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Chapter 5
Good Kings, Bad Kings and a Saintly Queen (1034–1153)
In This Chapter
Looking at the Macbeth effect
Understanding Malcolm and Margaret
Reviewing the kings between Malcolm III and David I
Recognising the achievements of David I
In this chapter, I explain the shifting nature of kingship, from one based on the blood ties of the old Celtic society, to one based on landownership. In this new society, kings ruled in a different way. Men were tied to the king through the granting of land; in return, they pledged to serve the king and no other. The new system of rule was called
feudalism,
and it spread throughout the southern half of Scotland and into parts of the north. Feudalism was a top-down process, led by the monarch, and it affected all aspects of society, which became far more hierarchical and authoritarian. Nowhere were these changes more evident than in the Church, which became the agent of royal authority in Scotland. This led to the gradual decline of the world of the Gael and Gaelic as the language of the Scots.
Enter Macbeth, Stage Right: The End of the MacAlpin Dynasty?
The MacAlpin kings had ruled Scotland for more than 200 years, but all that came to an end through the actions of Mac Bethad mac Findláich of Moray (known as Macbeth). Macbeth defeated Duncan I, king of the Scots, in a battle at Pitgaveny, near Elgin in Moray, on 14 August 1040.
Before his defeat and death, Duncan had ruled the kingdom of Alba (as Scotland was known at the time) as the nominated heir of his grandfather, Malcolm II. Duncan’s reign was not a happy or long one. Crowned king on 30 November 1034, Duncan was never popular, and a number of poor decisions added to his troubles.
In 1038, Earl Eadulf of Northumbria raided Strathclyde. In 1039, in retaliation, Duncan embarked on a reckless invasion of the north of England. He laid siege to Durham but suffered a comprehensive defeat at the hands of the besieged and suffered a humiliating retreat.
Duncan also had his problems in the north of Scotland. Scottish kings were surrounded by a group of regional rulers, known as
mormaers
(earls). There was no system of
primogeniture
(eldest son inherits the throne); instead, it was a system of
tanistry,
in which the best person was selected to rule, regardless of where he stood in relation to the deceased king. The point is that tanistry created many potential candidates for the throne. Macbeth, as king of Moray, was one of them, and Duncan thought it would be a good idea to put an end to Macbeth’s claim by engaging in battle with him in 1040. It didn’t go so well for Duncan.
Shakespeare, in his play
Macbeth,
paints a picture of murder and treason, but I have to make a number of corrections to the Bard’s version of events:
Duncan was not murdered; he was killed in battle.
Duncan was not the old man depicted in the play; he was a young man of 25.
Far from being a murderer, Macbeth had equally strong claims to the throne of Alba as Duncan had:
Macbeth was of royal blood – a grandson of Ke
Macbeth was married to Gruoch, daughter of Boite, son of Ke
Duncan was a discredited warrior king.
Duncan’s sons went into exile when he was killed in battle – Malcolm to Northumbria and Domnall to the Hebrides. Macbeth was left without a rival.
Our views of Macbeth are highly coloured by Shakespeare’s play, in which he’s depicted as a man tormented by his demons and guilt over the murder of Duncan; manipulated by his ruthless consort, Lady Macbeth; and drawn to witchcraft and other dark arts. In Shakespeare’s eyes, Macbeth was a tyrant and a bully in public, but essentially a weak and vain individual in private.
Macbeth’s contemporaries never would have recognised this depiction of him. His rule lasted 17 years and was remembered by some as a time of peace and plenty for a number of reasons:
Macbeth brought peace by concluding a treaty with the Norse warrior king of Orkney and Caithness, Thorfi
Macbeth was so secure in his kingship that in 1050 he made a pilgrimage to Rome (the only reigning Scottish king to do so), a journey that took many months.
Macbeth gave generously to the Church. He was recorded as a benefactor of the monastic order the
Céli Dei
(Clients of God) of Loch Leven. He and his wife, Gruoch, granted estates in west Fife to the monastic order.
Macbeth was aware of developments in the wider world. In 1052, he took two Norman knights into his service – the first Scottish king to take such men.
