Kings and Queens of

Scotland
Kings and Queens of Scotland from 1005 to the Union of
the Crowns in 1603, when James VI succeeded to the
throne of England.

Celtic kings from the unification of Scotland

1005: Malcolm II (Mael Coluim II). He

acquired the throne by killing Kenneth III
(Cinaed III) of a rival royal dynasty.
Attempted to expand his kingdom
southwards with a notable victory at the
Battle of Carham, Northumbria in 1018. He
was driven north again in 1027 by Cnut, the
Danish king of England. Malcolm died on
25th November 1034, according to one account of the
time he was “killed fighting bandits”. Leaving no sons he
named his grandson Duncan I, as his successor.

1034: Duncan I (Donnchad I). Succeeded his

grandfather Malcolm II as King of the Scots. Invaded
northern England and besieged Durham in 1039, but was
met with a disastrous defeat. Duncan was killed during,
or after, a battle at Bothganowan, near Elgin, on 15th
August, 1040.

1040: Macbeth. Acquired the throne after defeating

Duncan I in battle following years of family feuding. He
was the first Scottish king to make a pilgrimage to Rome.
A generous patron of the church it is thought he was
buried at Iona, the traditional resting place of the kings of
the Scots.

1057: Malcolm III Canmore (Mael Coluim III Cenn Mór).

Succeeded to the throne after killing Macbeth and
Macbethʼs stepson Lulach in an English-sponsored
attack. William I (The Conqueror) invaded Scotland in
1072 and forced Malcolm to accept the Peace of
Abernethy and become his vassal.
1093: Donald III Ban. Son of Duncan I he seized the
throne from his brother Malcolm III and made the Anglo-
Normans very unwelcome at his court. He was defeated
and dethroned by his nephew Duncan II in May 1094

1094: Duncan II. Son of Malcolm III. In 1072 he had been

sent to the court of William I as a hostage. With the help
of an army supplied by William II (Rufus) he defeated his
uncle Donald III Ban. His foreign supporters were
detested. Donald engineered his murder on 12 November
1094.

1094: Donald III Ban (restored). In 1097 Donald was

captured and blinded by another of his nephews, Edgar.
A true Scottish nationalist, it is perhaps fitting that this
would be the last king of the Scots who would be laid to
rest by the Gaelic Monks at Iona.
1097: Edgar. Eldest son of Malcolm III. He had taken
refuge in England when his parents died in 1093.
Following the death of his half-brother Duncan II, he
became the Anglo-Norman candidate for the Scottish
throne. He defeated Donald III Ban with the aid of an army
supplied by William II. Unmarried, he was buried at
Dunfermline Priory in Fife. His sister married Henry I in
1100.

1107: Alexander I. The son of Malcolm III

and his English wife St. Margaret.
Succeeded his brother Edgar to the
throne and continued the policy of
‘reformingʼ the Scottish Church, building
his new priory at Scone near Perth. He
married the illegitimate daughter of
Henry I. He died childless and was buried
in Dunfermline.

1124: David I. The youngest son of Malcolm III and St.

Margaret. A modernising king, responsible for
transforming his kingdom largely by continuing the work
of Anglicisation begun by his mother. He seems to have
spent as much time in England as he did in Scotland. He
was the first Scottish king to issue his own coins and he
promoted the the development of towns at Edinburgh,
Dunfermline, Perth, Stirling, Inverness and Aberdeen. By
the end of his reign his lands extended over Newcastle
and Carlisle. He was almost as rich and powerful as the
king of England, and had attained an almost mythical
status through a ‘Davidianʼ revolution.

1153: Malcolm IV (Mael Coluim

IV). Son of Henry of
Northumbria. His grandfather
David I persuaded the Scottish
Chiefs to recognise Malcolm as
his heir to the throne, and aged
12 he became king. Recognising
‘that the King of England had a
better argument by reason of his
much greater powerʼ, Malcolm
surrendered Cumbria and
Northumbria to Henry II. He died
unmarried and with reputation for chastity, hence his
nickname ‘the Maidenʼ.

