When the King of England heard about the Norse invasion, he marched his army northwards. The English defeated the Norwegians, but were forced to return to the south immediately because an invasion force led by Duke William had landed.

Harold met William at Hastings where in a great battle the King of England was fatally wounded. According to the Bayeux Tapestry, Harold was killed either by an arrow piercing his eye or by the sword of a Norman knight. William marched to Westminster Abbey where he crowned himself King of England.

This event is known as the Norman Conquest; it changed the course of British history. Many Saxons fled north to Scotland after the arrival of the Normans. Among these were Edgar Atheling, last of King Alfred’s line, and his sister Margaret.

In 1070 Malcolm married Margaret, Edgar's sister, in Dunfermline and in the same year he invaded England. This was partly so that he could help his brother-in-law, Edgar Atheling gain control of the English throne, but mainly because he wanted to extend his Kingdom. Through Margaret, his second wife, he had a slight, but positive claim to the throne of England. (This was because Edgar and Margaret were the grandchildren of King Edmund Ironside of England.)

This meant that Malcolm could try to become the King of both Scotland and England. When William discovered Malcolm's link to royalty, he knew he must crush any such ideas of Malcolm’s. William marched an army up to Scotland in 1072 and met the king of Scotland at Stirling. Edgar Atheling abandoned Canmore and fled to Flanders in Belgium. When Malcolm saw the size of William's army, he promised that he would not hurt, or encroach on, the English or their kingdom. He also made the decision to pay homage to the Monarch of England. This decision was to have fateful consequences for the independence of Scotland in later, even more dangerous times.

For about seven years, Malcolm kept to his promise. For no known reason though, in 1079 he once more invaded the north of England. He viciously attacked Northumberland in Scottish style, which meant that Northumberland was savagely torn apart. In the following year the Normans again attacked Scotland. They decided to build a castle over the river Tyne for more protection, and to stand watch against further Scottish attacks. Malcolm was then, of course reminded of his peace agreement, and pledged to keep it for another twelve years.

Queen Margaret (St. Margaret)

Whilst all of this was taking place, Malcolm's wife Margaret put all of her time and effort as wife and Queen of Scotland into religion and into creating a more civilised court in Scotland. Intelligent and very religious, she was determined to modernise Scotland by introducing ideas from England and Europe.

1. She brought softness to the harsh kingdom of the north by copying some of the ways of the Normans. She introduced spiced meats and French wines; lovely tapestries and rich clothes; dancing and singing of ballads.
2. She taught the priests to live simply and without wealth, giving their whole lives to Christian belief.
3. She made Sunday into a day of worship.
4. Around the time of 1070 she invited three English Benedictine monks from Canterbury to build a monastery at Dunfermline. This was the start of monasteries in Scotland. The monks brought with them new skills in farming and building.
5. She built a new chapel in Edinburgh Castle, in Norman style. It is the oldest standing church in Scotland today. St. Margaret spent many hours there in prayer.
6. She gave large sums of money and land to the Church to help the poor
7. Margaret also launched the Queen's Ferry over the Firth of Forth to St. Andrews.

Her life of charity and kindness impressed the rough and ambitious King Malcolm so much that he supported his wife's good works. He allowed his wealth to be donated to charity and on one occasion he fed three hundred needy subjects in his royal hall.

Before the twelve-year peace agreement that he had made with the Normans had expired Malcolm Canmore launched another invasion of northern England, in 1091. He chose a time when William the Conqueror's son William Rufus, who had by this time succeeded his father, was not in Britain, but Normandy.

Edgar Atheling returned from Belgium to take part in the invasion. Even although Malcolm Canmore had pledged to help Atheling regain the English throne, he was much more interested in putting his own family on the throne. However, the English repulsed the Scottish invasion and for the third time Malcolm made a peace agreement. The English built a castle at Carlisle to patrol the border.

You would have thought that the invasion attempts would have stopped then, but they didn't as in 1093 Canmore once more attacked England. But he was killed during the raid and his son died also from wounds received. When the news reached poor Margaret she was already very sick with a terminal illness; she died four days later.

Malcolm's life as a King was nothing more than a reckless baron robber. He never did help his brother-in-law succeed to the English throne. In fact he didn't even have any success for himself. Again and again he would try to invade England, but he never really achieved anything. The excuse Canmore gave for continually invading England was to advance his brother in law’s claim. But in-fact Canmore was nothing more than a greedy, vicious tyrant. He cared about nothing apart from doing things for his own gain.

They were such an unlikely couple; Margaret was loving and caring, she was often called Saint Margaret. He was dangerous and duplicitous, nothing like his gentle wife. No matter how much Margaret tried to convert her husband from his wrong doings, she never succeeded. Margaret led a successful life in the church, while Malcolm tried, brutally, to gain control and power over his brother-in-law's homeland. Margaret was interested in helping others and she did a lot of work in the church. Malcolm on the other hand, was greedy and a tyrant. Two separate lives, in two separate worlds, brought together by fate.