Charles II, King of Scots

Charles II, King of Scots, was crowned King of England and Ireland on the 23^rd of April, 1661.

Lots of things happened in the life of Charles Stuart, King Charles II King of Scots, and King of England and Ireland. He had the misfortune to have been born at a time when men sported long, curly wigs, wore tights with garters and sported chisel-toed shoes. There are several portraits of him at various ages and he looks a real Stuart, with his long nose and drooping eyes. Charles’ dad was pronounced deid when they chopped off his heid and so Charlie’s reign began with a moment of pain. During his life, Charles was blessed with luck, good and bad, in equal measure. During Charlie’s reign, London suffered two great misfortunes. The first was the Great Plague, in 1665, and the second was the Great Fire of London, in 1666. The one put paid to the other and, despite the devastation caused by the fire, it was a blessing in disguise. Charles was also famous for climbing trees and wearing a disguise. Charles was guilty of dithering, which in the end, did for the marvelous Montrose, but he did strike a canny bargain when he married the Portuguese Infanta Princess Catherine of Braganza. Her dowry included the port cities of Tangier and Bombay; and so began the British involvement in India.

After the execution of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell assumed control of The Republic of England and thus began the Interregnum or Commonwealth. In Edinburgh, on the other hand, the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles Stuart’s son and heir as King Charles II, on the 5^th of February, 1649. Charles was later crowned King of Scots, in person, at Scone, on the 1^st of January 1651. What followed Charles’ Scottish coronation led to the Battle of Worcester, in September, 1651, and Charles’ defeat saw him flee to Europe, where he spent the next nine years in exile in France and elsewhere. On Cromwell’s death, the English, in some kind of crisis, begged forgiveness and pleaded for Charles to return and assume the throne. The Restoration was complete when Charles was crowned King of England and Ireland, at Westminster Abbey in 1661.

Charles Stuart was born in St. James’s Palace, on the 29^th of May, 1630 (by the Gregorian calendar [OS]). He was baptised and brought up in the care of the Protestant Countess of Dorset, though his godparents included his mother’s Catholic relations. No ‘Old Firm’ sectarianism in evidence in the family at that time. In 1648, during the Second English Civil War, Charles went to The Hague, to enlist aid for the Royalist cause. He obtained control of a fleet, but didn’t come to Scotland in time to join up with the Royalist army of the Duke of Hamilton before it was defeated at the Battle of Preston. He also failed to prevent the execution of his father.

After his father’s death, the Covenanter Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II as King. However, it refused to allow him to enter Scotland unless he accepted Presbyterianism throughout the British Isles. As a negotiation tactic, Charles authorised General Montrose to threaten invasion, but the martial Montrose decided to invade anyway. Unfortunately for the principled Graham, the 1^st Marquess of Montrose, he was ultimately defeated, captured and executed by the axe, in Edinburgh. As a consequence of those events and having little or no alternative, Charles reluctantly promised to abide by the terms of the Treaty of Breda. He agreed to support the Presbyterian Solemn League and Covenant, abandoning the Episcopal Church, and was allowed to come to Scotland. He arrived on the 23^rd of June, 1650.

On the 3^rd of September, 1650, a large, but disunited, force of Presbyterian Covenanters and Royalist Engagers was defeated at the Battle of Dunbar by Oliver Cromwell. By this time, disillusioned with the Covenanters’ hypocrisy, Charles attempted to escape their influence and went north to join up with more Royalist Engagers. This ‘New Start’ didn’t last long as the Presbyterians quickly recovered the Royal Personage. Both these factions were on the same side i.e., they wanted Charles on the throne, but that was about the only thing they agreed upon. However, those warring Scots parties remained Charles’ best hope of restoration, and with each ‘loyalist’ bloc recognising this, he was crowned King of Scots, at Scone, on the 1^st of January, 1651. Charles’ other Scottish titles, at various times, included those of the Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.

Cromwell remained a threat, of course, and had to be dealt with, which led to Charles deciding to attack England. The religious in-fighting meant that many of the Scots, including Argyll and other leading Covenanters, refused to participate. Nonetheless, the invasion force, depleted as it was, moved south into England. Charles’ army was soundly defeated at the Battle of Worcester, on the 3^rd of September, 1651, exactly a year after Dunbar. The aftermath of the Battle of Worcester is famous for the incident in which Charles II hid in the Royal Oak at Boscobel House. Afterwards, Charles managed to escape and fled once again to the Continent.

So it was that in late 1651, all hope of a restoration in England appeared lost. However, King Charlie’s saving grace was the death of Cromwell, which led to unrest and the intervention of General George Monck, the Governor of Scotland. Subsequent events eventually saw the assembly of the Convention Parliament. That took place on the 25^th of April, 1660, and issued an invitation to Charles to return as King. Breda became involved again, this time in the form of the Declaration of Breda, in which Charles agreed, amongst other things, to pardon many of the ‘traitors’ to the Royalist cause. Once again, Charles arrived back in Britain, where he landed at Dover on the 25^th of May, 1660. He reached London on the 29^th of May, which is favourably considered the date of the Restoration as it was Charles’ 30^th birthday. The Convention Parliament was dissolved in December, 1660, and Charles’ coronation took place, at Westminster Abbey, on the 23^rd of April, 1661.

King Charles II died of a kidney dysfunction, in Whitehall Palace, on the 6^th of February, 1685, at the age of 54, after an apoplectic fit, which he had suffered four days previously. On the last evening of his life, whether or not he was conscious or cognisant of the event, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church, thus fulfilling his part of the Treaty of Dover, in which he had secretly agreed to convert to Catholicism. King Charles II was buried in Westminster Abbey on the 6^th of February, 1685 [OS; 14^th of February NS]. Charles Stuart left no legitimate heir and was succeeded by his Catholic brother, who became James II of England and Ireland, and James VII of Scotland. Therein lays several more stories.

James V

James V, the seventh Stewart King of Scots, was born on the 10th of April, 1512.

James Stewart was born at Linlithgow Palace, the only surviving son of James IV and Margaret Tudor. Here was yet another Stewart Prince who inherited the throne as an infant. Wee Jamesie was a mere seventeen months old when his father was killed at the Battle of Flodden, in 1513, and he was crowned twelve days later, at Stirling Castle. It was a dangerous business being a Royal in those days; in fact, those days were dangerous, period. That being the case, you could be forgiven for thinking that James V died in battle, like his father. Fact is, whatever else James V did in his short life, he is more famous for the events surrounding his death than for the occurrence of his birth.

James V didn’t die in battle. He pined away after a battle he lost, even predicting his own demise with the words, “Befair sic a Day I sal be deid.” That battle came to be known as the Rout of Solway Moss, in the autumn of 1542. The operative word was ‘rout’ and after the miserable trouncing of his divided forces, James sort of lost the will to live. He retired to Falkland, depressed and defeated, to once more leave the throne to a Stewart minor. His infamous final words, uttered from his deathbed in Falkland Palace, were doom laden and a gloomy comment on the prospects he foresaw for his six days old daughter, the future, Mary I, Queen of Scots. He should’ve said, “We’re doomed!” Instead, he is quoted as allegedly having said, “Adieu, farewell, it cam’ wi’ a lass and it’ll gang wi’ a lass.”

That dismal quote alluded to the beginning of the Stewart dynasty, which started with Robert the Bruce’s daughter, and James’ belief that it was very likely to end with his female heir, the bonnie Mary. He was wrong, of course, as we made it all the way to Queen Anne Stuart’s death in 1707, before Geordie Hannover arrived on the scene. James was ruefully bemoaning the news of his daughter’s arrival, which illustrates well the mental state in which he was. John Knox was present by James’ deathbed and later wrote what led to the above quote: “…he turnit frome sick as spak with him, and said, ‘The Devil ga with it, it will end as it begane; it come frome a Woman, and it will end in a Woman.’ Efter that he spak not mony Wordis that war sensibill.” Sir George Douglas of Pittendreich, who was also present, said that the king was talking but delirious and spoke no “wise words.”

James’ early life was mirrored by the fortunes of several Jameses. As was practically obligatory for a Stewart King of Scots, a sequence of Regents ruled on his behalf until he was able to take control himself. His mother was Regent until she married Archibald, 6th Earl of Angus, the Red Douglas, in 1524. In Falkland Palace, James became virtually a prisoner of his stepfather for two years, until he finally escaped, disguised as a groom. After James got free, he caused the Red line of Douglas to be outlawed and its lands confiscated. By the time he was seventeen he had assumed the rule for himself.

That was the time of the Reformation and the creation of the Church of England by Henry VIII. However, James remained committed to the Catholic Church, no doubt encouraged by earning substantial church revenues, sanctioned by the Pope, who was keen to avoid Scotland succumbing to Protestantism. James was a great man to accumulate wealth. His two French marriages came with handsome dowries and he also contrived lucrative ecclesiastical posts for his seven illegitimate children. On the marital front, he also had to stave off martial intrusions of Henry VIII, who was intent on marrying his son to James’ legitimate daughter. Those were the events of the so-called ‘Rough Wooing’.

