Donnchad mac Crínáin (Duncan I)

King of Scotland (Alba), 1034-1040.

Duncan I succeeded his maternal grandfather Malcolm II as king in 1034, and was made famous in literature as the victim of Shakespeare's Macbeth, based on the historical king Mac Bethad mac Findláech, who killed Duncan in battle in 1040.

Date of Birth: Unknown
Place of Birth: Unknown

Date of Death: 15 August 1040 [ESSH 1: 579, citing the chronicle of Marianus Scottus (which gives the exact day); AU (which gives only the year)]
Place of Death: Bothnguane, Scotland (buried at Iona). [ESSH 1: 581; KKES 268ff.]

Father: Crínán, abbot of Dunkeld, d. 1045. [KKES 268, 276, 284, 288]

Mother: Bethóc of Scotland [KKES 268, 276, 284, 288]

Spouses: Suthen (of Northumbria?) (See the comments on her page for documentation.)

Children: (Only Malcolm is stated to have been by Suthen. See the comments on her page)

Máel Coluim mac Donnchada (Malcolm III "Canmore"), king of Scotland, d. 13 November 1093. [KKES 276, 284, 289]

Domnall Bán mac Donnchada (Donaldbane), blinded 1099, king of Scotland. [KKES 276, 284, 289]

See Commentary for possible additional child

Commentary

Possible additional son:

Máel Muire of Atholl. According to the Orkneyinga Saga, earl Madach (Maddad) of Atholl [see CP 1: 304] was the son of Máel Muire (Melmar), brother of Malcolm Canmore [OrkS 63 (p. 108)]. While the relationship is not impossible, the long chronology suggests caution. [See ESSH 2: 140, 182]

Bibliography

AU = Seán Mac Airt and Gearóid Mac Niocaill, The Annals of Ulster (Dublin, 1983).

CP = The Complete Peerage

ESSH = Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1922, reprinted Stamford, 1990). [Contains English translations of many of the primary records]

KKES = Marjorie Ogilvy Anderson, Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland (Edinburgh, Totowa, NJ, 1973).

OrkS = Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards, ed. & trans., Orkneyinga Saga (London, 1978). Citation is by chapter, with the page number in parentheses.

Compiled by Stewart Baldwin