In 924 the first claim by an English king, Edward, to the
over-lordship of Scotland appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The
entry contains a manifest error, and the topic causes war between
modern historians, English and Scottish. In fact, there are several
such entries of Scottish acceptance of English suzerainty under
Constantine II., and later, but they all end in the statement, “this
held not long.” The “submission” of Malcolm I. to Edmund (945) is not
a submission but an alliance; the old English word for “fellow-worker,”
or “ally,” designates Malcolm as fellow-worker with Edward of England.
This word (midwyrhta) was translated fidelis (one who gives
fealty) in the Latin of English chroniclers two centuries later, but
Malcolm I. held Cumberland as an ally, not as a subject prince of
England. In 1092 an English chronicle represents Malcolm III. as
holding Cumberland “by conquest.”
The main fact is that out of these and similar dim transactions arose
the claims of Edward I. to the over-lordship of Scotland,—claims that
were urged by Queen Elizabeth's minister, Cecil, in 1568, and were
boldly denied by Maitland of Lethington. From these misty pretensions
came the centuries of war that made the hardy character of the folk of
Scotland. {10}