Malcolm III (; ; died 13 November 1093) was King of Alba (Scotland) from 1058 to 1093. He was later nicknamed "Canmore" (, , understood as "great chief").Magnusson, p. 61Burton, 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. Malcolm's long reign of 35 years preceded the beginning of the Scoto-Norman age.
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.McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, pp. 16–41 Throughout 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 would rule Scotland until the late thirteenth century.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. McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, has recently used the term Clann Chrínáin, 'children of Crínán'.Hammond, p. 21. The first genealogy known that 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. He appears as a major character in William Shakespeare's Macbeth,Cousins, The Shakespeare Encyclopedia: The Complete Guide (2009), p. 211 His second wife, Margaret, was canonised as a saint in the thirteenth century.
Background
Malcolm's father Duncan I became king in late 1034, on the death of Malcolm II, Duncan's maternal grandfather and Malcolm's great-grandfather. One Scottish king-list gives Malcolm's mother the name Suthen (Suthain), a Gaelic name;McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, p. 99; Duncan, p. 37; M.O. Anderson, p. 284. John of Fordun states that Malcolm's mother was a "blood relative" (consanguinea) of the Danish earl Siward,McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, p. 99.Young also gives her as a niece of Siward. Young, p. 30. though this may be a late attempt to deepen the Scottish royal family's links to the earldom of Northampton (of which Siward was regarded as founder). Later tradition, attested by the fifteenth century, makes Malcolm's mother the daughter of the miller of Forteviot and presents Malcolm as a bastard.McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, p. 101; Purdie, 'Malcolm, Margaret, Macbeth and the Miller', pp. 45–63.
Duncan's reign ended violently; he was killed in battle in Moray on 15 August 1040, by a force under the command of Macbeth. Duncan may have been young at the time of his death,The notice of Duncan's death in the Annals of Tigernach, s.a. 1040, says he was "slain ... at an immature age"; Duncan, p. 33. and Malcolm and his brother Donald were probably children.Duncan, p. 33; Oram, David I, p. 18. There may have been a third brother if Máel Muire of Atholl was a son of Duncan. Oram, David I, p. 97 note 26, rejects this identification. Malcolm's paternal grandfather was killed in battle in 1045, possibly as part of some continuing conflict with Macbeth.Duncan, p. 41; Annals of Ulster, s.a. 1045; Annals of Tigernach, s.a. 1045.
According to later tradition, Duncan's two young sons were sent away for greater safety — exactly where is the subject of debate. According to one version, Malcolm's brother Donald was sent to the Isles;Ritchie, p. 3Young, p. 30 and Malcolm was sent to England; based on Fordun's account, it came to be assumed that Malcolm passed most of Macbeth's seventeen-year reign in the Kingdom of England at the court of Edward the Confessor.Barrell, p. 13; Barrow, Kingship and Unity, p. 25.Ritchie, p. 3, states that it was fourteen years of exile, partly spent at Edward's Court. It is also possible that Malcolm went into exile at the court of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney, an enemy of Macbeth's family;Duncan, p. 42; Oram, David I, pp. 18–20. Malcolm had ties to Orkney in later life. Earl Thorfinn may have been a grandson of Malcolm II and thus Malcolm's cousin. Ireland and Strathclyde may be other possible locations. But neither the place of exile, nor the fact of exile itself, are certainties.McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, pp. 123–132
An English invasion in 1054, with Siward, Earl of Northumbria in command, had as its goal the installation of one "Máel Coluim, son of the king of the Cumbrians". This Máel Coluim was traditionally identified with the later Malcolm III.See, for instance, Ritchie, Normans, p. 5; or Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 570; Ritchie, p. 5, states that Duncan placed his son, the future Malcolm III of Scotland, in possession of Cumbria as its Prince, and states that Siward invaded Scotland in 1054 to restore him to the Scottish throne. Hector Boece also says this (vol. XII p. 249), as does Young, p. 30. The interpretation derives from the Chronicle attributed to John of Fordun, as well as from earlier sources such as William of Malmesbury.Broun, "Identity of the Kingdom", pp. 133–134; Duncan, Kingship, p. 40 The latter reported that Macbeth was killed in the battle by Siward, but it is known that Macbeth outlived Siward by two years.Oram, David I, p. 29 A.A.M. Duncan argued in 2002 that, using the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry as their source, later writers innocently misidentified "Máel Coluim" with the later Scottish king of the same name.Duncan, Kingship, pp. 37–41 A.A.M. Duncan's argument has been supported by several subsequent historians specialising in the era, such as Richard Oram, Dauvit Broun and Alex Woolf.Broun, "Identity of the Kingdom", p. 134; Oram, David I, pp. 18–20; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 262 It has also been suggested that Máel Coluim may have been a son of Owain Foel, British King of StrathclydeDuncan, Kingship of the Scots, p. 41 perhaps by a daughter of Malcolm II, King of Scotland.Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 262
In 1057, various chroniclers report the death of Macbeth, at Malcolm's hand on 15 August 1057 at Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire.Ritchie, p. 7Anderson, ESSH, pp. 600–602; The Prophecy of Berchán has Macbeth wounded in battle and places his death at Scone. Macbeth was succeeded by his stepson Lulach, who was crowned at Scone, probably on 8 September 1057. Lulach was killed by Malcolm, "by treachery",According to the Annals of Tigernach; the Annals of Ulster say Lulach was killed in battle against Malcolm; see Anderson, ESSH, pp. 603–604. near Huntly on 23 April 1058. After this, Malcolm became king, perhaps inaugurated on 25 April 1058, although only John of Fordun reports this.Duncan, pp. 50–51 discusses the dating of these events.
