King of Scots from 1040, the legend of whose life was the basis of Shakespeare's Macbeth. He was probably a grandson of King Kenneth II (ruled 971-995), and he married Gruoch, a descendant of King Kenneth III (ruled 997-1005). About 1031 Macbeth succeeded his father, Findlaech (Sinel in Shakespeare), as mormaer, or chief, in the province of Moray, in northern Scotland. Macbeth established himself on the throne after killing his cousin King Duncan I in battle near Elgin, (not as in Shakespeare, by murdering Duncan in bed on Aug. 14, 1040). Both Duncan and Macbeth derived their rights to the crown through their mothers.
Macbeth's victory in 1045 over a rebel army, near Dunkeld (in modern Tayside region) may account for the later references (in Shakespeare and others) to Birnam Wood, for the village of Birnam is near Dunkeld. In 1046 Siward, Earl of Northumbria, unsuccessfully attempted to dethrone Macbeth in favour of Malcolm (afterward King Malcolm III Canmore), eldest son of Duncan I. By 1050 Macbeth felt secure enough to leave Scotland for a pilgrimage to Rome. But in 1054 he was apparently forced by Siward to yield part of southern Scotland to Malcolm. Three years later Macbeth was killed in battle by Malcolm, near Lumphanan, Aberdeen, Scotland, with assistance from the English.
Macbeth was buried on the island of Iona, regarded as the resting place of lawful kings. His followers installed his stepson, Lulach, as king; when Lulach was killed on March 17, 1058, Malcolm III was left supreme in Scotland.
Lulach, the stepson of MacBeth, reigned for a very short period before
meeting his demise on March 17, 1058.
King of Scotland, founder of the dynasty that consolidated royal power in the Scottish kingdom. The son of King Duncan I, Malcolm lived in exile in England during part of the reign of his father's murderer, Macbeth.
Malcolm killed Macbeth in battle in 1057 and then ascended the throne. After the conquest of England by William the Conqueror, in 1066, Malcolm gave refuge to the Anglo-Saxon prince Edgar the Aetheling and his sisters, one of whom, Margaret (later St. Margaret), became his second wife. Malcolm acknowledged the overlordship of William in 1072 but nevertheless soon violated his feudal obligations and made five raids into England. During the last of these invasions he was killed by the forces of King William II Rufus (reigned 1087-1100), near Alnwick, Northumberland, England.
Except for a brief interval after Malcolm's death, the Scottish throne
remained in his family until the death of Queen Margaret, the Maid of
Norway, in 1290. Of Malcolm's six sons by Margaret, three succeeded to the
throne: Edgar (reigned 1097-1107), Alexander I (1107-24), and David I
(1124-53).
Also spelled DONALDBANE, DONALBANE, Bane also spelled BAN or BAIN was
son of Duncan I.
Upon the death of his brother Malcolm III
Canmore (1093) there was a fierce contest for the crown. Donald Bane
besieged Edinburgh Castle, took it, and, with the support of the Celtic
Scots and the custom of tanistry (q.v.; the Celtic system of
electing kings or chiefs), he was king nominally for at least six months.
He was expelled by Duncan II, son of Malcolm, assisted by English and
Normans and some Saxons. Duncan's reign was equally short, for Donald Bane
had his nephew slain and again reigned for three years.
These years saw the last attempt of the Celts to maintain a king of
their race and a kingdom governed according to their customs. Edgar the
Aetheling (q.v.), who had newly befriended the Norman king of
England, led an army into Scotland, dispossessed Donald Bane, and advanced
his nephew Edgar, son of Malcolm III, as sole king of the Scots.
