“Ða æfter þisson sende [se] cyng of Scotlande and þære forewarde gyrnde þe him behaten wæs, and se cing W. him steofnode to Gloweceastre and him to Scotlande gislas sende, and Eadgar æþeling æfter, and þa men syððan ongean, þe hine mid mycclon wurðscipe to þam cynge brohtan. As þa þa he to þam cynge com, ne mihte he beon weorðe naðer ne ure cynges spæce ne þæra forewarde þe him ær behatene wæron, and forði hi þa mid mycclon unsehte tohwurfon.”
Here we have very clearly an embassy of complaint sent by Malcolm to William—an invitation or summons, whichever it is to be called, to the Gemót at Gloucester sent by William to Malcolm and accompanied by hostages for his safety—a second embassy from William to Malcolm, with Eadgar at its head, in whose company Malcolm’s ambassadors went back to Scotland and Malcolm himself came to England. All this is cut short by Florence, who however distinctly affirms the going to and fro of some embassies, while it is from him that we get the date and a fuller account of what happened at Gloucester. His narrative stands thus;
“Rex Scottorum Malcolmus, die festivitatis S. Bartholomæi Apostoli [24 Aug.], regi Willelmo juniori, ut prius per legatos inter eos statutum fuerat, in civitate Glaworna occurrit, ut, sicut quidam primatum Angliæ voluerunt, pace redintegrata, stabilis inter eos amicitia firmaretur; sed impacati ab invicem discesserunt; nam Malcolmum videre aut cum eo colloqui, præ nimia superbia et potentia, Willelmum despexit.”
Colloqui is the technical word which we so often come across. The meeting of the two kings would have been a colloquium or parliament. It is from Florence again that we get all the technical law. His account goes on thus;
“Insuper etiam illum [Malcolmum] ut secundum judicium tantum suorum [Willelmi] baronum, in curia sua rectitudinem ei faceret, constringere voluit; sed id agere, nisi in regnorum suorum confiniis, ubi reges Scottorum erant soliti rectitudinem facere regibus Anglorum, et secundum judicium primatum utriusque regni, nullo modo Malcolmus voluit.”
William of Malmesbury (iv. 311) loses the fact of the embassies and the summons in a cloud of words;
“Multis controversiis utrobique habitis, et fluctuante propter utrorumque animositatem justitia, Malcolmus ultro Gloecestram venit, æquis duntaxat conditionibus, multus pro pace precator.”
With regard to more modern discussions, I do not know that I can do more than give the reader the same references which I gave in N. C. vol. v. p. 120. But Mr. Robertson (i. 144 note) certainly has reason when he says that “it does not follow that Malcolm spoke feudal Latin because Florence wrote it.” One would be glad to have the actual words in French, English, or, more precious than all, Irish. (This sets one thinking what languages Malcolm may have spoken. We know that he understood English, whether he learned it at the court of Eadward, or afterwards from his wife. In one or other of those schools he would most likely also pick up French. Margaret herself may also have learned High Dutch, and possibly Magyar, from her parents.) But I can make nothing of Mr. Robertson’s strange comment that “it is singular to mark how nearly all the English authorities accuse Malcolm of ‘a breach of faith’ because he resented the conduct of William, whilst they pass over without notice the glaring ‘breach of faith’ on the part of their own king.” Who charges Malcolm with any breach of faith, except William of Malmesbury in the almost casual passage, iii. 250? And what more could he wish the Chronicler and Florence to say against William Rufus than what they do say? Mr. Robertson’s criticism is more to the purpose when he attacks the words of William of Malmesbury, iv. 311; “Nec quicquam obtinuit, nisi ut in regnum indemnis rediret, dedignante rege dolo capere quem virtute subegisset.” He remarks that “the safe-conduct and the hostages detract something from this much vaunted magnanimity, but Malmesbury would sacrifice a good deal for the sake of a well-turned period.” It is certainly hard to see what William had done to Malcolm which could be called “virtute subegisse;” but Mr. Robertson fails to notice that this particular scruple is characteristic of William Rufus. Careless of his faith in so many other cases, he is always careful to observe a safe-conduct.
NOTE CC. [Vol. ii. p. 16.]
The Death of Malcolm.