The Birth of Nations: SCOTLAND

Part Two[*]

the 8th Century

Nechtan son of Derelei had apparently been king of the Picts since 706. The Pictish king-list in the Poppleton Manuscript presents an orderly line of succession: Nechtan son of Derelei is granted a 15 year reign; then “Drest and Elpin reigned together 5 years”; which is followed by the 30 year reign of Onuist son of Uurguist – who is generally known by the Irish version of his name, Oengus son of Fergus. Entries in Irish annals, however, present a much more complicated sequence of events.

The Annals of Tigernach (AT), in an entry corresponding to the year 724, report that Nechtan was “made a cleric”, i.e. he retired into religion. Later events suggest this may not have been his own idea! He was superseded as king by Drest. In 725, Drest’s son was imprisoned – perhaps by Nechtan’s supporters, since the next year Nechtan himself was imprisoned by Drest. In that same year (i.e. in 726), Drest was expelled from the kingship, and replaced by Elpin. In 728, in a battle “between the Picts themselves”, at a site called Monid Croib (identified as Moncreiffe Hill, near Perth), Elpin suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Oengus (i.e. Onuist). Later the same year, in a “lamentable battle between the Picts”, at an unidentified site called Caislen Credi, AT reports that: “Elpin was routed, and deprived of all his territories and people”.  What isn’t quite so clear, however, is who defeated him. The phraseology used by the Annals of Ulster (AU) in its equivalent entry – the battle “was fought between the same parties” – suggests it might have been Oengus, but, whoever it was, AT concludes its entry: “and Nechtan son of Derelei took the kingship of the Picts.”  It is possible that, at this stage, Oengus was acting on behalf of Nechtan. However, two decisive encounters, in 729, would apparently see Oengus emerge as winner of this five-year Pictish power struggle. AT, which has preserved the most detail of these events, surprisingly, has no reference to the first encounter, but AU records: “The battle of Monid Carno [unidentified] near Loch Loogdae [probably Loch Lochy] between the hosts of Nechtan and the army of Oengus, and Nechtan’s exactors fell … [three individuals are named] … and many others; and the adherents of Oengus were triumphant.”  In the second encounter, at the battle of Druim Derg Blathuug [unidentified], Drest was defeated and killed by Oengus – on the twelfth of August says AT. The conventional understanding, then, is that, having defeated the forces of Nechtan and Drest, Oengus became king of the Picts in 729. Nechtan, however, did not die until 732 (AT), and the notice of the battle of Monid Carno given by AU could be interpreted as indicating that, here too, Oengus was fighting on behalf of, rather than against, Nechtan.[*]

Meanwhile, unnoticed by chroniclers, what is now Dumfries and Galloway, in south-western Scotland, had been taken from the Britons by the Northumbrian English. Bede mentions that at the time he was completing his Ecclesiastical History, i.e. in 731, Whithorn had only recently become the seat of a Northumbrian bishop. In his summary of “the state of all Britain”, with which he concludes his narrative, Bede writes:

The nation of the Picts also at this time has a treaty of peace with the English nation, and rejoices to partake in the Catholic peace and truth of the universal Church. The Scots that inhabit Britain, content with their own territories, devise no plots nor hostilities against the English nation. The Britons, though they, for the most part, oppose the English nation from their inherent hatred, and the whole state of the Catholic Church by their incorrect Easter and their wicked customs; yet, inasmuch as both Divine and human power withstand them, they can in neither purpose prevail as they desire; for though in part they are their own masters, yet part of them are brought under subjection to the English.

HE V, 23

Oengus son of Fergus was evidently not a young man when he rose to power – he had a son, Bridei, old enough to lead an army against a certain Talorc son of Congus, “who was put to flight” in 731 (AU). Perhaps Talorc found refuge with, and gained the support of, Dúngal son of Selbach, chief of the Cenél Loairn (the ‘tribe’ of Dál Riata after whom the district of Lorn, in Argyll, is named), who had been ejected from the kingship of Dál Riata in 726.[*] In 733, Dúngal violated the sanctuary of Tory Island (off Donegal) to capture a Bridei – presumably Oengus’ son. Later the same year, Dúngal was superseded as chief of his ‘tribe’ (in fact, AU and AT use the phrase: “kingship of Cenél Loairn”) by Muiredach son of Ainbcellach. Muiredach would appear to have become king of Dál Riata before the year was over. The next year, AU s.a. 734: “Talorc son of Congus was held captive by his brother, handed over to the Picts, and drowned by them.… Dún Leithfinn [an unidentified fortress] is destroyed after the wounding of Dúngal, and he fled to Ireland from the power of Oengus.”

AU reports, s.a. 736: “Oengus son of Fergus, king of the Picts, laid waste the territory of Dál Riata and seized Dún At [Dunadd] and burned Creic [unidentified] and bound in chains two sons of Selbach, that is Donngal [presumably Dúngal is meant] and Feradach”.  Seemingly, Oengus’ son, Bridei, had previously been released from his captivity, since “shortly afterwards” Bridei “died” (so presumably of natural causes). In the same year (736) there took place the “battle of Cnoc Cairpri in Calathros at Etarlinde [an unidentified site] between Dál Riata and Fortriu” – Fortriu being the region of Pictland traditionally, though not certainly, equated to Strathearn with Menteith (see previously) – in which the Picts, commanded by Oengus’ brother, Talorcan, routed “the son of Ainbcellach”, i.e. Muiredach, king of Dál Riata, and his army: “many nobles falling in this encounter”.

