Duncan,
king of Scotland, was a prince of a gentle disposition, but possessed
not the genius requisite for governing a country so turbulent, and so
much infested by the intrigues and animosities of the great. Macbeth,
a powerful nobleman, and nearly allied to the crown, not content with
curbing the king's authority, carried still farther his pestilent
ambition: he put his sovereign to death; chased Malcolm Kenmore, his son
and heir, into England, and usurped the crown. Siward, whose daughter
was married to Duncan, embraced, by Edward's orders, the protection of
this distressed family: he marched an army into Scotland; and having
defeated and killed Macbeth in battle, he restored Malcolm to the throne
of his ancestors.[*]
[* W. Malms, p. 79. Hoveden, p. 443. Chron. Mailr.
p. 158 Buchanan, p, 115, edit. 1715].
This service, added to his former connections with the royal family of
Scotland, brought a great accession to the authority of Siward in the
north; but as he had lost his eldest son, Osberne, in the action with
Macbeth, it proved in the issue fatal to his family. His second son,
Walthoef, appeared, on his father's death, too young to be intrusted
with the government of Northumberland; and Harold's influence obtained
that dukedom for his own brother Tosti.
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