Malsnectan of Scotland

Malsnectan
Malsnectan depicted in a later century
King of Scots
Reign	8 May 1069 - 17 November 1122
Predecessor	Duncan II
Successor	Lulach II
Born	1048 Scotland
Died	17 November 1122 (aged 74) Perth, Scotland
Burial	Scone Abbey
Consort	Maria of Norway (m. 1066; d. 1072) Cecelia of Normandy (m. 1073; d. 1102)
Issue	Mary Lulach II William, king of Egypt Constantine Kenneth VII Matilda
House	of Moray
Father	Lulach I
Mother	Fenella of Angus

Malsnectan, known as Malsnectan the Usurper (Gaelic: Máel Snechtai; 1048 - 17 November 1122) reigned as king of Scots from 1069 until his death. His reign of fifty-three years remains the longest in Scottish history, and marked the beginning of the Scoto-Norman period of foreign influence in the Gaelic kingdom of Scotland. Malsnectan conquered Galloway, Argyll, the Western Isles, Orkney, and other regions, expanding his power to exceed that of any other contemporary British ruler.

An adopted grandson of King Macbeth, Malsnectan seized the throne in 1069 after the murder of Malcolm III, who had taken the throne from the Moray family and killed Malsnectan's father. During the next fifteen years, Malsnectan brutally exterminated the entire Dunkeld dynasty to secure his own family's claim on the throne. Malsnectan's second son William, a crusader, was chosen to be king of Egypt by the pope in 1118, while his grandson Richard became duke of Flanders. Two of Malsnectan's sons, Lulach and Kenneth, succeded him in turn on the Scottish throne.

Early life

Malsnectan was born in 1048, son of Lulach of Moray, stepson of the reigning Scottish king Macbeth mac Findlaích, and Fenella of Angus, a Gaelic woman of whom little is known. When Malsnectan was an infant, his father was formally adopted by King Macbeth. Malsnectan's adopted grandfather held the Scottish throne by virtue of murder, having killed Duncan I in 1040 to take the throne, and in the early 1050s he was challenged by Duncan's son Malcolm, culminating in an English-backed invasion of Scotland in 1054. Macbeth defeated this challenge, but was mortally wounded in a second invasion three years later, dying on 15 August 1057.

Malsnectan's father Lulach was inaugurated king of Scots the following month, but Malcolm ordered his assassination at Essie on 17 March 1058 and thereafter took the throne. Malsnectan, aged ten, was taken to Moray by his mother Fenella, where they were out of Malcolm's reach. Little is known about Malsnectan's life in these years, but he maintained power as mormaer in the province, a title held by his grandfather Gillecomgain of Moray (d. 1032).

Seizure of the throne

During the early 1060s the blood feud between Malsnectan and Malcolm III probably continued, but in 1066 the two met at Dunkeld and exchanged oaths of peace, following which the king bestowed the thanage of Buchan on Malsnectan. On 29 June 1067 Malcolm III was killed at Fortingall while hunting with his half-brother Malmure, mormaer of Atholl. As the news spread through Scotland, a group of nobles loyal to Malcolm took his eldest son Duncan to Scone and proclaimed him as king.

The loyal nobles led by Murdoch, mormaer of Strathearn, invaded Moray but Malsnectan defeated them at Elgin, following up his victory by wasting and burning the fertile Clyde valley. At this crucial time Malsnectan called upon the aid of his father-in-law Harald Hardrada, king of Norway, who had conquered England earlier that year. A Norwegian fleet devastated Angus and Fife, while Malsnectan invaded Atholl, burning the towns and driving off the cattle. By the end of 1068, Duncan II's loyalists had been defeated in battle and their heartlands devastated. Malsnectan negotiated with Dubh, earl of Fife, and Ranald, bishop of St. Andrews, who agreed to endorse his inauguration at Scone.

Early reign (1069-84)

Malsnectan was inaugurated as king of Scots at Scone on 8 May 1069, with a sizable group of noblemen and clerics present, indicative of their general support for his accession to end the civil strife gripping Scotland. Malsnectan pardoned Murdoch of Strathearn and Malmure of Atholl, giving them gifts of gold to entice them to his side, and had the ex-king Duncan sent as a prisoner to the castle of Forres, stronghold of the mormaers of Moray. Malcolm III's other sons, Donald and Malcolm, escaped to Ireland. In 1070, Malsnectan marched into Atholl with an army to capture Donald, brother of Malcolm III, but he escaped to the kingdom of the Isles.

