Lords of Alba

by Ian W. Walker

  There was another important aspect of Malcolm’s bridging of the gap between the Gaelic kings and their English subjects. He had managed to achieve this task without losing the support of the original Gaelic inhabitants of the kingdom. He remained the son and heir of King Duncan I and the namesake and great-grandson of King Malcolm II. He does not appear to have faced any opposition from his Gaelic subjects to his closer relationship to his English subjects. The difficulties faced by Malcolm’s half-English sons in this respect after his death in 1093 will be discussed more fully in the next chapter. They appear to be more related to the disastrous end of Malcolm’s reign, with the deaths of Malcolm, Margaret and their eldest son Edward and to traditional Gaelic succession patterns, than to any true anti-English feeling.

  The tragic deaths of King Malcolm III, his wife and their eldest son within a few days of each other and the resulting confusion has effectively concealed the great successes of Malcolm’s long reign of thirty-five or more years. As a result of this tragedy Malcolm’s legacy has been largely forgotten. He unified his infant kingdom as never before, drawing its Gaelic and English subjects into a multicultural Scottish kingdom. The marriage of Malcolm and Margaret and the birth of their Anglo-Scottish descendants played a key role in this process. He subdued the independent region of Moray for most of his reign and probably began the process of undermining its local rulers that came to fruition in the reign of David I. He developed closer relations than ever before with English rulers. He extended the scope of Scottish international contacts as never before to include Norway, Flanders, Normandy and the rest of the Continent. He shifted the centre of the kingdom of Alba southwards from Strathearn and Angus to Fife and Lothian. It was not a bad achievement for a man who had once been an exiled prince with no prospects.

  7

  A New Kingdom?

  On 13 November 1093 King Malcolm’s own careful plans for the succession collapsed with the death of his designated heir, Edward. It is reported that Edgar, who had also been in the army that invaded England in late 1093, managed to escape the fate that befell his father and elder brother. He immediately hurried back to Edinburgh with the remnants of the defeated Scottish army, ostensibly to convey the news to his ailing mother. He had time to tell her of the tragic events of 13 November before she succumbed to her illness and died on 16 November 1093. This is the account given in The Life of St Margaret, but it was surely just as important for Edgar to return to Edinburgh to secure his succession to the throne of the kingdom. If so, the death of his mother so soon afterwards and the state of the defeated army may have deprived him of his opportunity. Instead the deaths of King Malcolm, Queen Margaret and Prince Edward, their intended heir initiated a period of contention.

  There were alternative candidates: Donald Ban or ‘the Fair’, King Malcolm’s younger brother, who was now in his sixties, and Duncan, Malcolm’s son by his first wife, who was in England. The men of Alba naturally preferred an adult ruler and found one ready to hand in Malcolm’s brother, Donald Ban. He appears to have been largely forgotten in all Malcolm’s plans for the succession. He now stepped forward, or was perhaps thrust forward, from the obscurity of the sources to centre stage. Indeed, Donald would have been the obvious choice to succeed Malcolm under the traditional succession system, which opted for the best available adult male. It seems that in the crisis following Malcolm’s death the men of Alba sought comfort in a return to familiar practices. In 1093 Donald Ban had the clear advantage over Duncan that he was already present in the kingdom. It seems that there were no challengers from the lineages of MacDuff and MacHeth, possibly because Malcolm had already eliminated them or bought them off to clear a path for Edward. In November 1093, Donald III Ban, son of Duncan I or Domnall Ban mac Donnchada, duly succeeded to the kingship of Alba.

