Editing Macbeth, King of Scotland (section)

== King of Alba ==
On Duncan's death, Macbeth became king. Had his reign not been universally accepted, resistance would have been expected, but none is known to have occurred. In 1045, Duncan's father [[Crínán of Dunkeld]] (a scion of the Scottish branch of the [[Cenél Conaill]] and Hereditary [[Abbot of Iona]]) was killed in a battle between two Scottish armies.<ref>''Annals of Tigernach'' 1045.10; ''Annals of Ulster'' 1045.6.</ref> Duncan's younger brother Maldred of Allerdale is believed to have died in the same battle, the family fighting Macbeth in defence of Duncan I's young son [[Malcolm III]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/ScotsPeerageVol3.pdf|title=The Scots Peerage|volume=3|page=|via=electricscotland.com}}</ref>

[[John of Fordun]] wrote that Duncan's wife fled Scotland, taking her children, including the future kings Malcolm III (Máel Coluim mac Donnchada) and [[Donald III]] (Domnall Bán mac Donnchada, or Donalbane) with her. On the basis of the authors' beliefs as to whom Duncan married, various places of exile, [[Northumbria]] and [[Orkney]] among them, have been proposed. However, [[E. William Robertson]] proposes the safest place for Duncan's widow and her children would be with her or Duncan's kin and supporters in [[Atholl]].<ref>Robertson, ''Scotland under her Early Kings'', p. 122. Hudson, ''Prophecy of Berchán'', p. 224, refers to Earl Siward as Malcolm III's "patron"; Duncan, ''The Kingship of the Scots'', pp. 40–42 favours Orkney; Woolf offers no opinion. Northumbria is evidently a misapprehension, further than that cannot be said with certainty.</ref>

After the defeat of Crínán, Macbeth was evidently unchallenged. [[Marianus Scotus of Mainz|Marianus Scotus]] tells how the king made a [[pilgrimage]] to [[Rome]] in 1050, where, Marianus says, he gave money to the poor as if it were seed.{{sfn|Ellis|1990|p=74}}

=== Karl Hundason ===
The ''[[Orkneyinga saga|Orkneyinga Saga]]'' says that a dispute between [[Thorfinn the Mighty|Thorfinn Sigurdsson]], [[Earl of Orkney]], and [[Karl Hundason]] began when Karl Hundason became "King of Scots" and claimed [[Caithness]]. The identity of Karl Hundason, unknown to Scots and Irish sources, has long been a matter of dispute, and it is far from clear that the matter is settled. The most common assumption is that Karl Hundason was an insulting byname ([[Old Norse]] for "Churl, son of a Dog") given to Macbeth by his enemies.<ref>However Macbeth's father may be called "jarl Hundi" in ''[[Njál's saga]]''; Crawford, p. 72.</ref> [[William Forbes Skene]]'s suggestion that he was Duncan I of Scotland has been revived in recent years. Lastly, the idea that the whole affair is a poetic invention has been raised.<ref>Anderson, ''ESSH'', p. 576, note 7, refers to the account as "a fabulous story" and concludes that "[n]o solution to the riddle seems to be justified".</ref>

According to the ''Orkneyinga Saga'', in the war which followed, Thorfinn defeated Karl in a sea-battle off [[Deerness]] at the east end of the [[The Mainland, Orkney|Orkney Mainland]]. Then Karl's nephew Mutatan or Muddan, appointed to rule Caithness for him, was killed at [[Thurso]] by [[Thorkel Amundason|Thorkel the Fosterer]]. Finally, a great battle at [[Tarbat Ness]]<ref>{{citation | title= Lost Kingdoms: Celtic Scotland and the Middle Ages | first= John Lenox | last= Roberts | publisher= Edinburgh University Press | year= 1997 | isbn= 978-0-7486-0910-9 | page= [https://archive.org/details/lostkingdomscelt0000robe/page/22 22] | url= https://archive.org/details/lostkingdomscelt0000robe/page/22 }}</ref> on the south side of the [[Dornoch Firth]] ended with Karl defeated and fugitive or dead. Thorfinn, the saga says, then marched south through Scotland as far as [[Fife]], burning and plundering as he passed. A later note in the saga claims that Thorfinn won nine Scottish earldoms.<ref>''Orkneyinga Saga'', cc. 20 & 32.</ref>

