Note 549 — Chapter VIII · THE KINGDOM OF SCOTIA.

Sim. de obsessione Dunelm. Simeon places this war in the year 969, but Durham was not founded till the year 995, and Malcolm did not begin to reign till 1005. Mr. Freeman, in his History of the Norman Conquest, vol. i. p. 357, rightly places it in the year 1006. He says, “If it happened at all, it must have been in this year, the only one which suits the position of the king, bishop, and earl spoken of. Ealdhun became bishop in 990, and removed the see to Durham in 995. Malcolm began to reign in 1004. A Northumbrian earldom became vacant in 1006. This fixes the date. The authority of Simeon is, I think, guarantee enough for the general truth of the story, and the silence of the Chronicles and Florence is not conclusive as to a Northumbrian matter.”matter.” This conclusion of Mr. Freeman is the more striking as he appears not to have been aware of the passage in the Ulster Annals placing what is obviously the same event under the year 1006.