Malcolm IV

Malcolm IV (c. 1142-1165), King of Scots (1153-1165), succeeded as the elder grandson of David I, a year after the sudden, early death of his father, Henry, Earl of Northumbria, the expected heir (see Scotland).

Malcolm’s reign was marked by rebellions and uncertainty. Neither his own position nor the principle of primogeniture was secure. There were fears both before and after his accession that this 11-year-old minor would not find acceptance among his magnates. In 1152, the Earl of Fife, the senior incumbent among the native Scottish magnates, had taken him on what looked like a pre-election tour of his future realm. The 1159 seal of the king’s charter to Melrose Abbey, showing an elderly King David I, with obvious Biblical parallels, alongside a youthful Malcolm as a second King Solomon, suggests propaganda still marked by nervousness rather than confidence.

The familiar tensions that plagued 12th-century Scottish kingship, with a culture clash between Celtic and Norman traditions, and a series of rival claimants to the throne, were never more obvious than in this brief reign. Malcolm, despite his Celtic name meaning “servant of Columba”, had imbibed heavily from the Anglo-Norman culture derived from his father and mother, Ada of Warenne. His main challenger was Somerled (literally “summer warrior”), Lord of the Isles, whose name suggests a mixed Celtic and Norse background. Somerled was behind two major rebellions in the west against Malcolm, in 1153, shortly after his succession, and in 1164. Risings also materialized in Galloway, in the south-west in 1160, and threatened in the north, in Moray.

The legacy that Malcolm left to his younger brother, William the Lion, was fragile and much reduced. Both Northumbria and Cumbria, major assets in the extended kingdom of David I, had been ceded in 1157 to Henry II of England. Malcolm’s renewal of feudal homage to the English king would prove to be the source of much future friction between the two realms. The far-flung corners of Malcolm’s composite kingdom still lay outside effective royal control. And the succession was still insecure since neither Malcolm, dubbed “the Maiden”, nor his brother at that time, had married.