But Macbeth’s line did not displace the MacAlpin Dynasty permanently. Duncan’s eldest son, Mael Coluim ‘Cean Mór’ (Great Chief), better known as Malcolm Canmore, backed by a powerful Northumbrian army, engaged Macbeth in a bloody battle on 27 July 1054 at Dunsinane, Perthshire (the only thing that Shakespeare got right!). Victory put Malcolm in control of Scotland south of the River Tay, which he used as a base to mount another challenge for power at Lumphanan, in Aberdeenshire, in August 1057. This time it proved fatal for Macbeth who was killed in battle.
Strangely enough, it wasn’t Malcolm who assumed the throne, but Macbeth’s stepson, Lulach, known variously as the ‘stupid’ or ‘unlucky’ one. But sadly for him, his reign lasted only eight months. Lulach was ambushed and killed by Malcolm on 17 March 1058 in Strathbogie, Aberdeenshire.
Malcolm and Margaret: The Ideal Couple?
The MacAlpins were back on the throne, but it was a different form of kingship, based less on an allegiance to the Celtic past and more inclined to look to England and France for political and cultural influences. This shouldn’t come as a surprise: Malcolm spent 14 years in exile at the court of Edward the Confessor, so something must have rubbed off on him.
Making Scotland more English
During Macbeth’s time on the throne, two Norman knights sought sanctuary in Scotland, but that trickle became a flood under Malcolm, helped by the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Malcolm provided lands and positions for his newfound Anglo-Norman friends. The Flemings (from Flanders), the Sinclairs (originally from Saint-Clair-sur-Epte in Normandy) and others were invited north of the border. But this wasn’t simply a process of resettling elite families; these groups spearheaded the introduction of feudalism in Scotland under Malcolm and his successors.
So, what was feudalism? In a
feudal
state, all the land is owned by the king, who has supreme authority. He delegates the land (a
fief
) and the authority that goes with it to a lesser person (the
vassal
). The vassal agrees to provide military service to the lord, and in return the lord provides protection to the vassal. In other words, you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours. Feudalism may have been a simple concept, but it was crucial in transforming tribal Celtic society into one that more closely resembled European culture.
Feudalism spread more easily in Lowland Scotland. In the remote western Highlands and islands, the old Celtic traditions based on bonds of kinship survived for many hundreds of years and were only gradually transformed under force of arms. In these areas, allegiance was to the clan chief and not to the king.
Making England more Scottish
Malcolm had military and territorial ambitions that lasted throughout his reign. His main desire was to a
A better opportunity came in 1066. Malcolm, along with Tostig, earl of Northumbria, the count of Flanders and the king of Norway, plotted to overthrow King Harold Godwinson of England and partition the country between them. Tostig and the king of Norway invaded, but they were defeated at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Malcolm had no part in it. Meanwhile, a more successful invasion was mounted by William the Conqueror, who defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings.
Malcolm got caught up in the English resistance. In 1068, he gave sanctuary to Edgar Ætheling (who was leading the English opposition to William) and his mother and two sisters, Margaret and Christina. Little did he know that encounter would prove to be momentous, not only for him personally but also for his kingdom (see the next section).
By Easter 1070, the English resistance was effectively broken. This allowed William the Conqueror to turn his attention to the Scottish king in a bid to halt Malcolm’s frequent raids into Northumbria. In 1072, an English army reached the Firth of Tay where Malcolm paid homage to William at Abernethy, near Dundee.
In medieval society,
homage
involved the vassal (in this case, Malcolm) pledging submission to his feudal lord (in this case, William). Symbolically, it was saying that Malcolm was William’s man and no other’s.
But Malcolm’s paying homage to William didn’t stop the raiding. By 1079, Malcolm was at it again, although this time he spared the land around Hexham out of reverence for local saints. William the Conqueror was getting more than a little a
There was a period of calm, but Malcolm’s obsession with Northumbria continued. In 1091, another raid was launched as far south as Durham. This action led to a series of tit-for-tat skirmishes and the illegal English takeover of Carlisle in 1092. To resolve their differences, a meeting was arranged between the two kings at Gloucester in August 1093. But when Malcolm arrived, the English king, William Rufus, refused to meet with him – it was a wasted journey.
Infuriated by this major insult, Malcolm immediately sought revenge. He raised an army with the intention of inflicting maximum damage on the north of England. But his actions were too impulsive. His fifth raid into England proved to be his last. North of Alnwick, Malcolm and his son Edward were ambushed by the earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, and killed on 13 November 1093. Malcolm was buried later that month at Tynemouth Priory.
Malcolm wasn’t a great i
Margaret and the soul of Scotland