"In the year of our Lord's incarnation nine hundred and sixty-nine, during the reign of Ethelred [Æthelred], king of the English, Malcolm, king of the Scots, the son of king Kyned [Kenneth], collected together the entire military force of Scotland; and having devastated the province of the Northumbrians with the sword and fire, he laid siege to Durham."
So begins a short treatise known as 'De Obsessione Dunelmi' (The Siege of Durham). The date, however, is impossible for the characters involved (and why it became attached to this event is the subject of speculation) - Æthelred came to the throne of England in 978, whilst Malcolm II (Malcolm, son of Kenneth II) did not secure the Scots' throne until 1005. The 'Annals of Ulster' has an entry for 1006:
"A battle between the men of Alba and the Saxons, and the Scots were defeated and a great number of their nobles left dead."
It is generally accepted that the battle mentioned by the 'Annals of Ulster' and the consequences of Malcolm's attack on Durham are one and the same. 'De Obsessione Dunelmi' notes that Durham had been besieged because:
"At this time bishop
Aldun [Ealdhun] had the government there; for Waltheof, who was earl of the Northumbrians, had shut himself up in Bebbanburc [Bamburgh]. He was exceedingly aged, and in consequence could not undertake any active measures against the enemy."
In this context, the term Northumbria is used for Bernicia (i.e. northern Northumbria) only. Waltheof's son, Uhtred (who, at this time, was married to Bishop Ealdhun's daughter):
"... collected together into one body a considerable number of men of Northumbria and Yorkshire, and cut to pieces nearly the entire multitude of the Scots; the king himself, and a few others, escaping with difficulty. He caused to be carried to Durham the best-looking heads of the slain, ornamented (as the fashion of the time was) with braided locks, and after they had been washed by four women - to each of whom he gave a cow for her trouble - he caused these heads to be fixed upon stakes, and placed about the walls.
When king Ethelred heard of this, he summoned this young man to his presence (this was during the lifetime of his father Waltheof), and as a reward for his courage, and for the battle which he had fought so gallantly, he gave him the earldom which had been his father's, adding thereto the earldom of the men of York... Afterwards, when Ucthred [Uhtred] had made additional progress in military affairs, king Ethelred gave him his own daughter Elfgiva [Ælfgifu] in marriage ..."