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Malcolm III of Scotland

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Máel Coluim (III) mac Donnchada
King of Scots
File:MalcolmIII.jpg
Reign1058–1093
Burial
Dunfermline Abbey
FatherDonnchad mac Crínáin
MotherSuthen

Máel Coluim mac Donnchada (anglicised Malcolm III) (1030x1038–13 November, 1093) was King of Scots. He was the eldest son of Donnchad mac Crínáin. While often known as Malcolm Canmore, the earliest epithet used for him is Long-Neck.[2] It appears that the real Malcolm Canmore was this Máel Coluim's great-grandson Máel Coluim IV.[3]

Máel Coluim's long reign, spanning five decades, did not mark the beginning of the Scoto-Norman age, nor can Máel Coluim's reign be seen as extending the authority of Alba's kings over the Scandinavian, Norse-Gael and Gaelic north and west of Scotland. The areas under the control of the Kings of Scots did not advance much beyond the limits set by Máel Coluim mac Cináeda until the 12th century and 13th century. Máel Coluim's main achievement is often thought to match that of Cináed mac Ailpín, in continuing a line which would rule Scotland for many years,[4] although his role as "founder of a dynasty" has more to do with the propaganda of his youngest son David, and his descendents, than with any historical reality.[5]

Young Máel Coluim

Máel Coluim's father was killed by Mac Bethad mac Findláich, near Elgin, on 15 August, 1040. Although William Shakespeare's Macbeth presents Máel Coluim as a grown man and his father as an old one, it appears that Donnchad was still young,[6] and Máel Coluim and his brother Domnall Bán were children.[7] Máel Coluim's family did attempt to overthrow Mac Bethad in 1045, but Máel Coluim's grandfather Crínán was killed in the attempt.[8]

John of Fordun's account, which is the original source of part at least of Shakespeare's version, claims that Donnchad was married to a niece of Siward, Earl of Northumbria,[9] but an earlier king-list gives her the Gaelic name Suthen.[10] Based on Fordun's account, it was assumed that Máel Coluim passed most of Mac Bethad's seventeen year reign in the Kingdom of England at the court of Edward the Confessor.[11] If Máel Coluim's mother took her sons into exile, either in 1040 or in 1045, she is likely to have gone north, to the court of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney, an enemy of Mac Bethad's family, the Mormaers of Moray, and perhaps Donnchad's kinsman by marriage.[12]

Mac Bethad's reign was troubled by an English invasion in 1046, without result, and again in 1054. The 1054 campaign, led by Siward, had as its goal the installation of Máel Coluim, "son of the King of the Cumbrians (i.e. of Strathclyde)". This Máel Coluim, who disappears from history after this brief mention, was confused with Máel Coluim mac Donnchada. However, Mac Bethad was not killed by the English in 1054, but by the Scots themselves, and three years later.[13]

Máel Coluim reappears in 1057, when various chroniclers report the death of Mac Bethad at Máel Coluim's hand, probably on 15 August, 1057, at Lumphanan, between Aboyne and Banchory.[14] Mac Bethad was succeeded by his step-son Lulach mac Gille Coemgáin, who was crowned at Scone, probably on 8 September, 1057. Lulach was killed by Máel Coluim, "by treachery", near Huntly on 23 April, 1058. After this, Máel Coluim became king, perhaps being inaugurated on 25 April, 1058, although only Marianus Scotus reports this.[15]

Máel Coluim and Ingibiorg

The kingdom of Alba which Máel Coluim ruled had been created over the previous century and a half, largely by the efforts of three kings, Causantín mac Áeda (900–943), Cináed mac Maíl Coluim (971–995) and Máel Coluim mac Cináeda (1005–1034), who had ruled the kingdom for almost a century.[16] By this time, one competing segment of the royal lineage, that of Causantín mac Áeda, appears to have been wiped out and a second segment, descended from Dub, brother of Cináed mac Maíl Coluim, appears to have given the struggle for the throne and accepted the Mormaerdom of Fife in compensation. The work of his predecessors ensured that Máel Coluim came to the throne with few rivals.[17] Perhaps only Lulach's son Máel Snechtai, King or Mormaer of Moray, combined royal blood and real power.

