Such is the earliest account of the famous battle of Loncarty. There can be little doubt about its real occurrence, and it was fought probably upon the occasion of one of the earlier inroads of the Northmen at the most formidable epoch of their power. The recollection of a great victory gained upon this spot would long be preserved in the traditions of the surrounding neighbourhood, but for the circumstantial narrative embellishing the pages of Boece, that ingenious historian was probably indebted to the same sources from which he procured such accurate information about the elaborate machine for accomplishing the vengeance of Finella.[110] _Constantine the Third_ 995–997. _Kenneth the Third_ 997–1005. The assassination of Kenneth at Fettercairn raised Colin’s son Constantine to the throne of Scotland. The last inheritor of the blood of the second Constantine, his reign, like his father’s, was short and troubled, as he lost his life two years after his accession, in a vain attempt to resist the pretensions of Kenneth MacDuff.[111] [Sidenote: A. D. 997.] Upon the extinction of the Scottish branch of the “Clan Aodh MacKenneth,” the radical defect of the old system of succession was at once developed in the immediate division of the “Clan Constantine MacKenneth,”--hitherto united by a common enmity,--into two hostile “factions,” headed respectively by the grandsons of the first Malcolm. Nothing whatever is recorded of the reign of Kenneth the Third, sometimes known as Grim or Græme, a name supposed to signify the profession of great strength, or a certain sternness of character. The chronicles are silent beyond the barren facts of his accession and death, [Sidenote: A. D. 1005.] placing the latter at Monaghvaird in Strathearn, where his defeat eight years after his victory over Constantine raised his cousin Malcolm, the son of Kenneth the Second, to the vacant throne of Scotland.[112] _Malcolm the Second._ 1005–1034. In imitation apparently of the example of his father, Malcolm signalized his accession by one of those inroads upon Northumbria which point significantly to the gradual extension of the Scottish kingdom on her southern frontier. Borne down by the weight of years, Ealdorman Waltheof, shutting himself up within the walls of Bamborough, placidly let the storm sweep by; but his son Uchtred, who had married the daughter of the bishop, was neither of an age nor of a temperament to look quietly on while the broad lands he had received in dowry with his bride were wasted by the northern invaders. Summoning the men of Northumberland and Yorkshire to join his standard, he soon collected a numerous force, [Sidenote: A. D. 1006.] and suddenly attacking Malcolm before the gates of Durham drove him from the territory of St. Cuthbert.[113]