"Malcolm III "Canmore" was the 19th King of Scotland and reigned from 1058 until 1093. Even when Macbeth was dead, Malcolm was not properly King of Scotland. Some people preferred Lulach, Macbeth's stepson. So Malcolm had Lulach ambushed and killed. Only then could he truly call himself King. Malcolm's nickname was Canmore, which meas 'the big-headed.' Though he spoke English, Latin and Gaelic, he could not read or write. He was a warrior, and he wanted to enlarge his kingdom.

"Malcolm invaded Northumberland in England and killed those whom he could not bring back as slaves. In return the English King, William the Conqueror, came north, made Malcolm submit to him, and took Malcolm's eldest son Duncan back with him as a hostage. Malcolm still would not keep the peace. Twice more he invaded England, killing and plundering; each time the English returned and forced him to make peace. Yet in 1093 Malcolm tried again. In an attack upon England, with his son Edward, he was ambushed and killed by the Earl of Northumberland. Two Englishmen buried Malcolm: twenty years later his body was dug up and brought back to Dunfermline Abbey to lie beside that of his Queen Margaret.

"Margaret (she later became St. Margaret) was Malcolm's second wife. She was a princess of the old royal line of England which had been pushed aside by William the Conqueror. She was a very religious person, who persuaded Malcolm that many of the old customs of the Church in Scotland should be changed to make them like Christian practices elsewhere. She built churches and monasteries. She and Malcolm turned the fort on the rock at Edinburgh into a royal castle, filled with rich hangings and furniture, and made there the tiny chapel which today still bears her name. She was lying ill when her eldest son Edgar came to tell her that Malcolm and Edward were dead. She died four days later. As her body lay in her chapel, Malcolm's brother Donald Bane was proclaiming himslef the new King of Scotland and was laying siege to the Castle. Under cover of mist, Margaret's servants stole out with the coffin and ferried it across the Forth to Dunfermline." (KINGS AND QUEENS OF SCOTLAND by Eileen Dunlop and Anthony Kamm, 1984, pages 4 and 8.)

Malcolm Canmore III was a King of the Scots. "Canmore" means "Great Head." Soon after his father's death, he was entrusted to the care of Siward, Earl of Bernicia since 1038 and Earl of Northumbria from 1041. In the court of Edward he learned to speak both English and French as well as his native Gaelic and thus did his own interpretations in his own court. He was Prince of Cumbria and de facto ruler in Lothian many years before before becoming ruler of all Scotland. He became king upon slaying Lulach in 1058. In 1061 he invaded Northumbria while Tostig was in Rome - a dispute settled amicably by Edward. His Celtic and English connections aided in his 36-year reign of little opposition. In becoming Earl Tostig's "sworn brother," he effectively joined the Norman "Conquest family." He was slain at the end of his successful siege of Alnwick by Mowbray, a Norman knight, who when delivering atop his spear the keys to the castle, shoved the spear through Malcolm's eye. (William Greer.)
He was married to Margaret St. (daughter of Edward and Agatha Princess) about 1069 in Dunfermlin Abbey, Fife, Scotland. Margaret St. was born about 1046 in Hungary. She died on 16 Nov 1093 in Edinburgh Castle, Scotland. She was buried in Dunfermlin Abbey, Fifeshire, Scotland. Margaret was a Queen Consort. She was named in honor of Saint Margaret of Antioch and, likewise, was occasionally referred to as "the Pearl of Great Price." Being the ward of Edward the Confessor for 9 years, she and her siblings were much influenced by the French culture so prevalent at his court. In 1250, she was canonized "St. Margaret" by Pope Innocent IV.





