Lords of Alba

by Ian W. Walker

  In the period between 1066 and 1074 a large number of refugees had arrived in Scotland from England. They ranged from major leaders, such as Edgar Atheling, Earl Gospatric, Earl Waltheof, Bishop Aethelwine, Marleswein and Siward Barn, right down to ordinary people fleeing Norman oppression or taken captive on Scottish raids. A large number of these refugees were only seeking temporary refuge in Scotland and subsequently moved on, but many remained permanently. The ones who remained were often unable to return home to a Norman-dominated England for one reason or another. The most important of these was Edgar Atheling, who frequently sought refuge in Scotland but who ultimately became a peripatetic figure travelling widely in north-west Europe and the Mediterranean. Earl Gospatric intermittently sought refuge in Scotland and Flanders before finally returning to Scotland to receive the earldom of Dunbar and to found a dynasty. Bishop Aethelwine of Durham took refuge in Scotland but returned to England to captivity and death in 1071. The clerk Thurgot of Durham apparently arrived in the household of Queen Margaret and went on to become Bishop of St Andrews. Marleswein fled to Scotland following the failure of the Northumbrian uprisings and apparently settled there. Eadwulf Rus would flee to Scotland after the killing of Bishop Walcher of Durham in 1080 and was subsequently buried at Jedburgh. The many ordinary refugees may have been unable or unwilling to return to devastated or appropriated lands. They may have been granted new lands, possibly in Lothian, by the Scottish King. The poor captives had no choice in the matter but according to The History of the Kings were settled as slaves all across Scotland. This influx of English speakers must have reinforced the English identity of Lothian and other lowland areas of Scotland.

  In 1077 King Malcolm had been free of political entanglements in the south for three years and was therefore able to turn his attention to Moray in the north. Maelsnechtai, the son of Lulach, Malcolm’s old rival for the kingship, was in his twenties at the very least by now and so old enough to claim the throne of Alba. He was a member of the MacDuff lineage and the son of a king. He therefore represented a clear threat to Malcolm’s position and that of his entire family. If he managed to impose his claim, which was by no means an unlikely event, he could effectively end Malcolm’s hopes for expanding Scottish territory or advancing a claim to the English throne. This was a threat that could not be ignored and Malcolm did not ignore it. In 1077 he launched a surprise attack on Moray which appears to have caught Maelsnechtai completely unawares. The man himself managed to escape the trap but Malcolm succeeded in capturing his mother, his key supporters, his treasure and his cattle. The last were a major element in the wealth of the upland pastoral communities of Alba, as in Ireland. This dramatic coup must have effectively crippled Maelsnechtai for some time thereafter. He would find it difficult to pursue his claim without his key supporters and without wealth to secure allies.

  This raid on Moray is recorded in the ‘D’ version of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which had a northern origin and records a number of other Scottish events. The Scottish entries are usually connected with the exiled English royal family and its activities. The Chronicle otherwise shows no interest in Scottish events unrelated to Queen Margaret’s family. The entry for 1077, however, is unique and appears to have more in common with entries in the contemporary Irish annals than with anything found in this English source. It has no connection with England and is not comparable with other Scottish references, which are connected with the English royal family. The original manuscript version of the entry also contains a number of gaps. It is almost as though the writer were unable to read or fully understand his source material and left space for it to be completed later but never returned to it. Is it possible that the compiler was making use of a Gaelic source here? If so, he perhaps had problems with the text or its translation and so left gaps. If we had the full entry or knew where it had originated, it might tell us a lot about the background to the compilation of the ‘D’ version of the Chronicle, which shows such an interest in Scottish affairs.