James Stewart the Fifth was also famous for doing a wee bit wooing of his own. Amazingly, the King developed the habit of going abroad amongst the peasants, disguised as a farmer or beggar. He became notorious for his amorous nocturnal exploits and was celebrated in verse. He is referred to as the ‘Gudeman o’ Ballengeich’ in a 19th century poem by the legendary William Topaz McGonagall. Several contemporary ballads and poems were also written of his escapades, including ‘The Gaberlunzie Man’ or ‘The Jolly Beggar’. Some of these were attributed to James and there is some evidence that he occasionally wrote verses. However, it is probably true that his good friend, Sir David Lindsay, provided able assistance.

Here is an extract (drastically curtailed) from one interpretation of ‘The Jolly Beggar’…

“When he perceived the maiden’s mind
And that her heart was his,
He did embrace her in his arms
And sweetly did her kiss.

In lovely sport and merriment
The night away they spent
In Venus game, for their delight
And both their hearts content.

When twenty weeks were come and gone
Her heart was something sad,
Because she found hersel’ wi’ bairn,
And disnae ken the dad.”

James Stewart died on the 14th of December, 1542, at the age of thirty and was buried at Holyrood Abbey.

Alexander III, King of Scots

Alexander III died in a tragic accident on the 19th of March, 1286.

The third Alexander to be King of Scots was the only son of the second Alexander and his second wife, Mary de Coucy, and the great-great grandson of the first Alexander. He became King of Scots on the death of Alexander II, when he was only eight and as a King, he was really great. Alexander's period of minority was marked by conflict between rival Scottish factions keen to exert power in his name. Most notable of these were Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith, and Alan Durward, the Justiciar. What a surprise! This situation was all too common in Scotland, affecting countless Kings who attained the throne whilst still a minor. The rivalry for control of the young King even extended to his being kidnapped at one point, by Mentieth. To make matters worse for wee Sandy, Henry III of England was lurking around, hoping to take advantage of his neighbour’s tricky circumstances.

Give the young King his due credit. On Christmas Day, 1251, when he was just ten, wee Alecky was knighted by said Henry at York. The following day, in a smart move, he married ‘enery’s eldest daughter, the Princess Margaret. After that, and despite his lack of years, Alexander continually managed to evade Henry’s efforts, and his son, Edward’s, to make him swear homage for his Kingdom of Scotland. These efforts were becoming tiresome, as every English King since William Rufus attempted to pull that old trick. Not only did Alexander III tell Henry III where to get off, he had the ‘cojones’ to thumb his nose at Edward Longshanks; something his successor, John Balliol, signally failed to do. When Edward demanded Alexander swear homage, the Scottish King sent Robert Bruce on his behalf, but to swear homage only for the lands Alexander held of Edward in England. You should read Marion Campbell’s excellent biography, ‘Alexander III, King of Scots’, for the detail on the story of the elder Bruce swearing homage on Alexander’s behalf, at Westminster in 1278. As the famous proxy statement goes, “Nobody but God himself has the right to homage for my realm of Scotland, and I hold it of nobody but God himself.”

‘Alaxandair mac Alaxandair’ was born on the 11th of September, 1241 (N.S.). His coronation took place on the 13th of July, 1249, on the Moot Hill at Scone Abbey, in the traditional manner. The evidence for the tradition exists from the coronation of Lulach, but it’s surely not something invented purely for ‘Tairbith’ (‘the Unfortunate’), otherwise known as ‘Fatuus’ (‘the Simple-minded’ or ‘the Foolish’) some centuries before. He wouldn’t have deserved special treatment, nor got it. Alexander was addressed by the ‘seanchaidh rígh’ who recited Alexander’s genealogy and proclaimed him ‘Ard Rígh na h-Alba’ – High King of Scots – as Malcolm II, Earl of Fife, from ancient privilege, placed the crown upon his head.

When he ‘came of age’ at 21, Alexander took some matters into his own hands and set out to regain control of the Western Isles from the Norwegian King Håkon IV. This culminated in the so called Battle of Largs, in September, 1263. Not much of a battle, it began when some of Håkon’s ships were sunk and some driven ashore in a fierce storm. The Norsemen forced ashore were involved in skirmishes with Alexander’s men, however, largely demoralized, because of the damage to their ships, they weren’t in much of a mood for a fight. The battle was indecisive, but the end result was Håkon sailing off; beaten, but not defeated. Later on, in 1266, under the Treaty of Perth, Håkon's successor ceded the Isle of Man and the Western Isles to Scotland in return for the payment of 4000 Merks (roughly 6000 Scottish Pounds). Norway kept Orkney and Shetland – for the time being. Later, in 1284, in a move that was to shape much of Scotland’s history for the next several centuries, Alexander invested the title of Lord of the Isles in the head of the Macdonald family, Angus Macdonald. From then on, the Macdonald lords operated largely as if they were kings in their own right. They supported Robert the Bruce, but frequently opposed subsequent Kings of Scots.

Alexander’s wife, Margaret of England, died in 1274, and, because there was no male heir, Alexander had need of marrying again. In fact, by the time of his second marriage, in 1285, in addition to his wife, Alexander was careless enough to have lost all three of his children. Actually, they died. David, the youngest, was first to die, in 1281, Margaret, the eldest, died in 1283, and the great Scots hope, Alexander, Prince of Scotland, died in 1284. All he had left as potential heir was his granddaughter, Margaret, the Maid of Norway. So it was that Alexander contracted to marry Yolande, Comtesse de Montfort, daughter of Robert IV, Comte de Dreux. She was French, in case you hadn’t guessed, and by all accounts quite attractive. She was also much younger than Alexander, being twenty-two years his junior. The marriage was celebrated on the 15th of October, 1285, at Jedburgh Abbey. Five months later, tragedy struck.

On the night of the 18-19th March, 1286, King Alexander III, then still an active and virile forty-four, decided to return to Kinghorn Castle on horseback. He was no doubt keen to get back to his marital bed for a bit of siring. Nevertheless, he was advised not to make the journey over to Fife, because it was after dark and the weather was very bad. Nothing loath, he rode off anyway. On the way, he became separated from his escorts in the fog and whatever happened next, nobody really knows. In any case, that morning (the 19th) he was found dead, with a broken neck, at the foot of a very steep rocky embankment. The common belief is that his horse stumbled and threw him, pitching him to his untimely and accidental death.

By all accounts, like many a Scots Royal, Alexander was gey fond of the opposite sex and didn’t hold back during his ten years of so of widower-hood, even if he had at all during his period of marriage, which is unlikely. He is reported to have sneaked around, in disguise, visiting a variety of “nuns or matrons, virgins or widows” as he saw fit. A public service; you understand. However, he did seem to have been reigned in by his pretty Yolande, otherwise, there’s not much of an explanation for his urgency in getting back to Kinghorn that fatal night. Alexander III was buried in Dunfermline Abbey and his death brought an end to what has been described as a rare ‘golden age’ in Scottish History. It also resulted in the crisis of succession that led directly to the Wars of Independence with Edward Longshanks and England.

The execution of Mary I, Queen of Scots

Mary I, Queen of Scots, was executed on the 8th of February, 1587.

Mary I, Queen of Scots, remains one of the most fascinating characters in Scotland’s history. Along with Cleopatra and Helen of Troy, she continues to share a certain notoriety. At the time of her death, she was just forty-four, but she’d crammed more into her life than most folks could’ve had they been granted twice as long. She was the daughter of the fifth of Scotland’s Jameses. James V bemoaned the news of her arrival whilst he lay dying in Falkland Palace, reputedly with the words, “It cam’ wi’ a lass and it’ll gang wi’ a lass.” Mary Stewart was born on the 8th of December, 1542, at Linlithgow Palace, a feast day in honour of the Virgin Mary, which many saw as a good omen. James didn’t see it that way and, if his fatalistic words were indeed his last, you might wonder at the news having taken the best part of seven days to get across the Forth to Falkland.

John Knox, who wasn’t a fan, when later writing about her father’s death, commented thus on her birth, “the Quein… was deliverit the aucht Day of December, in the Yeir of God 1542 Yeiris, of Marie that then wes borne, and now dois reigne for a Plague to this Realme, as the Progres of hir haill Lyif had to this Day declars.” Nine months after her dad’s death, on the ninth day of the ninth month of 1543, before she was even a year old and nothing to do with the gestation period for a new Monarch, Mary was crowned Queen of Scots at Stirling Castle. Mary Stewart wasn’t crowned Mary I, but years later, in 1689, when William (of Orange) and his wife, another Mary Stuart (Stewart), became joint Sovereigns of both England and Scotland, the earlier Mary became Mary I of Scotland, whilst the latter became, by default, Mary II of both England and Scotland.

Mary I had a tempestuous reign as Queen of Scots and if her father’s presentiment had any bearing, it was on her life and tragic death, rather than the fate of his dynasty. Mary’s fate was closely tied up with her lineage as her claims to the throne of England were pretty strong. As the great-granddaughter of Henry VII, Mary was next in line to the throne of ‘Gloriana’, the ‘Virgin Queen’. Earlier, Mary had been betrothed to the future Edward VI by the Treaty of Greenwich; signed on the 1st of July, 1543, when she was a mere six months old. However, the Catholics opposed the plan, thus kicking off the ‘Rough Wooing’. Mary fled to France, where she ended up marrying the Dauphin, on the 24th of April, 1558. She became Queen of both France and Scotland in 1559.