War with the Isles

In the summer of 1070 Gudrǿd Crovan, king of the Isles, launched an attack on Ross and Inverness. Malsnectan defeated the Islesmen before the gates of Inverness, slaughtering most of their war-band. However, Malsnectan's attack on the sacred island of Iona was abandoned with over a thousand Scottish casualties, a victory attributed by the defenders to St. Columba. In 1071 Malsnectan invaded Argyll, but did not achieve success and was forced to raise a new army. The castle of Dunstaffnage, with its large wooden keep and strong palisade, proved difficult to capture, as did the walled town of St. Moluag, defended by its bishop.

Malsnectan receives the surrender of Dunstaffnage castle in 1072

In 1072 Malsnectan launched a second invasion of Argyll, succeeding in gaining control over the province. In early 1073 he led a raid on Finlaggan, pillaging and burning the town. During 1073-74 Malsnectan extended his control over all of the Western Isles, thoroughly defeating Gudrǿd Crovan and driving him into Galloway, where he met with the king of Scots sometime in 1074 and negotiated peace. The resulting peace recognized Gudrǿd as king of Galloway, while Malsnectan retained the lands he had conquered.

Conquest of Galloway

The death of Malsnectan's wife Maria of Norway at Scone on 14 December 1072, after giving birth to a daughter, forced the king to briefly return from the campaign and find a new spouse to secure the succession. An embassy to France led by Uhtred, bishop of Dunkeld, led to Malsnectan's betrothal to Cecelia, daughter of William the Bastard, duke of Normandy, in the summer of 1073. Cecelia arrived in Scotland later that year and was consecrated as queen. In 1074 Malsnectan traveled to Durham to meet with Magnus Haraldsson, prince of England, with whom he dedicated a tomb to his late first wife.

In April 1075 Gudrǿd Crovan was murdered at Whithorn in Galloway, leaving the province to descend into civil war. In 1076 Malsnectan raised an army and invaded Galloway, taking advantage of the chaos, and laid siege to Gudrǿd's stronghold at Dunragit. In March 1077, having failed to starve out the garrison, the king led an assault on the castle but sustained a grevious wound, "stabbed through the cheek with a long spear" according to one chronicler, so that for many years afterwards he wore a bandage around his jaw and spoke little. Nevertheless, the Scots captured Dunragit and later that year Malsnectan led a raid on the Isle of Man.

At Christmas 1077 Malsnectan secured the submission of Donald Crovan, ruler of Galloway on behalf of the infant heir Gunnar Gudrǿdsson, in a treaty by which he was recognized as lord of Galloway. In 1079 he toured Galloway with an army to reinforce its submission. In June of that year Malsnectan arranged his own consecration as lord by Matthew, bishop of Whithorn, an unusual step underlining his determination to enforce his rule over the province.

Destruction of the Dunkeld dynasty

In 1080 Malsnectan invaded the Isle of Man after Gunnar Gudrǿdsson was deposed by a Norse rebellion and forced to flee to Ireland. In the span of a few months the king conquered the island, installing his brother-in-law Erik Svendsen, son of Svend II of Denmark, as its ruler. Malsnectan was soon confronted by a more serious challenge, prompted by the death at Forres around this time of the ex-king Duncan II. Duncan's brothers Donald and Malcolm returned from Ireland to challenge Malsnectan for the throne, supported by Murdoch of Strathearn and Malmure of Atholl, who thus betrayed their agreement with the king.

Malsnectan had a stroke of luck in September 1080 when he defeated the Dunkeld army at Scone. Donald son of Malcolm escaped with his life, but his brother Malcolm and Murdoch of Strathearn were both captured; Malsnectan ordered them both to be put to death on the field. The battle was a disaster for the Dunkeld dynasty, and Malmure of Atholl quickly came to terms with Malsnectan rather than face a similar fate. Malsnectan was ruthless in his persecution of Dunkeld loyalists; in June 1081, he defeated the young mormaer of Strathearn, Gilchrist son of Murdoch, at Cupar and personally decapitated him. After a brief siege, Malsnectan captured Perth, where Donald had been hiding, and ordered his execution on 30 December 1081.

The castle of Ellon in Buchan

In 1082 Malsnectan hosted a tournament at Ellon, the seat of his thanage of Buchan, at which French, Norman, Flemish, and English knights participated. Constantine mac Dubh, earl of Fife, by tradition the foremost magnate in Scotland, was killed in the tournament and Malsnectan allowed Gilbride, earl of Argyll, to appropriate the prestigious earldom for himself. This angered Malmure of Atholl, who had also hoped to acquire Fife. Around the same time, the king gave the lordship of Galloway to Erik Svendsen. Malsnectan visited Lanark in 1083 to meet with Gospatric Dunbar, lord of Lothian, probably to secure his support against Malmure.

