was agreed on. It is added that the two kings then disbanded their armies, and went together into England.[1]
Question as to the betrothal of Margaret.
Question of Lothian.
This last statement throws some doubt upon the
whole of this version; for Malcolm's alleged journey to
England at this moment is clearly a confusion with
events which happened two years later. The references
too to the earldom of Lothian and to an earlier betrothal
of Margaret are a little startling; yet it is perhaps not
quite hopeless to reconcile them with better ascertained
facts. As I have elsewhere suggested, this earlier betrothal
of Margaret to Malcolm is not necessarily inconsistent
with his later marriage with her after the intermediate
stage of Ingebiorg.[2] Malcolm may at one time
have been in no hurry to carry out a marriage dictated
by political reasons; yet he may have afterwards become
eager for the same marriage after he had seen her whose
hand was designed for him. As for the Lothian earldom,
we here see the beginning of the later Scottish argument,
that homage was due from the Scottish to the
English king only for lands held within the kingdom
of England. At this stage Lothian was the land held
within the kingdom of England; it was what Northumberland,
Huntingdon, or any other confessedly English
land held by the Scottish king, was in later times. When
Malcolm was restored to his crown by the arms of
Siward,[3] no doubt Lothian was granted to him among
other things. Only Malcolm takes up the line, or our
historian thinks it in character to make him take up the
line, of implying, though not directly asserting, that
Lothian was the only possession for which homage was
due. And, on the strictest view of English claims, Malcolm
would be right in at least drawing a marked