  In 1093 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that the new king, Donald III, ‘drove out all the English who were with King Malcolm’. This has been viewed as solid evidence for an anti-English reaction among the Gaelic lords of Alba led by Donald as the champion of the old order. This appears, however, to be stretching the interpretation of these words a little too far. In the first place, who exactly were the English who were driven out? It is clear that English-speaking Lothian was not emptied of its population. It is possible but unlikely that this refers to the expulsion of those English who had settled in Scotland since 1066, including Earl Gospatric II of Dunbar. They were probably too numerous, however, and there is no sign of large numbers of refugees moving south into England. It is much more likely that it refers to those Englishmen prominent in Malcolm’s court itself. It is probable that Donald exiled Edgar and the other sons of Malcolm and Margaret who were his rivals. It was a logical next step to exile their supporters, many of whom would have been English. They may have included Edgar Atheling, whose whereabouts at this time are otherwise unknown. There is, however, another factor in this account. The Chronicle was an English source with an interest in English affairs, including those of Queen Margaret and her children. It is therefore more likely to report the impact of events on the English in Alba than the natives. This Chronicle therefore chooses to mention the English who were expelled because it was interested in them. This does not mean that Gaelic supporters of Malcolm’s sons did not also suffer at Donald’s hands.

  The surviving sources tell us almost nothing about King Donald III Ban after he succeeded his older brother late in 1093. He has usually been considered a Gaelic reactionary chiefly on the basis of the Chronicle account already noted but this is hardly conclusive proof of a general anti-English sentiment. He is reported by the late fourteenth-century chronicler John of Fordun to have spent his exile during Macbeth’s reign in the Western Isles. It is not at all clear, however, whether any reliance whatever can be put on this statement. If he was subsequently buried on Iona this may confirm a more traditional outlook, but this does not necessarily equate with an anti-English policy. He did not seek to prevent the burial of his brother King Malcolm III and his wife, Queen Margaret in their new church at Dunfermline. The only certain fact about Donald Ban is that he was successful in claiming the throne in opposition to his young nephews, the sons of Margaret. He might then have expected to enjoy the remainder of his already long life in peace while his young nephews grew to maturity and plotted their return. Instead, Donald found himself faced with an immediate challenge from another quarter.

  In late 1093 or early 1094, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that Duncan, son of Malcolm III, who had effectively been excluded from the succession, was in England at the court of King William II. He was last noticed in Normandy in 1087 when Duke Robert released him from custody and knighted him. The presence of this almost forgotten claimant to the Scottish throne in England at this time may not have been entirely fortuitous. In 1092 William II had, after all, seized control of Cumberland from King Malcolm and had subsequently refused to negotiate with him. He must surely have anticipated that this might provoke a war with the Scots and that in this event it would be very useful to have a threat to wield against Malcolm. In these circumstances, William II would have found Duncan a very useful pawn indeed. It was probably therefore no coincidence that he was already at the English Court when Malcolm and his heir Edward died and Donald seized the kingship.

  It appears that Duncan, son of Malcolm, who had spent the last twenty years as a hostage in Normandy and England, was now a thorough convert to Anglo-Norman culture. He already had a wife and children, who would be mentioned in his charter to Durham. He had made no effort to return to Scotland in 1087 and had probably already been excluded from the Scottish succession in favour of his half-brother Edward. In 1094 he was persuaded to resurrect his claim to the Scottish kingship, either independently or more probably by King William II. Duncan would launch his claim with the assistance of a group of Anglo-Norman adventurers. It is unlikely that Duncan had any wealth or resources of his own for this purpose and William’s hand must be suspected behind this venture. It is likely that Willia
m II had already secured Duncan’s support for possible action against Malcolm III in 1093. The English King naturally preferred to promote this candidate, who was completely in his debt, rather than any of Malcolm’s sons by Margaret, who additionally carried an embarrassing claim to his own English throne. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that Duncan had done formal homage to William II in return for English support. The sons of Margaret were left to decide whether or not to support their half-brother, and Edgar appears to have done so at least in the short term.

