Duncan led his own forces against Macbeth and was killed in the ensuing battle. With Duncan finally out of the way, and his two young sons out of the country, Macbeth became king of Scotland. He held the throne without incident for seventeen years until Duncan's oldest son, Malcolm 111, returned to Scotland with an army. Macbeth was defeated in a clash that in many ways resembled his usurpation of Duncan's throne nearly two decades earlier. Malcolm killed Macbeth when their armies met at the Battle of Lumphanan. With the death of Macbeth, the final obstacle to Malcolm's ascension to the throne was Lulach, the son of Macbeth's Lady Gruoch from an earlier marriage. Lulach claimed the Scottish throne through the ancestry of his mother and was actually crowned king immediately following Macbeth's death. Malcolm did not let this development deter him; he had Lulach murdered and took the crown in 1058.
The Norse invasion-raiders and settlers. During the ninth century Scotland found itself invaded by raiders who came across the North Sea from Norway and Denmark. These "Norsemen," also known as Vikings, came to Scotland for several reasons. The most basic explanation for their presence was simply that the prevalent pattern of winds on the North Sea was favorable to this enterprise.
