ON this day in the year 1058, one of Scotland’s most influential kings was crowned on the Stone of Scone. He is a very important figure in British history, not least because one of his descendants is the current Queen of the United Kingdom. His nickname, applied subsequent to his death, means great chief, derived from the Gaelic ceann mòr.

Canmore was also the first man to be described as King of Scotland as opposed to the usual designation of King of Scots.

At the beginning of the 11th century, the House of MacAlpin provided the Kings of Alba, the main kingdom in Scotland. At that time the Northern and Western Isles were in Norse hands, Moray and the lands north of it were held by a Mormaer, or Earl, and Strathclyde was a Brythonic kingdom that extended all the way through Cumbria and modern Lancashire.

Malcolm III’s father was King Duncan I who was crowned King of Scots in 1034. Thanks to William Shakespeare and his misleading interpretation of events, most people believe that Duncan was murdered in his bed by the Mormaer of Moray, Macbeth. In fact Macbeth’s Moray army defeated Duncan’s Alba troops in battle near Elgin in August 1040, the conflict being joined because Macbeth sought revenge for Duncan invading his land. The few chronicles of the time suggest Macbeth was ‘dux’, meaning prince or duke but also war leader.

Macbeth reigned for 17 years and he appears to have been a good king accepted internationally, even visiting Rome on pilgrimage. Malcolm had been just nine when his father was killed, and he had escaped south where he was brought up by the Earl of Northumbria, Siward Biornsson, before moving to the English court of King Edward the Confessor.

Malcolm was determined to avenge his father’s death and in 1053 or 1054 he invaded Scotland with an army provided mainly by Earl Siward. After Siward’s son Osbern was killed in battle with the Scots near Dunsinane, that first invasion petered out, but when Malcolm came back to Scotland in 1057 he was joined by leading figures from what is now southern Scotland and most chroniclers agree that Malcolm slew Macbeth at the Battle of Lumphanan in August of that year.

The followers of Macbeth installed his stepson Lulach mac Gille Coemgáin as King of Scots, and there is an account of him being crowned at Scone. He is known to history as Lulach the Unfortunate or Foolish, his reign lasting just six months before Malcolm assassinated him and claimed the crown for himself.

Thus began the long rule of the House of Dunkeld which had been the family’s power base.

According to the chronicler John of Fordun, Malcolm III was crowned at Scone on April 25, 1058, and by another account, he then went to the court of Edward the Confessor to arrange a dynastic marriage with Margaret, the Hungarian-born sister of Edward’s would-be heir Edgar Aethling. That report is probably apocryphal, because Malcolm definitely married Ingibiorg Finnsdottir, the widow of the Earl of Orkney. They had at least two sons, including the boy who would become King Duncan II. Ingibiorg is presumed to have died around 1068.

Malcolm invaded England to try and gain the kingdoms of Northumbria and Cumbria, but was beaten back. Then in 1066, William the Conqueror arrived with his Norman army and Edgar was never crowned king.

In 1068, William allowed Edgar Aethling and his family to take refuge in Scotland – tradition is that they were blown ashore in a storm while fleeing to the Continent, but it was more likely that Edgar came to Scotland seeking Malcolm III’s help to get back “his” throne. In any case, Malcolm married Margaret and to add to his two surviving sons by Ingibiorg, the royal couple had eight children with three of their sons becoming Kings of Scotland, the greatest of them being David I, while Edith, in her new name as Matilda or Maud, married King Henry I of England.

Margaret was noted for her piety and she encouraged the building of religious establishments such as her own chapel in Edinburgh Castle, while she had a civilising influence on Malcolm, modernising the Scottish court in Dunfermline where Malcolm introduced Anglo-Saxon alongside Gaelic. All their children were given Anglo-Saxon names, showing how much Malcolm was in love with, or in thrall to, his saintly wife.

Malcolm’s assistance to the Aethling family extended to invading the north of England, though more likely he was trying to expand his kingdom. William the Conqueror invaded Scotland in retaliation and in 1072 Malcolm was forced to sign the Treaty of Abernethy acknowledging William as his overlord after the Norman knights smashed his small army. He was also forced to expel Edgar from his court and in return he was given lands in Cumbria which is why his son David was first known as Prince of the Cumbrians.

That Treaty of Abernethy was to cause trouble for Scotland over the next 200 years, as it gave credence to English claims of overlordship, but Malcolm ignored it entirely once King William Rufus, came to the throne of England. He invaded Northumbria in 1091, but was forced back to Scotland by William’s large army, signing a peace treaty rather than go into battle.

Two years later Malcolm resumed raiding into England but went one castle too far when he besieged Alnwick Castle. Outside its walls a full-scale battle developed on November 13, 1093, in which both Malcolm and his son and heir Edward were both killed.

On being told the dreadful news, Queen Margaret took to her bed and died a few days later.