Symeon of Durham, in the 'Historia Regum' (History of the Kings) entry for 1018, writes:
"A great battle between the Scots and Angles was fought at Carrum [Carham] between Huctred [Uhtred], son of Waldef [Waltheof], earl of the Northumbrians, and Malcolm [Malcolm II], son of Cyneth [Kenneth II], king of the Scots, with whom there was in the battle Eugenius [Owen] the Bald, king of the men of Clyde [Strathclyde]."
In Symeon's 'Historia Ecclesiae Dunelmensis' (History of the Church of Durham) appears the passage:
"In the year of our Lord's incarnation ten hundred and eighteen, while Cnut ruled the kingdom of the Angles, a comet appeared for thirty nights to the people of Northumbria, a terrible presage of the calamity by which that province was about to be desolated. For, shortly afterwards, (that is, after thirty days,) nearly the whole population, from the river Tees to the Tweed, and their borders, were cut off in a conflict in which they were engaged with a countless multitude of Scots at Carrun [Carham]."
The date which Symeon, very clearly, attaches to the battle of Carham presents something of a difficulty. The 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' seems to put Uhtred's death in 1016 - two years before he was apparently defeated at Carham. Possibly the identification of Uhtred as leader of the English forces is mistaken. In 'Anglo-Saxon England', Sir Frank Stenton argues that, "as names are better remembered than dates", it is the placing of the battle in 1018 that is incorrect. On the other hand, in 'Scotland: The Making of the Kingdom', A.A.M. Duncan maintains that Uhtred was indeed defeated in 1018, and that his death, which Cnut ordered, should, therefore, be placed after that.
The 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' says that Cnut replaced Uhtred with Eric, earl of Hlathir. It appears, however, that the situation was not quite that straightforward. Uhtred was earl of the whole of Northumbria. In an anonymous tract of the late-11th or early-12th century, 'De Obsessione Dunelmi' (The Siege of Durham), is the comment that Uhtred's brother, Eadwulf:
"... surnamed Cudel ['Cuttlefish'], a lazy and cowardly fellow, succeeded him in the earldom."
But when Eadwulf died, Uhtred's son, Ealdred, succeeded only to Bernicia (northern Northumbria).
Symeon of Durham makes several references (in both the 'Historia Regum' and the 'Historia Ecclesiae Dunelmensis') to the northern Northumbrian province being "on the north side of the Tyne" (or similar phraseology), whereas the southern province (in the 'Historia Regum') he calls "York and its territories", which would seem to leave the district between Tees and Tyne (the future County Durham) in limbo. The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria came about from the joining of Bernicia, in the north, and Deira, in the south - the Tees (it is generally agreed) was the boundary between them. The descriptions of the battle of Carham and siege of Durham seem to make it clear that the jurisdiction of the northern earldom, whose incumbents had their seat at the ancient Bernician capital of Bamburgh, stretched as far south as that old boundary.
Ealdred was succeeded, in Bernicia, by his brother, Eadwulf.
In the 'Historia Regum', Symeon says that Eadwulf: "... being puffed up with arrogance, very cruelly pillaged the Britons [i.e. Strathclyde] ..."
Eadwulf was killed by Earl Siward (Cnut's appointed Earl of Northumbria after Eric's death), which unified Northumbria once more.
Presumably the native Bernician dynasty operated in a subservient capacity to Cnut's appointee. At any rate, Siward married into that dynasty. 'De Obsessione Dunelmi' says that Ealdred had five daughters, three of whom were called Ælflæd. It was one of these that Siward married.
'De Obsessione Dunelmi' poses another conundrum. It says that Eadwulf 'Cudel' was:
"Apprehensive that the Scots would revenge upon himself the slaughter which his brother [i.e. Uhtred] had inflicted upon them [following the siege of Durham] ... yielded up to them the whole of Lothian, to soothe them and procure a peace; and hence it is that Lothian became added to the kingdom of Scotland."
The problem being that King Edgar is reported (by Roger of Wendover) to have granted Lothian (the land between the rivers Tweed and Forth) to Kenneth II (Malcolm II's father) in 973. That the English forces at Carham were drawn from between the Tees and the Tweed would seem pretty strong evidence that Lothian was indeed in the hands of the Scots already. Sir Frank Stenton dismisses the idea that the Scots' victory at Carham had anything to do with their acquisition of Lothian. A.A.M. Duncan suggests that "some or all of Lothian certainly passed from Scottish control" in the years since 973, and that the territory was recovered as a result of their victory at Carham. In 'Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD80-1000', Alfred P. Smyth proposes that quibbles over the date of the battle and Uhtred's presence (and even "whether we accept the account of an unsuccessful siege of Durham") are "not quite so important as they may seem", and suggests that Carham's outcome "can have had little bearing on the Scottish occupation of Lothian". Professor Smyth argues that the real struggle was for the control of Bernicia, and that, following Carham, Uhtred recognised Malcolm II as his overlord - this disloyalty "must surely be in part at least" responsible for Cnut's disposal of Uhtred.