Malcolm III of Scotland

Malcolm III
King of Alba (Scotland)
Reign17 March 1058 –
13 November 1093
Coronation25 April 1058?
Scone, Perth and Kinross
PredecessorLulach
SuccessorDonald III
Died(1093-11-13)13 November 1093
Alnmouth, Northumberland, England
Burial
El Escorial monastery, Madrid; formerly Dunfermline Abbey, though initially interred at Tynemouth Priory
Spouses
Issue
more...
HouseDunkeld
FatherDuncan I of Scotland
MotherSuthen

Malcolm III (Middle Irish: Máel Coluim mac Donnchada; Scottish Gaelic: Maol Chaluim mac Dhonnchaidh; c. 1031–13 November 1093) was King of Alba from 1058 to 1093. He was later nicknamed "Canmore" (Scottish Gaelic: ceann mòr, lit.'big head'", understood as "great chief").[1][2] Malcolm's long reign of 35 years preceded the beginning of the Scoto-Norman age. Henry I of England and Eustace III, Count of Boulogne were his sons-in-law, making him the maternal grandfather of Empress Matilda, William Adelin and Matilda I, Countess of Boulogne. All three of them were prominent in English politics during the 12th century.

Malcolm's kingdom did not extend over the full territory of modern Scotland: many of the islands and the land north of the River Oykel were Scandinavian, and south of the Firth of Forth there were numerous independent or semi-independent realms, including the kingdom of Strathclyde and Bamburgh, and it is not certain what if any power the Scots exerted there on Malcolm's accession.[3] Over the course of his reign Malcolm III led at least five invasions into English territory. One of Malcolm's primary achievements was to secure the position of the lineage that ruled Scotland until the late thirteenth century,[4] although his role as founder of a dynasty has more to do with the propaganda of his descendants than with history.[5] He appears as a major character in William Shakespeare's Macbeth,[6] while his second wife, Margaret, was canonised as a saint in the thirteenth century.

  1. ^ Magnusson, p. 61
  2. ^ Burton, Vol. 1, p. 350, states: "Malcolm the son of Duncan is known as Malcolm III, but still better perhaps by his characteristic name of Canmore, said to come from the Celtic "Cenn Mór", meaning "great chief"". It has also been argued recently that the real "Malcolm Canmore" was his great-grandson Malcolm IV of Scotland, who is given this name in the contemporary notice of his death. Duncan, pp. 51–52, 74–75; Oram, p. 17 note 1.
  3. ^ McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, pp. 16–41
  4. ^ The question of the name of his family is open. "House of Dunkeld" is all but unknown; "Canmore kings" and "Canmore dynasty" are not universally accepted, nor are Richard Oram's recent "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. McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, has recently used the term Clann Chrínáin, 'children of Crínán'.
  5. ^ Hammond, p. 21. The first genealogy known which traces descent from Malcolm, rather than from Kenneth MacAlpin (Cináed mac Ailpín) or Fergus Mór is dated to the reign of Alexander II. See Broun, pp. 195–200.
  6. ^ Cousins, The Shakespeare Encyclopedia: The Complete Guide (2009), p. 211