Máel Coluim mac Donnchada
(Malcolm III "Canmore") Máel Coluim mac Donnchada
(Malcolm III "Canmore")Malcolm III "Canmore" defeated king Mac Bethad mac Findláech (Macbeth) in battle in 1057, but did not succeed to the kingship until Macbeth's stepson king Lulach was killed in 1058. He was killed in battle by the Normans in England in 1093.
Date of Birth: Unknown
Place of Birth: Unknown
Date of Death: 13
November 1093 [ESSH 2: 52; SAEC 110]
Place of Death: England.
Father: Donnchad mac Crínáin (Duncan I), king of Scotland, d. 15 August 1040. [KKES 276, 284, 289]
Mother: Suthen (of Northumbria?) [KKES 284]
Spouses:
(1) (ca. 1065?) Ingibjorg Finnsdóttir, widow of Þorfinnr Sigurðarson (Thorfinn), jarl of Orkney. [OrkS 33 (p. 72); ESSH 2: 4] She is sometimes erroneously called the daughter of Thorfinn. [Spelling note: The "o" in Ingibjorg's name should be an "o-hook" (an "o" with a small right-facing hook attached at the bottom), but it is represented here as an ordinary "o" because many web browsers will not correctly display the desired letter.]
(2) (ca. 1070?) Margaret of England (St. Margaret), d. 1093. [ESSH 2: 23-30; SAEC 93-4]
See ESSH 1: 25-6 for a brief discussion of the chronology of Malcolm's two marriages. Dating the first marriage is complicated by the fact that the death date of Thorfinn of Orkney (ca. 1064?) is uncertain.
Children:
by Ingibjorg Finnsdóttir:
Duncan II, king of Scotland, d. 1094. [Stated by OrkS 33 (p. 72) to be Ingibjorg's son]
possibly by Ingibjorg Finnsdóttir:
Domnall (Donald), d. 1085. [AU; ESSH 2: 47, 160] Since he does not appear among
the known children of Malcolm and Margaret, and placing him as a
son of Margaret would be chronologically unlikely, it is usually
presumed that he was a son of Ingibjorg. However, it cannot be
ruled out that Donald was the son of an unknown earlier marriage.
Malcolm. Said to have witnessed
a charter of his brother Duncan II in 1094 [ESSH 2: 26]. SP 1: 2
stated that there was no positive proof for this son, but this
was before ESSH was published. The fact that it was rare at this
time to name a son after the father (among both the Scots and the
Anglo-Saxons) might be considered a nagative indicator, but not a
decisive one, as Malcolm could easily have been influenced by the
Normans in this regard, among whom naming a son after the father
was common. Assuming that the charter is genuine, there is no
good reason to doubt Malcolm's existence.
by Margaret of England:
A folio inserted in the Chronicle of Melrose, and the Chronicle
of the Canons of Huntingdon, are two sources which list all of
the children of Malcolm and Margaret [see ESSH 2: 25-9]. Numerous
other primary sources provide additional proof for each of these
children [see ESSH; SAEC; SP 1: 1-3]
Edward, d. 1093.
Edmund, prince of Cumbria.
Ethelred, earl of Fife and abbot of
Dunkeld.
Edgar, king of Scotland, d. 8 January
1106/7.
Alexander I, king of Scotland, d. 23
April 1124.
David I, king of Scotland, b. ca.
1080, d. 24 May 1153.
Matilda (Maud), d. 1 May 1118, m. 1100 Henry
I, king of England.
Mary, d. 31 May 1116, m. 1102 Eustace,
count of Boulogne.
AU = Seán Mac Airt and Gearóid Mac Niocaill, The Annals of Ulster (Dublin, 1983).
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.
SP = Paul et al., eds., The Scots Peerage (Edinburgh 1904-14).
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin