Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/165

 must be identified with the Maelbaethe, mormaer of Moray or Ri Alban mentioned above. According to Mr. Skene, Macbeth, after wavering in his allegiance to Duncan, finally threw in his fortunes with Thorfinn, and ultimately divided the realm with his ally. Macbeth thus, in Mr. Skene's opinion, obtained the districts south and west of the Tay ‘in which Duncan's strength mainly lay,’ while ‘Cumbria and Lothian probably remained faithful to the children of Duncan.’ A consistent tradition, going back through Fordun (c 1361) to the twelfth century, makes the murder perpetrated at Bothngouane or Bothgofnane (Pitgaveny, near Elgin), whence the king was carried to Elgin before his death. From this place the corpse was taken to Iona for burial (Chron. of Picts and Scots, ed. Skene, p. 52;, ed. Skene, i. 188). Marianus Scotus, consistently with his own dates, makes Duncan reign five years nine months; in this he is supported by one or two early authorities, most of whom, however, write six years (ib. pp. 29, 63, &c.; cf. pp. 101, 210).

According to Fordun, Duncan's rule was very peaceful; but no stress can be laid on the account he gives of this king's yearly progress through his realm to restrain the injustice of his lords. The same writer remarks that he was slain by the unsteadiness of a family that had already slain his grandfather and great-grandfather. In a poem written before 1057 A.D. he appears as ‘Duncan the Wise;’ in Tighernac's ‘Annals’ he is said to have perished ‘immatura ætate a suis occisus;’ and the prophecy of St. Berchan, perhaps dating from the early half of the twelfth century, calls him ‘'N-galrach,’ or the much diseased. He is described as ‘a king not young, but old.’ There are allusions to his ‘banner of red gold,’ and his skill in music. These phrases are of some interest as belonging to the prototype of Shakespeare's ‘King Duncan,’ whose mythical story may be traced with all its accretions in Fordun, pp. 187–8; Bower, ed. Goodall, iv. cc. 49, 50, &c., and v.; Mayor (ed. 1521), fol. 42; Boethius, book xii.; Buchanan, book vii.; and Holinshed (ed. 1808), v. 264–9.

Duncan had two sons, Malcolm (afterwards Malcolm, king of Scotland) and Donald Bane (, sub ann. 1057;, p. 558; A.-S. Chron. ii. 196). His wife, according to Boece, was the daughter of Siward, earl of Northumberland (fol. 249 b). A third son, Maelmare, is said to have been the ancestor of the earls of Atholl (, i. 434). From Simeon of Durham we may infer that Duncan had a brother Maldred, who married Aldgitha, the daughter of Earl Uchtred, and granddaughter of Ethelred the Unready, and by her became the father of Cospatric, earl of Northumberland (, i. 216).

[Authorities quoted above.]  DUNCAN II (d. 1094), king of Scotland, was the eldest son of Malcolm III (Canmore), by his wife Ingibrorg, widow of Thorfinn, the Norwegian earl of Orkney (, i. 434). His father had given him as a hostage to William I, probably at the treaty of Abernethy in 1072 (, Norman Conquest, iv. 517). When William I died he was apparently more or less of a state prisoner, and as such was set free and knighted by Robert when he entered Normandy in 1087. On the death of Malcolm he was probably regarded as his father's true heir in Cumbria and the Norwegian districts north of the Spey. In Scotia proper, or Albania, from the Forth to the Tay, the law of tanistry must have powerfully supported the pretensions of his uncle, Donald Bane, who is said to have at once seized upon Edinburgh Castle. On hearing of his father's death Duncan did fealty to William Rufus, under whose banners he was then serving, and collected a force of English and Normans for the maintenance of his claim to Scotland, where Donald Bane had been elected king, and, placing himself at the head of the national party, had driven all the English of his dead brother's court out of the country. Duncan succeeded in expatriating his uncle and establishing himself in his stead; but the young king found his followers unpopular with the very Scots who had made him king. These rose up in a body, cut off the strangers almost to a man, and only consented to retain Duncan as their king on condition of his taking an oath to introduce no more English or Normans into the country. It is curious after this to find that in the next year the Scotch, at the instigation of Donald Bane, slew their king treacherously, and once more expelled the English, and set Donald Bane upon the throne. Fordun makes Duncan slain at Monthechin, by Malpei or Malpedir, earl of Mearns, and buried in Iona (, ii. 222–4;, ii. 21, 31–5; A.-S. Chron. ii. 196–8; , Celtic Scotland, i. 433, &c.)

The exact dates of these events are somewhat obscure. Malcolm is said to have died 13 Nov. 1093 (, p. 219), his eldest son Edward two days later, and Queen Margaret on 16 Nov. Simeon of Durham also gives Malcolm's death on St. Brice's day, and Margaret's three days later; whereas Duncan's death is admitted by all authorities to have taken place in 1094. This, even if we place Duncan's death at the very end of 1094, hardly leaves space for admitting with Fordun (p.