Among the Gaelic tribes which still formed the main body of the population of the districts extending from the Forth to the Spey, and constituting the proper kingdom of Scotia, the law of Tanistry must still have had a powerful influence, and had too recently had full sway among them to prepare them to accept the succession of a son in preference to a brother without difficulty; and here Donald Ban, the brother of Malcolm Ceannmor, must have been regarded as their natural and legitimate king, while his only competitor in their eyes, Duncan, being still detained as a hostage at the English court, was in no position personally to contest the succession with him.
A.D. 1093.
Donald Ban, Malcolm’s brother, reigns six months.
The Saxon Chronicle tells us that on Malcolm’s death ‘the Scots,’ by whom the people of Scotland proper are no doubt meant, ‘then chose Donald, Malcolm’s brother, for king, and drove out all the English who were before with King Malcolm.’[[623]] He appears to have asserted his claim with great promptitude, for John of Fordun, whom we may now accept as a fair authority for the events of Scottish history, as being nearer his own time, and having no longer a theory to maintain at the expense of its true features, tells us that Donald Ban, the king’s brother, having heard of the death of Queen Margaret, invaded the kingdom at the head of a numerous band, and besieged the castle of Edinburgh, while her body still remained there unburied, and where her sons, whom Fordun terms the king’s rightful and lawful heirs, still were; but her family, taking advantage of a thick mist, which of course he considers miraculous, but is not an unfrequent accompaniment of an Edinburgh day, brought down her body by a postern on the western side, and conveyed it safely to the church of Dunfermline, where she was buried.[[624]] Wynton, who wrote in the following century, repeats the same story, but says that it was her son Ethelred who conveyed her body to Dunfermline, which is probable enough, as that royal seat was situated within the bounds of his earldom of Fife.[[625]] Eadgar Aetheling, the queen’s brother, who was still alive, then gathered her sons and daughters together and brought them secretly to England for the purpose of being privately educated by their mother’s relatives.
A.D. 1093-1094.
Duncan, son of Malcolm by his first wife, Ingibiorg, reigns six months.
Donald Ban was, however, not to escape a conflict with Duncan, the eldest son of the deceased king, for when the news of these events reached the English court, where he had remained since he had been given as a hostage when a mere child, and had received his education, he went to the king, ‘and performed such fealty as the king would have of him, and so with his permission went to Scotland with the support he could get of English and French, that is Normans, and deprived his kinsman Donald of the kingdom, and was received for king.’[[626]] This took place after Donald had reigned for six months. By the population of Lothian and Cumbria, who had probably had enough of Donald and his Gaelic followers, Duncan would no doubt be received at once; for though the people of Lothian might have preferred a son of the Saxon queen, and might not dislike to see him set aside for one of that family, they would have no hesitation in supporting his cause against that of his uncle. The Gaelic inhabitants of Scotland proper seem to have been divided. A party of the Scots appear to have been sufficiently favourable to him to enable him to expel the intruders, while another section of the natives rejected him, for we are told by the same chronicle that ‘some of the Scots afterwards gathered together and slew almost all his followers, and he himself with few escaped. Afterwards they were reconciled on the condition that he never again should harbour in the land either English or French.’[[627]] Duncan had probably agreed to hold the whole kingdom as a vassal of the king of England, being himself by education a Norman, and trusting to his English and Norman support to maintain him in his position; but he seems to have found that his only chance of retaining his rule over the districts north of the Forth was by claiming them as his by hereditary right. There are two charters by him preserved: one is a grant by Duncan of the lands of Tiningham and others in East Lothian to Saint Cuthbert, that is, to the church at Durham, in which he styles himself ‘son of King Malcolm and by hereditary right king of Scotland,’ It is witnessed apparently by his brother Eadgar, and with one exception the other witnesses are all Saxons.[[628]] He appears also to have granted lands in Fife to the church of Dunfermline.[[629]] He is said to have married Ethreda, daughter of Gospatric, earl of Northumberland, who took refuge in 1067 with Malcolm Ceannmor, and was made earl of Dunbar, by whom he had a son William.[[630]]
The reign of Duncan, however, did not last longer than that of his uncle Donald; for after he had possessed the throne for six months, the Saxon Chronicle records in the following year, ‘In this year also the Scots ensnared and slew their king Duncan, and after took to them again, a second time, his paternal uncle Donald for king, through whose machinations and incitement he was betrayed to death.’[[631]] The Scots who thus ensnared him were those who inhabited the districts north of the Tay, the leaders among whom were the men of the Mearns; and Duncan is said by our oldest chronicles to have been slain by Malpeder MacLoen, the Mormaer, or Comes as the Mormaers were now called, of the Mearns, at Monachedin, now Mondynes, in the Mearns or Kincardineshire, where a large upright monolith rising six or eight feet above the surface may commemorate the event.[[632]]
A.D. 1094-1097.
Donald Ban again, with Eadmund, son of Malcolm, reigned three years.
Donald Ban, who thus a second time obtained possession of the throne, appears to have felt that he could not maintain himself in that position without neutralising the opposition of the Anglic inhabitants of Lothian, and with the view of strengthening himself offered to associate with him one of the sons of Malcolm by Queen Margaret. Eadgar, the heir, was not likely to surrender his claims for a divided rule with his uncle, but his brother Eadmund appears to have yielded to the temptation and joined the party of Donald Ban. It was at the instigation of Donald Ban and Eadmund that Duncan was slain; and while Donald Ban ruled over the Scots north of the Firths, Eadmund was no doubt placed over Lothian, and, as son of their revered princess Margaret, readily commanded their allegiance.[[633]] Their joint reign appears to have lasted for three years, and Lothian thus became again dissevered during that period from the kingdom of Scotland.
Eadgar Aetheling, however, resolved now to make an effort to place his nephew Eadgar on the throne; and we are told by the Saxon Chronicle that in the year 1097, ‘soon after St. Michael’s Mass, or the 29th of September, Eadgar Aetheling, with the king’s support, went with a force into Scotland, and in a hard-fought battle won that land and drove out the king Donald, and in King William’s vassalage set as king his kinsman Eadgar, who was the son of King Malcolm and of Queen Margaret, and afterwards returned to England.’ Eadmund, according to William of Malmesbury, being taken and doomed to perpetual imprisonment, sincerely repented, and on his near approach to death ordered himself to be buried in his chains, confessing that he suffered deservedly for the crime of fratricide.[[634]] Eadgar thus reunited Lothian with Scotland, and subjected both to his rule, but it was not till two years after that he succeeded in taking Donald Ban prisoner, who was blinded and condemned to perpetual imprisonment at Roscolpin or Rescobie, where he died, and was buried in Dunfermline.[[635]]
A.D. 1097-1107.
Eadgar, son of Malcolm Ceanmnor by Queen Margaret, reigns nine years.