nicia stretching from the Cheviots to the Forth. In
Eadred's time the Scots had occupied Eadwinesburh (_Edinburgh_), the
northern border fortress of Bernicia (see p. 43), and after this the
land to the south of that fortress must have been difficult to defend
against them. It is therefore likely that the story is true that
Eadgar ceded Lothian to Kenneth, who was then king of the Scots,
especially as it would account for the peaceful character of his
reign. Kenneth in accepting the gift no doubt engaged to be faithful
to Eadgar, though it is impossible to say what was the exact nature of
his obligation. It is of more importance that a Celtic king ruled
thenceforward over an English people as well as over his own Celtic
Scots, and that ultimately his descendants became more English than
Celtic in character, through the attraction exercised upon them by
their English subjects.

3. =Changes in English Institutions.=--The long struggle with the
Danes could not fail to leave its mark upon English society. The
history of the changes which took place is difficult to trace; in the
first place because our information is scanty, in the second because
things happened in one part of the country which did not happen in
another. Yet there were two changes which were widely felt: the growth
of the king's authority, and the acceleration of the process which was
reducing to bondage the ceorl, or simple freeman.

4. =Growth of the King's Power.=--In the early days of the English
conquest the kings and other great men had around them their
war-bands, composed of gesiths or thegns, personally attached to
themselves, and ready, if need were, to die on their lord's behalf.
Very early these thegns were rewarded by grants of land on condition
of continuing military service. Every extension of the king's power
over fresh territory made their services more important. It had always
been difficult to bring together the fyrd, or general army of the
freemen, even of a small district, and it was quite impossible to
bring together the fyrd of a kingdom reaching from the Channel to the
Firth of Forth. AElfred's division of the fyrd into two parts, one to
fight and the other to stay at home, may have served when all the
fighting had to be done in the western part of Wessex. AEthelstan or
Eadmund could not possibly make even half of the men of Devonshire or
Essex fight in his battles north of the Humber. The kings therefore
had to rely more and more up