I m Bruce Fummey and I m spending a week visiting historical sites on the Scottish English Border.
Today I ve parked my campervan on the B6341 just outside Alnwick.
I m here to see why is it that here, in the north of England,
there s an English monument to a Scottish king.
and not just any Scottish king. Some would argue this was the last
truly Celtic king of Scots. If you re interested in the people,
places and events in Scottish history then click the subscribe
button at the bottom right of the screen. In the meantime, let me tell you a story.
I say the last Celtic king of Scots. This was the guy who killed Macbeth.
Some would argue HE was the last Celtic King of Scots, but that s a story for another video.
In fact I ve got a video dealing with that very question.
I ve also got a video about this king s rise to power.
Today is a different story.
Now it wasn t this guy s role in The English Play that got him a monument here in England.
Although The English Play did cover the rise of Malcolm III to power
in a fake newsy kind of way. No man of woman born. Lead on MacDuff.
Malcolm III had indeed come to power when England was Saxon AND he d come to power
with the help of the Saxon king Edward the Confessor
but ten years into Malcolm s reign in 1066 across the English Channel or Le Manche came
William of Normandy. Change brings opportunity.
Malcolm married the sister of the ousted Saxon heir Edgar Aetheling.
It may seem opportunistic, but they also seem to have been happy and had lots of bairns.
The point is that Malcolm s children to Margaret were in line to the English throne
if the Saxons ever got back control. You see William the Conqueror hasn t
yet conquered the whole country. Malcolm took that opportunity to
regularly raid down into Northumberland, to extend his territory and influence.
If you re Scottish then 1072 is a much more important year than 1066,
because William came up to Abernethy to make Malcolm swear an oath and promise to stop
but he still made cheeky wee raids anyway. William the Conqueror then sent his son,
Robert, north to deal with Malcolm; and to shore up the defences he built a castle
at the narrowest part of the River Tyne. It was the New castle upon Tyne.
The area has grown since then. You may have heard of it.
Anyway it s time I cut a long story short.
By 1092, continuing raids, punitive actions and disagreements about who owned what
meant that there was a bit of bad blood between the Norman king William Rufus
the son of William the Conqueror and Malcolm Canmore the king of Scots.
Rufus asked Malcolm to come down to Gloucester to have a chat and smooth things over.
Gloucester? That s a helluva long way to go.
As it was Malcolm s daughter was a nun in Wilton Abbey down there
so he could kill two birds with one stone
and who doesn t like a wee working holiday down south?
It s now that we re getting to the knub of it. When Malcolm got there,
William Rufus refused to see him. What? I ve come all the way from Scotland.
Three hundred and fifty miles assuming you take the M6.
Bow legged and backside achy from riding and eating service station
sandwiches for days on end and that bawbag snubs the very
meeting I came for. He was raging.
So back up to Scotland he raised another war band and crossed the border raiding again.
He devastated the lands of Robert de Mowbray Earl of Northumbria.
On the way back north de Mowbray and his men ambushed the Scots here near Alnwick.
This cross marks the spot at which Malcolm Canmore was mortally wounded.
Sadly it s become overgrown and forgotten This isn t the only cross.
I m told that this one was erected by Elizabeth Seymour,
First Duchess of Northumberland in 1774. She was a descendant of Malcolm.
I m guessing lots of people were, but she had the money to put up the cross.
There was an older medieval monument, but that s mostly decayed.
It seems that whilst Malcolm was mortally wounded here, he didn t actually die here.
Malcolm Canmore, king of Scots was taken a five-minute walk down the
road to St Leonord s Chapel hospital. It ll be easy for you to visit at the same
time as you come here. This is a ruin now,
and most folk won t even notice it as they flock to see where Harry Potter was filmed
in Alnwick Castle half a mile down the road... but it was here that the Scottish king Malcolm
Canmore, who gave his name to a dynasty, succumbed to his wounds.
Malcolm Canmore died here, along with his son Edward.
When the news reached his wife Margaret back in Scotland she died within days of hearing it.
If you re ever on the B6341 why not stop and have a thought
for those turbulent times on what in those days was still becoming the Scotland England border.
If you d like some more stories of the Scotland England border then there s another video coming
up on screen now. In the meantime