Note 71 — CHAPTER THE THIRD. CONSTANTINE THE SECOND—A. D. 900-943.

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.