Malcolm Cannore (Gael. Ceann-mor, 'great head'), king of Scotland, was a child when in 1040 his father, King Duncan, was slain by Macbeth (q.v.). He seems to have spent his youth in Northumbria with his uncle, Earl Siward, who in 1054 established him in firm possession of Cumbria and Lothian. In 1057, on the death of Macbeth and (seven months later) of Lulach, as well as that probably of Earl Thorfinn of Orkney, he ascended the throne of all Scotland. For the first eight years he was free to devote his energies to the consolidation of his kingdom, England then being ruled by the peaceful Edward the Confessor; but even during this period he made one raid into Northumbria (1061). And after 1066 the history of his long reign is one of ceaseless warfare with the Norman. His first wife, Ingi biorg, Thorfinn's widow, had died; and in 1069 Malcolm wedded Margaret, sister of Edgar the Atheling (q.v.), whose cause thenceforth he warmly made his own. Five separate times did he harry Northumbria, as far sometimes as York (1069, 1070, 1079, 1091, and 1093); and there were counter invasions by William the Conqueror and Prince Robert, in 1072 and 1080, on the former of which occasions at Abernethy 'King Malcolm came and made peace with King William, and gave hostages and became his man.' This homage he renewed to William Rufus in 1091; but, according to Scottish historians, it was only for Lothian and Cumbria, which once had belonged to England. In 1092 Rufus wrested from Scotland all Cumbria south of the Solway; and next year Malcolm gathered his army and marched into England, 'harrying with more animosity than ever behoved him. And then, on 13th November 1093, Robert de Moubray, Earl of Northumberland, ensnared him at Alnwick with his men unawares and slew him. Morel of Bamborough, who slew him, was Earl Robert's steward and King Malcolm's gossip. With Malcolm, also, was slain his son Edward, who should, if he had lived, have been king after him.' Malcolm left, however, five sons, of whom four succeeded him on the throne—Duncan (by Ingi biorg), Edgar, Alexander, and David. His reign is an important one, as the commencement of the transition of Scotland, Celtic and Culdee, to Scotland, feudal and Roman Catholic; but the change was not due to him so much as to his saintly queen.
See the article MARGARET, and Skene's Celtic Scotland (1876); and see the article SCOTLAND for the other three kings of that name—Malcolm, son of Donald, king of Alban from 942 to 954; Malcolm, son of Kenneth, king of Scotia from 1005 to 1034; and Malcolm the Maiden, king of Scotland from 1153 to 1165.