  The success in Moray might possibly have provided Malcolm with the opportunity to intrude his own men into this area. It had been a policy pursued by his great-grandfather and namesake, Malcolm II when he sponsored Macbeth in the 1030s. This is a hypothesis that might explain one of the mysteries of later Scottish history. The MacHeth dynasty reappeared in the twelfth century as rivals of the kings with a base in Ross. They were descendants of the royal lineage of Aed from the tenth century. They may possibly have been intruded into Ross by Malcolm after his victory over Maelsnechtai of Moray in 1077. They were perhaps originally placed there to monitor and subdue the region but, like Macbeth before them, chose instead to adopt their own independent line. In the twelfth century, following the final elimination of the Moray dynasty, they would revive their ancient claim and rise up to challenge Malcolm’s descendants for the kingship of Alba itself.

  In 1079 King Malcolm chose to exploit tensions between King William and his eldest son Robert to resume his raids on England. He may possibly have used this opportunity to test the waters for resurrecting his plans to seize control of Northumbria. He invaded England with a great army at some point between 15 August and 8 September. He ravaged Northumbria as far as the Tyne, killing many hundreds of people and taking much treasure and many captives. It appears that Malcolm was almost unopposed and it seems likely that he was accompanied by Earl Gospatric I of Dunbar or his son, who would have had the advantage of invaluable local knowledge. The Earl of Northumbria at the time was Bishop Walcher of Durham, who signally failed to protect the area from the raiders. Indeed, it seems probable that the subsequent murder of Walcher on 14 May 1080 by the Northumbrians was due to his ineffectual performance in 1079. Eadwulf Rus, the man most implicated in the murder of Walcher subsequently fled to Scotland. King William clearly could not ignore these twin disasters and sent his newly reconciled son Robert to invade Scotland. The latter managed to advance as far as Falkirk, ‘which he reached without accomplishing anything’, according to The History of the Kings. On his return in the autumn, Robert built a castle at Newcastle on the Tyne. This was probably a less successful invasion than that of five years earlier and the parties probably chose to make peace at an earlier stage.

  In 1085 a couple of important deaths probably caused Malcolm to review the royal succession in Alba. The Annals of Ulster report that Maelsnechtai died of natural causes with no further elaboration. The surviving sources provide no information about his career after his defeat by Malcolm in 1077. This death appears to have removed the only adult rival from the MacDuff lineage who could possibly challenge the succession of Malcolm’s sons. This undoubtedly improved the prospects of the succession falling to his sons without dispute. The Ulster annalist also reports the unnatural death of a man called Donald, son of Malcolm but once again provides no further details. He was presumably a son of King Malcolm by an earlier marriage and possibly a full brother of the Duncan taken hostage by King William in 1072 and still held in Normandy. If this assumption is correct, it seems likely that the death of this Donald removed an obstacle to the succession of Edward, the son of Malcolm and Margaret. It was probably now that King Malcolm formally indicated that Edward would be heir presumptive to the Scottish throne.

  In 1087 William, King of England and Duke of Normandy, died in France and his dominions were divided by his sons. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert as Duke of Normandy and by his second son, William as King of England. The two brothers quickly showed themselves to be rivals for control of their father’s legacy and a fierce struggle for supremacy soon commenced that lasted for many years. Robert, Duke of Normandy quickly released Duncan, eldest son of Malcolm from his long captivity in Normandy. He had no reason to keep Duncan imprisoned since he had no border with Malcolm and no interest in holding a hostage to ensure his good behaviour. In fact, he had reason to consider King Malcolm a potential ally against his brother William II, King of England. The newly released Duncan apparently chose to remain with Robert in Normandy
rather than return to Scotland. It seems that his long sojourn in Norman custody had persuaded Duncan of the merits of Norman culture and society. He had perhaps been influenced by contact with Norman culture in the same way as his exiled father had earlier been influenced by English culture. If King Malcolm had already made Edward, his son by Margaret, heir presumptive, as suggested above, there was nothing for Duncan to return to. He had few prospects with Malcolm and Margaret and their children in control of the succession.

