Máel
Coluim mac Domnaill (Malcolm I) Máel
Coluim mac Domnaill (Malcolm I)Máel Coluim (Malcolm) succeeded to the throne on the abdication of his cousin Causantín (Constantine) mac Áeda (d. 952) in about 943, a year which is calculated based on the eleven years of reign given to him by the Old Scottish Chronicle ["Maelcolaim filius Domnaill .xi. an' regnauit." KKES 252], and by the statement of the same source that Constantine died in the tenth year of his reign ["Mortuus est autem Constantinus in .x. eius anno sub corona penítenti in senectute bona.", ibid.]. The Old Scottish Chronicle states that he was killed by the men of Mearns at Fodresach ["Et occiderunt uírí na Moerne Malcolaim in Fodresach id est in Claideom.", ibid.], but this is contradicted by other versions of the king lists, which state that he was killed at Ulurn/Ulnem by the men of Moray ["Malcom Mac-Dovenald 9 an. interfectus in Ulurn a Moraviensib. sep. in Iona" Regnal List "F", KKES 275; "Malcolin filius Dounald ix. annis et interfectus est in Ulnem a Morauiensibus per dolum et sepultus in Iona insula." List "I", ibid., 283; similarly in List "D" but with the place omitted, ibid., 267; see also ESSH 1: 451-4]
Date of Birth: Unknown.
Place of
Birth: Unknown.
Date of Death: 954.
["Mael Coluim m. Domnaill, ri Alban, occisus est."
AU, s.a. 954]
Place of Death: Uncertain.
As noted above, he is said by conflicting sources to have been
killed by the men of Mearns at Fodresach, or by the men of Moray
at Ulurn/Ulnem.
Father:
Domnall mac
Causantín (Donald II), d.
900, king of Scotland.
["Máel Coluim mc Cináeda mc Máel
C[h]olum mc Domnaill mc C[h]usantín mc
C[h]ináeda mc Alpín." Genelaig Albanensium,
Bannerman (1974), 66]
[See ESSH 1: 451-4; KKES 251ff.]
Mother: Unknown.
Spouse: Unknown.
Children:
["Cináed & Dub dá
mac Máel-Choluim m. Domnaill m. Cináeda m. Alpín."
LL336b27, CGH 426]
Dub mac Máel Coluim, d. 966×7, king
of Scotland, 962?-966×7.
["Dub m. Mael Coluim, ri
Alban, do marbad la h-Albanchu fein."
AU, s.a. 967] He is called "Niger" (a
translation of Dub, "black") in the Old
Scottish Chronicle, which gives him a reign of five years, while
Regnal Lists "D", "F", and "I", the
principal witnesses to the alternate tradition, give him four
years and six months. He is said to be the ancestor of Clan
MacDuff, which is quite plausible, but not directly documented.
Cináed mac Máel Coluim (Kenneth II), d. 995, king of Scotland, 971?-995.
[See the genealogy quoted above.]
Supposed additional son (existence unclear):
Aear mac Máel Coluim, supposed king
of Scotland, ca. 967?
The longer version of the Synchronisms
(which include a list of Scottish kings) mention Aear as king
immediately after Dub and immediately before Cuilén mac Illuilb,
whom most sources make Dub's immediate successor [Thurneysen
(1933), 93 (VIII C 10)]. Aear is absent from the shorter version
of the Synchronisms [Boyle (1971), 179], and I am unaware of
another medieval source which mentions him.
AU = Seán Mac Airt and Gearóid Mac Niocaill, The Annals of Ulster (Dublin, 1983). See also the CELT website.
Bannerman (1974) = John Bannerman, Studies in the History of Dalriada (Edinburgh & London, 1974).
Boyle (1971) = A. Boyle, "The Edinburgh Synchronisms of Irish Kings", Celtica 9 (1971): 169-179.
CGH = M. A. O’Brien, ed., Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae (Dublin, 1962, reprinted 1976 with new Introduction by J. V. Kelleher).
ESSH = Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1922, reprinted Stamford, 1990). [Contains English translations of many of the primary records]
KKES = Marjorie Ogilvy Anderson, Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland (Edinburgh, Totowa, NJ, 1973).
Thurneysen (1933) = R. Thurneysen, "Synchronismen der irischen Könige", Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 19 (1933): 81-99.
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
Originally uploaded 5 August 2001.
Minor revision uploaded 26 April 2007.
Added notice about supposed son Aear on 5 April 2011.