To suit French convention, Mary gallicised her surname to Stuart, but that didn’t prevent the death, on the 5th of December, 1560, of her first husband, King Francis II, who died of an unconventional ear infection, which led to “an absence of the brain” – nah; it was an abscess. Mary’s absence from Scotland didn’t last as, in 1561, she landed back in Scotland at Leith, on the 19th of August, despite the Protestants having gained the ascendancy. Later, on the 29th of July, 1565, after a “whirlwind courtship,” she married her first cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. On the 26th of August, 1565, Mary, dressed in a helmet and carrying pistols, led an army out of Edinburgh to pursue the rebel Earl of Moray in what became known as the ‘Chaseabout Raid’ and which resulted in Moray begin chased across the border. When Mary became pregnant, Darnley said, “I’ll be darned!” He then morphed into ‘Dastardly Darnley’ on the 9th of March, 1566, when he participated in the very murder, in front of his pregnant wife, of her secretary, ‘Fiddling Davie’ Riccio. He then became ‘Dead Darnley’ on the 10th of February, 1567, when he was murdered at Kirk o' Field.

In the meantime, on the 19th of June, 1566, Mary had given birth to the future James VI & I whom many suspected was Riccio’s child. Many also suspected that Mary was implicated in Darnley’s murder and her marriage, a few months later, to the Earl of Bothwell, who was accused, but acquitted, of the crime, didn’t help her case. Her Protestant Nobles were suitably scandalised and, after her defeat at the Battle of Carberry Hill on the 15th of June, 1567, Mary was scandalously imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle. Mary was forced to abdicate in favour of her son, but she famously escaped, only to be defeated at the Battle of Langside, on the 13th of May, 1568. Bothwell fled to Scandinavia and Mary escaped to England and the mercy of her Protestant cousin, who was merciful enough at first to merely imprison she whom her Lords saw as rival.

Subsequently, Mary became a focus for Catholic plots, including the ‘Ridolfi plot’ and the ‘Babington Plot’, which were, allegedly, aimed at making her Queen through the assassination of Elizabeth. In addition, there had been the ‘evidence’ of the ‘Casket Letters’ and what the Catholic Encyclopaedia calls “a thousand filthy charges …embodied in Buchanan’s ‘Detectio’”. Elizabeth’s Ministers demanded Mary’s execution, with provocative words; “so long as there is life in her, there is hope; so as they live in hope, we live in fear.” Nineteen years after she was brought into captivity, “Mary Stuart, commonly called Queen of Scotland” was beheaded at Fotheringay Castle, in Northamptonshire, on the 8th of February, 1587.

In her last ever letter, written at two o’clock in the morning, six hours before her execution, Mary wrote to her brother-in-law, Henry III of France. She wrote, “I scorn death and vow that I meet it innocent of any crime… The Catholic faith and the assertion of my God-given right to the English crown are the two issues on which I am condemned, and yet I am not allowed to say that it is for the Catholic religion that I die, but for fear of interference with theirs.” Robert Wynkfielde’s first-hand account of her execution describes Mary groping for the block, over which she placed her chin “with both her hands, which, holding there still, had been cut off had they not been espied.” It took two strokes of the executioner’s ace to administer the sentence, but even then “one little gristle” had to be sawn through before Mary’s head was fully severed from her body. It was then held up to view and, to the astonishment of the assembly, it was apparent that the former raven haired beauty had been entirely grey.

Mary’s wee dog that had accompanied her to her death hidden under her skirts, was then espied and had to be separated from his mistress by force. He had lain “between her head and her shoulders” and as they were “imbrued with her blood” the dog had to be taken away and washed. Mary’s body was taken away and buried in Peterborough Cathedral. Much later, in 1612, no doubt suffering from a wee bit of remorse at not having done anything to save his mother’s life, her son, James VI & I, had her body exhumed and placed in the vault of the Chapel of King Henry VII, in Westminster Abbey.

Alexander III, King of Scots

Alexander III, King of Scots, was married on the 26th of December, 1251.

Wee Sandy Alexander was just ten years old when he got married, the day after he was knighted by Henry III of England at York. He was married to ’enery’s eldest daughter, the Princess Margaret, herself a mere eleven years of age. Funnily enough, both the bride and groom had been born in September, albeit just over three weeks short of a year apart. If you follow astrology, he was Virgo and she was Libra. You may surmise that they both remained virgins for quite some time, despite the liberal nature of their union. Whether the marriage was a smart move of wee Alecky’s or of his ‘Regents’ is another matter. Probably, Henry had most of the say in the event and as father of the bride, he paid for the lavish ceremony in York Minster and the medieval banquet that followed. However, there was no declaration of a national holiday, either in Scotland or in England.

Despite gifting his daughter to the Scottish King, after the marriage Henry Plantagenet demanded that the young Alexander pay homage. Give wee Alex his due, he refused and despite his lack of years, Alexander continually managed to evade Henry’s efforts, and later, those of his son, Edward I, to make him swear homage to the King of England for his Kingdom of Scotland. Those efforts had become so very tiresome as every English King since William Rufus had attempted to pull that old trick. In an excellent biography of Alexander III, Marion Campbell provides excellent detail on the story of Robert Bruce, grandfather of the future King, swearing homage on Alexander’s behalf, at Westminster, in 1278, but only for the lands Alexander held of Edward I in England. The famous line goes “Nobody but God himself has the right to homage for my realm of Scotland, and I hold it of nobody but God himself”.

Margaret was the daughter of Henry Plantagenet and Eleanor of Provence, and she was born at Windsor Castle. When she married, she became Queen consort to Alexander III, the ‘Glorious’, King of Scots. She provided Alexander with three children, but she died young, at the age of thirty-five, at Cupar Castle, on the 26th of February, 1275. She was buried at Dunfermline Abbey, in Fife. Margaret provided Alexander with three kids and Scotland with two male heirs, but those too died young. Their first child was also a Margaret, the Princess of Scotland, who later married Erik II of Norway and died in childbirth on the 9th of April, 1283. Next to be born was Alexander’s first son and namesake, who would’ve been Alexander IV, but he died at the age of twenty-one-and-a-week on the 28th of January, 1283; a bad year for Royal weans. His younger brother, David of Scotland, had also died ahead of his time as well as ahead of his elder sibling, in June, 1281. The two Princes were buried in Dunfermline Abbey. Thus, all three of Alexander’s children pre-deceased their father and King.

The death of all three of Alexander’s children within a few years made the question of the succession one of pressing importance to Scotland. The need for a male heir led to his getting married for the second time, which he did, to Yolande de Dreux, on the 14th of October (or as Wikipedia has it on two related pages, either the 1st of November or the 15th of October), 1285. Curiously enough, Alexander was twenty-two years older than his twenty-two years old bride. Yolande was the Countess of Montfort in her own right when she became Queen consort of the Kingdom of Scotland. She had a decent pedigree and was distantly related to her new husband, since both shared the same ancestors in the French noble houses of Coucy and Dreux. As a bit of insurance in terms of the succession, in the meantime, in 1284, Alexander had induced the Estates in Scotland to recognise his granddaughter Margaret, the ‘Maid of Norway’, as his heir-presumptive.

Alexander had some fun in the ten years between his two marriages as reported in the ‘Lanercost Chronicle’. He surely didn’t spend his decade as a widower on his lonesome. The ‘Chronicle’ recounts his fortitude when it came to fornication thus; “…he used never to forbear on account of season nor storm, nor for perils of flood or rocky cliffs, but would visit none too creditably nuns or matrons, virgins or widows as the fancy seized him, sometimes in disguise”. He no doubt also enjoyed his matrimonial attempts at procreation with the pretty Yolande, once she had arrived on the scene and it seems it was the Lion Rampant that was the cause of his own premature death.

Alexander seemingly died in a fall from his horse whilst riding in the dark on his way to visit his new Queen Consort at Kinghorn in Fife, in the early hours of the 19th of March, 1286. He was on the way from an evening at Edinburgh Castle, having presided at a meeting of his Royal advisors and perhaps having indulged in a wee bit of celebration. Perhaps he also got a wee bit over excited at the thought of getting back to Fife, despite his advisors advice not to make the journey, because of poor weather conditions. However it happened, Alexander became separated from his guides and, it is assumed, his horse lost its footing in the dark and Alexander lost his life. The forty-four years old King was found the following morning, like a stranger on the shore, with a broken neck. There was no autopsy as those things hadn’t been invented, but maybe one would’ve found an excess of alcohol in his blood, who knows. Some chronicle texts state that Alexander fell off a cliff, but there is no cliff at the site where his body was found. There is a very steep, rocky embankment, though, which would have been fatal in the dark.

As a postscript to the story, it appears that by the time of Alexander’s death, Yolande was believed to be pregnant and so her unborn child was the heir to the throne. Guardians were quickly elected at a Parliament held at Scone (it might’ve been at Perth or even Kinross) in April and everyone waited to see what Yolande would deliver. In fact, she didn’t produce an heir. Most likely she had a miscarriage, however, in one account, the Guardians gathered at Clackmannan on Saint Catherine’s Day, the 25th of November, 1286, to witness a birth and the child was stillborn. Other accounts suggest Yolande had a phantom pregnancy. An unsympathetic English account states that she was simply faking her condition as her own form of insurance. In any event, she wasn’t barren as she remarried Arthur II, the Duke of Brittany and the two of them had at least six children. However, when the ‘Maid of Norway’ died at sea on her way to take up the Throne, Scotland’s future looked decidedly bleak and barren.

