…his twelve-year-old grandson Malcolm, who shares David's…
November 1153 CE
…his twelve-year-old grandson Malcolm, who shares David's Anglo-Norman tastes, is inaugurated three days later as Malcolm IV.
The hasty ceremony takes place before the old king is buried; Malcolm is not without rivals for the kingship.
The Orkneyinga Saga claims William son of William fitz Duncan, calling him "William the Noble", was the man whom "every Scotsman wanted for his king".
As William fitz Duncan married Alice de Rumilly in about 1137, young William can only have been a youth, perhaps a child.
There is no sign that William made any claims to the throne.
Of William's other sons, Bishop Wimund had already been blinded, emasculated and imprisoned at Byland Abbey before David's death, but Domnall mac Uilleim, first of the Meic Uilleim, had considerable support in the former mormaerdom of Moray.
Another would-be king, imprisoned at Roxburgh since about 1130, is Máel Coluim mac Alisdair, an illegitimate son of Alexander I.
Máel Coluim's sons, who are free men in 1153, can be expected to contest the succession, and do so.
As a new king, and especially as a young one, Malcolm can also expect challenges from his neighbors, foremost among who are Somerled, King of Argyll, Fergus, Lord of Galloway, and Henry II, King of England.
Another, Rognvald Kali Kolsson, Earl of Orkney, is otherwise occupied with crusading.
The first opposition to Malcolm comes in November of 1153, from the combination of Somerled of Argyll and family rivals, the "sons of Malcolm", that is of Máel Coluim mac Alisdair.
This comes to little as Somerled soon has more pressing concerns, firstly his war with Goraidh mac Amhlaibh and secondly, perhaps, a conflict with Gille Críst, Mormaer of Menteith, over Cowal.
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