Note 572 — Chapter VIII · THE KINGDOM OF SCOTIA.

The Ulster Annals have in 1033 ‘Mac meic Boete meic Cinaedha do marbhadh la (slain by) Maelcolaim meic Cinaedha.’ It has usually been assumed that this Boete was the son of Kenneth, son of Dubh, the predecessor of Maelcolm mac Kenneth, and thus represented a rival branch of the house; but the dates will not admit of this, and his father Kenneth must be placed a generation further back. He may either have been the same Kenneth who was father of Malcolm, thus making Boete his brother, or the Kenneth, son of Malcolm, who slew Constantin, son of Cuilein, in 997, and who is supposed by Fordun to be his illegitimate brother. Fordun tells us that ‘the old custom of the succession of kings lasted without a break until the time of Malcolm, son of Kenneth, when, for fear of the dismemberment of the kingdom, which might perhaps result therefrom, that king by a general ordinance decreed as a law for ever that henceforth each king after his death should be succeeded in the government of the kingdom by whoever was at the time being the next descendant—that is, a son or a daughter, a nephew or a niece, the nearest then living. Failing these, however, the next heir begotten of the royal or a collateral stock should possess the right of inheritance.’—Fordun, Chron., Ed. 1872, B. iv. c. 1. Whether Malcolm actually issued a formal decree to this effect rests on the authority of Fordun alone, which can hardly be accepted for the events of this early period. Malcolm seems to have taken the readier mode of removing from life any competitor who could claim as a male descendant.