Note 1122 — Chapter VI · THE DANISH KINGS IN ENGLAND.[818] 1017–1042. (continued 2)

So I understand the words of Simeon, Hist. Dun. iii. 9; “Magna parte equitum suorum ab his qui obsidebantur interfecta, confusus aufugit, fugiens pedites interfectos amisit.” The mention of “equites” need not imply that the Scottish army contained cavalry strictly so called, that is, men who used their horses in actual battle. It is enough to justify the expression if, among the Scots, as among the English, the chief men rode to the field (see above, p. 271); the chief men, as usual, would suffer most severely in the actual combat, while those among them who survived would have the advantage in flight. There is another entry in the Durham Annals which places both this siege and the death of Harold in 1039. “Hoc anno Dunechanus rex Scotorum cum exercitu magno Dunelmum obsidens, fugatus ab obsessis, magnam suorum multitudinem amisit.”