They could be expected to contest the succession, and did so.Īs a new king, and especially as a young one, Malcolm could also expect challenges from neighbours, Somerled, King of Argyll, Fergus, Lord of Galloway and Henry II, King of England foremost among them. Máel Coluim's sons were free men in 1153. However, Domnall mac Uilleim, first of the the Meic Uilleim, had considerable support in the former mormaerdom of Moray.Īnother would-be king, imprisoned at Roxburgh since about 1130, was Máel Coluim mac Alisdair, an illegitimate son of Alexander I. Of William's other sons, Bishop Wimund had already been blinded, emasculated and imprisoned at Byland Abbey before David's death. He died young, sometime in the early 1160s, leaving his sizable estates to his three sisters. There is no sign that William made any claims to the throne. As William fitz Duncan married Alice de Rumilly in about 1137, young William can only have been a youth, perhaps a child. The Orkneyinga Saga claims William son of William fitz Duncan, it calls him "William the Noble", was the man whom "every Scotsman wanted for his king". The king-making ceremony took place before the old king was buried, which might appear hasty, but Malcolm was not without rivals for the kingship. Malcolm's grandfather died at Carlisle on, and Malcolm was inaugurated as king three days later, on, at Scone, then aged twelve.
As it turned out, Donnchad did not long survive David, holding the regency for a year before his death in 1154. Donnchad and Malcolm were accompanied by a large army. Īs the eldest of Earl Henry's sons, although only eleven years old, Malcolm was sent by his grandfather on a circuit of the kingdom, accompanied by Donnchad, Mormaer of Fife, styled rector, perhaps indicating that he was to hold the regency for Malcolm on David's death.
Thus, although his death damaged David's plans, and made disorders after his death very likely indeed, it was not a disaster. Unlike the death of William Adelin in the White Ship, which had left Henry I without male heirs, Earl Henry had three sons. David I (right) with the young Malcolm IV.Įarl Henry, who had perhaps been seriously ill in the 1140s, died unexpectedly at Newcastle or Roxburgh on 12 June 1152, in the Northumbrian domain which David and he had done much to attach to the Scots crown in the decades of English weakness after the death of Henry I of England.
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