ATHELST AN 1 . 139

impunity 109 , he reduced the Scots to such distress , c h a r,that their king was content to preserve his crown , It.by making submissions to the enemy. TheF.nglilh historians assert 110 , that Conssantine didhomage to Athelstan for his kingdom; and theyadd, that the latter prince, being urged by hiscourtiers to push the present favourable oppor-tunity, and entirely subdue Scotland, replied,that it was more glorious to confer than conquerkingdoms iIr . But those annals , so uncertainand imperfect in themselves, lose all credit, when•national prepossessions and animosities have place:

And on that account, the Scotch historians , who,without having any more knowledge of the matter,strenuously deny the sacs, seem more worthy ofbelief.

Constantine , whether he owed the retainingof his crown to the moderation of Athelstan, whowas unwilling to employ all his advantages againsthim, or to thepolicy of that prince, who esteemedthe humiliation of an enemy a greater acquisitionthan the subjection of a discontented and mutinouspeople, thought the behaviour of the Englishmonarch more an object of resentment than ofgratitude. He entered into a confederacy withAnlaf, who had collected a great body of Danishpirates , whom he found hovering in the Irish

109 Chron. Sax. p. 111. Hoveden, p. 422. H. Hun-ting. lib. 5. p. 354.

110 Hoveden , p. zt22.

111 W. Malmes. lib. 3. cap. 6 . Anglia Sacra, vol.p. 212.