Malcolm III Canmore became king after the defeat of Macbeth at Lumphanan. He had spent fifteen years in his youth at the court of Edward the Confessor and after the Conquest gave asylum to Edgar the Aetheling and his sisters, marrying one of them in 1070. {-see Encyclopedia Britannica,1956 Ed.,14:723,20:146:} "The kingdom of which Malcolm III took possession was a Celtic kingdom, though one of its provinces was peopled by Angles. Local and tribal custom
prevailed alike in Scotland proper (the district north of the Forth and Clyde) and in Galloway; the speech was Celtic; the court and administrative system, so far as the latter can be said to have existed, were Celtic. The church still retained, to a large extent, the structure and customs of Irish Christianity, although in the beginning of the 8th century a powerful Pictish monarch had ordered his people to keep the Roman date for Easter.... The disorganized state of the Scottish
church, and some peculiar customs which marked its ritual, shocked the conscience of Malcolm's wife, an English princess, Margaret, who after the Norman Conquest, sought refuge in Scotland along with her brother, Edgar the Atheling. ...Margaret was a woman of saintly life - she was canonized a century and a half after her death - and her own desire was to be a nun. [She tried but failed to bring the Scottish church into full compliance with Rome and its systems.] ...Her most important personal achievements were the introduction of an English-speaking court and of English-speaking clergy, and the education of her children in English ways and traditions." Malcolm founded the house of Canmore which reigned for more than 200 years; thus he restored the House of Atholl. His reign was 1058-1093; he was crowned at Scone.

He was born before his father was called to the throne, and when
later in 1039, after a reign of six years, he was assassinated by
Macbeth, Malcolm, then only 15, fled to Cumberland, whilst his brother
took refuge in the Hebrides.
On the accession of Edward "the Confessor" to the throne of England
in 1043, Malcolm was placed by his father-in-law Siward, under his
protection, and he became a resident of the English court. In his absence
various attempts were made by his adherents in Scotland to dispossess
Macbeth of the throne, in one of which his Grandfather, the aged Crinan,
abbott of Dunkeld, was slain in 1045.
Nine years thereafter, in 1054, He obtained from Edward the
assistance of an Anglo-Saxon army under the command of Earl Siward, to
support his claims to the crown. This force he accompanied into Scotland,
and a furious battle ensued, in which Macbeth lost 3, 000 men, and the
Anglo-Saxons 1,500, including Osbert, the son of Siward. Macbeth fled
northward, leaving Lothien in the possession of Siward, who placed
Malcolm as king over that district, where the Saxon influence prevailed.
Supported, however, by the Celtic inhabitants of the north of Scotland,
and by the Norwegians of the districts under the sway of Thorfinn,
Macbeth was enabled to retain possession of the throne.
In 1056, another English army was sent to the assistance of Malcolm.
At this time, Thorfinn, and the son of the king of Norway, had gone
south, with the strength of the Norwegian power in Scotland, to attempt
the subjugation of England, but "God was against them in that affair" and
their fleet was disbursed in a storm. Macbeth, deprived of Thorfinn's
aid, was not able to withstand this new array against him.He was driven
north, to Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire, where he was overtaken, and slain
on Dec. 5, 1056. The attempt of his stepson, Lulach, to suceed him on the
throne, was, after a struggle of four months, put to an end by his defeat
and death at Essiei in Strathbogie on April 25th of the following year.
Malcolm was soon after crowned at Scone, on March 17, 1057/58.
Except for the territories possessed by Thorfinn, consisting besides
Orkney and the Hebrides, of Caithness, Ness, Sutherland, Ross, Moray,
Garmoran, Buchan, Mar and Angus, he was master of all the rest of
Scotland. His first care was to recompense those who had supported him in
his struggle for the crown. His next, to recover those northern districts
which still remained under Norwegian rule. The most remarkable reward
which he bestowed was on Macduff, maormor of Fife.
Gratitude to the King of England as well as the unsettled state of
his own kingdom, led him to cultivate the alliance of Edward, and he paid
him a visit in 1059.
He was slain while beseiging Alwick Castle.

Became King of Scotland, 17 Mar 1057/8 when he slew King MacBeth.

References: [Weis1],[AR7],[RFC],[Paget1],[MRL],[CP], [Moncreiffe],[RD500],[ConverseA]