Early reign If Orderic Vitalis is to be relied upon, in the time of Edward the Confessor, Malcolm was betrothed to the English king's kinswoman Margaret, and it is possible this happened when he visited England in 1059.Duncan, p. 43; Ritchie, pp. 7–8. If a marriage agreement was made in 1059, it did not stop the Scots from plundering Lindisfarne in 1061.Duncan, p. 43; Oram, David I, p. 21. It was common practice in medieval Gaelic-speaking societies for kings to launch an invasion, the so-called crech ríg, of a neighbour soon after taking power, and the Lindisfarne raid may have been used to boost the stability of the new regime.McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, pp. 146, 213–219 Since the invasion affected directly only the territory of the rulers of Bamburgh, it is unlikely to have particularly bothered either King Edward or the ealdorman of Northumbria in York, Tostig Godwinson, who at that time on pilgrimage to Rome and who did not enjoy a good relationship with the Bamburgh family.McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, pp. 213–219. Malcolm may have had specific political motives. For instance, it has been suggested that he may have been trying to advance the position of Gospatric, his possible cousin, at the expense of the ruling Eadwulfing family.McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, pp. 218–219. It has also been suggested that the raid may have been part of a dispute about the status of Strathclyde.Oram, David I, p. 21.
A tradition in the thirteenth-century Orkneyinga saga related that Malcolm married the widow of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Ingibiorg, a daughter of Finn Arnesson.Orkneyinga Saga, p. 33, Duncan, pp. 42–43. Ingibiorg may have died before Malcolm's marriage to Margaret.See Duncan, pp. 42–43, dating Ingibiorg's death to 1058. Oram, David I, pp. 22–23, dates the marriage of Malcolm and Ingibiorg to c. 1065. Malcolm may also have discarded Ingibiorg when the opportunity to marry a higher-status lady arose in 1068.McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, pp. 392–393. The Orkneyinga Saga also claimed that Duncan (Donnchad mac Maíl Coluim), later king, was a product of this union. Some Medieval commentators, following William of Malmesbury, claimed that Duncan was illegitimate. Still, this claim is propaganda reflecting the need of Malcolm and Margaret's descendants to undermine the claims of Duncan's descendants, the MacWilliams.Duncan, pp. 54–55; Broun, p. 196; Anderson, SAEC, pp. 117–119. Similarly, however, the importance of the MacWilliams to the earls of Orkney around 1200 would have provided an incentive to strengthen the historical ties between the two families, thus Ingibiorg's marriage to Malcolm may have been created to fabricate common descent.McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, p. 392, suggests this possibility but remains neutral.
The obituary of a certain Domnall, another son of Malcolm, is reported in 1085; since Domnall has no recorded mother, he may also have been born to IngibiorgDuncan, 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 Alba, ... ended [his] life unhappily." However, it is uncertain that Domnall's father was this Máel Coluim. M.O. Anderson, ESSH, corrigenda p. xxi, presumes Domnall to have been a son of Máel Coluim mac Maíl Brigti, King or Mormaer of Moray, who is called "king of Scotland" in his obituary in 1029. or else to some other unrecorded woman.McGuigan, Máel Coluim III, p. 391. If historical, Malcolm's marriage to Ingibiorg would have helped create a favourable political position in the north and west. The Heimskringla tells that her father Finn had been an adviser to Harald Hardrada, king of Norway, 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.Saga of Harald Sigurðson, p. 45ff; Saga of Magnus Erlingsson, p. 30. See also Oram, David I, pp. 22–23. Malcolm appears to have enjoyed a peaceful relationship with the Earldom of Orkney, ruled jointly by his possible stepsons, Paul and Erlend Thorfinnsson. The Orkneyinga Saga reports strife with Norway, but this may be misplaced as it associates this with Magnus Barefoot, who became king of Norway only in 1093, the year of Malcolm's death.Orkneyinga Saga, pp. 39–41; McDonald, Kingdom of the Isles, pp. 34–37.