Edmund or Etmond mac Maíl Coluim (c. 1070 – after 1097) was a son of
Malcolm III of Scotland
Malcolm III ( mga, Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, label= Medieval Gaelic; gd, Maol Chaluim mac Dhonnchaidh; died 13 November 1093) was King of Scotland from 1058 to 1093. He was later nicknamed "Canmore" ("ceann mòr", Gaelic, literally "big head ...
and his second wife,
Margaret of Wessex
Saint Margaret of Scotland ( gd, Naomh Maighréad; sco, Saunt Marget, ), also known as Margaret of Wessex, was an English princess and a Scottish queen. Margaret was sometimes called "The Pearl of Scotland". Born in the Kingdom of Hungary to th ...
.
He may be found on some lists of Scottish kings, but there is no evidence that he was king. Although Edmund was probably Malcolm and Margaret's second son, he was passed over in subsequent successions as a result of betraying his siblings by siding with their uncle,
Donald III.
On the death of Edmund's father and his heir-designate, Edward, his eldest son by Margaret, in November 1093, Edmund's uncle Donald took the throne. Edmund and his younger brothers
Edgar,
Alexander
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
and
David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
fled abroad, to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, to join their half-brother
Duncan at the court of
William Rufus
William II ( xno, Williame; – 2 August 1100) was King of England from 26 September 1087 until his death in 1100, with powers over Normandy and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales. The third so ...
.
In 1094 Duncan, with Rufus's blessing and the support of landless nobles from the English court and landowners in Lothian, drove Donald from the throne. It is supposed that Edmund, as the next in age, was Duncan's heir-designate. Duncan was forced by a rebellion to send his English allies home, and was shortly afterwards killed. The killer was
Máel Petair,
Mormaer of Mearns
The Mormaer or Mormaerdom of Mearns is the most obscure medieval Scottish mormaerdom. It is known only from one source, a source relating that Máel Petair, ''Mormaer of Mearns'', killed Donnchad II. There is good reason to believe that this is ...
, but the
Annals of Ulster and
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury ( la, Willelmus Malmesbiriensis; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as " ...
agree that the killing was done on the orders of Donald and Edmund.
What caused Edmund to join with his uncle is unknown. It is assumed that Donald appointed him his heir as Donald had no sons of his own, and it is thought that Edmund was granted an
appanage
An appanage, or apanage (; french: apanage ), is the grant of an estate, title, office or other thing of value to a younger child of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture. It was common in much o ...
to rule.
Edmund's maternal uncle
Edgar Ætheling
Edgar Ætheling or Edgar II (c. 1052 – 1125 or after) was the last male member of the royal house of Cerdic of Wessex. He was elected King of England by the Witenagemot in 1066, but never crowned.
Family and early life
Edgar was born ...
came north in 1097, driving Donald from the throne and installing Edmund's younger brother
Edgar as king, with Alexander as his heir-designate. While Donald was mutilated and imprisoned, dying in 1099, Edmund was more fortunate. He was tonsured and sent to the
Cluniac
The Cluniac Reforms (also called the Benedictine Reform) were a series of changes within medieval monasticism of the Western Church focused on restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art, and caring for the poor. The movement began wi ...
monastery at
Montacute in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
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, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
. The exact date of his death is unknown.
References
*Duncan, A.A.M., ''The Kingship of the Scots 842–1292: Succession and Independence.'' Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2002.
*
Oram, Richard, ''David I: The King Who Made Scotland.'' Tempus, Stroud, 2004.
*Oram, Richard, ''The Canmores: Kings & Queens of the Scots 1040-1290'', Tempus, Stroud, 2002,
{{refend
External links
Annals of Ulster
at University College Cork
University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork.
The university was founded in 1845 as one ...
br>CELT
Corpus of Electronic Texts
1070s births
12th-century deaths
House of Dunkeld
Sons of kings