However, William II of England backed Máel Coluim's son by his first marriage, Donnchad, as a pretender to the throne and he seized power.

Máel Coluim's sons Dub and Cináed were later kings.

Another contender, imprisoned at Roxburgh since about 1130, was Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair, an illegitimate son of Alexander I. Máel Coluim's sons were free men in 1153.

The first reliable report of Máel Coluim's reign is of an invasion of Bernicia in 1006, perhaps the customary crech ríg ( literally royal prey, a raid by a new king made to demonstrate prowess in war ), which involved a siege of Durham.

The Orkneyinga Saga says that Thorfinn was raised at Máel Coluim's court and was given the Mormaerdom of Caithness by his grandfather.

Thorfinn, says the Heimskringla, was the ally of the king of Scots, and counted on Máel Coluim's support to resist the " tyranny " of Norwegian King Olaf Haraldsson.

Whatever the exact chronology, before Máel Coluim's death a client of the king of Scots was in control of Caithness and Orkney, although, as with all such relationships, it is unlikely to have lasted beyond his death.

Not only had Gille Coemgáin's ancestors killed many of Máel Coluim's kin, but Gille Coemgáin and his son Lulach might be rivals for the throne.

By the 1030s Máel Coluim's sons, if he had any, were dead.

Perhaps the most notable feature of Máel Coluim's death is the account of Marianus, matched by the silence of the Irish annals, which tells us that Donnchad I became king and ruled for five years and nine months.

While an earlier date is favoured, an association with accounts of Máel Coluim's has been proposed on the basis of the iconography of the carvings.

On the question of Máel Coluim's putative pilgrimage, pilgrimages to Rome, or other long-distance journeys, were far from unusual.

Not a great deal is known of Máel Coluim's activities beyond the wars and killings.

A second invasion from the north in 952, this time an alliance including Máel Coluim's Scots and also Britons and Saxons, was defeated.

Óengus, along with his brother, son Eogán, and nephew Domnall, is included in the Duan Albanach, a praise poem from the reign of Máel Coluim ( III ) mac Donnchada listing Máel Coluim's predecessors as kings of Scots, of Alba and of Dál Riata from Fergus Mór and his brothers onwards.

On the death of Edmund's father and his heir-designate, Edward, his eldest son by Margaret, in November 1093, Máel Coluim's brother Domnall Bán took the throne.

On Máel Coluim's death, the line of kings descended from Cináed came to an end.

Future kings, while still tracing their descent from Cináed, were descended from Máel Coluim's daughter Bethóc.

Máel Coluim's victory at the Battle of Carham in 1018 brought him into outright possession of the lands of the Lothians and the Merse.

The castle is said to have been built by Máel Coluim III of Scotland, after he had razed to the ground the castle in which Macbeth of Scotland according to much later tradition, murdered Máel Coluim's father Donnchad I of Scotland, and which stood on a hill around 1 km to the north-east.

Nothing more is known of Máel Coluim's life ; there is speculation by some modern historians that he was illegitimate.

His murder within a few months saw Domnall restored with one of Máel Coluim sons by his second marriage, Edmund, as his heir.

* Máel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid becomes the first High King of Ireland

After first dispatching the already much weakened Ivar in 977, he challenged Máel Muad in 978 and defeated him in the fateful Battle of Belach Lechta, after which all the Eóganachta were no longer viable at the provincial level and Brian and the Dál Cais now enjoyed the overlordship, although not the traditional kingship of the province, which was based on lineage.

He was son of Malcolm III ( Máel Coluim mac Donnchada ) and his first wife Ingibiorg Finnsdottir, widow of Thorfinn Sigurdsson.

The first opposition to Malcolm came in November 1153, from the combination of a neighbour, Somerled of Argyll, and family rivals, the sons of Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair.

John of Fordun writes that Máel Coluim defeated a Norwegian army " in almost the first days after his coronation ", but this is not reported elsewhere.

Máel Dúin is the protagonist of Immram Maele Dúin or the Voyage of Máel Dúin, a Christian tale written in Old Irish around the end of the first millennium.

Regardless of legal fictions, the first king to construct something resembling an overlordship of Ireland after the death of Máel Sechnaill was Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó of the Uí Cheinnselaig.

With the Uí Néill disunited and the resources of Munster at his command, Brian first brought the Uí Néill High King Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill to recognise him as an equal, and then to acknowledge him as the master of Ireland.

" In the same year, and perhaps related to this law-making, Máel Ísu mac Amalgada, comarba Pátraic or abbot of Armagh and successor of Saint Patrick, visited Munster for the first time and received " his full visitation, both in tribute and offerings ".

The first, Máel Coluim, led the forces that besieged Gille-Brighde's brother Uhtred on " Dee island " ( probably Threave ) in Galloway in 1174.

The sources say that Máel Coluim was accompanied by one or two other kings, certainly Mac Bethad, and perhaps Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, King of Mann and the Isles, and of Galloway.

As for the Mearns, the only known Mormaer of Mearns, Máel Petair, had murdered Alexander's half-brother Duncan II ( Donnchad mac Maíl Coluim ) in 1094.

It is not known if Malcolm / Máel Coluim ever became " king of the Cumbrians ", or, if so, for how long.

Máel Coluim mac Cináeda ( Modern Gaelic: Maol Chaluim mac Choinnich, known in modern anglicized regnal lists as Malcolm II ; died 25 November 1034 ), was King of the Scots from 1005 until his death.

Since there is no known and relevant Cináed alive at that time ( Cináed mac Maíl Coluim having died in 995 ), it is considered an error for either Cináed mac Duib, who succeeded Causantín, or, possibly, Máel Coluim himself, the son of Cináed II.

Fleeing the Normans, Turgot became the teacher of Olaf Kyrre in Norway for a time before returning to be made prior of the Benedictine convent of Durham Cathedral, and he may have been the confessor of Margaret of Wessex, the second wife of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, king of the Scots, and hence probably known to King Alexander I and Earl David ( later David I ) since childhood.

Gilla, Cellach and Cellach's successor Máel Máedóc Ua Morgair, better known as St. Malachy, drove the reform process onwards.

Bethóc ingen Maíl Coluim meic Cináeda was the eldest daughter of King Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Scots, who had no known sons.

His father, Donnchad mac Diarmata, more commonly known by the epithet Máel na mBó, whence Diarmait's patronym came.

His third known wife was Máel Muire, probably the daughter of Cináed mac Ailpín, the king of the Picts in Britain.

Gormflaith married Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill after Olaf's death, but she is best known for being the third wife of Brian Ború, the High King of Ireland.