  In 1091 King Malcolm’s initially peaceful relations with King William II were disrupted. In that year, King William had invaded Normandy in an attempt finally to dispose of his troublesome older brother, Duke Robert of Normandy and so to secure their entire patrimony for himself. It appears that Duke Robert had offered Edgar Atheling refuge and support. King William quite naturally viewed Edgar as a threat to his hold on the English throne. Indeed, Duke Robert probably encouraged Edgar to resurrect his claim to the English throne to use against his younger brother. In the end, King William was reconciled with Robert and as part of their reconciliation Edgar Atheling was expelled from Normandy. As so often before, Edgar fled to the court of his brother-in-law Malcolm in Scotland. In May 1091, King Malcolm invaded Northumbria, either to exploit King William’s absence in Normandy or perhaps to avenge Edgar’s expulsion from Normandy. Malcolm managed to ravage a great part of Northumbria until, opposed by local forces, presumably led by Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria, he was forced to retreat across the border with his spoils. In response to this invasion, King William returned from Normandy in September to invade Scotland with an army and navy in emulation of his father in 1072. Unfortunately, a storm on 29 September destroyed the fleet and left King William unable to supply his troops. He therefore advanced no further than the border, while Malcolm, secure from the sea, brought his own army forward into Lothian to confront him. In fact, there was no invasion but a stand-off, during which Edgar Atheling and Robert of Normandy acted as mediators. A temporary truce was patched up between the two kings and Edgar was reconciled to King William II or, perhaps, surrendered into his custody. Unknown to King Malcolm, however, William II was only seeking time in which to prepare a more purposeful riposte.

  In 1092 King William II invaded Cumberland, seized Carlisle and expelled a man called Dolfin, who according to The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ruled this region. He has been identified as the brother of Earl Gospatric II of Dunbar and son of Gospatric of Northumbria or as an otherwise unrecorded relation of the Dolfin killed in 1054 in the fighting against Macbeth. In either case – and the former seems more likely – he was almost certainly the local representative of King Malcolm in Cumberland. This dramatic act effectively ended a long period of Scottish rule in this region, which probably commenced in 1068. King William went on to construct a castle at Carlisle and to introduce southern English peasants, either to settle a devastated and deserted region or, possibly, to replace expelled Scots. It was clear that William intended to hold onto Cumberland on a permanent basis. This blow represented a serious loss to Malcolm, who must by now have been in his sixties. He was an old man with his mind increasingly focused on the future of his dynasty and kingdom. He had an adult heir, Edward and other children, but was perhaps anxious to bequeath them an undiminished kingdom. The loss of Cumberland deprived his successors of an easy invasion route into the heart of Northumbria and placed English forces closer to the western regions of his own kingdom.

  It appears that Malcolm tried at first to negotiate over Cumberland with King William rather than immediately to counterattack. This caution has been seen as unusual by some but it should not really be surprising. Malcolm was old and, therefore, more reluctant to resort to military action and perhaps he was also fearful of English power. This cautious approach proved vain, however, and almost a year passed without any significant progress, while William built his castle at Carlisle and settled Cumberland. In August 1093, King Malcolm made a last-ditch attempt to negotiate with William in person at Gloucester. The willingness of Malcolm to enter England to treat with his opponent indicates his desperation to secure a deal. He had not negotiated a similar agreement from outside his own territory since the distant days of 1059. The two men finally met on 29 August but the result was a fiasco. King William chose to interpret Malcolm’s willingness to come to him as a sign of weakness, which in a sense it was, and exploited this fact to humiliate him. William set unreasonable terms for the restoration of Cumberland by seeking full homage from Malcolm, perhaps for his entire kingdom. This was clearly too much for Malcolm to concede and he therefore returned to Scotland empty-handed and angry.