Open war between Malsnectan and Malmure began in 1084, but was quickly ended in brutal fashion. Malsnectan gathered his warriors and laid waste to Atholl, already devastated by past conflicts. Malmure fled into the wilderness, leaving his wife and children in his stronghold of Blair Atholl. The king built a wooden siege engine and captured the hillfort, ordering Malmure's wife and children to be executed, in an act that shocked many but received little reproach. Malmure was captured later that year and drowned on Malsnectan's orders, eliminating the last member of the Dunkeld dynasty.

Middle years (1084-99)

Malsnectan obtained more insurance for his dynasty's hold on the Scottish throne in 1086, when he took oaths from an assembly at Scone that his eldest son Lulach would be the next king. During this time Malsnectan was considering an invasion of northern England, spurred by the minority of Alv Magnusson, king of England, a grandson of Harald Hardrada. In 1087 he sent a Scottish embassy led by Gospatric Dunbar to the court of Philip, king of France, who agreed to support a Scottish attack on England. Buoyed by this promise, Malsnectan began mustering the Scottish host at Stirling for an invasion of Northumberland.

Invasion of England (1088)

In early 1088 Malsnectan led his army into Northumberland, burning the towns and killing many people, including women and children according to multiple chroniclers. On 13 May the Scots were defeated at Yeavering by Gyrth, earl of East Anglia, forcing them to retreat back into Lothian. During the summer, at Malsnectan's request, a small force of French knights and archers landed in Scotland; a Danish fleet sent by Harald III, king of Denmark, also arrived at Aberdeen to assist the Scots. Despite this foreign support, Malsnectan ultimately chose to abandon the English campaign after Gospatric Dunbar, probably the most important supporter of the war, died in October 1088.

The naval attack on Thurso in 1090

War in the north

Malsnectan was also pushed to abandon his English war after a large Norwegian raid on Moray and Ross in 1088; the raiders, after wreaking havoc in Moray, penetrated as far south as Atholl, while Norwegian galleys attacked Aberdeen and Inverness. Malsnectan led a Scottish army, along with the French and Danish forces sent to Scotland, north at the end of the year and defeated the Norwegians. In 1090, the Scottish king invaded Caithness, while a fleet of his own galleys sailed up the coast and approached the castle of Thurso, in the far north. After a two-pronged attack, Malsnectan captured Thurso and killed its defenders. In 1091, he returned to Caithness and burned the town of Dornoch.

In 1092 Malsnectan sailed to the Western Isles to arrest Gunnar Gudrǿdsson, who had taken refuge there with Galwegian and Manx loyalists, but Gudrǿdsson fled to the Faroe Islands, far beyond the Scottish king's reach. The following year Malsnectan ordered a death sentence against Gudrǿdsson to be proclaimed in all the churches of the Isles. In 1094 he began construction of a stone tower at Tain, his seat in Ross, indicating his desire to secure the north. Around this time a possible scheme to marry Lulach mac Malsnectan to Margrete, the young Norse countess of Caithness, fell through and in 1095 Malsnectan marched into Caithness with an army and expelled Margrete, installing a royal keeper of Thurso castle.

Malsnectan secured a notable diplomatic coup in 1095, with the prestigious marriage of his son Lulach to Trude, daughter of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. The marriage was recorded by an Italian chronicle as taking place "with great splendor" at St. Andrews. In January 1096, an imperial embassy arrived in Scotland and presented Malsnectan with letters from the emperor. Malsnectan's dazzling alliance with Henry IV did not bear fruit, as the emperor died shortly after, but it displayed the Scottish king's perceived status among the rulers of Christendom. At home, Malsnectan's hold on the throne was more secure than almost any of his predecessors.

Invasion of England (1097-98)

In the spring of 1097 Malsnectan judged the time was right to launch another invasion of England, this time in the west. The Scottish alliance with France had been broken in 1091, and the Scottish king was said to be "much outraged" by a subsequent pact signed between Philip of France and Alv Magnusson, probably in 1092. However, in 1094 Philip was deposed by the French nobility and Ulf Svendsen, a Danish prince and adventurer, invaded England with a mercenary army to claim the throne. Malsnectan's alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, although short-lived, gave him a clear advantage over the beleaguered English king, and in 1097 he led the Scottish host on a plundering raid into Westmorland.