If Orderic Vitalis is to be relied upon, one of Máel Coluim's earliest actions as king may have been to visit the court of Edward the Confessor to arrange a marriage with the English king's grand-niece Margaret.[18] If such an agreement was made in 1059, it was not kept, and this may explain the Scots invasion of Northumbria in 1061 when Lindisfarne was plundered.[19] Equally, Máel Coluim's raids in Northumbria may have been related to the disputed "kingdom of the Cumbrians", where the kingdom of Strathclyde reestablished by Earl Siward in 1054 was reconquered by the Scots before 1070.[20]

The Orkneyinga saga reports that Máel Coluim married the widow of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Ingibiorg a daughter of Finn Arnesson.[21] Although Ingibiorg is generally assumed to have died before 1070, it is possible that she died around 1058, and was thus never Queen.[22] The Orkneyinga Saga tells us that Máel Coluim and Ingibiorg produced at least one son, Donnchad.[23] Some Medieval commentators, following William of Malmesbury, assumed Donnchad was illegitimate, which is no more than propaganda, probably reflecting the need of Máel Coluim's descendents by Margaret to undermine the claims of Donnchad's descendents, the Meic Uilleim.[24] Máel Coluim's son Domnall, although not mentioned by the author of the Orkneyinga Saga, is assumed to have been born to Ingibiorg.[25]

Máel Coluim's marriage to Ingibiorg may have secured him peace in the north.[26] The Heimskringla tells us that her father Finn had been an adviser to Harald Hardraade and, after falling out with Harald, was then made an earl by Sweyn Estridsson, King of Denmark, which may have been another recommendation for the match.[27] As a result, perhaps, he enjoyed a peaceful relationship with the Earldom of Orkney, ruled jointly by his step-sons, the Thorfinnssons Paul and Erlend. The Orkneyinga Saga reports strife with Norway but this is probably misplaced as it associates it with Magnus Bareleg, who became king in 1093, the year of Máel Coluim's death.[28]

Máel Coluim and Margaret

Although he had given sanctuary to Tostig Godwinsson when the Northubrians drove him out, Máel Coluim was not involved in the ill-fated invasion of England by Harald Hardraade and Tostig in 1066, which ended in defeat and death at Stamford Bridge. In 1068, he granted asylum to a group of English exiles fleeing from William of Normandy, among them Edward the Confessor's grand-nephew, and would-be king, Edgar Ætheling, Cospatrick of Northumbria and Edgar's mother Agatha and sisters Margaret and Cristina. The exiles were to be disappointed if they had expected immediate assistance from the Scots.[29]

In 1069 the exiles returned to England, to join a spreading revolt in the north. Even though Cospatrick and Siward's son Waltheof submitted by the end of the year, the arrival of a Danish army under Sweyn Estridsson ensured that William's position remained weak. Máel Coluim decided on war, and took his army south into Cumbria and across the Pennines, wasting Teesdale and Cleveland then marching north, loaded with loot, to Wearmouth. There Máel Coluim met Edgar and his family, who were invited to return with him, but did not. As Sweyn had by now been bought off with a large Danegeld, Máel Coluim took his army home. In reprisal, William sent Cospatrick to raid Scotland through Cumbria. In return, the Scots fleet raided the Northumbrian coast where Cospatrick's possession were concentrated.[30] Late in the year, perhaps shipwrecked on their way to a European exile, Edgar and his family again arrived in Scotland, this time to remain. By the end of 1070, Máel Coluim had married Edgar's sister Margaret, the future Saint Margaret.[31]

The naming of their children represented a break with the traditional king names such as Máel Coluim, Cináed and Áed. The point of naming Margaret's sons, Edward after her father Edward the Exile, Edmund for her grandfather Edmund Ironside, Ethelred for her great-grandfather Ethelred the Unready and Edgar for her great-great-grandfather Edgar the Peaceable was unlikely to be missed in England, where William of Normandy's grasp on power was far from secure.[32] Whether the adoption of the classical Alexander (for Pope Alexander II or Alexander the Great) and the biblical David represented a recognition that William of Normandy would not be easily removed, or was due to the repetition of West Saxon king names, another Edmund preceded Edgar, is not known.[33] Margaret also gave Máel Coluim two daughters, Edith, who married Henry I of England, and Mary, who married Eustace III of Boulogne.

