Ormond Castle (3)
Malcolm Canmore was ambushed and killed near Alnwick while ravaging Northumbria in November 1093.  Scotland was ruled between 1093 and 1097 by Malcolm's eldest son and heir, Duncan II, and Malcolm's brother, Donald Ban.  Tanistry was not entirely dead in Scotland at this time, so Donald may have had some sort of legitimate claim to the throne, however he was deposed and imprisoned in 1097.

At this point, by primogeniture at least, William fitz Duncan (founder of the MacWIlliams), should have become king, but he didn't.  The succession passed to his younger half-brothers - Edgar, then his brother Alexander I, and then his brother David I - all of whom were 'Margaretsons.

William fitz Duncan appears to have been the acknowledged successor of Kings Alexander I and David I for part of their reigns, but when David's son, Henry reached adulthood in the 1130s, William was replaced as heir apparent by Henry.  In return, he appears to have been compensated with the extensive lands of Óengus, Mormaer of Moray, but on William's death in 1147, Moray reverted to the king.  Not only had the MacWilliams been supplanted on the throne by the Margaretsons, they had lost the semi-independent Mormaerdom of Moray.  They were not at all happy!

Until quite recently, the official story was that Malcolm Canmore had not been married to Ingiaborg and that his eldest son, King Duncan II, had therefore been illegitimate, and that was why the MacWilliams had not inherited the throne.  Modern historians now accept that this was nothing more than propaganda, put about by the Margaretsons.

The first attempt by the MacWilliams to reclaim what they considered was theirs was made shortly after William fitz Duncan's death in 1154, by his illegitimate son, Wimund, bishop of the Isles, who attempted to regain Moray by rebelling against David.  He was bought off with lands in Cumbria rather than defeated outright, but was later captured, castrated and blinded by Cumbrians unhappy with his rule. 
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