Malcolm IV, nicknamed Virgo, "the Maiden", King of Scots, was the eldest
son of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria and Ada de Warenne. The
original Malcolm Canmore, a name now associated with his great-grandfather
Malcolm III, he succeeded his grandfather David I, and shared David's
Anglo-Norman tastes. Called Malcolm the Maiden by later
chroniclers, a name which may incorrectly suggest weakness or
effeminacy to modern readers, he was noted for his religious zeal and
interest in knighthood and warfare. For much of his reign he was in poor health
and died unmarried at the age of twenty-four.
Accession Earl Henry, son and heir of King David I
of Scotland, had kept poor health throughout the 1140s. He died suddenly
on 12 June 1152. His death occurred in either Newcastle or Roxburgh, both
located in those areas of Northumbria which he and his father had attached to
the Scots crown in the period of English weakness after the death of Henry I of
England. Unlike in the case of the English king, who had been left without
male heirs after the death of his only son in the Wreck of the White Ship, the
King of Scots, David I, did not lack for immediate heirs upon the death of Earl
Henry. This was because Earl Henry had left behind three sons to carry forward
the lineage of his father. Malcolm, the eldest of Earl Henry's
sons, was only eleven years old. He was however sent by his grandfather on a
circuit of the kingdom, accompanied by Donnchad, Mormaer of Fife, and a large
army. Donnchad had been styled rector, perhaps indicating that he was to hold
the regency for Malcolm on David's death. These preparations were timely,
because King David survived his son less than one year, dying on 24 May 1153 at
Carlisle. Malcolm was inaugurated as king on 27 May 1153 at Scone at age
twelve. Donnchad, who duly became regent for the young Malcolm, ensured that the
inauguration took place before the old king was even buried. This might appear
unseemly, but there was good reason for the haste. Malcolm was not without
rivals for the kingship. Donnchad himself died a year later, in 1154.
Rivals and neighbours The Orkneyinga Saga claims "William the
Noble", son of William fitz Duncan, was the man whom "every Scotsman wanted for
his king". As William fitz Duncan married Alice de Rumilly c.1137, young
William could only have been a youth, perhaps a child, by 1153. There is no
evidence to suggest that William ever made any claims to the throne, and he
died young, in the early 1160s, leaving his sizable estates to his three
sisters. Of William Fitz Duncan's other sons, Bishop Wimund had already been
blinded, emasculated and imprisoned at Byland Abbey before King David's death,
but Domnall mac Uilleim, first of the Meic Uilleim, had considerable support
in the former mormaerdom of Moray. Another contender, imprisoned at
Roxburgh since about 1130, was Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair, an illegitimate
son of Alexander I. Máel Coluim's sons were free men in 1153. They could be
expected to contest the succession, and did so.
As a new and young king, Malcolm also faced threats to his rule from his
neighbours. Foremost among them were Somerled, King of Argyll; Fergus, Lord
of Galloway; and Henry II, King of England. Only Rognvald Kali Kolsson,
Earl of Orkney, was otherwise occupied, and his death in 1158 brought the young
and ambitious Harald Maddadsson to power in Orkney, who proved yet another threat
to the young Malcolm. The first open opposition to Malcolm
came in November 1153, from family rivals, the sons of Máel Coluim mac
Alaxandair. They mounted their challenge with the aid of a neighbour, Somerled of
Argyll. This threat soon dissipated, because Somerled was beset with more
pressing concerns: his war with Godred Olafson of Man lasted until 1156 and a
possible conflict with Gille Críst, Mormaer of Menteith, over Cowal, loomed
large. Support for the sons of Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair may also have come
from areas closer to the core of the kingdom; two conspirators are named by
chroniclers, one of whom died in trial by combat in February 1154.
In 1157, it is reported, King Malcolm was reconciled with Máel Coluim MacHeth,
who was appointed to the Mormaerdom of Ross, which had probably been held by
his father. Malcolm IV and Henry II
Malcolm was not only King of Scots, but also inherited the Earldom of
Northumbria, which his father and grandfather had gained during the wars
between Stephen and Empress Matilda. Malcolm granted Northumbria to his
brother William, keeping Cumbria for himself. Cumbria was, like the earldoms
of Northumbria and Huntingdon, and later Chester, a fief of the English crown.
While Malcolm delayed doing homage to Henry II of England for his possessions
in Henry's kingdom, he did so in 1157 at Peveril Castle in Derbyshire and later
at Chester. Here Henry refused to allow Malcolm to keep Cumbria, or William to
keep Northumbria, but instead granted the Earldom of Huntingdon to Malcolm,
for which Malcolm did homage. After a second meeting between Malcolm
and Henry, at Carlisle in 1158, "they returned without having become good
friends, and so that the king of Scots was not yet knighted." In 1159 Malcolm
accompanied Henry to France, serving at the siege of Toulouse where he was, at
last, knighted. "Whether this was the act of a king of Scots or of an earl of
Huntingdon we are not told; it was certainly the act of a man desperate for
knightly arms, but that did not make it any more acceptable in Scotland."