  Malcolm now had no alternative to taking military action to redress this blow to his prestige and to seek the restoration of Cumberland. In late 1093 he therefore invaded Northumbria, accompanied by his heir, Edward and his second son Edgar. He may have decided that this expedition offered an opportunity for Edward and Edgar to command the Scottish army, or perhaps Malcolm himself was so old that he required their presence in order to command effectively. In either case, it was a dangerous risk to take and it would turn out badly for the Scots. The invasion was in full swing when Earl Robert of Northumbria sprang a carefully prepared trap. On 13 November 1093, King Malcolm was surrounded and killed by the Northumbrians at Alnwick along with his eldest son and heir, Edward. In the wake of this disaster, the Scottish army quickly withdrew in some disorder from England. Only three days later, on 16 November, an already sick Queen Margaret died in Edinburgh after hearing the terrible news from Alnwick from her son Edgar, who had escaped the rout. The consequence of these three important deaths in such a short space of time was to plunge the carefully arranged Scottish succession into chaos. King Malcolm had a number of other sons, including Edgar, but the loss of the recognised heir meant that they were all potential candidates for the kingship. The chaos that ensued has meant that the solid achievements of Malcolm’s reign have often been overlooked or ignored.

  King Malcolm’s most important achievement was the integration of the English-speaking southern territories into the expanded kingdom of Alba. He was the first king of Alba to have a real connection with his English-speaking subjects. The kings preceding him remained Gaelic lords, with the possible exception of Idulf, and their rule was based essentially on military conquest and subjection. They were viewed as alien outsiders by the English inhabitants of these areas and the two sides had no cultural and little political connection. In contrast, Malcolm was obliged by the circumstances of his exile in 1040 to adopt a very different approach to these people. As a political exile, whether in Lothian, Strathclyde, Northumbria or England itself, Malcolm desperately needed support from wherever he could get it. He needed support at first simply to survive but later to restore his fortunes and enforce his claim to the kingship. He therefore turned, not unnaturally, to these English-speaking areas of the kingdom for support. It was these same areas that might favour the English intervention that he also needed to obtain. This approach eventually produced a common bond between Malcolm and his English-speaking subjects that his predecessors had lacked.

  The first step in this process was to learn the language and Malcolm was the first prospective king of Alba, as far as is known and with the possible exception of Idulf, to be able to speak English. He therefore had an immediate advantage over his predecessors in being able to communicate directly with his English-speaking subjects and to cultivate the kind of direct relationship between a king and his subjects that already existed in the old heartlands of Alba. He was in a real sense in a position to be ‘their king’ where his predecessors had been foreign overlords. It is not recorded in the surviving sources but it seems highly likely that Malcolm exploited this connection to canvass and secure the support of the English-speaking population of Lothian for his claim to the kingship. It was after all in the interests of these people to have someone in a position of power over them who understood their language, their culture and their needs.

  This high
ly astute political move provided Malcolm with a secure base in Lothian from which to launch his attempt to take the throne of Alba. It also offered him a solid core of supporters who would back him against all comers and who were unlikely to desert him for a Gaelic rival. In contrast, the main support for Macbeth and Lulach came from the far north in Moray. It was unlikely that these Gaelic lords would be able to offer the English-speakers of Lothian the kind of advantages offered by Malcolm. The men of Lothian were also likely to be more sympathetic to his introduction of English military forces, which might not prove quite so popular with the men of Alba themselves. Malcolm therefore had a source of solid support for his restoration even before his English-backed invasion of 1054. He was also, however, assured of a solid basis of support even when direct English backing was withdrawn following the death of Earl Siward in 1055. This support from Lothian on its own could not guarantee his succession as King of Alba, but it went a long way to doing so.

  In 1068 King Malcolm undoubtedly reinforced this initial connection when he married Margaret, a member of the exiled English royal house. As a result, he allied himself directly to the old English dynasty and associated himself with all its traditions. He had in effect transformed his kingship from a Gaelic into a Anglo-Gaelic one, a transformation confirmed by the birth of sons who inherited this dual culture. He had also provided a new focus for the loyalty of his English-speaking subjects which could draw on traditions of loyalty to English rulers. The people of Lothian now had an English Queen to support in addition to their English-speaking King, and after 1072 they would have part-English heirs with English names too.