Scottish acceptance of English suzerainty under Constantine II., and
later, but they all end in the statement, "this held not long." The
"submission" of Malcolm I. to Edmund (945) is not a submission but an
alliance; the old English word for "fellow-worker," or "ally," designates
Malcolm as fellow-worker with Edward of England.

This word (midwyrhta) was translated _fidelis_ (one who gives fealty) in
the Latin of English chroniclers two centuries later, but Malcolm I. held
Cumberland as an ally, not as a subject prince of England. In 1092 an
English chronicle represents Malcolm III. as holding Cumberland "by
conquest."

The main fact is that out of these and similar dim transactions arose the
claims of Edward I. to the over-lordship of Scotland,--claims that were
urged by Queen Elizabeth's minister, Cecil, in 1568, and were boldly
denied by Maitland of Lethington. From these misty pretensions came the
centuries of war that made the hardy character of the folk of Scotland.
{10}



THE SCOTTISH ACQUISITION OF LOTHIAN.


We cannot pretend within our scope to follow chronologically "the
fightings and flockings of kites and crows," in "a wolf-age, a war-age,"
when the Northmen from all Scandinavian lands, and the Danes, who had
acquired much of Ireland, were flying at the throat of England and
hanging on the flanks of Scotland; while the Britons of Strathclyde
struck in, and the Scottish kings again and again raided or sought to