  In May 1094, probably shortly before launching his invasion of Scotland, Duncan issued a charter to Durham Cathedral. The original of this, the first known Scottish charter, survives in the archives at Durham to this day and provides some rare evidence about Duncan and his brief reign. This document, which was drafted by a scribe of Durham Cathedral itself, describes Duncan as Rex Scocie or ‘King of Scotland’. It shows that Duncan was acting with the support of his ‘brothers’, more properly his half-brothers, the sons of Malcolm and Margaret and Edgar appears in the witness list. The purpose of the charter was to secure the support of St Cuthbert for his campaign by making concessions to the church of Durham. It grants to Durham some lands in East Lothian and the services due from those lands, which had formerly been due to Bishop Fothad of St Andrews, who according to the Annals of Ulster had died in 1093. Duncan’s propitiation of St Cuthbert may also have been intended to foster support within Lothian itself. In this context the witness list includes a man called Wulfgeat the White of Duddingston, who was presumably ready to support Duncan’s candidacy. The population of that region continued to demonstrate an attachment to St Cuthbert and his church in spite of the intrusion of the bishopric of St Andrews into this area. The numerous subsequent Scottish charters involving the grant of Lothian lands to Durham amply demonstrate this connection.

  The majority of the other names in the list of witnesses to this first Scottish charter are unidentified. They probably consist of members of the Anglo-Norman personal retinue recruited by Duncan to help him secure the throne. If so, many were probably killed in the course of the various misfortunes that befell this short-lived king and had no chance to make any other impact in the sparse records. The few who do appear elsewhere may include Aelfric, who is possibly the man who went on to become butler to Kings Edgar and Alexander I. It might also perhaps be worth considering the possibility that the man called Ulf who appears on the witness list might be the Ulf, son of King Harold II who had spent years as a hostage in Normandy but who had been released by Duke Robert of Normandy in 1087. Is it possible that Duncan and Ulf, who both suffered this fate, became friends during their time in custody and on their release worked together to seek their fortune? It is an interesting idea and there is currently no other record of Ulf after 1087. The appearance of a man named Malcolm in the witness list suggests some Gaelic support for Duncan but the origins of this individual are otherwise unknown.

  In spring 1094, Duncan II, son of Malcolm, King of Scotland, used the military backing supplied by William II to expel his uncle Donald Ban and secure the kingship. This success would prove short-lived, however, since his uncle Donald remained alive and at large. It appears that Duncan’s Anglo-Norman supporters somehow offended local sensibilities and there was a severe reaction against them. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that King Duncan was attacked by some of his own subjects, probably from north of the Forth, and nearly all of his Anglo-Norman military escort were killed. Duncan himself escaped with a few men but was subsequently forced to promise not to bring English or French troops into the country. It seems that he was not personally rejected in spite of his long absence and his Anglo-Norman cultural outlook. It was his use of foreign troops that caused offence. This elimination of Duncan’s military support badly weakened his position. It was probably as a result that, on 12 November 1094, Duncan II was treacherously killed by Maelpetair, son of Malcolm, Mormaer of Angus, at Mondynes in the Mearns. The Annals of Ulster suggest that Duncan’s betrayal was engineered by his uncle Donald and his half-brother Edmund, who subsequently assumed some form of joint rule over the kingdom. It is possible that Edmund was, initially, a supporter of Duncan alongside his brother Edgar but subsequently struck a deal to betray his half-brother to Donald in exchange for a share of the kingdom. It is possible that Donald III, King of Alba ruled north of the Forth while Edmund perhaps ruled English-speaking Lothian under him. It would appear that Edgar, who had remained loyal to Duncan, was expelled and had to return to exile in England.

  On 29 August 1095, Edgar, son of Malcolm issued a charter to Durham at Norham on Tweed on the English border. This document, whose original no longer survives, in many respects mirrors that issued by Duncan a year earlier. Edgar, who styled himself son of Malcolm, Regis Scottorum or ‘King of Scots’, had clearly assumed the position of the English-sponsored claimant to the kingship of Alba. In the charter Edgar states that his claim is based firstly on the gift of King William II and only secondly on inheritance from his father. This represents a clear attempt by Edgar to demonstrate his subordination to King William II. In this charter ‘King’ Edgar claims to hold ‘the whole land of Lothian’ and Scotland, but while the former is entirely possible, the latter seems unlikely as early as 1095. The purpose of this charter was probably to declare that ‘King’ Edgar held Lothian and that he intended to enforce his claim to the kingship itself in the near future. He could certainly have occupied Lothian at this time in the light of its particular sympathy towards the old English royal house. The witness list offers some support for these claims. It obviously includes his brothers Alexander and David, his young nephew William FitzDuncan and his uncle Edgar Atheling, who would support his full restoration in 1097. The other witnesses appear to be mainly Englishmen from Lothian, reflecting Edgar’s control over that region. Perhaps the most unusual witness is not an Englishman, but Constantine, son of Macduff, who can only be the contemporary Mormaer of Fife. He appears to be present in England as a supporter of Edgar at this early date. This may perhaps be the origin of the later stories of MacDuff support for an exiled claimant to the Scottish throne which were subsequently transferred to the story of Malcolm and Macbeth by writers including Shakespeare.