Malsnectan's raid on northwestern England was a success; the Scots captured and razed the castle of Appleby and defeated an English army at Cartmel, before returning home with few casualties. In 1098 the Scots began another raid, this time on the northeast. On 5 May Malsnectan led his warriors in the audacious capture of the town of Durham; the Scots burned the sacred shrine of St. Cuthbert, against the king's orders according to several chronicles, earning opprobrium from across England. Encouraged by his success at Durham, Malsnectan now led the Scottish army south towards York, the capital of northern England.

The great city of York, occupied by Malsnectan in 1098

Malsnectan's attack on York was fortuitous, for at that time Ulf Svendsen had captured Winchester, imprisoning Alv Magnusson's family and forcing him to concentrate his attention on the south of England. York itself was poorly defended, and the Scots captured it on 14 August 1098 after a brief siege. Word of Malsnectan's shocking victory filtered through England, causing "much grief and despair" according to the Crowland chronicler, and spurring the English king to assemble an army and come north. Malsnectan and the Scots withdrew from York and returned north, but not before looting the city, stealing the gold and jewels from the church of St. Peter.

After Malsnectan's withdrawal from York major hostilities between the Scots and the English ceased, but sporadic raids seem to have continued until peace was negotiated at Dunbar in 1099. By the terms of this treaty, which was received with outrage in England, Alv Magnusson agreed to cede Westmorland to become part of the Scottish kingdom in exchange for a perpetual peace. Malsnectan was determined to honor the peace with England for the rest of his reign.

Later reign (1099-1122)

The Anglo-Scottish peace of 1099 left Malsnectan free to pursue his own aims in Scotland with a secure southern border. In 1100 Malsnectan was forced to intervene in Galloway against his sister Gruoch, widow of Erik Svendsen, lord of Galloway, who had died in a hunting accident. After Gruoch attempted to proclaim her son, Malsnectan's nephew, as king of Galloway, the Scottish king invaded the province and banished Gruoch to Denmark. Malsnectan granted the lordship of Galloway to Dermid, mormaer of Strathearn, and eventually enticed Gruoch to return to Scotland, where she was quickly cloistered in a nunnery.

Queen Cecelia, a noted patron of Norman knights and monks in her adopted country, died at St. Andrews on 8 August 1102. Malsnectan never remarried, and commissioned a marble tomb at Scone Abbey for himself and Cecelia. The aging king embarked on the rest of his rule as a widower.

Conquest of Orkney

In 1106 Malsnectan led a naval attack on Orkney, a possession of the Norwegian crown, along with his eldest son Lulach and a small Scottish army. The Scots captured and burned the castle of Birgishaerad, following which Malsnectan apparently fell ill and sailed back to Moray, leaving his son to continue the raid. In 1107 a second Scottish fleet attacked Orkney and Shetland. Malsnectan did not accompany this expedition, but moved his court to Thurso in Caithness to direct the campaign. At the end of 1107 a Norwegian embassy visited Malsnectan at Thurso and agreed to surrender Orkney to the Scottish crown.

Domestic affairs

In 1105 Malsnectan visited Fife with an armed force and arrested its earl, Somerled of Argyll, after complaints from Ronald, bishop of St. Andrews, that he was extorting and harrassing the freeholding peasantry in the king's name. Malsnectan allowed Somerled to pay a small fine for his freedom rather than push the earl into rebellion. In 1106, after returning home from Orkney, Malsnectan ordered the capture and imprisonment of Ela of Atholl, only living daughter of Malmure of Atholl, and the last branch of the Dunkeld family tree. The king had Ela sent as a nun to Tyninghame, close to the seat of her son Malmure, earl of Dunbar, as a small mark of his mercy.

Malsnectan's intervention against Ela of Atholl signalled a new phase of his obsession to destroy any potential dynastic rivals. In 1109 the king marched to Dunbar with an army and seized Lennon, Ela of Atholl's middle son, sending him to prison at Stirling. In 1110 another army led by Malsnectan's son Lulach marched into the southeast and seized Matthew, the youngest of the Dunbar sons. Earl Malmure died around this time and Malsnectan allowed Lennon to pay a massive fine for the inheritance, while Matthew was executed. Ela of Atholl died the following year, the power of her family totally broken.

Malsnectan's daughter-in-law, the imperial princess Trude, died in 1107. After years of negotiations, the Scots and Danish signed a treaty in 1111 betrothing Lulach mac Malsnectan to the Danish princess Sigrid Olufsdatter. Sigrid arrived in Scotland in 1112 to marry Lulach at St. Andrews. In 1114 Malsnectan narrowly avoided death while traveling in the forest from Dunfermline to Cupar, when the royal party was attacked in an apparent ambush. The attackers were slain and the king reached Cupar safely; the historicity and motive behind this event remain debatable.