EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 225

The death of Siward, duke of Northumberland,made the way still more open to the ambition ofthat nobleman. Siward, besides his other merits,had acquired honour to England, by his successfulconduct in the only foreign enterprise undertakenduring the reign of Edward. Duncan, king ofScotland, was a prince of a gentle disposition,but possessed not the genius requisite for governinga country so turbulent, and so much infested bythe intrigues and animosities of the great. Macbeth,a powerful nobleman, and nearly allied to thecrown , not content with curbing the king’sauthority, carried still farther his pestilent ambi-tion : He put his sovereign to death , chacedMalcolm Kenmore, his son and heir, into England ;and usurped the crown. Siward, whose daughterwas married to Duncan, embraced, by Edward’sorders, the protection of this distressed family:He marched an army into Scotland , and havingdefeated and killed Macbeth in battle, he restoredMalcolm to the throne of his ancestors Thisservice, added to his former connexions with theroyal family of Scotland, brought a great ac-cession to the authority of Siward in the north ;but as he had lost his eldest son, Olbern , inthe action with Macbeth , it proved in theistue fatal to his family. His second son, Wal-tlioef, appeared, on his father’s death, too young

W. Malm. p. 79. Hoveden, p. 443. Chron. Mailr.p. 158. Buchanan, p. 115. edit. 1715.

HAT

III.

1015 .