Back Mælcolm II Scotta Cyning ANG مالكولم التانى ملك اسكتلندا ARZ Малкълм II Bulgarian Malcolm II d'Escòcia Catalan Malcolm II. Czech Malcolm 2. af Skotland Danish Malcolm II. German Μάλκολμ Β΄ της Σκωτίας Greek Malkolmo la 2-a Esperanto Malcolm II de Escocia Spanish
| Malcolm II | |
|---|---|
| King of Alba (Scotland) | |
| Reign | c. 25 March 1005 [1]– 25 November 1034 |
| Predecessor | Kenneth III |
| Successor | Duncan I |
| Born | c. 954 |
| Died | 25 November 1034 (aged 79/80) Glamis Castle, Scotland |
| Burial | |
| Issue | Bethóc Donada unnamed wife of Sigurd the Stout (possible) |
| House | Alpin |
| Father | Kenneth II of Scotland |
Máel Coluim mac Cinaeda (Modern Scottish Gaelic: Maol Chaluim mac Choinnich; anglicised Malcolm II; c. 954 – 25 November 1034)[2] was King of Alba (Scotland) from 1005 until his death in 1034.[3] He was one of the longest-reigning Scottish kings of that period.
He was a son of Cinaed mac Maíl Choluim or King Kenneth II and The Prophecy of Berchán, (which referred to him as Forranach, "the Destroyer"), says his mother was "a woman of Leinster".[4] His mother may have been a daughter of a Uí Dúnlainge king of Leinster.[5]
To the Irish annals, which recorded his death, Malcolm was ard rí Alban, High King of Scotland, but his fellow kings of the geographical area of modern Scotland included the king of Strathclyde, who ruled much of the south-west, various Norse–Gaels kings on the western coast and the Hebrides and his nearest and most dangerous rivals, the kings or "mormaers" of Moray.[6]
Malcolm pursued a strategy of marrying his daughters into these regional dynasties, which helped create stability in his reign, and ensured that he became the grandfather of his successor Duncan I of Scotland, through his daughter Bethóc, and according to some sources, of Macbeth, King of Scotland, (about whom William Shakespeare later wrote the play Macbeth), through his daughter Donalda.
- ^ The exact date of succession is unknown, but by tradition, it has been stated to be 25 March. (Dunbar, Sir Archibald Hamilton (1906). Scottish Kings: A Revised Chronology of Scottish History, 1005–1625. D. Douglas. p. 293.)
- ^ Skene, Chronicles, pp. 99–100.
- ^ Malcolm's birth date is not known, but must have been around 980 if the Flateyjarbók is right in dating the marriage of his daughter and Sigurd Hlodvisson (Sigurd the Stout) to the lifetime of Olaf Tryggvason.Early Sources, p. 528, quoting Olaf Tryggvason's Saga.
- ^ Anderson, Early Sources, pp. 574–575.
- ^ Broun 2004.
- ^ Higham, pp. 226–227, notes that the kings of the English had neither lands nor mints north of the Tees.