Last issue, we dealt with seven early kings of Scotland and here we pick up the story from the reign of Malcolm I, who ascended the throne in AD943, exactly 100 years after the founding of the new kingdom.
By now Scotland was called Alba (meaning ‘white land’) rather than Pictland. It would be another two hundred years before the name ‘Scotland’ was adopted.
Norse attacks on the western seaboard at this time were not as severe as they had been, though they wouldn’t end until the defeat of the Norse invaders under King Haakon at the Battle of Largs in 1263.
MALCOLM I
Malcolm I was the son of Donald II. He was 47 years old when he came to the throne, though, as with most early kings, details of his age and reign are not always reliable, The main source for Malcolm, held in the Bibliotéque Nationale in Paris, which tells of Malcolm killing a man called Cellach in Moray. This Cellach may have been a kinsman of the mormaer (a provincial ruler) of Moray, with whom Malcolm was feuding.