In 1072, with the Harrying of the North completed and his position again secure, William of Normandy came north with an army and a fleet. Máel Coluim met William at Abernethy and, in the words of the English chroniclers "became his man" and handed over his eldest son Donnchad as a hostage and arranged peace between William and Edgar.[34] Accepting the overlordship of the king of the English was no novelty, previous kings had done so without result. The same was true of Máel Coluim; his agreement with the English king was followed by further raids into Northumbria, which led to further trouble in the earldom and the killing of William Walcher at Gateshead. In 1080, William sent his son Robert Curthose north with an army while his brother Odo punished the Northumbrians. Máel Coluim again made peace, and this time kept it for over a decade.[35]

Máel Coluim was fortunate that he appears to have faced little internal opposition. However, he does appear to have been in conflict, as might be anticipated, with Máel Snechtai mac Lulaich, the King or Mormaer of Moray. In a surprising entry, for the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle contains little on Scotland, it is said in the entry for 1078:

In this year Malcholom [Máel Coluim] seized the mother of Mælslæhtan [Máel Snechtai] ...and all his treasures, and his cattle; and he himself escaped [only] with difficulty. [... is missing in the original]

Whatever provoked this, Máel Snechtai himself survived until 1085, when his death is reported.[36] The same year, and in the following entry, Máel Coluim's son Domnall is said to have died "unhappily", that is to say, by violence.

Máel Coluim and William Rufus

When William Rufus became king of England after his father's death, Máel Coluim did not intervene in the rebellions by supporters of Robert Curthose which followed. In 1091, however, William Rufus confiscated Edgar Ætheling's lands in England, and Edgar fled north to Scotland. In May, Máel Coluim marched south, not to raid and take slaves and plunder, but to besiege Newcastle, built by Robert Curthose in 1080. This appears to have been an attempt to advance the frontier south from the River Tweed to the River Tees. The threat was enough to bring the English king back from Normandy, were he had been fighting Robert Curthose. In September, learning of William Rufus's approaching army, Máel Coluim withdrew north and the English followed. Unlike in 1072, Máel Coluim was prepared to fight, but a peace was arranged by Edgar Ætheling and Robert Curthose whereby Máel Coluim again acknowledged the overlordship of the English king.[37]

In 1092, the peace began to break down. Based on the supposition that the Scots controlled much of modern Cumbria, it had been supposed that William Rufus's new castle at Carlisle, and his settlement of English peasants in the surrounds, was the cause. However, it is unlikely that Máel Coluim did control Cumbria, and the dispute instead concerned the estates granted to Máel Coluim by William Rufus's father in 1072 for his maintenance when visiting England. Máel Coluim sent messengers to discuss the question and William Rufus agreed to a meeting. Máel Coluim travelled south to Gloucester, stopping at Wilton Abbey to visit his daughter Edith and sister-in-law Cristina. Máel Coluim arrived there on 24 August, 1093 to find that William Rufus refused to negotiate, insisting that the dispute be judged by the English barons. This Máel Coluim refused to do, and returned immediately to Scotland.[38]

It does not appear that William Rufus intended to provoke a war,[39] but, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports, war came:

For this reason therefore they parted with great dissatisfaction, and the King Malcolm returned to Scotland. And soon after he came home, he gathered his army, and came harrowing into England with more hostility than behoved him ...

