Malcolm III "Canmore"

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

Malcolm lived in a period with few written records. The main events of his reign appear in English and Irish chronicles, but many details, such as the date of his birth, the place of his exile and the exact date of Lulach's death, come from later Scottish chroniclers or differ between sources. Shakespeare's Macbeth has shaped the popular picture more than history has.

Son of a murdered king

established Malcolm was the eldest son of Duncan I, King of Scots. When Duncan was killed by Macbeth's forces in 1040, Malcolm was a boy of about nine. He was taken into exile, probably to England, where he may have spent time with Siward, Earl of Northumbria, or at the court of Edward the Confessor.

shared Sources disagree about his exile and his mother. One king-list names his mother as Suthen; other accounts differ. The place and length of his exile rest mostly on later chroniclers.

Killing Macbeth

established In 1054 Siward led an English army into Scotland, but Macbeth survived. Three years later, on 15 August 1057, Malcolm defeated and killed him at Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire. Macbeth's stepson Lulach was made king, but Malcolm killed him in 1058 and took the throne. He was probably inaugurated at Scone.

shared Sources give different dates for Lulach's death in 1058, including 17 March and 23 April.

established In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth dies at Dunsinane and Malcolm succeeds him at once. The real Macbeth reigned for 17 years and died three years after Siward's invasion, and Malcolm still had to defeat Lulach.

Two queens

shared Malcolm's first wife was Ingibiorg, of the family of the Earls of Orkney; sources describe her both as the widow and as the daughter of Earl Thorfinn. She was the mother of the future Duncan II.

established Around 1070 Malcolm married Margaret, sister of Edgar Ætheling, the English heir who had fled to Scotland after the Norman Conquest. Margaret was a great-niece of Edward the Confessor. She was devout and reforming: she corresponded with Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, and brought Benedictine monks to Dunfermline. They had eight children. Edgar, Alexander I and David I all became kings of Scots, and their daughter Matilda married Henry I of England.

Wars with England

established Malcolm invaded northern England five times, partly in support of his brother-in-law Edgar Ætheling's claim to the English throne. In 1072 William the Conqueror led an army into Scotland, and at Abernethy Malcolm made peace, gave hostages, including his son Duncan, and in the words of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle "became his man".

shared What the Abernethy agreement meant, and whether it made the King of Scots a vassal of the English crown, was argued over for centuries and cannot be settled from the surviving evidence.

Death at Alnwick

established In November 1093 Malcolm invaded Northumbria again. On 13 November he was ambushed near Alnwick by the men of Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria, and killed; his eldest son by Margaret, Edward, was mortally wounded. Margaret died at Edinburgh Castle three days later. Malcolm was first buried at Tynemouth Priory and later reburied at Dunfermline Abbey beside her.

The name "Canmore"

shared The byname "Canmore" comes from the Gaelic ceann mòr, literally "big head" and usually understood as "great chief". Some historians argue that it was first applied to his great-grandson Malcolm IV, who is called "Malcolm Canmore" in a contemporary notice of his death, and only later attached to Malcolm III.

• Malcolm's father, Duncan I, was killed by Macbeth's forces in 1040.
• Macbeth did not die at Dunsinane; Malcolm killed him at Lumphanan in 1057.
• Malcolm also killed Macbeth's stepson Lulach before becoming king.
• His second wife, Margaret, became a saint in 1249.
• Three of his sons by Margaret became kings of Scots.
• His daughter Matilda became Queen of England.
• He died in an ambush near Alnwick in 1093.
• "Canmore" may originally have been the nickname of his great-grandson Malcolm IV.

• Do not say Macbeth died at Dunsinane.
• Do not give Malcolm's exact birth date or exile as certain.
• Do not say the Abernethy agreement made Scotland a fief of England; its meaning is disputed.
• Do not treat "Canmore" as certainly a contemporary nickname for Malcolm III.