ABSTRACT
Macbeth and Lulach were the last of the kings of ancient Scotland. They were Gaelic-speaking. They represented the old Pictish and Scottish kingdom of Kenneth MacAlpin, their ancestor. In a sense they were, in turn, chief of chiefs in the clan system. Until the end of his reign, Macbeth’s kingdom was not involved with English arms. Unlike many of his successors, he was not troubled by lords who, secretly or openly, favoured alliance with England, sometimes even subservience to the English king. Macbeth governed his country effectively from that part of it which was most familiar and pleasant to him, the northeast. If he had not lost the battle at Lumphanan he would have steered Scotland in a direction very different from that which it took under Malcolm III. But Malcolm triumphed, with English help, and among his supporters were Scottish lords who had ties with England. Some perhaps had obligations. Thus were sown the seeds of an ‘English party’ in Scotland, and these were to flourish, with terrible results. It was the beginning of the process whereby Scottish lords were induced with money and other gifts to promote English causes in Scotland. This same process was operating when the English steamrollered the Scots into the Act of Union in 1706-7. The system of succession in Scotland was still not a clear-cut one. Under it, Malcolm III would probably not have followed his father Duncan I in 1040 even if he had been an adult. Being but a young boy made it even less likely that he would have been chosen by the Scottish lords in preference to Macbeth. Instead, Malcolm left Scotland and went to live in England. He may have spent some
time at the English court of Edward the Confessor (1042-66) who had himself spent much of his youth in Normandy and made many Norman friends. Whether Malcolm did that or not, he fell under English influence. Living away from the land of his native tongue, Gaelic, he learned to speak English and he grew up used to English ways. He may also have spent time in Normandy, where he would have seen at close quarters something of the feudal system of landholding, with service given to the duke in return for land.
