MALCOLM III (CANMORE) (1058-93)
His RIVALS DISPOSED OF, Malcolm (born around 1031) gained the throne. Canmore (Gaelic ceann Моr) means 'big head' or 'great chief. After the defeat of his father, Duncan, Malcolm had fled to Anglo-Saxon Northumbria. In England he may have met Margaret, sister of the ousted English heir Edgar Atheling, for in 1069 he married her as his second wife. With her came English fashions and customs. Saxon supplanted Gaelic at the Scots court and a kind of feudalism replaced the clan system. Malcolm invaded England several times but in 1072 was forced to submit to William the Conqueror who had marched into Scotland. In 1093, on his fifth raid into England, Malcolm was killed at Alnwick.

DONALD III BAN (1093-94)
Malcolm's brother Donald Ban, born around 1033, led the resistance to 'southern' influence, and claimed the throne on grounds of tanistry. He was ousted a year later by Duncan, Malcolm's son by his first wife.

DUNCAN II (MAY-NOVEMBER 1094)
Duncan's backer was William Rufus, Norman king of England, who became a close friend when the Scot was held hostage at the English court. Seen as an English vassal, Duncan was unpopular. His stepbrother Edmund and Donald Ban defeated and killed him at Mondynes.

DONALD BAN AND EDMUND (1094-97)
Edmund - one of Malcolm Canmore's six sons by Margaret - ruled in Lothian and Strathclyde while Donald Ban reigned in Scotia. But Edmund's brother Edgar enlisted an English army to overthrow the twin kings. Edmund, pardoned, became a monk. Donald Ban was blinded and imprisoned for life.

EDGAR (THE PEACEABLE) (1097-1107)
Born about 1074, Malcolm and Margaret's fourth son gained his derisory nickname from his submissive attitude to England, grant of the Western Isles to Norway and encouragement of Anglo-Normans into Scotland. Having moved the royal residence from Dunfermline to Edinburgh, this unmarried monarch left the kingdom to his brothers Alexander and David.

ALEXANDER I (THE FIERCE) (1107-24)
Born around 1077, Alexander married an illegitimate daughter of England's Henry I and gained his nickname from ferociously subduing an uprising in Moray. Technically an English vassal, he championed Scottish identity, especially in Church matters.

DAVID 1 (1124-53)
Sixth (and last) of Malcolm and Margaret's sons, born around 1080, David I was one of the greatest Scottish kings. Marrying a granddaughter of Northumbria's Earl Siward gave him claim to a large part of northern England. Raised in England at Henry I's court, he took full advantage of the struggle between the king's daughter Matilda and her cousin Stephen. On Henry's death he marched into England, taking Carlisle and Newcastle before his defeat at the Battle of the Standard, near Northallerton, in 1138. Stephen yielded him control of Northumbria.

David transformed Scotland into a feudal society, with Anglo-Norman tenants; new royal burghs; the first Scottish coinage; and monastic centres (including Melrose and Holyrood). He imposed Norman law, established a feudal court and the office of Chancellor. With the death of his only son in 1152, David appointed his 11-year-old grandson Malcolm to succeed him.

The pearl of Scotland
Queen Margaret, mother of David I, bore six sons - three of whom became kings of Scotland. She spent long hours in prayer in the chapel (now known as St Margaret's Chapel) in the highest part of Edinburgh Castle. Margaret was made a saint in 1251.

MELROSE ABBEY
Founded by Cistercian monks beside the Tweed in 1136, with the support of King David I, Melrose became one of the richest abbeys in Scotland. Sheep farming provided much of its income.



HOLYROOD ABBEY
The abbey was founded in 1128 by David I, who (the story goes) escaped from a maddened stag when a cross miraculously materialized between the king and the animal. Very little survives of the original building.



ST MARGARET'S CHAPEL
Edinburgh's oldest surviving building, dedicated to the memory of Queen Margaret, wife of Malcolm Canmore, by her son David I. The queen died here, on the rock of Edinburgh Castle, in 1093.