Máel Coluim was accompanied by Edward, his eldest son by Margaret and probable heir-designate (or tánaiste).[40] Even by the standards of the time, the ravaging of Northumbria by the Scots was seen as harsh. While marching north again, Máel Coluim was ambushed by Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria, whose lands he had devastated, near Alnwick on 13 November, 1093. There he was killed by his god-sib Arkil Morel, steward of Bamburgh Castle.[41] Edward died in the same fight. Margaret, we are told, died soon after receiving the news of their deaths.[42] The Annals of Ulster say:

Mael Coluim son of Donnchad, over-king of Scotland, and Edward his son, were killed by the French i.e. in Inber Alda in England. His queen, Margaret, moreover, died of sorrow for him within nine days.[43]

Depictions in fiction

Malcolm's accession to the throne, as modified by tradition, is the climax of Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

He is featured in the Walt Disney animated television series Gargoyles under the name "Canmore". He was the third person to use the Hunter persona. His bloodline through his illigitimate son Donald continued to use the Hunter identity through the ages, seeking out gargoyles - specifically the immortal Demona.


Notes

  1. ^ Duncan, p. 42, takes Máel Coluim to be "at least two, possible as much as ten, years old"
  2. ^ Orkneyinga Saga, c. 33.
  3. ^ Duncan, pp. 51–52, 74–75; Oram, David I, p. 17, note 1. If it did refer to Máel Coluim IV, "Canmore" certainly a rendition of the Gaelic Ceann Mór (great chief) rather than Cenn Mór (big head), as sometimes thought.
  4. ^ The question of what to call this family is an open one. "House of Dunkeld" is all but unknown; "Canmore kings" and "Canmore dynasty" are not universally accepted, nor are Richard Oram's recent coinage "meic Maíl Coluim" or Michael Lynch's "MacMalcolm". For discussions and examples: Duncan, pp. 53–54; McDonald, Outlaws, p. 3; Barrow, Kingship and Unity, Appendix C; Reid. Broun discusses the question of identity at length.
  5. ^ Hammond, p. 21; the first genealogy known which traces descent from Máel Coluim, rather than from Cináed mac Ailpín or Fergus Mór, is dated to the reign of Alexander II, see Broun, pp. 195–200.
  6. ^ The notice of Donnchad's death in the Annals of Tigernach, s.a. 1040, says he was "slain... at an immature age"; Duncan, p.33.
  7. ^ Duncan, p. 33; Oram, David I, p. 18. There may have been a third brother if Máel Muire of Atholl was indeed a son of Donnchad. Oram, David I, p. 97, note 26, rejects the identification.
  8. ^ Duncan, p. 41; Annals of Ulster, s.a. 1045 ; Annals of Tigernach, s.a. 1045.
  9. ^ Fordun, IV, xliv.
  10. ^ Duncan, p. 37.
  11. ^ Barrell, p. 13; Barrow, Kingship and Unity,p. 25.
  12. ^ As will be seen, Máel Coluim developed ties to Orkney in later life. Thorfinn may have been a grandson of Máel Coluim mac Cináeda. For Orkney as the place of Máel Coluim's exile: Duncan, p. 42; Oram, David I, pp. 18–20.
  13. ^ Duncan, pp. 37–41; Oram, David I, pp.18–20.
  14. ^ The Prophecy of Berchán dissents, and has Mac Bethad wounded in battle and places his death at Scone.
  15. ^ Duncan, pp.50–51 discusses the dating. Anderson, ESSH reproduces the relevant chronicles; of the Irish annals, Tigernach and the Chronicon Scotorum report both deaths.
  16. ^ These kings were the successful or lucky ones, half of the kings between 858 and 1058 reigned for five years or less; McDonald, Kingdom of the Isles, p. 50.
  17. ^ The same had been true when his father became king; Duncan, pp. 33–34.
  18. ^ Duncan, p. 43.
  19. ^ Duncan, p. 43; Oram, David I, p. 21.
  20. ^ Oram, David I, p. 21.
  21. ^ Orkneyinga Saga, c. 33, Duncan, pp. 42–43.
  22. ^ Barrow, Kingship and Unity, p.29, writes that Máel Coluim was "evidently a widower" when he considered marriage to Margaret; see also Duncan, p. 42–43, possibly dating Ingibiorg's death to 1058 (c. 1085 at the top of p. 43 is evidently an error).
  23. ^ Orkneyinga Saga, c. 33.
  24. ^ Duncan, pp. 54–55; Broun, p. 196.
  25. ^ Duncan, p.55; Oram, David I, p. 23. Domnall's death is reported in the Annals of Ulster, s.a. 1085: "... Domnall son of Máel Coluim, king of Scotland, ... ended [his] life unhappily."
  26. ^ Oram, David I, pp. 22–23.
  27. ^ Saga of Harald Sigurðson, cc. 45ff; Saga of Magnus Erlingsson, c. 30.
  28. ^ Orkneyinga Saga, cc. 39–41.
  29. ^ Oram, David I, p. 23.
  30. ^ Duncan, pp. 44–45; Oram, David I, pp. 23–24.
  31. ^ Oram, David I, p. 24; Clancy, "St. Margaret", dates the marriage to 1072.
  32. ^ Máel Coluim's sons by Ingebjorg were probably expected to succeed to the kingdom of the Scots, Oram, David I, p.26.
  33. ^ Oram, p. 26.
  34. ^ Oram, pp. 30–31.
  35. ^ Oram, David I, p. 33.
  36. ^ It is reported amongst clerics and described as "happily", usually, but not certainly, a sign that the deceased had entered religion.
  37. ^ Oram, David I, p. 34–35.
  38. ^ Duncan, pp. 47–48; Oram, David I, pp. 35–36.
  39. ^ Oram, David I, pp.36–37.
  40. ^ Duncan, p. 54; Oram, David I, p. 42.
  41. ^ The Annals of Innisfallen say he "was slain with his son in an unguarded moment in battle".
  42. ^ Oram, pp.37–38.
  43. ^ The notice in the Annals of Innisfallen ends "and Margaréta his wife, died of grief for him."