Malcolm IV, King of Scots

Malcolm IV, King of Scots, died on the 9th of December, 1165.

Malcolm IV became known as Malcolm ‘the Maiden’ in the way that historians like to add labels. He didn’t have a surname other than the Gaelic patronymic of ‘Máel Coluim mac Eanric’, which translates as Malcolm mac Henry, since he was the eldest son of Henry of Scotland and grandson of David I, Henry’s dad. So he couldn’t have gone down in the annals of history in the same way as one of his successors and distant relation, Robert, ‘the Bruce’. Essentially, the chroniclers nicknamed him ‘the Maiden’ because of his youth and unmarried status. For much of his reign, he was in poor health, albeit noted for his religious zeal, Anglo-Norman tastes, and an interest in being knighted. It appears he was also the original Malcolm Canmore, a name now commonly associated with his great-grandfather, Malcolm III, as he was denoted Mael Coluim Cennmor, mac Eanric, ardri Alban – Malcolm the Great Chief, son of Henry, High King of Scotland.

Malcolm was born on the 20th of March, 1142, and he came to the Throne at the age of twelve when he was crowned at Scone Abbey on the 27th of May, 1153. His father had predeceased him by a year or so, which is why he succeeded his grandfather, who had died in Carlisle on the 24th of May. The coronation took place before the David I was buried, which might appear a wee bit hasty and disrespectful, but it should be recalled that the young Monarch wasn’t without rivals for the kingship. His granddad had intended that Donnchad, Mormaer of Fife, would act as a ‘rector’ or Regent for wee Malky until he came of age, but Donnchad only lasted a year or so before he died in 1154. So the boy King was a wee bit exposed and the opportunity arose for old enmities to resurface. Malcolm had to contend with a variety of problems; home and away.

On the home front, Malcolm had a bit of trouble from the men of Moray, who were family rivals. Those were the sons of Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair, an illegitimate son of Alexander I.  Máel Coluim had been imprisoned by David I at Roxburgh in 1134 and in 1153, his sons were free to contest the succession, which they did. One of those sons was captured at Whithorn in 1156 and imprisoned with his father. One problem historians have had, which Malcolm IV didn’t, is distinguishing between Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair and Máel Coluim MacHeth. It is generally accepted that they were not the same man, which gives us a bit of a problem with Domnall MacHeth as his very existence depends on the opposite being true. It is probably a case of mistaken identity as the son of Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair who was imprisoned in 1156 may well have been called Domnall. Máel Coluim MacHeth enters the Annals in 1157, when he was reconciled with Malcolm IV and restored to the Mormaerdom of Ross, which he held until his death in around 1168. Another Domnall, Domnall mac Uilleim, appears in the records in the late 1170s, but it may be that he too should be linked to the disorders in Moray in the 1160s. The ‘Gesta Annalia’ records a revolt in Moray around 1163, which led to Malcolm IV creating a Scottish Diaspora. He expelled the men of Moray “and scattered them …so that not even one native of that land abode there”.

Also on the home front, Malcolm had to cope with rebellion in Galloway, particularly Fergus, Lord of Galloway. After he was besieged in Perth Castle in a rebellion of six of his Earls in 1160 and managed a peaceful reconciliation, Malcolm led an expedition into Galloway where he defeated Fergus. He took Fergus’ son, Uchtred, as a hostage and banished Fergus as a Monk to Holyrood, where he died in 1161. Malcolm installed one of Fergus’ sons in his place. On the western home front, Malcolm had to deal with Somerled, Lord of the Isles. Matters came to a head in 1164, when Somerled landed a large army of Islesmen, Norsemen and Irishmen, and advanced on Glasgow and Renfrew, where the Steward, Walter Fitzalan, had his new castle. Somerled’s power base in the Isles meant that he was able to land an army of 15,000 men from 164 galleys at Greenock, but somewhere near Inchinnan, on the 20th of October, he and his son Gillebrigte were killed in what is commonly referred to as the Battle of Renfrew. The Steward’s army included the levies of the area, led by Herbert of Selkirk, the Bishop of Glasgow, but the chronicles of the day attributed the victory to the intercession of Saint Kentigern (St Mungo). Much confusion surrounds the manner of the battle, and indeed whether a full scale battle occurred at all, but what is certain is that Somerled was killed and his army departed. Kentigern was long since dead.

Of course, Malcolm had far more trouble with Henry I of England, who took advantage early on when the King was still a wee boy. Malcolm’s granddad had extended the kingdom of Scotland to embrace the modern English counties of Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland, and in addition, Malcolm was the Earl of Cumberland and the Earl of Huntingdon, a fief of the English crown, whilst he had granted his brother William the earldom of Northumberland. However, by the Treaty of Chester, signed in 1157, Henry forced Malcolm to surrender Carlisle and those northern counties in return for ‘reconfirming’ Malcolm’s rights to the Huntingdon. Henry reneged on a promise to David I, reclaimed northern England and settled the border on a line between the Solway and the Tweed. Malcolm also gave up his brother’s earldom on his behalf. All in all, a heavy price to pay for peace, but with all the resources of Normandy, Aquitaine and England at his disposal, Henry was probably not the best man against whom to go to war.

Malcolm was awfy keen on being knighted and had to look to Henry for that honour, but after a meeting in Carlisle, in 1158, the two Kings split up “without having become good friends” and without the Scottish King being “yet knighted”. The following year, Malcolm toddled off to France after Henry and was finally knighted at the Siege of Toulouse. All of that didn’t go down well with the folks back home, who saw Malcolm as their King and not like Henry, more relevant to his having gone to France, as the Earl of Huntingdon. Malcolm returned from Toulouse in 1160 and it was then he was besieged in St Johnstoun of Perth.

The pious and frail Malcolm IV died at Jedburgh Castle on the 9th of December, 1165, and he was buried at Dunfermline Abbey. According to A.A.M. Duncan in ‘The Kingship of the Scots 842–1292: Succession and Independence’ Malcolm’s premature death may have been hastened by Paget’s disease. Malcolm was perhaps the last Gaelic speaking monarch and although he did not marry, he left a natural son. Nigel Tranter chronicles part of Malcolm’s stork in ‘Tapestry of the Boar.

Malcolm II

Malcolm II, King of Alba, died on the 25th of November, 1034.

King Malcolm II was the last of the ancient line of the House of mac Alpin and he got a good press from the contemporary accounts; the ancient ‘chronicles’ and ‘annals’ of Gaeldom. The ‘Irish Annals’ refer to him as being “honoured among all men” and the ‘Prophecy of Berchán’ (a 12th Century retrospective, rather than the obvious) referred to him as “Forranach” (“the destroyer”). Other accounts record that he was “skilled in brandishing the sword and hurling the spear” and that he was a “victorious warrior in battle”. He was ‘Ard Rí Alban’ or High King of Alba and the first King to reign over most of what corresponds to modern Scotland. At the time he became King, in the early 11th Century, what we now know as Scotland was still divided into separate sub-kingdoms or semi-independent territories. The Kingship of Strathclyde ruled much of the southwest, including Cumbria; the Mormaer of Moray (or Fortriu) controlled the territories around the Great Glen; and most of the north and west coasts and the Hebrides was still in the grip of Norse and Gaelic rulers. In adjacent England, the descendants of the Kings of Northumbria, who had once overlordship of Lothian and most of the south, retained a measure of control in the southeast.

In achieving his goal of possessing the Kingship of Alba, securing his family’s right of succession and expanding the territory of his kingdom to unite those separate territories, Malcolm certainly lived up to his epitaph of “the destroyer”. It seems that in those days, getting a good press meant destroying the opposition in as brutal a manner as possible. Notwithstanding that the house of Alpin had ruled since the days of Kenneth I, conflict between rival claimants was the norm and, although that usually led to the strongest leader surviving, the prevailing law of Tanistry presented Malcolm with a problem. Malcolm didn’t have too much of a problem in gaining the crown, but he saw a problem in retaining it through his chosen successor. He solved both problems by exercising his aptitude for destruction. He seized power by killing the previous King, Kenneth III, and his son and co-ruler, Giric II. He attempted to retain power for his bloodline by setting out to destroy any rivals or competing claimants to the throne – or so he thought.

Malcolm gained the throne by defeating his first and second cousins, the father and son rulers, Kenneth III and Giric II, at the Battle of Monzievaird, fought on the north side of Loch Earn near Crieff, on the 25th of March, 1005. The name, pronounced ‘mon ee vaird’, is derived from the Gaelic ‘magh’ and ‘bard’, meaning ‘the plain of the bards’. Following his enthronement, Malcolm’s purge of the rival members of his extended family began by having the grandson of Kenneth III killed. Other notable casualties were Bodhe mac Cináeda (Boede or Boedhe), a son of Kenneth II (or Kenneth III), Malcolm mac Bodhe (MaelBaethe), a grandson of Kenneth II, and in 1032, Gille Comgáin, Mormaer of Moray and husband of Gruoch, a granddaughter of Kenneth III. Bodhe mac Cináeda was also the father of Gruoch and it was that lineage, which put her husband at risk and no doubt gave rise to his elimination.

