Malcolm III of Scotland (26 August 1031-13 November 1093) was the King of Scotland from 1058 to 1093, succeeding Lulach of Scotland and preceding Donald III of Scotland. He was the eldest son of King Duncan I of Scotland and the brother of Donalbain, and he seized power in 1058 after overthrowing Macbeth of Scotland and Lulach. Malcolm was killed at the Battle of Alnwick during a failed 1093 invasion of England.
Biography[]
A younger Malcolm
Malcolm III was the son of King Duncan I of Scotland and his wife Suthen, and witnessed his father be murdered by King Macbeth, and Malcolm took revenge by killing Macbeth's successor and follower King Lulach in 1058. He became the new king of Scotland, and during his tenure as king, he fixed many problems in Scotland. His relative Mael-Snechtai I of Moray wanted to claim the throne in Lulach's name, and also wanted to take over the Duchy of Buchan and Caithness from Buchan and Norway, respectively.
With his first wife dead, Malcolm III married Jolanta of Siedice, daughter of Prince Wladyslaw of the Kingdom of Poland, in 1066 to form a diplomatic alliance. He had a bird's eye view as the Anglo-Saxons, Norwegians, and Normans fought to the south. He gained a scar above his right eye while hunting a bear in the wilderness in October 1066, but by 21 November his wound healed. In February 1067 he was threatened by Donald Dunkeld, his own brother, in a plot revealed by his spymaster. He persuaded him to end the conspiracy, showing mercy. In May he held a fair in Gowrie but Mayor Patrick of Perth's annoyance at the large amount of peasants attending the fair led to him restricting access points to the city; although it would lead to an increase in revolt risk, he could not lose a vassal.
He launched a series of invasions of England to settle a dispute over the Earldom of Northumbria, but they were all repelled. In 1072 he was forced to become a vassal of King William the Conqueror of England, who took over England for the Normans. Malcolm III was only made a subordinate, with only Cumbria and Lothian becoming vassalates of England, not the rest of Scotland (the terms of the Treaty of Abernathy were ambiguous). In 1093, Malcolm invaded England and met the English in battle at Alnwick, where he was slain by Robert de Mowbray.