(W. A. G.)
MALCHIN, a town of Germany, in the grand-duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on the river Peene, between lakes Malchin and Kummerow, 28 m. by rail N.W. of Neu-Brandenburg. Pop. (1900), 7449. It is, alternately with Sternberg, the place of assembly of the Diet of Mecklenburg. Here are the châteaux of Remplin, Basedow and Schlitz; a church dating from the 14th century, and a fine town-hall. The well-wooded and undulating country, environing the shores of Lake Malchin, is known as the “Mecklenburg Switzerland,” and is increasing in favour as a summer resort. A canal unites Lake Kummerow with the Peene. The industries of the town include the manufacture of sugar and bricks, and brewing and malting. Malchin became a town in 1236.
MALCOLM, the name of four kings of the Scots, two of whom, Malcolm I., king from 943 to 954, and Malcolm II., king from 1005 to 1034, are shadowy and unimportant personages.
Malcolm III. (d. 1093), called Canmore or the “large-headed,” was a son of King Duncan I., and became king after the defeat of the usurper Macbeth in July 1054, being crowned at Scone in April 1057. Having married as his second wife, (St) Margaret (q.v.), a sister of Edgar Ætheling, who was a fugitive at his court, he invaded England in 1070 to support the claim of Edgar to the English throne, returning to Scotland with many captives after harrying Northumbria. William the Conqueror answered this attack by marching into Scotland in 1072, whereupon Malcolm made peace with the English king at Abernethy and “was his man.” However, in spite of this promise he ravaged the north of England again and again, until in 1091 William Rufus invaded Scotland and received his submission. Then in 1092 a fresh dispute arose between the two kings, and William summoned Malcolm to his court at Gloucester. The Scot obeyed, and calling at Durham on his southward journey was present at the foundation of Durham Cathedral. When he reached Gloucester Rufus refused to receive him unless he did homage for his kingdom; he declined and returned home in high dudgeon. Almost at once he invaded Northumbria, and was killed at a place afterwards called Malcolm’s Cross, near Alnwick, on the 13th of November 1093. Four of Malcolm’s sons, Duncan II., Edgar, Alexander I., and David I., became kings of Scotland; and one of his daughters, Matilda, became the wife of Henry I. of England, a marriage which united the Saxon and the Norman royal houses.
Malcolm IV. (c. 1141-1165) was the eldest son of Henry, earl of Huntingdon (d. 1152), son of King David I., and succeeded his grandfather David as king of Scotland in 1153. He is called the “Maiden,” and died unmarried on the 9th of December 1165.
See E. A. Freeman, The Norman Conquest, vols. iv. and v. (1867-1879), and The Reign of William Rufus (1882); W. F. Skene, Celtic Scotland (1876-1880); E. W. Robertson, Scotland under her Early Kings (1862); and A. Lang, History of Scotland, vol. i. (1900).
MALCOLM, SIR JOHN (1769-1833), Anglo-Indian soldier, diplomatist, administrator and author, was born at Burnfoot on the Esk, near Langholm, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, on the 2nd of May 1769. His father was a humble farmer, but three of his sons attained the honour of knighthood. At the age of twelve he received a cadetship in the Indian army, and in April 1783 he landed at Madras, shortly afterwards joining his regiment at Vellore. In 1792, having for some time devoted himself to the study of Persian, he was appointed to the staff of Lord Cornwallis as Persian interpreter, but two years afterwards was compelled by ill health to leave for England. On his return to India in 1796 he became military secretary to Sir Alured Clarke, commander-in-chief at Madras, and afterwards to his successor General Harris; and in 1798 he was appointed by Lord Wellesley assistant to the resident at Hyderabad. In the last-mentioned capacity he highly distinguished himself by the manner in which he gave effect to the difficult measure of disbanding the French corps in the pay of the nizam. In 1799, under the walls of Seringapatam, began his intimacy with Colonel Arthur Wellesley, which in a short time ripened into a lifelong friendship. In the course of the same year he acted as first secretary to the commission appointed to settle the Mysore government, and before its close he was appointed by Lord Wellesley to proceed as envoy to the court of Persia for the purpose of counteracting the policy of the French by inducing that country to form a British alliance. Arriving at Teheran in December 1800, he was successful in negotiating favourable treaties, both political and commercial, and returned to Bombay by way of Bagdad in May 1801. He now for some time held the interim post of private secretary to Lord Wellesley, and in 1803 was appointed to the Mysore residency. At the close of the Mahratta War, in 1804, and again in 1805, he negotiated important treaties with Sindhia and Holkar, and in 1806, besides seeing the arrangements arising out of these alliances carried out, he directed the difficult work of reducing the immense body of irregular native troops. In 1808 he was again sent on a mission to Persia, but circumstances prevented him from getting beyond Bushire; on his reappointment in 1810, he was successful indeed in procuring a favourable reception at court, but otherwise his embassy, if the information which he afterwards incorporated in his works on Persia be left out of account, was (through no fault of his) without any substantial result. He sailed for England in 1811, and shortly after his arrival in the following year was knighted. His intervals of leisure he devoted to literary work, and especially to the composition of a History of Persia, which was published in two quarto volumes in 1815. On his return to India in 1817 he was appointed by Lord Moira his political agent in the Deccan, with eligibility for military command; as brigadier-general under Sir T. Hislop he took a distinguished part in the victory of Mehidpur (December 21, 1817), as also in the subsequent work of following up the fugitives, determining the conditions of peace and settling the country. In 1821 he returned once more to England, where he remained until 1827, when he was appointed governor of Bombay. His influence in this office was directed to the promotion of various economical reforms and useful administrative measures. Leaving India for the last time in 1830, he shortly after his arrival in England entered parliament as member for Launceston, and was an active opponent of the Reform Bill. He died of paralysis on the 30th of May 1833.