsk., Saga 4, c. 4. An. Ult. 941. A. F. M., 940. Sacheverell, in his History of the Isle of Man, p. 25, mentions a Manx tradition that the first of a line of twelve Oirrighs or underkings was the son of a king of Denmark or Norway, whose successors Guthfert and Reginald are evidently Godfrey Haraldson and his son Reginald, kings of Man after Maccus or Magnus Haraldson, who killed Eric in 954, at which time he probably acquired the kingdom of Man and the Isles. The Irish annals mention that in 942 the son of Reginald Hy Ivar was driven from the Isles by “Gall from beyond sea;” and it seems highly probable that these were the followers of Eric, who must have established himself in the dominion of the islands about this time.
[77] Sim. Dun. de Gestis, 941.
[78] Innes, Ap. 3. A Culdee abbot was not at this time strictly an ecclesiastical dignitary. The office appears to have been frequently held by the next in consideration to the head of the family in whose province or kingdom the monastery was situated.
[79] The period of this reign has been chosen by the Anglo-Norman writers as the era in which a feudal supremacy, in a strict Anglo-Norman sense, was first acquired over Scotland by her southern neighbour; and the theory, as might be expected, is supported in an appropriate manner. Three years after the death of Reginald, the fiery Dane is resuscitated from his grave, and placed, by the fiat of the English chroniclers, side by side with Constantine and the Prince of Strath Clyde, brought, together with the whole free population of Cumbria, Scotland, and Danish Northumbria, from the borders of the Forth, the Clyde, and the Humber, to the distant Peak of Derbyshire, to tender homage to the Saxon Edward at Bakewell! Yet their submission, and even the unwonted journey so far from their respective frontiers, fail to avert their sorrowful fate; for though Reginald is permitted to return to his tomb, his luckless companions are wantonly hurled from their thrones upon the accession of Athelstan; whilst, to enhance the glory of the Saxon king, Aldred of Bamborough is made the companion of their flight. He was the faithful friend of Edward, the son of Eadulf, “the darling” of the great Alfred,—considerations which have little weight with the ruthless chroniclers; and Aldred is raised to an evanescent independence, to swell the triumph of Athelstan by being ejected from what is called “his kingdom!” As history advances, fresh links are added to the chain of bondage, and the decreasing power of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs marches hand in hand with the increasing submission of the Scottish kings. Then is exhibited the singular anomaly of an obedient and obsequious vassal appropriating without ceremony the territories of his sovereign lord, until the climax is attained in the reign of the Confessor; and at a time when the over-powerful subjects of that prince seem to have been fast verging towards independence, freely and willingly does the Scottish king tender that allegiance for his entire kingdom which the iron-willed successors of the feeble Edward in vain attempted to extort. Into such errors and inconsistencies have the great majority of Anglo-Norman chroniclers fallen in endeavouring to found a claim to a feudal supremacy over Scotland in an age in which neither amongst Scots nor Anglo-Saxons was the feudal system in force.—V. Appendix L, pt. 1.