Strangely enough, although Malcolm’s murderous schemes seemed to have worked in the sense that his chosen successor, his grandson Duncan, acceded to the throne as Duncan I upon Malcolm’s death in 1034, Malcolm missed a couple of important persons. Those were Macbeth, who married the aforementioned Gruoch, and her son Lulach, by Gille Comgáin. When Macbeth married Gruoch, the matrilineal system of succession, which legitimately offered candidates under the laws of Tanistry, meant that Macbeth had a claim to the throne though his wife, regardless of his own bloodline. In fact, some documents claim Macbeth was directly related to King Malcolm II, supposedly being a grandson, but regardless of lineage, Macbeth ultimately did become King, and Lulach after him, by defeating Duncan I in battle.

No doubt Malcolm wouldn’t have had to go on his killing spree if he had fathered a son and heir, but he didn’t. The only evidence that he did have a son is from the chronicle of Rodulfus Glaber, in which it is suggested that Cnut (Canute) stood as godfather to a son of Malcolm. However, whether or not that was true, by the time Malcolm died, there was no living son to succeed him, which is why he chose a grandson. He had several grandsons, courtesy of his daughters, and he had two or maybe three of those. Duncan I or Duncan ‘the Gracious’, who succeeded Malcolm to beget the House of Dunkeld, was the eldest of his grandsons, born circa 1001 to Princess Bethoc (Beatrix) of Scotland, Lady of Atholl and Heiress of Scone, who married Crinan Erwin, Abbot of Dunkeld and (perhaps) Mormaer of Atholl, about 1000. Those two had another son, Maldred, Lord of Allerdale, who was born much later, in 1015.

Malcolm’s other grandsons were Thorfinn II, 1st Earl of Caithness, who was born around 1009 and, just possibly, Macbeth, who was born circa 1005. Thorfinn was the son of Sigurd II, ‘Digri’ Hlodversson, Earl (Jarl) of Orkney, but his mother was either Anleta Mackenneth or Donalda of Alba; the latter a daughter of Malcolm and the former, allegedly so. It is possible that a third daughter of Malcolm married Findláech mac Ruaidrí, the Mormaer of Moray, and that Macbeth was a son of that union, but that rests on relatively weak evidence. Findláech was Macbeth’s father and some sources claim Donalda married Findláech and then Sigurd after the former was killed, but that has to be absurd as Findláech died in 1020. It’s more likely that Donalda married Sigurd and, if there was an Anleta, it was she who married Findláech.

Malcolm II, the son of Kenneth II, was born about 970 and he was the last King in the direct male line of descent from Kenneth mac Alpine. He died from battle injuries at Glamis Castle in Angus on the 25th of November, 1034, according to the ‘Prophecy of Berchán’ in a fight with “the parricides”, suggested as being the sons of Máel Brigte of Moray. Malcolm fought several battles in addition to Monzievaird, losing against the Bernicians of Northumbria led by Earl Uhtred at Durham in1006, defeating the Danish General Camus at the Battle of Barrie in 1010 and gaining revenge for Durham at the Battle of Carham (or Coldstream) in 1016 or 1018. The overall result was that Malcolm achieved his goal of extending his realm during his lifetime. He achieved sovereignty over Lothian and the Borders down into Northumbria and was the man responsible for bringing Berwick upon Tweed into Scotland.

Malcolm Canmore, Malcolm III

Malcolm III, King of Scots, known as Malcolm ‘Canmore’, died on the 13th of November, 1093, in the Battle of Alnwick.

Malcolm Canmore was the man who killed Macbeth, not the Macduff Mormaer of Fife as represented in the reprehensible tragedy of yon Wullie Shakespeare. That was a travesty of a tragedy, which deserves no place in historical record. The real story is arguably much better than Oor Wullie’s play, with plenty of infighting and power struggles as well as intimations of murder. Malcolm Canmore defeated and killed Macbeth in battle at Lumphanan, in Aberdeenshire, on the 15th of August, 1057. The following year, he was also responsible for the death, in suspicious circumstances, of Lulach, Macbeth's stepson, who had taken over Macbeth’s throne. Order had been restored, you might say, with Malcolm then having ultimately succeeded to the Throne previously held by his father, Duncan I, whom Macbeth had defeated in 1040. Talk about a merry-go-round; it makes you dizzy working it out. To add to the mix of murky dealings that Shakespeare drew upon, there was the ‘Prophecy of Berchán’, which described Duncan I as ‘the man of many sorrows’, and the fact that Macbeth was killed on exactly the same date in 1057 as his adversary and predecessor, Duncan I, in 1040 – the 15th of August.

When Macbeth assumed the Throne and became King of Scots in 1040, Malcolm and his younger brother, Domnall Bán, were still children. As a result and according to John of Fordun, they left Scotland with their mother when she fled after her husband’s death. That was probably a good idea as Macbeth may well have sought to ‘remove them from the equation’. He certainly would’ve if he’d listened to Shakespeare. Depending on whom you believe Duncan married, depends on where his wife was likely to have taken her offspring to safety. Either Northumbria, if he married a niece of Earl Siward Biornsson of Northumbria, according to Fordun (14th Century), revamped by Skene (1872) and supported by James Young (1884), or Orkney if he married a Gaelic quine called Suthen, according to the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba (12-13th Century) and supported by A. A. M. Duncan (2002). Another solution was offered some time ago by E. William Robertson, which was that the safest place for Duncan's widow and her children would’ve been with her or Duncan's kin and supporters in Atholl. It’s debatable how safe Atholl would’ve been, since Macbeth’s influence, albeit centered on Moray – the ancient Pictish Fortriu or the Uerturiones as recorded by the Romans – covered a good deal of Scotland. The Orkney link doesn’t quite stand up to scrutiny, despite Malcolm’s having taken as his first wife, Ingebjørg Finnsdottir, the widow of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, the eldest son of Sigurd Hlodvirsson, who was the Earl of Orkney at the time. Why would Malcolm’s mother flee to the court of the father of a man who was culpable, along with Macbeth, in the death of her husband?

Malcolm ‘Canmore’ mac Duncan was born around 1031 and although he ascended to the Throne of Scotland on the 17th of March, 1058, he wasn’t crowned until the 25th of April, 1058, at Scone Abbey, in Perthshire. Malcolm is said to have founded the dynasty of the ‘House of Canmore’, otherwise known as the ‘House of Dunkeld’, which lasted two hundred years, until succeeded by the ‘House of Bruce’, briefly, before the rise of the ‘House of Stewart’ (which became ‘Stuart’), with the death of David II in the 14th Century. Some contest the ‘founding of a dynasty’ part, suggesting it his more to do with the propaganda of his youngest son David, and his descendants, than with any historical reality, but by definition, Malcolm was the progenitor and, therefore, the founder. Part of Malcolm’s legacy is coloured by his having married Margaret, the great-niece of Edward the Confessor, in 1070. She had fled to Scotland with her brother, Edgar the Atheling, who was the Anglo-Saxon heir to the English throne who had been denied his birthright by the untimely appearance of William the Conqueror in 1066. As a result of his marriage to Margaret, Anglo-Saxon, rather than Gaelic, became the first language at the court of the High King of Alba and that very court then became the court of the King of Scots as Malcolm III was the first to be called ‘King of Scotland’ in his own time.

Malcolm spent the next several years being a thorn in the side of the Normans who had conquered England. His court was full of English exiles and between them, they raided deep into Northumbria and Cumbria. William I quickly became fed up with that and marched north to deal with the disturbance. By the 1072 Treaty of Abernethy, Malcolm was forced to submit to his authority and agree to his son Duncan becoming a hostage in England. That treaty should perhaps be seen as very significant in the history of Scotland as it provided the basis for later claims of dominance of the English throne over the Scottish throne. It did, however, also grant Malcolm power over most of the territory in Cumbria that he had expanded into, admittedly in return for swearing allegiance to William I. Later, in 1079, and undeterred, despite the danger to his son’s life, Malcolm again raided into England, but was repulsed. Then again, in 1091, after the succession of William II, William Rufus, in 1087, Malcolm once more stepped across the border to defend what he saw as his rights. Rufus came north and captured Carlisle and, on that occasion too, Malcolm had to accept second best.

Finally, in 1092, relations between William Rufus and Malcolm Canmore came to a head and broke down, and whether or not that was due to William’s expansionist movements in Cumbria or to a dispute over Malcolm’s estates in England, the end result was war. As the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports, “Malcolm… gathered his army, and came harrowing into England with more hostility than behoved him”. Malcolm was accompanied by Edward, his heir-designate and the eldest of the ‘Margaretsons’, and by Edgar, the fourth of that litter. On his way back north, Malcolm was ambushed by Robert de Mowbray, the Earl of Northumbria, in an engagement that became known as the Battle of Alnwick, on the 13th of November, 1093. Malcolm was killed by Arkil Morel, the Steward of Bamburgh Castle. Malcolm’s eldest son from his second marriage, Prince Edward of Scotland, was mortally wounded in the same battle.

Malcolm was buried at Tynemouth, but in 1115, in the reign of his son Alexander, he was exhumed and reburied in Dunfermline Abbey alongside his wife, Margaret.

The death of Duncan II

Duncan II died on the 12th of November, 1094, at the Battle of Monthechin.

