The Orkney and Western Islands had been taken possession of by the Norwegians in the end of the 9th century. Sigurd, the earl of Orkney, and Thorstein the Red, who claimed the sovereignty of the Western Isles, leaguing together, made a descent upon the mainland in Scotland in 891, and, quickly overrunning the greater part of the districts of Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, and Moray, established there a Norwegian principality, which was maintained, though with much contention, till the expulsion of the Norwegians in 993. This expul sion was effected by Malcolm, 3Iaormor of Moray, who a few years after, by the defeat and death of Kenneth V., obtained possession of the throne under the title of Malcolm 11. On his death a faction raised to the throne another Malcolm, thereon of Kenneth. This Malcolm MacKenneth, immediately after his accession, proceeded to dispossess Sigurd's son Thorfiun of Caithness, with which he had been invested by his maternal grandfather ; and a long war followed between the Scottish king and the Norwegian earl, which terminated, in 1034, in the defeat and death of the former: events which were forthwith followed by the complete subjugation of Scotland, as far north as tho Frith of Tay, by Thorfinn, whose kingdom thus founded lasted for 80 years.
On tho death of Malcolm MacKenneth, the part of the country that remained unsubdued acknowledged as hie successor Duncan, son of his daughter Bethoc, whose father Crinan, commonly designated Abbot of Dunkeld, is believed to have been one of the chiefs of the Northern Picts Duncan, in 1040, during a temporary absence of Thorfinn, marched upon the dominions of that prince, and made his way as far north as Moray without encountering resistance. At this point he was opposed, not by the Norwegians, but by the Gaelic inhabitants, who were commanded by the Maormor of Moray, who, attacking Duncan near Elgin, defeated and slew him, end assumed the title of King of Scotland. Macbeth in the south, end Thorfinn in the north, reigned till theyear 1054, when Macbeth was attacked by a Saxon force, under earl of Northumberland, which had been obtained from Edward the Confessor by Dancan's eldest son Malcolm, who after his father's death had taken refuge at he English court. This invasion terminated in the expulsion of Ithebeth from the country south of the friths of Forth and Clyde, tad the establishment of Malcolm (surnamed Canmore, or Great Head), is king of that part of Scotland. The authority of Malcolm con :ins:led to be confined to the Lothians till 1058, when a second Saxon nvaalon drove Macbeth as far north as Luinphanan in Aberdeenshire, where he was overtaken and slain in battle. Thorfinn held his ground ,ill his death in 1064, and it was not till 1085 that the whole of Scot and (except perhaps Caithness) was brought under subjection to The reign of Malcolm Canmore terminated in 1093, and his death mrnediately gave rise to a new conflict between two opposite prin elides of sumession to the throne—the population of the Lowlands, now to a ghat extent Saxon. supporting the claim of Duncan, the son of Carmen; the Celtic tribes of the north asserting the right of Maloolm's brother, Donald Bane, in conformity with what is called the system of tanistry, which, brought by the Dalriads from their former oouotry, Ireland. had probably till now regulated the succession in the royal family, both in their first seat and since they had succeeded to the Pictish crown. In entering upon his contest with Duncan, Donald
Baas was assisted by Magnus Barefoot, king of Norway, to whom at this time belonged the 'Western Islands. This alliance enabled Donald in the first instance to carry everything before him, and the establish ment of his authority is said to have been Immediately followed by the expnlaion of all the Saxons who had settled in the Lowlauds of Scotland during the late reign ; bnt after a few months Duncan came against him with a numerous army from England, permission to raise which ho had probably obtained from William Rufus, and Donald was obliged to give way. It appears however that oven Duncan was not able to protect the Saxon settlers who had thus returned with him ; he found it necessary to drive them all out of the country, a concession to the popular cry however by which he gained nothing, for as soon as his subjects found him thus deprived of foreign protection they put him to death, and replaced his uncle on the throne. Two years after wards another Euglish army, conducted by Edgar Atheling, again overpowered Donald, and set the crown on the head of Edgar, a brother of Duncan. That result finally decided the contest between the two principles of succession, and also the struggle for supremacy between Celtic and Saxon Scotland. Edgar, whose accession took place in 1097, was succeeded by his brother Alexander I., and he by his brother David I., whose reign extended to the year 1153. Ou the accession of Malcolm the Maiden, a child only in his 11th year, attempts were made by the Highlanders to maintain, in opposition to the feudal heir, the claim of William, a grandson of Malcolm Can morea eldest son Duncan ; but this new pretender was wholly unsuccessful.
It was not however till fully two centuries later that the rule of the king of the was completely established over the whole of Scotland. The native chiefs appear for some time to have retained poems/don of those districts which had formed part of Thorfinn's kingdom; the rest of the country, and the whole of it south of the friths, acknowledged the king of Scotland. The Saxon inhabitants perfected their Saxon institutions ; the country was divided into earl doms, and sheriffs and county courts were established over the entire kingdom, except the extreme north. From the reign of Alexander's successor, David I., we are to date the introduction of Norman insti tutions into Scotland. Of the great Highland chiefs, the earls of Moray continued to be the Most formidable till the year 1161, when that ancient line was stripped of its power and its possessions.by Malcolm the Maiden, and the title it had enjoyed was transferred to the earls of Mar. From the cession of the Hebrides by the Norwegians in the year 1266, the most powerful family of the north came to be that of the Macdonalda, the Celtic chiefa of these islands, who styled themselves Lords of the Isles ; but their strength, which had been broken by the defeat of Donald, lord of the Isles, at the battle of lierlaw, fought in 1411, was destroyed by the effective measures taken to curb the Highland chiefs by James I. From this epoch may be dated the complete reduction of Celtic Scotland under the sceptre of the Saxon king of the Lowlands. The lordship of the Isles was finally extinguished by the forfeiture of the last lord in 1493.
SCOTTElt. (LiNcovssniae.]