1165: William the Lion. Second son of Henry of

Northumbria. After a failed attempt to invade
Northumbria, William was captured by Henry II. In return
for his release, William and other Scottish nobles had to
swear allegiance to Henry and hand over sons as
hostages. English garrisons were installed throughout
Scotland. It was only in 1189 that William was able to
recover Scottish independence in return for a payment of
10,000 marks. Williamʼs reign witnessed the extension of
royal authority northwards across the Moray Firth.
1214: Alexander II. Son of William the Lion. With the
Anglo-Scottish agreement of 1217, he established a
peace between the two kingdoms that would last for 80
years. The agreement was further cemented by his
marriage to Henry IIIʼs sister Joan in 1221. Renouncing his
ancestral claim to Northumbria, the Anglo-Scottish
border was finally established by the Tweed-Solway line.

1249: Alexander III. The son of Alexander II, he married

Henry IIIʼs daughter Margaret in 1251. Following the Battle
of Largs against King Haakon of Norway in Oct. 1263,
Alexander secured the western Highlands and Islands for
the Scottish Crown. After the deaths of his sons,
Alexander gained acceptance that his granddaughter
Margaret should succeed him. He fell and was killed
whilst riding along the cliffs of Kinghorn in Fife.

1286 – 90: Margaret, Maid of Norway. The only child of

King Eric of Norway and Margaret, daughter of Alexander
III. She became queen at the age of two, and was
promptly betrothed to Edward, son of Edward I. She saw
neither kingdom nor husband as she died aged 7 at
Kirkwall on Orkney in September 1290. Her death caused
the most serious crisis in Anglo-Scottish relations.

English domination

1292 – 96: John Balliol.

Following the death of Margaret
in 1290 no one person held the
undisputed claim to be King of
the Scots. No fewer than 13
‘competitorsʼ, or claimants
eventually emerged. They
agreed to recognise Edward Iʼs
overlordship and to abide by his
arbitration. Edward decided in
favour of Balliol, who did have a
strong claim with links back to
William the Lion. Edwardʼs
obvious manipulation of Balliol
led the Scottish nobles to set
up a Council of 12 in July 1295, as well as agreeing to an
alliance with the King of France. Edward invaded, and
after defeating Balliol at the Battle of Dunbar imprisoned
him in the Tower of London. Balliol was eventually
released into papal custody and ended his life in France.

1296 -1306: annexed to England

House of Bruce

1306: Robert I the Bruce. In 1306 at Greyfriars Church

Dumfries, he murdered his only possible rival for the
throne, John Comyn. He was excommunicated for this
sacrilege, but was still crowned King of the Scots just a
few months later.

Robert was defeated in his first two battles against the

English and became a fugitive, hunted by both Comynʼs
friends and the English. Whilst hiding in a room he is said
to have watched a spider swing from one rafter to
another, in an attempt to anchor itʼs web. It failed six
times, but at the seventh attempt, succeeded. Bruce took
this to be an omen and resolved to struggle on. His
decisive victory over Edward II‘s army at Bannockburn in
1314 finally won the freedom he had struggled for.

1329: David II. The only surviving legitimate son of

Robert Bruce, he succeeded his father when only 5 years
of age. He was the first Scottish king to be crowned and
anointed. Whether he would be able to keep the crown
was another matter, faced with the combined hostilities
of John Balliol and the ‘Disinheritedʼ, those Scottish
landowners that Robert Bruce had disinherited following
his victory at Bannockburn. David was for a while even
sent to France for his own safe keeping. In support of his
allegiance with France he invaded England in 1346, whilst
Edward III was otherwise occupied with the siege of
Calais. His army was intercepted by forces raised by the
Archbishop of York. David was wounded and captured.
He was later released after agreeing to pay a ransom of
1000,000 marks. David died unexpectedly and without an
heir, while trying to divorce his second wife in order to
marry his latest mistress.

House of Stuart (Stewart)

1371: Robert II. The son of Walter the Steward and

Marjory, daughter of Robert Bruce. He was recognised
the heir presumptive in 1318, but the birth of David II
meant that he had to wait 50 years before he could
become the first Stewart king at the age of 55. A poor
and ineffective ruler with little interest in soldiering, he
delegated responsibility for law and order to his sons.
Meanwhile he resumed to his duties of producing heirs,
fathering at least 21 children.

1390: Robert III. Upon succeeding to the throne he

decided to take the name Robert rather than his given
name John. As King, Robert III appears to have been as
ineffective as his father Robert II. In 1406 he decided to
send his eldest surviving son to France; the boy was
captured by the English and imprisoned in the Tower.
Robert died the following month and, according to one
source, asked to be buried in a midden (dunghill) as ‘the
worst of kings and most wretched of menʼ.