  It seems fairly clear from this Durham charter of August 1095, issued at Norham, that Edgar probably intended to invade Scotland proper either at that point or very soon afterwards. This is what Duncan had done after granting his charter to Durham in May 1094. If so, however, there must have been some problem, since no invasion actually occurred until 1097. It appears that Edgar’s plans fell through, probably as a consequence of the rebellion of Robert earl of Northumbria in 1095. This resulted in the diversion of English military support from Edgar to deal with the revolt and indeed Edgar’s charter was issued during the siege of Bamburgh. In 1096 the arrangements for the First Crusade distracted King William II. He was preoccupied with arrangements for taking control of Normandy from his brother Duke Robert, who was about to set off on crusade. It is possible that Edgar held Lothian, and perhaps Strathclyde, from 1095 to 1097 but was unable to advance further into Alba without outside help. If so, it is possible that he, or his brother David according to William of Malmesbury, managed to capture and imprison their turncoat brother Edmund in the process. It may indeed be questionable whether King Donald or Edmund ever had secure control over Lothian.

  It was not finally until early October 1097 that Edgar Atheling was able to lead a military force supplied by William II to restore his nephew and namesake Edgar to the Scottish throne. Edgar, son of Malcolm III managed finally with this assistance to defeat his uncle Donald III in a ‘severe battle’ somewhere in Scotland, according to The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He also succeeded in capturing his uncle, either in this encounter or soon afterwards, something that his half-brother Duncan had failed to do in 1094. It was not long after this that the aged Donald was blinded and killed at Rescobie in Angus to remove the possibility of his ever claiming the kingship again. If he h
ad not already been captured in Lothian earlier, then Edmund was also taken in 1097 and imprisoned for life. He was spared the fate of his uncle Donald, only because he was a full brother of Edgar. Edgar, King of Scots had been successful in eliminating his rivals where his half-brother Duncan had ultimately failed. This was probably because Edgar had more support within the kingdom itself. It was support from English-speaking Lothian that provided the springboard from which Edgar was able to conquer the rest of Scotland. He had followed the same path as his father, Malcolm III by securing assistance from Lothian and from England to seize the kingship.

  King Edgar, son of Malcolm III and Margaret had been born with a claim to rule two kingdoms, Scotland and England. He had been named after an illustrious ancestor, who had ruled England during a period of peace and prosperity. The terrible tragedy of the death of both his parents and his older brother in November 1093 appeared to have thwarted all his hopes and ambitions. He found himself deprived of his birthright in Scotland and cast out into exile. He was forced to seek refuge and support from King William II, the very man who had usurped his birthright in England. It was a dramatic reversal of fortune for Edgar and his family and they struggled to cope with it. It brought them to consider any options to restore their position and Edgar and his brothers initially hitched their fortunes to King William’s choice, their half-brother Duncan. Thereafter it appears that there was a dispute about the course to take. Edgar stuck to supporting Duncan II, but his brother Edmund pursued an accommodation with his uncle Donald III in the search for influence. In 1094 Duncan’s murder opened up opportunities for both. Initially Edmund managed to secure a share of the kingdom through his part in the betrayal of Duncan. Ultimately, however, Edgar triumphed against Donald and Edmund by securing English aid as his father had done. He emerged triumphant to secure control of Scotland, the kingdom that had seemed completely lost to him only four years before. In 1097 Edgar was King of Scots and in possession of his paternal birthright.