References

  • Anderson, Alan Orr, Early Sources of Scottish History A.D 500–1286, volume 1. Reprinted with corrections. Paul Watkins, Stamford, 1990. ISBN 1-871615-03-8
  • Anon., Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney, tr. Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards. Penguin, London, 1978. ISBN 0-140-44383-5
  • Barrell, A.D.M. Medieval Scotland. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000. ISBN 0-521-58602-X
  • Clancy, Thomas Owen, "St. Margaret" in Michael Lynch (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Scottish History. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002. ISBN 0-19-211696-7
  • Barrow, G.W.S., Kingship and Unity: Scotland, 1000–1306. Reprinted, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1989. ISBN 0-7486-0104-X
  • Barrow, G.W.S., The Kingdom of the Scots. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2003. ISBN 0-7486-1803-1
  • Broun, Dauvit, The Irish Identity of the Kingdom of the Scots in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. Boydell, Woodbridge, 1999. ISBN 0-85115-375-5
  • Duncan, A.A.M., The Kingship of the Scots 842–1292: Succession and Independence. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2002. ISBN 0-7486-1626-8
  • John of Fordun, Chronicle of the Scottish Nation, ed. William Forbes Skene, tr. Felix J.H. Skene, 2 vols. Reprinted, Llanerch Press, Lampeter, 1993. ISBN 1-897853-05-X
  • Hammond, Matthew H., "Ethnicity and Writing of Medieval Scottish History", in The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 85, April, 2006, pp. 1-27
  • Reid, Norman, "Kings and Kingship: Canmore Dynasty" in Michael Lynch (ed.), op. cit.
  • Oram, Richard, David I: The King Who Made Scotland. Tempus, Stroud, 2004. ISBN 0-7524-2825-X
  • McDonald, R. Andrew, The Kingdom of the Isles: Scotland's Western Seaboard, c. 1100–c.1336. Tuckwell Press, East Linton, 1997. ISBN 1-898410-85-2
  • McDonald, R. Andrew, Outlaws of Medieval Scotland: Challenges to the Canmore Kings, 1058–1266. Tuckwell Press, East Linton, 2003. ISBN 1-86232-236-8
  • Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway, tr. Lee M. Hollander. Reprinted University of Texas Press, Austin, 1992. ISBN 0-292-73061-6
Preceded by King of Scots
1058–1093 		Succeeded by
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