Written by Harry Child
I am going to use a slightly unconventional structure in this article. Firstly, I intend to tell the tumultuous story of Scotland between 1093 and 1097, before then discussing why this was an apt end to eleventh-century Scotland in the ‘Concluding thoughts’ section.
The Catastrophe of Malcolm III
The year is 1093 and Malcolm III has entered his thirty-fifth year on the Scottish throne. He had won the kingship back in 1058, after defeating his cousin King Macbeth and Macbeth’s stepson, Lulach. He had successfully held the kingship for a long time now, and nobody had reason to doubt the continuation of this. However, it was not to be.
Trouble grew when Malcolm was snubbed by the English King, William II ‘Rufus’, who refused to meet with the Scottish King at Glastonbury. William claimed he would only meet when Malcolm gave a formal submission to him, giving William the status of the superior ruler on the British island. Malcolm could not agree to this: It would make him in essence William’s vassal, something which inevitably Malcolm did not want to concede. Malcolm then made a decision which would cost him his life. In October 1093, he decided to begin a Northumbrian invasion, on the back of William’s demand for submission: Malcolm and his supporters ravaged parts of Northern England before returning to Scotland. It was on his way back that he was caught at Alnwick by a group of Norman knights led by Earl Robert de Mowbray. The battle that ensued on November 13 was a catastrophe, with Malcolm losing. Worse though, was that Malcolm himself was killed by the Earl’s nephew.
As if it could not get worse, Malcolm had decided to take his eldest son by his wife, Queen Margaret, with him, Edward, who was believed to be his heir designate. Edward fared no better in the battle and was sent, just like his father, to the grave. Now both King and heir designate were dead, begging the question, who was going to succeed to the Scottish throne?
Uncle Vs. Nephew
A big problem was the Scottish succession practice. Primogeniture (where the eldest son succeeded their father) had not been firmly established at this time in Scotland, despite overtures made in this direction by Malcolm’s great-grandfather, Malcolm II. Indeed, there was a traditional practice of succession: tanistry, whereby the next King was selected from the fodder of the Royal family, usually alternating between the branches, allowing, for example, a brother to succeed a brother even if the brother had children. This conflict in succession practice was made worse by the death of Edward, as without the accepted heir designate, the old King had not expressed a preference for a successor from the living fodder, allowing this traditional succession practice to really come to the fore.
Despite Edward’s death, Malcolm left behind a great many sons. These were not only from Queen Margaret (Edmund, Edgar, Alexander and David), but also from his first wife, Queen Ingibiorg, who had birthed him at least one surviving son, Duncan. It was Ingibiorg’s death in 1069 that led to Malcolm deciding to get remarried, to Margaret. Duncan, therefore, was technically Malcolm’s oldest son; however, he had been in England since 1072, when he had been given by his father to King William the Conqueror as a hostage. Duncan had been freed in 1087 but had decided to stay in England – he probably felt more valued there, especially since William had knighted him and had generally kept him living in comfort, compared to his father who had used him to sort his problems out. This absence pronounced the difficulties with the primogeniture procedure, as the King’s eldest son was not around to be enthroned. This must have made tanistry seem ever more the logical option. This then opened an opportunity for someone from the wider family to claim the throne.
This was Malcolm’s brother, Donald Ban. Indeed many Scottish kings under the system of tanistry, had been succeeded by their brother, for example, the King usually described as the first King of Scotland, Kenneth I, was succeeded by his brother Donald I. Donald Ban received support for his claim to the throne from a significant number of the native Gaelic nobles, who, probably frustrated by now with all the English influence brought to Malcolm’s court after his marriage to Margaret, could well have wished to see the country return to its Gaelic predominance.
Donald purportedly began his bid for the Scottish throne by besieging the fortress of Edinburgh in early 1094, as this is where the sons of Malcolm and Margaret were sheltering, following the death of their mother there in late 1093. Indeed, on Castle Rock today there is a chapel that commemorates Queen Margaret which can still be visited. Due to this attack from Donald Ban, the sons were forced to flee, travelling South to the court of William Rufus in England. Donald had been successful in his bid for the throne and was now King Donald III.
One of Donald’s first acts was to banish the English from Scotland. Richard Oram makes the case that this was predominantly the English associated with Malcolm’s court and indicates that this could well be evidence of the ambition to return to Gaelic predominance in the royal court. Things were not going to be smooth sailing for Donald though.
Duncan, back in England, had been recognised now by William Rufus as King of Scotland, following his father’s death. This recognition was something Rufus had bestowed after Duncan made a pledge of fealty to him. By May 1094, Duncan had mustered a significant enough force to challenge his uncle and marched north. By the end of the month, he had successfully deposed Donald and installed himself as King Duncan II. Donald though, still lived.