Malcolm returned from Toulouse in 1160. At Perth, Roger of Hoveden reports, he
faced a rebellion by six earls, led by Ferchar, Mormaer of Strathearn, who
besieged the king. Given that Earl Ferchar heads the list of those named,
it is presumed that Donnchad II, Mormaer of Fife, was not among the rebels. John
of Fordun's version in the Gesta Annalia appears to suggest a peaceful settlement
to the affair, and both Fordun and Hoveden follow the report of the revolt
and its ending by stating that the king led an expedition into Galloway where he
eventually defeated Fergus, Lord of Galloway and took his son Uchtred as a
hostage while Fergus became a monk at Holyrood, dying there in 1161. While it
was assumed that the earls included Fergus among their number, and that the
expedition to Galloway was related to the revolt, it is now thought that the
earls sought to have Malcolm attack Galloway, perhaps as a result of raids
by Fergus. Some time before July 1163, when he did
homage to Henry II, Malcolm was taken seriously ill at Doncaster. Scottish
sources report that a revolt in Moray brought Malcolm north, and it is said
that he: [R]emoved [the men of Moray] from the
land of their birth, as of old Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had
dealt with the Jews, and scattered them throughout the other districts of
Scotland, both beyond the [Mounth] and this side thereof, so that not even one
native of that land abode there. Having made peace with Henry, replaced
Fergus of Galloway with his sons, and resettled Moray, only one of Malcolm's
foes remained, Somerled, by 1160 king of the Isles as well as of Argyll. In 1164,
Somerled led a large army of Islesmen and Irishmen to attack Glasgow and
Renfrew, where Walter Fitzalan had newly completed a castle. There Somerled and
his son Gillebrigte were killed in battle with the levies of the area, led
by the Bishop of Glasgow, probably Herbert of Selkirk at that time. The
chronicles of the day attributed the victory to the intercession of Saint
Kentigern. Death and posterity
Malcolm died on 9 December 1165 at Jedburgh, aged twenty-four. His
premature death may have been hastened by Paget's disease. While his
contemporaries were in no doubt that Malcolm had some of the qualities of a
great king, later writers were less convinced. The compiler of the Annals of
Ulster, writing soon after 1165, praises Malcolm:
Máel Coluim Cenn Mór, son of Henry, high king of Scotland, the best Christian
that was of the Gaidhil [who dwell] by the sea on the east for almsdeeds,
hospitality and piety, died. Likewise, William of Newburgh praises
Malcolm, "the most Christian king of the Scots", highly in his Historia Rerum
Anglicarum. Nonetheless, Malcolm was not well
regarded in all quarters. The Gesta Annalia remarks
[Malcolm] quite neglected the care, as well as governance, of his kingdom.
Wherefore he was so hated by all the common people that William, the elder of
his brothers - who had always been on bad terms with the English, and their
lasting foe, forasmuch as they had taken away his patrimony, the earldom of
Northumbria, to wit - was by them appointed warden of the whole kingdom,
against the king's will According to legend, he had a daughter
who was betrothed to Henry, Prince of Capua, on the latter's deathbed, but
this is false as Malcolm had no heirs. His mother formulated a plan for a
marriage to Constance, daughter of Conan III, Duke of Brittany, but Malcolm died
before the wedding could be celebrated. It is difficult, given the paucity of
sources, to date many of the reforms of the Scoto-Norman era, but it appears
that Malcolm continued the reforms begun by his grandfather and grand-uncles. The
sheriffdoms of Crail, Dunfermline, Edinburgh, Forfar, Lanark and Linlithgow
appear to date from Malcolm's reign, and the office of Justiciar of Lothian may
also date from this period. Malcolm founded a Cistercian monastery
at Coupar Angus, and the royal taste for continental religious foundations
extended to the magnates, as in Galloway, where the Premonstratensians
were established at Soulseat by 1161. Fictional portrayals
Malcolm IV has been depicted in historical novels. They include :
Lord of the Isles by Nigel Tranter. The main character of the novel is Somerled,
Lord of the Isles. The plot follows his military career, rise to power, swearing
of fealty to David I of Scotland, and support of a revolt against Malcolm IV.
It concludes with the murder of Somerled.
Tapestry of the Boar by Nigel Tranter. The main character is Hugh De Swinton, a
huntsman at the court of Malcolm IV. He is at first employed to slay wild boars
which threaten humans, sheep and cattle of the Scottish countryside. He then
serves as a scout to the army of the king during the conflict with Fergus of
Galloway. Malcolm IV eventually tasks Hugh with establishing Soutra Aisle,
"the first real hospital for the sick and poor in Scotland".
Ancestry Notes
References External links
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork includes the
Annals of Ulster, Tigernach and Innisfallen, the Lebor Bretnach and the
Chronicon Scotorum among others. Most are translated or translations are in
progress. Orkneyinga Saga at Northvegr