Dynasty: the House of Dunkeld, 1034-1290

England versus Scotland has been an age-old rivalry, complicated by the fact that Scottish and English royal families have intermarried down the generations, producing competing dynastic claims to each other's thrones.  The situation was even more complex in Medieval Scotland, whose rulers didn't always adhere to strict primogeniture (father to eldest son) laws of inheritance.  Scotland, like England, began as a loose conglomeration of kingdoms, slowly beginning to come together under the House of McAlpin (838-1034) and their descendants, the House of Dunkeld, also known as the House of Canmore, after one of their more powerful rulers, Malcolm III Canmore (1031, 1058-1093). 

Rulers of the House of Dunkeld included Duncan 1 and II, Malcolm III and IV, Donald III, David I, William I, and Alexander I, II and III, among others.  The dynasty is also notable for two interlopers, McBeth (yes, that MacBeth) and Lulach, who ruled during the time of the Anarchy and the opening years of Henry II's reign in England.  Most notably, though, the consorts of the two final Dunkeld kings, Alexander II and III, were included Plantagenet princess, or women with connections to the family.  They were Joan of England, daughter of John and first wife of Alexander II.  Her niece, Margaret of England was the first wife of Alexander III.  His second wife, Yolanda de Dreux outlived him and married again, to Arthur II, Duke of Brittany, himself a grandson of Henry III by Margaret's sister Beatrice. 

All this genealogy became important when the House of Dunkeld ceased to have a direct heir with the death of Alexander III in 1286.  Several families claimed descent from Dunkeld kings or McAlpin Kings, among them the Bruces, Comyns and Balliols.  The Plantagenets also had a claim.  The mother of Empress Matilda had been a Scottish princess, also named Matilda, the daughter of Malcolm III himself.  In addition, each of these rival families had connections with other noble houses in England who owed their power to the Plantagenet kings.  In the wars for Scotland's throne, there was more at stake than uniting the entire Isle of Britain, there were also dynastic scores to settle.