Duncan did not see great support in Scotland for his rule, though. He faced an uprising very early on, led by loyalists of his uncle, which he managed to fend off. Duncan interpreted that the uprising was caused by the fact he had brought English aids back to Scotland, to the court, as it was in England where he had mustered most of his support. He consequently decided to try and recentre his rule around the native nobles, giving them more authority than the English he had brought with him. This however, left him vulnerable.
It is suggested that one of Malcolm’s sons by Queen Margaret, Edmund, began scheming with his uncle, Donald, to remove Duncan. In return for his help in re-establishing Donald, Edmund wanted part of Scotland to rule himself. Making use of Duncan’s vulnerability, a second uprising ensued, and Duncan was deposed and killed (by a Gaelic noble, the Earl of Mearns) at Mondynes. Donald was once again King.
Uncle Vs. Another Nephew
This time though, Donald had enough time to show his true colours – that he was fundamentally a bad king. Alasdair Ross indicates that Donald quite possibly failed to stop the Vikings, led by the King of Norway, Magnus Barelegs (a brilliant name!), from raiding parts of the Scottish coast. This may have led to some of the prominent lords in Scotland to switch their allegiance and support a better candidate – one that might be able to depose Donald, and would reward them for their support.
This better candidate was another of Malcolm’s sons by Margaret, Edgar, whom by 1095 had seemingly managed to take the Lothian area, with the support of William Rufus. Ross indicates that Edgar granted lands in Lothian to Durham cathedral by charter in 1095. In this, Ross highlights, that Edgar claims to control Lothian, and that the notable Scottish lord, Constantine Earl of Fife was a witness to the charter – perhaps he was one of these nobles who might have defected on account of Donald’s poor kingship.
Lothian gave Edgar a powerbase to launch an invasion of Scotland and this occurred in October 1097, when aided by his maternal uncle (named Edgar Aetheling) and the English King, Edgar entered Scotland. Edgar was successful in his incursion, managing to depose and capture Donald, bringing an end to his second reign. Edgar was now the King and Oram makes a good point that with both Duncan and Donald removed, at this particular moment, Edgar had no real contenders for the throne, as such bringing this era of tumults to a close. Donald himself was purported to have been blinded and imprisoned likely in Roscobie in Angus by Edgar, subsequently dying in 1099, following mutilation after he was implicated in a plot to overthrow Edgar.
Concluding Thoughts
What is evident from this story is that the eleventh century in Scotland ended tumultuously: many claimants and Kings perishing in very quick succession. Really, this was an apt end to a century which began in violence and tumults. Between 995 and 1005, Scotland saw the succession of three Kings: Constantine III, Kenneth III and Malcolm II, as they vied for the throne, Constantine was killed by Kenneth in 997, Kenneth was then killed by Malcolm in 1005. This seems, at least at a very simplistic level, familiar to the fighting for the throne seen in this article and as such the Eleventh Century seems to have come full circle, ending very much as it began. This, therefore, making this tumultuous end very apt for such a century.
If you are interested to learn more about Scotland 1093-1097, both Richard Oram’s (‘Domination and Lordship’) and Alasdair Ross’s work, as can be seen in the bibliography, give fantastic accounts of this era.
Bibliography
Cannon, John. ‘Constantine III’, in A Dictionary of British History, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), retrieved from: https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199550371.001.0001/acref-9780199550371-e-887 [Last Accessed: 03/04/2025].
Giles, John Allen. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, (London: G Bell and Sons Ltd., 1914), 166-173.
‘Malcolm III, King of Scots 1034-1093’, BBC: Scotland’s History, (2014), retrieved from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/malcolm_iii/ [Last Accessed: 03/04/2025].
Oram, Richard. David I The King Who Made Scotland, (Gloucestershire: Tempus, 2004).
Oram, Richard. Domination and Lordship Scotland 1070-1230, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011).
Ross, Alasdair. The Kings of Alba, c.1000-c.1130, (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2011).
Stevenson, J. H. ‘The Law of the Throne: Tanistry and the Introduction of the Law of Primogeniture: A Note on the Succession of the Kings of Scotland from Kenneth MacAlpin to Robert Bruce’, in The Scottish Historical Review, 25:97, (1927), 1-12.
Woolf, Alex. From Pictland to Alba 789-1070, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007).
Featured image credit: “Malcolm III and Queen Margaret from the Seton Armorial, 1591” by Unknown authorUnknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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