Duncan was a bit of a doughnut. He was the first King of Scots to have been seriously influenced by the English, in the sense that he was probably more Norman-English than Scottish at the time he ascended to the throne. Of course, there had always been English interference in the affairs of Scotland, but that was usually invasion and intended conquest or some form of military intervention. Contrary to that sort of thing, the English influence over Duncan II, which effectively ushered in the beginning of the age of Norman-Scots, was peaceable. It stemmed from the fact that Duncan spent a large part of his life at the court of the Crimson King, William Rufus. And that had transpired, because Duncan’s father, Malcolm Canmore, Malcolm III, had to give up his son as a hostage for his good behavior as per the Treaty of Abernethy.

Duncan, was born around 1060 and was sent to England in 1072, when he would have been no more than twelve. Having been sent south at an impressionable age, Duncan then spent fifteen years in England, before he was released from his hostage status by the new King, William II, that being William Rufus, in 1087. However, he remained in England, soaking up the Norman culture, becoming a member of William’s court and being knighted by the English King. Back in Scotland, Malcolm III had produced quite a crop of sons and he probably didn’t miss his eldest so much as he was one of three sons by his first wife, whom he’d replaced with the (to be) ‘sainted’ Margaret when Ingebjørg died. Funnily enough, several of the six ‘Margaretsons’ possibly ended up in England, one of them being for sure David, who as David I, was responsible for further advancing the Norman influence in Scotland – for better or worse.

In 1092, relations between William Rufus and Malcolm Canmore began to break down, and whether or not that was due to William’s expansionist movements in Cumbria or to a dispute over Malcolm’s estates in England, the end result was war. As the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports, “Malcolm… gathered his army, and came harrowing into England with more hostility than behoved him”. Malcolm was accompanied by Edward, his heir-designate and the eldest of the ‘Margaretsons’, and by Edgar, the fourth of that litter. On his way back north, Malcolm was ambushed by Robert de Mowbray, the Earl of Northumbria, in an engagement that became known as the Battle of Alnwick, on the 13th of November, 1093. Malcolm was killed by Arkil Morel, the Steward of Bamburgh Castle, and Malcolm’s son Edward was mortally wounded in the same fight. Malcolm’s attack on England may have endangered Duncan’s life, but as he was no longer a hostage and indeed a pal of Rufus, that was never likely.

The question of who was to succeed Malcolm then arose. If Malcolm had been behind the Norman principle of primogeniture, his heir would have been Duncan, his eldest son. But the Scottish system owed more to the ancient Gaelic practice of tanistry and that was why Edward’s had been quite legitimately designated as Malcolm’s successor. With Edward having died, the process of tanistry meant the Crown was up for grabs and that led to Malcolm’s younger brother, Domnall Bán, Donald the White, being proclaimed Donald III, with support from Edmund, the second ‘Margaretson’. Donald was probably living in Scotland at the time, rather than having remained in exile at the court of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, the Earl of Orkney, and it is unfair to suggest that he usurped the Throne. He had as good a claim as his nephew Duncan. Also at that time, David the ‘Margaretson’ joined his half brother Duncan in England, but it is unclear if, for example, Edgar and Alexander did. Ethelred surely didn’t as he had become the Abbot of Dunkeld.

Now it was that Duncan, encouraged by his Norman cronies and his English education to a belief in primogeniture, gained the ambition to secure the Scottish Crown. With that purpose in mind, Duncan returned to Scotland, in the Spring of 1094, at the head of an Anglo-Norman army. However, there is no evidence that he was accompanied by the elder of his half brothers or whether any of them joined him when he arrived in Scotland. Duncan’s army was victorious as he easily defeated his uncle, Donald Bán, and his half brother, Edmund. By the end of May of 1094, Duncan had placed himself on the Throne as Duncan II. Duncan had received the tacit support of William II for the Scottish Crown, but as William had planned a campaign in Normandy, the Anglo-Norman army was withdrawn in the summer, leaving Duncan very exposed. Duncan had very little support north of the Forth and he was also seen as a puppet of William Rufus. Of course, his ‘englishness’ didn’t commend him to the Gaels and Scots.

Ultimately, his reign didnae last long as he and many of his Norman supporters, those who had remained with him in Scotland, were killed at the Battle of Monthechin, near Kincardine, on the 12th of November, 1094. Alison Weir, in ‘Britain’s Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy’, published in 1999, states that Duncan was “killed in action”. However, many stories circulate about his having been murdered by Máel Petair, the Mormaer of the Mearns, who was loyal to Donald Bán. Interestingly, Máel Petair, who appears in numerous sources and whose name means ‘tonsured one of [Saint] Peter’, is the only known Mormaer of the Mearns. After the death of Duncan II, Donald Bán and Edmund resumed their joint reign, but not for long as the merry-go-round continued to spin. Both were deposed in 1097, by Edgar, another ‘Margaretson’, who had his Uncle Donald blinded and imprisoned, and his brother Edmund sent to a monastery. Poor Donald died a broken man in prison at Rescobis, in Forfarshire, in 1099. Duncan II was buried at Dunfermline Abbey.

William of Orange

William of Orange landed in southwest England on Guy Fawkes’ day, the 5th of November, 1688.

William of Orange wasn’t remotely speaking Scottish, but his arrival on the scene in England in 1688 marked the end of the long ruling lineage of the Stuart (or Stewart as they were previously known) Kings of Scotland. Well, not quite, as William ruled jointly and together with his wife, Mary, who was a Stuart, and he was succeeded by Queen Anne, who was Mary’s sister and in truth, the last of the Stuarts. However, William’s arrival was significant for the male Stuarts and for the Catholic faith in England, Scotland and Ireland. As a Protestant, William participated in several wars against the powerful Catholic king of France, Louis XIV, in coalition with other powers in Europe. Many Protestants heralded William as a champion of their faith and even to this day, some numpties make a big deal of ‘King Billy’ as he became known in Ireland. William was invited to take the triple crowns, essentially because many folks in England were running scared of a revival of Catholicism under James II and VII.

William of Orange, who became William III, King of England and William II, King of Scots, was a sovereign Prince of Orange who ruled as Stadtholder Willem III van Oranje over the Dutch Republic of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders/Zutphen, Friesland, Groningen/Ommelanden and Overijssel. The Dutch Republic, otherwise known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, was the result of an argy-bargy between Philip II of Spain, the Holy Roman Emperor of the day, and one of William’s predecessors over the rule of parts of the Low Countries in the 16th Century. William I of Orange revolted against Philip II over high taxes and persecution of Protestants and that led to the so-called Eighty Years’ War and a declaration of independence, which led to the formation of the Republic in 1588. The Principality of Orange was originally also a fief of the Holy Roman Empire in its Kingdom of Burgundy in the Rhône valley in southern France, which belonged to the house of Orange-Nassau. William’s family lost that territory in 1673, when Louis XIV of France annexed it, but kept the title.

William ‘won’ the triple crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1689, following the ‘Glorious Revolution’, in which his uncle and father-in-law, James II and VII, was deposed. Well, it wasn’t such a glorious revolution; more of a sordid little affair that led to the overthrow of James II and VII by William of Orange and his invading army, supported by a union of Parliamentarians. That act was prompted by the birth of a male heir to James II and VII, namely James Francis Edward Stuart, who would’ve been James III and VIII and who became known as the ‘Old Pretender’. In reality, it was the English Parliament, together with William and Mary, who were the ‘pretenders’. In effect, they pretended that young James Francis Edward wisnae entitled to his birthright and that it should pass to his Auntie Mary and her husband, the Oranjeboom. And the raison d’être for all of that was religion.

James II and VII had attempted to lift restrictions on Catholics taking up public offices, which act was bitterly opposed by the Protestants. And with the birth wee Jamesie, the prospect of a return to a Roman Catholic dynasty had become very likely. In addition, the Parliamentarians were worried by the King's close ties with France and Louis XIV. Some of the key leaders of the Tories then united with members of the opposition Whigs to form a Tory/Liberal coalition (how about that!) and their double dealing shenanigans led to what amounted to another civil war. James fled the country and Parliament, seeking any old excuse, saw that as the opportunity it had been waiting for and declared that James II and VII had effectively abdicated. So it then offered the Crown to his Protestant daughter Mary and her Protestant Dutch husband.

The name ‘Glorious Revolution’ was first used by John Hampden, who had been opposed to the rule of Charles II and had narrowly escaped execution in 1685. He coined the expression in late 1689, after William and Mary had taken up the Throne. The ‘[In]Glorious Revolution’ is an expression that is still used by the British Parliament. It has sometimes also been referred to as the ‘Bloodless Revolution’, which is a bit of a joke. Just ask the soldiers who died in the two significant clashes that took place in England or the protagonists in what was known as the ‘Williamite War’ in Ireland or those who fought in Scotland at the battles of Killicrankie and Dunkeld. The Revolution was also closely tied in with the events of the ‘War of the Grand Alliance’ on mainland Europe and, because of William’s invading armies in England and Ireland, it can be seen as the last successful invasion of Britain.

In a sense, the overthrow of James II and VII was the start of modern British parliamentary democracy and the constitutional monarchy as never since has the monarch held absolute power. Parliament also took the opportunity, in 1689, after William and Mary had been crowned, to approve Bill of Rights and, later on in 1701, the Act of Settlement. Those were English statutes that lawfully upheld the prominence of Parliament for the first time in English history. The removal of James II and VII ended any chance of Catholicism becoming re-established in England and ignited the Jacobite cause in Scotland. For Catholics, it was a disastrous time, both socially and politically as they were denied the right to vote and sit in the Westminster Parliament for over one hundred years. They were also denied commissions in the army and the Monarch, as remains the case, was forbidden to be Catholic or marry a Catholic, in order to ensure a Protestant succession.