Whoever Karl Hundason may have been, it appears that the saga is reporting a local conflict with a Scots ruler of Moray or [[Ross, Scotland|Ross]]:
{{blockquote|[T]he whole narrative is consistent with the idea that the struggle of Thorfinn and Karl is a continuation of that which had been waged since the ninth century by the Orkney earls, notably [[Sigurd Rognvald]]'s son, [[Ljot]], and [[Sigurd the Stout]], against the princes or ''mormaers'' of Moray, Sutherland, Ross, and Argyll, and that, in fine, Malcolm and Karl were ''mormaers'' of one of these four provinces.<ref>Taylor, p. 338; Crawford, pp. 71–74.</ref>}}

=== Final years ===
In 1052, Macbeth was involved indirectly in the strife in the [[Kingdom of England]] between [[Godwin, Earl of Wessex]] and [[Edward the Confessor]] when he received a number of [[Normans|Norman]] exiles from England in his court. In 1054, Edward's [[Earl of Northumbria]], [[Sigurd the Dane|Siward]], led a very large invasion of Scotland (Suthed, Duncan's widow and Malcolm's mother, was Northumbrian-born; it is probable but not proven that there was a family tie between Siward and Malcolm). The campaign led to a bloody [[Battle of Dunsinane|battle at Dunsinane]],<ref name="Dauvit2015Malcolm">{{cite book |last1=Broun |first1=Dauvit |editor1-last=Cannon |editor1-first=John |editor2-last=Crowcroft |editor2-first=Robert |title=The Oxford Companion to British History |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=2nd |url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/oupoxford/malcolm_iii/0 |access-date=6 August 2020 |chapter=Malcolm III}}</ref> in which the ''[[Annals of Ulster]]'' reported 3,000 Scots and 1,500 English dead, which can be taken as meaning very many on both sides. One of Siward's sons and a son-in-law were among the dead. The result of the invasion was that one Máel Coluim, "son of the king of the [[Cumbria]]ns" (not to be confused with Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, the future Malcolm III of Scotland) was restored to his throne, i.e., as ruler of the [[kingdom of Strathclyde]].<ref>[[Florence of Worcester]], 1052; ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', Ms. D, 1054; ''Annals of Ulster'' 1054.6; and discussed by Duncan, ''The Kingship of the Scots'', pp. 38–41; see also Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 260–263.</ref> It may be that the events of 1054 are responsible for the idea, which appears in Shakespeare's play, that Malcolm III was put in power by the English.

Macbeth did not survive the English invasion for long, for he was defeated and mortally wounded or killed by the future Malcolm III ("King Malcolm ''Ceann-mor''", son of Duncan I)<ref>Moncreiffe, Iain (Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk). ''The Robertsons (Clan Donnachaidh of Atholl)''.  W. & A. K. Johnston & G. W. Bacon Ltd., Edinburgh. 1962 (reprint of 1954), p. 6</ref> on the north side of the [[Mounth]] in 1057, after retreating with his men over the [[Cairnamounth]] Pass to take his last stand at the battle at [[Lumphanan]].<ref>Andrew Wyntoun, ''Original Chronicle'', ed. F.J. Amours, vol. 4, pp 298–299 and 300–301 (c. 1420)</ref> ''[[The Prophecy of Berchán]]'' has it that he was wounded and died at [[Scone, Perth and Kinross|Scone]], sixty miles to the south, some days later.<ref>The exact dates are uncertain, Woolf gives 15 August, Hudson 14 August and Duncan, following John of Fordun, gives 5 December; ''Annals of Tigernach'' 1058.5; ''Annals of Ulster'' 1058.6.</ref> Macbeth's stepson [[Lulach mac Gille Coemgáin|Lulach]] was installed as king soon after,{{sfn|Ellis|1990|pp=97–98}} but was killed in 1058 by Malcolm who succeeded him.

Unlike later writers, no near-contemporary source remarks on Macbeth as a tyrant. The ''[[Duan Albanach]],'' which survives in a form dating to the reign of Malcolm III, calls him "Mac Bethad the renowned". ''The Prophecy of Berchán'', a verse history which purports to be a prophecy, describes him as "the generous king of [[Fortriu]]", and says:
{{blockquote|The red, tall, golden-haired one, he will be pleasant to me among them; Scotland will be brimful west and east during the reign of the furious red one.<ref>Hudson, ''[[Prophecy of Berchán]]'', p. 91, stanzas 193 and 194.</ref>}}