Battle of Carham

The Battle of Carham was a battle between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Northumbrians at Carham on Tweed in 1018 or possibly 1016. It is also sometimes known as the Battle of Coldstream, from the town of Coldstream. The battle was a victory for Máel Coluim II described as 'Malcolm son of Cyneth, king of Scots' and 'Huctred, son of Waldef, earl of the Northumbrians' by Symeon of Durham. The battle is thought to have strengthened Scotland's hold on Lothian by some. However, there is a school of thought led by Marjorie O. Anderson who believe that Lothian was granted to Kenneth, King of Scots in 973 by Edgar 'The Pacific', King of England. As GWS Barrow says in his 'Kingdom of the Scots', 'In (these) English accounts, the Battle of Carham of 1018 is not given any special significance. Scottish historians, on the other hand, have ignored or played down the story of Edgar's cession of Lothian, and have said bluntly that Lothian was won for Scotland at the Battle of Carham.' In 1029 Canute, King of England, Denmark, and Norway, invaded Scotland and seems to have recognised Malcolm's possession of Lothian. This could be recognition of the de facto occupation of Lothian by the Scots before 973. As Barrow says, 'What English annalists recorded as the 'cession' of Lothian was...the recognition by a powerful but extremely remote south-country king of a long-standing fait accompli.'

After Carham, much of present day Scotland was under the control of the King of Scots although Norsemen still held sway in Ross, Caithness, Sutherland and The Isles. The Lords of Galloway remained semi-independent. 'Scotland' was the term used to describe what constitutes present-day Scotland south of the Forth and Clyde. The kingdom north of that east-west line continued to be called 'Scotia' for some considerable time to come. Indeed, it was not until the time of King David I of Scotland that people in the south-east of the kingdom began to think of themselves as 'Scots'. In his own charters (eg to St Cuthbert's in Edinburgh), he continued to refer to the men of Lothian as 'English'.