Sir Edward de Brus, High King of Ireland

Sir Edward Bruce, High King of Ireland, Earl of Carrick, and brother of Robert I, King of Scots, died on the 14th of October, 1318.

By the year 1315, there were only two de Brus brothers left in Scotland; Robert de Brus and his younger sibling Edward. The English Plantagenet Edwards, I and II, between them had the others chopped into pieces in the manner Longshanks had practiced on yon Welshman, Dafydd ap Gruffudd, in 1283, and perfected as his way of dispatching William Wallace in 1305. Sometime between the Spring of 1307 and the 7th of July that year, when the ‘Hammer of the Scots’ died, he had caused Neil de Brus, the youngest of the brothers, to be drawn, hanged and quartered. The other two Bruce brothers, Alexander and Thomas, had suffered a similar fate at the hands of Edward II after being captured in the Spring of 1308 in the vicinity of Loch Ryan. Bannockburn kinda settled the score to some extent, but the English threat wouldn’t go away and neither Robert nor Edward de Brus were the kind to sit content on their laurels.

One year AB (after Bannockburn), Robert I of Scotland, sent his wee brother to Ireland. Edward's main mission was to make a nuisance o’ himsel’ and create a second front in the ongoing war against England. The Plantagenet dynasty’s right to rule over Ireland had been ‘confirmed’ by the ‘Laudabiliter’ in 1155 – a Papal Bull issued by the English Pope, Adrian IV, in favour of Henry II of England. Thereafter, between 1169 and 1171, the invasion of Ireland consolidated the English rule and afterwards, the country was divided between the surviving Irish dynasties in the west and the Anglo-Norman-Irish Lordship in the east. The Bruces, buoyed by their success against Edward II and in anticipation of support from the Irish, decided it would be a good idea to invade Ireland; if not to drive out the English, at least to keep them on the defensive. In support of their planned invasion of Ireland, the Bruces organised a propaganda campaign, which majored on the close cultural, ethnic and tribal links between the two countries. That was stretching things a bit for a Norman-Scot, but for someone who later subscribed to the notion of the cradle of Scotland’s existence being far off Egypt, it wasn’t too much of a stretch. The Bruces’ vision was of a pan-Gaelic alliance, between the predominantly Gaelic Irish and the part-Gaelic, part-Norman, part-Scottish, emergent Bruce dynasty. You might think that Robert de Brus’ second marriage, to Elizabeth de Burgh, daughter of the Earl of Ulster, would have been a factor, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that the de Burghs were no less Norman than the Bruces and they were certainly no friends to the indigenous Gaelic hierarchy, and particulary the Ó Néills. Robert de Brus wrote a letter to the Irish chiefs in which he stressed the ancient heritage and common language of the Scots and Irish, using the phrase ‘nostra nacio’ (our nation) in his Latin missive, which read in part:

“Whereas we and you and our people and your people, free since ancient times, share the same national ancestry and are urged to come together more eagerly and joyfully in friendship by a common language and by common custom, we have sent you our beloved kinsman, the bearers of this letter, to negotiate with you in our name about permanently strengthening and maintaining inviolate the special friendship between us and you, so that with God's will our nation may be able to recover her ancient liberty.”

The Irish had ceased to be coherent enough to support a High King and some of them recognised the need for a unifying leader. One of these was Domnál mac Brian Ó Néill, notionally King of Ulster, who had been Ard Rí himsel’ briefly, between 1258 and 1260. Clearly, he saw the advantages of the Bruces’ plan and promptly extended an invite to Edward de Brus to become High King. For Ed, it was a ‘no brainer’ that would elevate him to King in his own right and out of the shadow of his elder brother and, on the 26th of May, 1315, he landed with more than 6,000 men near Larne in County Antrim. Edward, aided by Ó Néill, quickly defeated the Norman vassals of Robert de Brus’ father-in-law, the Earl of Ulster, and their Irish allies, and subsequently captured the town of Carrickfergus. Then, at Faughart in County Louth, sometime in early June of 1315, Edward de Brus was proclaimed High King of Ireland by Ó Néill and twelve or so of his northern Irish Kinglings. It was recorded by the Irish Annals that “all the Gaels of Ireland agreed to grant him lordship and they called him King of Ireland.” However, in practice, it was a fairly nominal recognition by many, although Bruce did have ‘de facto’ rule over much of eastern and mid-Ulster for a time. Later, in 1317, Ó Néill even went as far as to write to Pope John XXII, where he described Edward as “pious and prudent, humble and chaste, exceedingly temperate, in all things sedate and moderate, and possessing power (God on high be praised) to snatch us mightily from the house of bondage” and demanded the revoking of the Papal Bull. Pope John said “Bullocks!”

Edward de Brus spent three and a half years in Ireland. During that time he attempted to subdue the island and bring both the Anglo-Norman-Irish and the native Irish Gaels to heel. Prominent battles were fought at Dundalk, Connor and Kells; in each of which Edward was victorious. Robert the Bruce came over for a time ‘to crack a few heids’, but he went back to Scotland in the Spring of 1317 after famine had stricken most of Ireland. The end of Edward’s ‘reign’ came at the Battle of Faughart – the same place where he had been crowned just over three years previously – on the 14th of October, 1318. Edward de Brus was defeated by Anglo-Norman-Irish forces under John de Berminghan, thus ending forever the hopes of a combined Scots-Irish resistance to England. Like his brothers before him, Edward de Brus was chopped up and pieces of his body were displayed in the chief towns of the east. His head was lightly salted and presented to King Edward II in a box, albeit locals can still point to what is supposed to be the grave of de Brus in the churchyard on the Hill of Faughart.

The Bruces’ propaganda had suggested that there was a strong fellow feeling amongst the mediaeval Scottish and Irish and that they had a common enemy in England. However, the Annals of Ulster, referring to Edward de Brus’ death, recorded that “…there was not done from the beginning of the world a deed that was better for the Men of Ireland than that deed” The Annals were reflecting the public joy at the end of the famine and pillaging caused by the fighting between the ‘Foreigners of Ireland’.

Edward Balliol, King of Scots

Edward Balliol, the son of the ‘Toom Tabard’, John Balliol, was crowned at Scone on the 24th of September, 1332.

Edward Balliol gets a bad press where Scotland’s history is concerned, but things could have been so much different. At one point, he had a claim to the Scottish throne, which was as legitimate as that of Robert the Bruce, if not more of a claim, being the eldest son of the previous King, John Balliol. However, events didn’t work out in his favour and, although he was crowned King of Scots, he never held on to the Crown. History doesn’t record a nickname for Edward Balliol in the manner of his father’s ‘Toom Tabard’ but if we called him the ‘yo-yo’ King, it wouldn’t be too far off the mark. In comparison to the familiar and famous Robert the Bruce, any challenger for the Throne of Scotland at that time will be seen as nothing less than a treacherous loser who sold his soul to an English Edward in exchange for the dubious honour of ruling a Kingdom rendered abject and subject by an act of craven surrender. He would be seen as guilty of treason and of resorting to any means, even surrendering his self respect, in order to achieve his goal of wearing the crown of the King of Scots. Edward Balliol and the Comyn faction of the ‘Disinherited’ ultimately lost out to the descendents and supporters of Robert the Bruce, but he went down fighting in the sense that he tried, time and again, to secure his hold on the Throne. He may have seen a spider too, but unlike Bruce in the end, give up he did.

Edward Balliol was born around 1283, in the reign of Alexander III. He was the eldest son of John Balliol and Isabella de Warenne, the daughter of John de Warenne, the Earl of Surrey. When his father was forced to abdicate in1296, by King Edward I of England, Edward was imprisoned with him in England. History records that he was a prisoner in the Tower of London in 1315. However, before and after that, between his father’s removal from the Throne and the year 1324, it is also recorded that he was exiled to live in France. Whatever the dates, bearing in mind that Edward I died in 1307 and John Balliol died in France in 1314, Edward Balliol spent time in England as a prisoner and as an exile in France. He was recalled to England by Edward II in 1324, who wanted to present him as a rival to Robert the Bruce. Whatever legitimacy Edward Balliol had in terms of rightful claims to the Scottish Throne, right there and then, hapless victim of the English King’s propaganda campaign, he lost all credibility. In return for the support of Edward II, Balliol sold his soul to the devil.

