Tell me, isn’t it time for you to find a nice woman to settle down with? Many mothers will recognize themselves in the sigh of Ada de Warenne, who failed to guide her son Malcolm to the altar. While many young men are hesitant about marriage because they do not want to lose their wild hair, Malcolm was the opposite: he did not want to have contact with any woman, so that he could fully concentrate on his duties as a prince and a Christian.
It is no wonder that the modest young man took his job as King of Scotland seriously, as he had had to fight hard to keep the throne after ascending it in 1153 at the age of twelve. An important source for Malcolm’s life is the Historia rerum Anglicarum of William of Newburgh, and this English monk was not stingy in his praise of the Scottish king. He wrote that Malcolm “shone like a heavenly star in the midst of a barbaric and perverse generation.”
Malcolm became King of the Scots after his grandfather David died. His father Hendrik was already dead by then. Scotland’s geopolitical situation was quite dire in the mid-twelfth century. Like hungry wolves, Somerled (King of Argyll), Fergus (Lord of Galloway) and Harald Maddadsson (Duke of Orkney) threw themselves into the territory of their young neighbor, but he eventually repulsed all attacks.
Malcolm also had to deal with Henry II, the king of England. The Scottish king owned land in England for which he had to pay tribute to his counterpart in the south. Henry preferred that land back and it was not until 1159 that he knighted Malcolm and accepted him as a vassal – of a much smaller territory.
William of Newburgh writes that the Scottish king, meanwhile, steered clear of all fleshly temptations, despite “a group of men sent by the devil” trying to persuade him. When that failed, “the enemy” turned to the ultimate weapon: Malcolm’s mother. She had to “administer the secret poison under the guise of motherly affection.”
Ada did not stop at words, because one evening she surprised her son with “a fair maiden” in his bed. Malcolm did not dare to reject this gift from his mother and acted as if the visit was welcome. However, after everyone had left, he lay down on the ground under a cloak. His servants found him there the next morning. He was still a virgin, and that would become the nickname he would go down in history with.
God did not bless the chaste king with a long life. According to Monk William, he suffered “terrible pains” in his head and feet. Malcolm died at the age of 24, or as his biographer recorded it: “The angels of heaven took this man of angelic purity from among men . . . from his virgin body to the Lamb the son of the Virgin ”.