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- Name Suffix: King of Scotland
Malcolm III CANMORE (b. c. 1031--d. Nov. 13, 1093, near Alnwick,Northumberland, Eng.), king of Scotland from 1058 to 1093, founder of thedynasty that consolidated royal power in the Scottish kingdom.
The son of King Duncan I (reigned 1034-40), Malcolm lived in exile inEngland during part of the reign of his father's murderer, Macbeth(reigned 1040-57). Malcolm killed Macbeth in battle in 1057 and thenascended the throne. After the conquest of England by William theConqueror, in 1066, Malcolm gave refuge to the Anglo-Saxon prince Edgarthe Aetheling and his sisters, one of whom, Margaret (later St.Margaret), became his second wife.
Malcolm acknowledged the overlordship of William in 1072 but neverthelesssoon violated his feudal obligations and made five raids into England.During the last of these invasions he was killed by the forces of KingWilliam II Rufus (reigned 1087-1100). Except for a brief interval afterMalcolm's death, the Scottish throne remained in his family until thedeath of Queen Margaret, the Maid of Norway, in 1290. Of Malcolm's sixsons by Margaret, three succeeded to the throne: Edgar (reigned1097-1107), Alexander I (1107-24), and David I (1124-53). [EncyclopaediaBritannica CD '97]
According to Brian Tompsett, "interred at Escorial, Madrid, Spain."
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Many lists of Scottish kings begin with Malcolm III, even thoughhe wasthe fifty-eighth in line since Fergus established the kingdom of DalRiata in Argyll, and the twenty-second since Kenneth MacAlpin had unitedthe Scots and the Picts. The main reason for Malcolm's apparent statusis that under his rule Scotland shifted dramatically away from its Gaelicpast and moved towards the Anglo-Norman world of southern Britain.Malcom had been raised in the Anglo-Norman court of Edward theConfessor. When his father, Duncan had been killed in battle againstMacbeth in 1040, Malcolm, then a young boy of eight or nine, along withhis brother was hurriedly smuggled out of Scotland in fear of theirlives. After the deaths of Macbeth and his stepson. Lulach, Malcolm wascrowned as king of Scotland. His support was not total, with many,especially Higlanders, preferring their old ways and customs and notseeking to follow Malcolm. Nevertheless they accepted him as overlordbecause of his sheer physical power and menace. He was a swaggeringbully who rapidly earned the nickname of Canmore, or Bighead.
Malcolm began his reign by establishing alliances. Amongst his father'sformer enemies was Thorfinn, the earl of Orkney. It is not clear whenThorfinn died, but it is evident that he had not helped Macbeth in hisfight for the monarchy, not because he did no support Macbeth (they werehalf brothers and allies) but because he was probably already very ill.He may have died as early as 1057 and was almost certainly dead by 1060,when Malcolm married Thorfinn's widow, Ingibiorg, and established analliance with her sons Paul and Erlend who became the new earls ofOrkney. Ingibiorg bore Malcolm three children before she died, probablyaround 1069. Malcolm's alliance with Orkney brought him into closercontact with Harald Haadraada, the king of Norway, and overlord of Orkneyand the Western Isles. Malcolm was thus seen as an ally of Norway when,in 1066, Tostig, the brother of Harold Godwinson of Wessex, gainedHaadraada's support for an invasion of England. The invasion force landedfirst at Orkney and sailed down the eastern coast of Scotland to theHumber estuary. Malcolm's motives are uncertain in this campaign. Hewas clearly a Saxon sympathizer, but evidently not a supporter of HaroldGodwinson, whom he may have sen as a usurper in the south. His supportfor Tostig, who was nothing short of a rebellious thugn, does not seem awise choice and malcolm would have gained little from a Norse victorybeyond the possible annexation of Northumbria. He was more likely tohave become a vassal of the Norwegian king. However, as
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1031 - 1093 (62 years)