Scotland 1034-1093

Duncan I
If it is possible to speak of a degree of unity in 1034 within a large part of modern Scotland, the succession was, as before, a problem. Malcolm II, 'the honour of all the west of Europe' as he was described, had arranged that his grandson, Duncan, should succeed him. Malcolm had broken radically with tradition; the succession had hitherto passed from king to brother or cousin, never to son, let alone grandson. Moreover, Duncan had succeeded through his mother and with one exception, in 878 when Eochaid became king after Aed (Constantine It's father) such a situation had not existed since Fergus came to Argyll to create the kingdom of Alba. Malcolm was ruthless in his plan to guarantee Duncan's succession, not merely ignoring the custom of 'tanistry', that is, succession by cousinage, but killing anyone who might prevent the realisation of his plan. The descendant of one such victim, Gruoch, became the second wife of Macbeth, the mormaer, most easily if not entirely accurately rendered as earl, of Moray. Malcolm thus left to his grandson both a kingdom and the certainty of a feud with Macbeth and Gruoch. Duncan was an ineffectual king. His failure to capture Durham in 1039 led to his return to Scotland, chastened and with his authority weakened. Macbeth killed him in 1040 and ruled for 17 years.

Macbeth
Macbeth appears to have been a good king, active and conscientious, if not always able to hold on to the whole of the territory he had gained through the murder of Duncan. He lost Cumbria to Siward of Northumbria, with whom one of Duncan's sons, Malcolm 'Canmore', that is Bighead or Great Chief, was able to find refuge. Macbeth had made an error, after killing Duncan, in sparing both Malcolm and his brother, Donald Bane. Malcolm in Shakepeare's play has the assistance of Siward in the defeat of Macbeth. Siward was, in reality, already dead when, in 1057, Malcolm defeated and killed Macbeth at Lumphanan in Aberdeen, between the Dee and the Don. Lumphanan was the second occasion on which Malcolm had defeated Macbeth. Three years before he had driven him out of the Lothians but Macbeth escaped to the north, to recoup his forces.

Malcolm III, ' Canmore'
Macbeth's step-son, Lulach, to whom he was devoted, appears to have reigned briefly after Lumphanan but he, too, was killed by Malcolm. In this bloody but traditional manner, Malcolm came into his inheritance. He was crowned king on 25 April 1058. On 14 October 1066, William, duke of Normandy, defeated and killed Harold king of England at the Battle of Hastings. William made himself master of England with an amazing rapidity and in time brought his formidable talents to bear on Malcolm III. A more immediate consequence of the Norman Conquest for Scotland, however, was the appearance at Malcolm's court of a refugee from William, Edgar the Atheling or 'Prince'. He was the great-nephew of Edward the Confessor and thus the strongest hereditary claimant to the English throne when Edward died early in 1066, but was unable then to make himself king. With the Atheling was his sister, Margaret, whom Malcolm married in either 1069 or 1070. The marriage was happy and fruitful; they had six sons and two daughters. Of the sons, the fourth, Edgar, the fifth, Alexander, and the sixth, David, all became kings. A daughter, Matilda, married Henry I of England. If the marriage of Malcolm and Margaret created a dynasty, it also embroiled Malcolm with William I of England. Malcolm saw in the unsettled state of England in the first years after the Battle of Hastings, an opening which might allow him, to extend his territory southwards. He was not, however, to achieve lasting gains and on the five occasions he invaded the north of England he only brought retribution upon himself and his kingdom. His first invasion in 1070 was followed by a counter-invasion two years later by William. Malcolm offered little resistance to William who, supported by a fleet, moved easily northwards to Abernethy in Perthshire. There, Malcolm submitted to him and gave him Duncan, his son by his first marriage to Ingijbord, as a hostage. Duncan did not forget or forgive Malcolm's treatment of him and when he returned to Scotland in 1094 it was as the enemy of Malcolm's successor. Shortly afterwards, Edgar the Atheling was expelled from Malcolm's court and made his way to Flanders.

The departure of Edgar, on whose behalf Malcolm may have claimed to act in invading England, did not stop the Scottish king from further, futile descents on the north of England. In 1091 he again submitted to an English king, this time William II. But he was prudent; he saw to it that his acknowledgement of overlordship did not prejudice the independence of Scotland. When Malcolm died, in 1093, he was once more engaged in an invasion of England during which he was killed outside Ainwick. The reign of Malcolm III was not entirely given over to war. The influence upon him of his second wife, Margaret, was considerable. They acted together in many areas of government. Her biographer and former confessor, Turgot, prior of Durham and latterly bishop of St Andrews, himself an important figure in the Church in Scotland, tells us that at one Council Malcolm interpreted for his wife who knew no Gaelic. Margaret was vigorous in her attempts to reform and improve the Church in Scotland to bring it in line with general practice. By her invitation to members of the Benedictine order to found a priory at Dunfermline the queen helped to usher in an era of monastic foundations. The marriage of Malcolm and Margaret joined a king who sought territory and glory to a queen dedicated to the Church. Malcolm largely failed in his self-appointed task and the reaction of the Normans to his invasions was to push their own territory towards the Solway and the Tyne. The castles which they built at Carlisle and Newcastle marked limits beyond which Malcolm's successors could not realistically hope to penetrate for long. Margaret could not divert her husband from his dreams of conquest but sought instead to make of Scotland a kingdom not merely accepting current religious practices but linked with the modern world which England under the Normans represented. Margaret died within four days of her husband in November 1093.

This article is based on material taken from A Traveller's History of Scotland (© Andrew Fisher), published by The Windrush Press, and is by kind permission of its author Andrew Fisher.