Five years after this he seems to have gone to Rome, probably to obtain absolution for the murder of Duncan, as Marianus tells us that in the year 1050 the king of Scotia, Macbethad, freely distributed silver to the poor at Rome.[[586]]
The immunity with which he enjoyed the fruit of his treachery towards Duncan may no doubt be attributed in a great measure to there being no one with a preferable right who was in a position to oppose him. The children of Duncan must have been in mere infancy at his death, and if the immediate succession of a son to his father’s throne was still somewhat strange to the Celtic population, that of an heir who was not of sufficient age to be capable of governing personally was totally opposed to their laws. He had too no doubt behind him the support of the powerful earl of Orkney, and if he had possessed a legitimate title, he would probably have maintained his position, and been recorded as one of the best of the Scottish kings; but the stamp of usurpation was upon him, and his immunity was to cease when Malcolm, the son of Duncan, reached an age to enable him to contest his right and claim, which was to bring a more powerful antagonist into the field than Macbeth had yet had to encounter. This was Siward, earl of Northumbria. He was of Danish race, and became connected with the earls of Northumbria by marriage with Elfleda the daughter of Ealdred, earl of Northumbria, and on the slaughter of Eadulf, his wife’s uncle, by King Hardacnut, in the year 1041, was made earl over the whole of Northumbria, extending from the Humber to the Tweed.[[587]] Siward was doubly connected with the house of Crinan, the abbot of Dunkeld, for his wife’s aunt, Aldgitha, half-sister of Earl Ealdred, was married to Maldred, son of Crinan, and King Duncan himself married either the sister or the cousin of Earl Siward, by whom he had a son, Malcolm. On the assassination of his father, Malcolm must have been a mere child, but when he reached an age which enabled him to claim his father’s kingdom, Siward seems to have resolved to make an effort to drive Macbeth from the throne he had usurped.
A.D. 1054.
Siward, earl of Northumbria, invades Scotland, and puts Malcolm, son of King Duncan, in possession of Cumbria.
The Saxon Chronicle tells us that in the year 1054 ‘Earl Siward went with a large army into Scotland, both with a naval force and a land force, and fought against the Scots, of whom he made great slaughter, and put them to flight, and the king escaped. Many also fell on his own side, both Danish and English, and also his own son Oshern, and his sister’s son Siward, and some of his “huscarls” and also of the kings were there slain, on the day of the Seven Sleepers, that is, on the 27th of July.’[[588]] Tighernac records in the same year ‘a battle between the men of Alban and the men of Saxonia,’ in which many of the soldiers were slain;[[589]] and the Ulster Annals add that ‘three thousand of the men of Alban were slain, and fifteen hundred of the men of Saxonia, around Dolfinn, son of Finntuir’[Finntuir’] (or Thorfinn).[[590]] There is a statement in Gaimar’s metrical chronicle not to be found elsewhere. We are there told that ‘Earl Syward made an agreement with the king of Scotland when he went, but Macbeth destroyed the peace, and ceased not to carry on war.’ He then gives an account of the expedition, evidently taken from the Saxon Chronicle.[[591]]
As Siward advanced against Macbeth with both a naval force and a land army, he must have intended to enter the Firth of Tay with the former, while he penetrated by land into Scotland proper. To send a fleet merely into the Firth of Forth could in no way have aided his enterprise. His object therefore seems to have been Scone, the capital of the kingdom, to which he would penetrate by land by the usual route, crossing the Forth at Stirling, and passing through Stratherne, while his fleet entering the Firth of Tay, would not only support the land army, but prevent the force of the districts north of the Tay being used to turn the flank of his army. He seems to have been opposed by the people of Alban, who appear to have been united in support of Macbeth, who likewise had the aid of the Norwegians, as the son of Thorfinn, called by the Irish annalist Finntuir, fell in the contest. St. Berchan appears to allude to this battle at Scone, and to imply that a night attack had been made, when he says,
On the middle of Scone, it will vomit blood,
The evening of a night in much contention.
Although the Saxon Chronicle claims the victory for Siward, it admits the greatness of the slaughter on his side. It seems to have been a fiercely contested struggle, after which Siward found it necessary to retire without effecting his object of driving Macbeth from the throne of Scotia, as he reigned for three years longer; but he appears to have so far advanced the cause of young Malcolm, that he established him in possession of the territory of the Cumbrian Britons, and of Lothian as king of Cumbria.[[592]]
In the following year Siward died, and Malcolm thus lost the powerful support of the Danish earl of Northumbria, but he appears to have formed a close alliance with his successor Tostig, the son of Earl Godwine, who, though not of the Northumbrian race, had been appointed earl by King Edward, so that they became sworn brothers; and in the year 1057, when he had been three years in possession of the districts south of the Firths of Forth and Clyde as king of Cumbria, Malcolm seems to have found himself strong enough to make an independent attempt to drive Macbeth from the throne he had usurped, and this time his attempt was successful. Of the details of this renewed attempt no account has been handed down to us, but it resulted in Macbeth being driven across the great range of the Mounth, and slain by Malcolm at Lumphanan in Marr on the 15th day of August in the year 1057.[[593]]
A.D. 1057-8.
Lulach, son of Gilcomgan, king of Scotia.