1406: James I. After falling into English hands on his way

to France in 1406, James was held a captive until 1424.
Apparently his uncle, who also just happened to be
Scotlandʼs governor, did little to negotiate his release. He
was eventually released after agreeing to pay a 50,000
mark ransom. On his return to Scotland, he spent much
of his time raising the money to pay off his ransom by
imposing taxes, confiscating estates from nobles and
clan chiefs. Needless to say, such actions made him few
friends; a group of conspirators broke into his
bedchamber and murdered him.

1437: James II. Although king since the murder of his

father when he was 7, it was following his marriage to
Mary of Guelders that he actually assumed control. An
aggressive and warlike king, he appears to have taken
particular exception to the Livingstons and Black
Douglases. Fascinated by those new fangled firearms, he
was blown up and killed by one of his own siege guns
whilst besieging Roxburgh.

1460: James III. At the tender age of 8, he was

proclaimed king following the death of his father James II.
Six years later he was kidnapped; upon his return to
power, he proclaimed his abductors, the Boyds, traitors.
His attempt to make peace with the English by marrying
his sister off to an English noble was somewhat
scuppered when she was found to be already pregnant.
He was killed at the Battle of Sauchieburn in Stirlingshire
on 11 June 1488.

1488: James IV. The son of James III and Margaret of

Denmark, he had grown up in the care of his mother at
Stirling Castle. For his part in his fatherʼs murder by the
Scottish nobility at the Battle of Sauchieburn, he wore an
iron belt next to skin as penitence for the rest of his life.
To protect his borders he spent lavish sums on artillery
and his navy. James led expeditions into the Highlands to
assert royal authority and developed Edinburgh as his
royal capital. He sought peace with England by marrying
Henry VIIʼs daughter Margaret Tudor in 1503, an act that
would ultimately unite the two kingdoms a century later.
His immediate relationship with his brother-in-law
deteriorated however when James invaded
Northumberland. James was defeated and killed at
Flodden, along with most of the leaders of Scottish
society.

1513: James V. Still an infant at the time of his fatherʼs

death at Flodden, Jamesʼs early years were dominated by
struggles between his English mother, Margaret Tudor
and the Scottish nobles. Although king in name, James
did not really start to gain control and rule the country
until 1528. After that he slowly began to rebuild the
shattered finances of the Crown, largely enriching the
funds of the monarchy at the expense of the Church.
Anglo-Scottish relationships once again descended into
war when James failed to turn up for a scheduled
meeting with Henry VIII at York in 1542. James apparently
died of a nervous breakdown after hearing of the defeat
of his forces following the Battle of Solway Moss.
1542: Mary Queen of Scots. Born just
a week before her father King James
V died. Mary was sent to France in
1548 to marry the Dauphin, the
young French prince, in order to
secure a Catholic alliance against
England. In 1561, after he died still in his teens, Mary
returned to Scotland. At this time Scotland was in the
throes of the Reformation and a widening Protestant-
Catholic split. A Protestant husband for Mary seemed the
best chance for stability. Mary married her cousin Henry
Stewart, Lord Darnley, but it was not a success. Darnley
became jealous of Maryʼs secretary and favourite, David
Riccio. He, together with others, murdered Riccio in front
of Mary. She was six months pregnant at the time.

Her son, the future King James VI, was baptised into the
Catholic faith at Stirling Castle. This caused alarm
amongst the Protestants. Darnley later died in mysterious
circumstances. Mary sought comfort in James Hepburn,
Earl of Bothwell, and rumours abounded that she was
pregnant by him. Mary and Bothwell married. The Lords
of Congregation did not approve of the liaison and she
was imprisoned in Leven Castle. Mary eventually escaped
and fled to England. In Protestant England, Catholic
Maryʼs arrival provoked a political crisis for Queen
Elizabeth I. After 19 years of imprisonment in various
castles throughout England, Mary was found guilty of
treason for plotting against Elizabeth and was beheaded
at Fotheringhay.

1567: James VI and I. Became

king aged just 13 months
following the abdication of his
mother. By his late teens he was
already beginning to demonstrate
political intelligence and
diplomacy in order to control
government.

He assumed real power in 1583,

and quickly established a strong
centralised authority. He married
Anne of Denmark in 1589.

As the great-grandson of Margaret Tudor, he succeeded

to the English throne when Elizabeth I died in 1603, thus
ending the centuries-old Anglo-Scots border wars.

1603: Union of the crowns of Scotland and England.