After the success of the First Scottish War of Independence and the impact Robert the Bruce had had on Scotland and the Scots, how could Balliol have imagined he could win the loyalty, never mind the hearts and minds, of the nobles of Scotland? All he had to call upon were his fellow ‘Disinherited’ nobles or the ‘Dispossessed’ as they were also known, his Comyn relations, and the army of Edward II. However, that didn’t materialise into any concrete action and it wasn’t until the death of Bruce and the intervention of Edward III that Balliol made progress towards his goal. David II succeeded to the Scottish throne when he was four years old, on the death of the Bruce. The two men whom Robert the Bruce had entrusted with the guardianship of his young son, Sir James Douglas and Thomas Randolph, the Earl of Moray, were made joint Regents to rule on David’s behalf. Neither of those two outlived their King by long. Douglas died shortly after in a battle against the Moors in Spain, whilst on route to the Holy Land to partake in the Crusades as Bruce’s proxy; to fulfill his dying wish. It wasn’t long before Randolph followed him to the grave and the Regency passed to the Bruce's nephew, Donald, Earl of Mar. Those circumstances presented Edward Balliol with a chance of seizing the Throne and with the support of his puppet master, Edward III of England, he sailed from the Humber with a large armed force to invade his own country. He landed his army of 3,400 at Kinghorn in Fife and marched towards Perth, near where, on the 12th of August, 1332, he was met in battle by the Earl of Mar. The battle is known as the Battle of Dupplin Moor and the result was a victory for Edward and his largely English army. After the victory, Edward marched to Scone, where he was crowned King of Scots on the 24th of September, 1332.

By the end of the year, Edward had been driven back to England by Scottish nobles loyal to King David II. Those were led by Sir Andrew Murray and Archibald, Earl of Douglas. His plans thwarted and in a huff, Edward III declared the Treaty of Northampton null and void and the two Edwards marched on Berwick. This time, the Scots were defeated at the Battle of Halidon Hill on the 19th of July, 1333. After that defeat, David II and his young Queen were sent to France for safety’s sake. So Balliol had returned to Scotland and as a previously crowned King, he remained in residence for a while. He thanked Edward III for his help by granting him control of the whole of Lothian, including Edinburgh. He also paid homage to Edward III, thus destroying everything for which the Bruce, and Wallace before him, had fought. Scottish independence, for which so many had fought and dearly lost, was given away. Thus began the Second Scottish War of Independence.

Balliol was deposed by Sir Andrew Murray in 1334 and forced to retreat back to England. He then continued his game of ‘yo-yo’ when he was restored by the English in 1335, ousted by Sir Andrew Murray by the end of the year, and came back in 1336 to be deposed yet again by Murray. During the early part of 1337, Murray captured one Balliol/English-held stronghold after another and by the summer, he had secured most of northern Scotland. In May, 1337, Balliol appealed again for help from Edward III, but his attention had turned to France. Without the help of Edward III, Balliol was powerless and, despite some English strongholds remaining north of the border, Moray was in effective command. He had effectively seen off Balliol’s claims to the Scottish Throne. Relative peace then lasted for nearly ten years until David II returned to Scotland and defeat at the hands of Edward III in the Battle of Neville’s Cross in October, 1346. Balliol then had one last go at invading Scotland, when he led an uprising in the Comyn heartland of Galloway, but that failed to gain him any success. He finally gave up and, on the 20th of January, 1356, he relinquished his claim to the Scottish Crown, selling his ‘right’ to Edward III in exchange for an English pension. Edward Balliol died in 1367 at Wheatley, near Doncaster.

Macbeth, King of Scots

Macbeth, King of Scots, died in the Battle of Lumphanan on the 15th of August, 1057.

Macbeth ruled Scotland following his defeat and killing of Duncan I in a battle at Spynie. Macbeth was seen as a wise and good King of Alba, who ruled his country for seventeen years from his castle at Dunsinane, north of Perth. He is regarded as one of the more successful early Scottish Kings and his rule was marked by efficient government and the imposition of law and order. A verse history, the ‘Prophecy of Berchan’ describes Macbeth as “the generous king of Fortriu” and “the red, tall, golden-haired one”, which gave him the nickname of ‘Rí Deircc’ (the Red King). The near contemporary ‘Duan Albanach’ calls him “Mac Bethad the renowned”. Macbeth ruled equably and encouraged Christianity, which was an important thing in the ‘Dark Ages’. The various ‘Annals’ state that Macbeth travelled to Rome in 1050 and in so doing, he became the only reigning King of Scotland to make a pilgrimage to Rome. Of course, it says a lot for about how secure he felt in his position, that he could leave the country for several months on such a journey, and it is surely a sign of domestic political and economic stability. In ‘Marianus Scotus’, it is said that whilst in Rome he “scattered alms like seed corn”, which Andrew of Wyntoun's metrical poem, ‘Orygynale Cronykil’, confirms with the line “In pilgrimage hither he came, and in almus he sew siller”. Macbeth was also a brave leader and he had to be, for ultimately there were attempts upon his Throne, by the relatives of Duncan I. Whatever peace there was did not last.

Mac Bethad mac Findláich mac Ruaridh was born in Moray, some time between 1000 and 1005. His father was Mormaor of Moray, which was the ancient title of provincial, Celtic sub-Kings (recorded in Latin as ‘comes’ and effectively, an Earl). His mother was Donada (Donalda), who was most likely a daughter, rather than a granddaughter, of Malcolm II, judging by Macbeth’s birth date. If so, Macbeth, like Duncan I, was a grandson of Malcolm II. In Macbeth's time, the Mortuath of Moray that his father ruled extended much further than its present-day borders and included the area around Inverness. Around 1020, his father was killed by Macbeth’s cousin, who became Mormaor. The ‘Annals of Ulster’ and the ‘Annals of Tigernach’ differ on that issue, with the latter suggesting that is was Gille Comgáin, the son of Findláich’s brother, Máel Brigte, who was responsible.

It appears that at some early stage, Macbeth became part of the Royal Court of Malcolm II, where he would have been in close company with his future King, Duncan. Some historians have also identified Macbeth with MaelBaethe, one of two ‘Kings’ who, according to the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’, accompanied Malcolm II in paying homage to King Cnut (Canute) in 1031. This is very unlikely as Macbeth didn’t succeed to the Mortuath of Moray until the following year and wasn’t seen as being senior to Duncan, for example, who was being lined up for the Regal succession by Malcolm II. It is more likely that MaelBaethe was Malcolm mac Bodhe, a grandson of Kenneth II and brother of Macbeth’s future wife, Gruoch, or the father of those two, Bodhe mac Cináeda (Boede or Boedhe), a son of Kenneth II. In the course of events, Malcolm II was responsible for the deaths of both of those men. Actually, Gruoch’s father could have been a son of either Kenneth II or Kenneth III, both descendants of Kenneth mac Alpin, but in any case, that lineage gave legitimacy to Macbeth’s claim to the Throne.

Macbeth became Mormaor (Rí or sub-King) of Moray in 1032, after his cousin, Gille Comgáin, and fifty of his followers were trapped in a building and burned to death. Those killings were either an act of revenge for his father's death on the part of Macbeth, or the ridding of a rival by Malcolm II. Both suggestions are plausible as is one in which both men were complicit; intimating Malcolm was ultimately responsible, regardless of who gave the order for the fire. Gille Comgáin had been married to Gruoch and in 1034, after his horrible death, she was quite happy to marry Macbeth. Maybe that is significant; it is unlikely to have been true love. Macbeth has also been described in some ‘Annals’ as ‘King’ of Fortriu, but that is really just an earlier name for what was by then Moray. As Mormaor of Moray, Macbeth exerted influence beyond his immediate environs; there is evidence that he owned land elsewhere and was able to grant estates in West Fife.

When Malcolm II died at Glamis, on the 25th of November, 1034, Duncan became King, despite others having equally compelling claims. Malcolm’s will prevailed and Duncan was cute enough to make sure that it did. Whatever Macbeth thought of it all is not recorded, but he bided his time. Duncan was not a successful King and his prestige was dealt a severe blow when he suffered an ignominious defeat during an attempted siege of Durham in 1039. That defeat led to insurrection by the Mormaors, who wanted to “put hyme [Duncan] down” and declared for Macbeth. Duncan marched north to bring a rebellious Macbeth to heel and, while Macbeth was at the River Lossie facing the King of Dublin, Duncan was met by Macbeth’s half-borther, Thorfinn ‘Raven Feeder’, at Torfness (Burghead), on the 14th of August, 1040. Duncan fled that battle, but was then intercepted by Macbeth who killed him during a secondary battle, which took place near Spynie. Within two weeks of the decisive battle, Macbeth had moved to Scone, where he was inaugurated as their ‘Ard Rí’ (High King) in the traditional way on the Moot Hill.

In 1046, Earl Siward of Northumbria, together with Malcolm Canmore, the exiled son of Duncan I, invaded Alba in order to depose Macbeth. That move was sanctioned by Edward the Confessor, King of England. After an initial setback, Macbeth won a second battle and sent Siward packing, but he came back a few years later, in 1054. Malcolm Canmore and Siward defeated Macbeth’s army at the Battle of Dunsinane Hill on the 24th of July and Macbeth was forced to cede the southern part of his Kingdom to Malcolm. He was still notionally the King and remained so for a further three years, but perhaps isolated back in Moray, for Malcolm seems to have taken over Perth and Fife. Then, on the 15th of August, 1057, Macbeth made his last stand when he was defeated and killed by the army of Malcolm Canmore at the Battle of Lumphanan. Seventeen years to the month after he had killed Duncan I, Macbeth was himself killed by Duncan’s son.

Macbeth’s stepson, Lulach, managed to get himself installed as King, but his reign lasted only a few short months, before he too was killed by Malcolm, at Essie, near Strathbogie, in March 1058. Malcolm Canmore restored the House of Dunkeld and ruled as Malcolm III from 1058 until 1093. Like many of his predecessors, Macbeth was buried on Iona.