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The Battle of Carham was a battle between the Kingdom of Scotland
Kingdom of Scotland

The Kingdom of Scotland was a state in North-West Europe which existed from 843 until 1707. It occupied the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shared a Anglo-Scottish border to the south with the Kingdom of England, with which it was united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707, in 170...
 and the Northumbrians at Carham on Tweed
River Tweed

There are other rivers with this name: see Tweed RiverThe River Tweed flows primarily through the Scottish Borders region of England and Scotland....
 in 1018 or possibly 1016. It is also sometimes known as the Battle of Coldstream, from the town of Coldstream
Coldstream

Coldstream is a burgh in the Scottish Borders. It lies on the north bank of the River Tweed in Berwickshire, while Northumberland in England lies to the south bank....
. The battle was a victory for Máel Coluim II
Malcolm II of Scotland

M?el Coluim mac Cin?eda , known in modern anglicized regnal lists as Malcolm II , was King of the Scots from 1005 until his death. He was a son of Kenneth II of Scotland ; the Prophecy of Berch?n says that his mother was a woman of Leinster and refers to him as M?el Coluim Forranach, "the destroyer"....
 described as 'Malcolm son of Cyneth, king of Scots' and Owain the Bald, King of Strathclyde over 'Huctred, son of Waldef, earl of the Northumbrians', as he was described by Symeon of Durham.






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The Battle of Carham was a battle between the Kingdom of Scotland
Kingdom of Scotland

The Kingdom of Scotland was a state in North-West Europe which existed from 843 until 1707. It occupied the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shared a Anglo-Scottish border to the south with the Kingdom of England, with which it was united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707, in 170...
 and the Northumbrians at Carham on Tweed
River Tweed

There are other rivers with this name: see Tweed RiverThe River Tweed flows primarily through the Scottish Borders region of England and Scotland....
 in 1018 or possibly 1016. It is also sometimes known as the Battle of Coldstream, from the town of Coldstream
Coldstream

Coldstream is a burgh in the Scottish Borders. It lies on the north bank of the River Tweed in Berwickshire, while Northumberland in England lies to the south bank....
. The battle was a victory for Máel Coluim II
Malcolm II of Scotland

M?el Coluim mac Cin?eda , known in modern anglicized regnal lists as Malcolm II , was King of the Scots from 1005 until his death. He was a son of Kenneth II of Scotland ; the Prophecy of Berch?n says that his mother was a woman of Leinster and refers to him as M?el Coluim Forranach, "the destroyer"....
 described as 'Malcolm son of Cyneth, king of Scots' and Owain the Bald, King of Strathclyde over 'Huctred, son of Waldef, earl of the Northumbrians', as he was described by Symeon of Durham. The battle is thought to have strengthened Scotland's hold on Lothian
Lothian

Lothian forms a traditional region of Scotland, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills.In Lothian there is Edinburgh City, West Lothian, Mid Lothian and East 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
Canute the Great

Canute the Great, also known as Cnut in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, or Knut was a Viking king of England, Denmark, Norway, and parts of Sweden ....
, King of England
Kingdom of England

The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a state in North-West Europe. The Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and a number of smaller outlying islands?what is today the legal unit of England and Wales....
, Denmark
Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries....
, and Norway
Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
, invaded Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 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
Viking

A Viking is one of the Norsemen explorers, warriors, merchants, and Piracy who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century....
 still held sway in Ross
Ross

Ross is a region of Scotland and a former mormaerdom, earldom, sheriffdom and Counties of Scotland. The name Ross allegedly derives from a Goidelic word meaning a headland - perhaps a reference to the Black Isle....
, Caithness
Caithness

Caithness is a registration county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland and historic Local government in Scotland of Scotland. The name was used also for the Earl of Caithness and the Caithness of the Parliament of the United Kingdom ....
, Sutherland
Sutherland

Sutherland is a registration county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland and historic administrative Counties of Scotland of Scotland. It is now within the Highland Council areas of Scotland....
 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'.