Five years later, i.e. s.a. 741, AU records: “The smiting of the Dál Riata by Oengus son of Fergus.”  The indications are that Oengus took control of Dál Riata.[*] He also seems to have set his sights on the Strathclyde Britons. Symeon of Durham notes (HR) that, in 744: “A battle was fought between the Picts and the Britons.”  No further detail is given. However, s.a. 750, AU reports: “The battle of Catohic between Picts and Britons, in which Talorcan son of Fergus, brother of Oengus, fell.”  This same battle is also reported by the Annales Cambriae, which grants Talorcan the title ‘king’. The A-text names the battle-site Mocetauc, which is identified as Mugdock, to the north of Glasgow. A subsequent, brief, entry s.a. 750 in AU is variously translated: “Ebbing of the sovereignty of Oengus.”  Or: “End of the reign of Oengus.”[*]  Oengus, though, was still king of the Picts six years later, so this comment is somewhat enigmatic. However, AT has an entry (which does not appear in AU) in the year equating to 752, which says: “The battle of Asreth [unidentified] in the land of Circinn between Picts on both sides, and in it Bridei son of Maelchon fell.”  According to one suggested scenario, Bridei son of Maelchon was a rival claimant who succeeded in driving Oengus from the Pictish throne in 750, but Oengus later recovered his position at the battle “in the land of Circinn” (Circinn being the region of Pictland traditionally, though not certainly, equated to Angus with Mearns), in which Bridei was killed.[*] Plainly, this is not beyond the realms of possibility, but there is only one known Bridei son of Maelchon, and he was active some two centuries earlier. His death is placed s.a. 584 by AU, but the circumstances are not mentioned. Could it be that it was he who fell at the battle of Asreth, the record of which is grossly misplaced in AT?  If this were the case, and there was no battle “between Picts on both sides” in 752, then perhaps it was Dál Riata that Oengus lost his grip on in 750?[*] Whatever occurred, the list of kings of the Picts in the Poppleton Manuscript gives no indication that Oengus’ reign was interrupted.

The ‘Continuation of Bede’ (a set of annals covering the period 732–766 found in a number of manuscripts of the Ecclesiastical History) reports that Æthelbald, king of Mercia – Mercia being Northumbria’s southern neighbour – had, in 740: “treacherously wasted part of Northumbria, their king, Eadberht, with his army, being employed against the Picts.”[*]  The same source records that, a decade later (in 750), Eadberht, king of Northumbria, captured territory from the Strathclyde Britons: “Eadberht added the plain of Kyle [in modern-day Ayrshire] and other places to his dominions.”[*]  A few years later, in 756, Eadberht and Oengus (called Unust by Symeon of Durham, HR), as allies, marched on Alt Clut, i.e. Dumbarton Rock, stronghold of the kings of the Strathclyde Britons. Presumably the Britons were besieged – no fighting is mentioned, but they agreed terms on 1st August. However, most of Eadberht’s army was wiped-out, on the 10th August, apparently on the homeward march (the location of this disaster, Niwanbirig, an English name, isn’t certainly identified). Presumably the Northumbrians had been ambushed, but if so, by whom? The Strathclyde Britons would seem the obvious candidates, but the Continuation annal for 761, which reports that “Oengus, king of the Picts, died”, notes that: “from the beginning to the end of his reign, [he] continued to be a blood-stained and tyrannical butcher”.  Perhaps Oengus had double-crossed Eadberht?[*]

Oengus, king of the Picts, was succeeded on his death, in 761, by his brother, Bridei (Bruide in Irish). Bridei died in 763 – he is titled ‘king of Fortriu’ by AU and AT.[*] Bridei was succeeded by Ciniod (Cinaed in Irish) son of Uuredech. AU reports, s.a. 768: “A battle in Fortriu between Aed and Cinaed.”  Since the battle was fought in Fortriu, the implication is that it was the Scots – the Aed in question being Aed son of Eochaid, also known as Aed Find (‘the White’), king of Dál Riata – who attacked the Picts, but the outcome of the engagement is not recorded. AU titles Ciniod ‘king of the Picts’ in his obit, s.a. 775.

It would seem that Aed was remembered for his sound government – the Scottish Chronicle in the Poppleton Manuscript reports that “the rights and laws of the kingdom of Aed son of Eochaid” were adopted, almost a century later, in the united kingdom of Picts and Scots (during the reign of Donald son of Alpin, 858–862). Aed died in 778. He was succeeded by his brother, Fergus son of Eochaid, who died in 781. From this point onwards the sequence of kings of Dál Riata becomes very uncertain. Scottish king-lists (i.e. lists of kings of Dál Riata) for the period are found in two Irish texts: a late-11th century versified king-list, the Duan Albanach, and the Synchronisms traditionally attributed to Irish scholar Flann Mainistrech, who died in 1056 (but no manuscript of the Synchronisms is earlier than the 14th century). The Duan Albanach provides reign lengths but no patronymics; the Synchronisms patronymics but no reign lengths.[*] In the shorter version of the Synchronisms, Fergus is succeeded by an Eochaid. In the longer version, Fergus was not listed but Eochaid is. In the Duan Albanach, neither Fergus nor Eochaid are present.[*] Next is a Domnall – “son of Constantine” according to the longer version of the Synchronisms – to whom the Duan Albanach allots a twenty-four year reign. Neither Eochaid nor Domnall appear in AU, but the death of “Donncoirce, king of Dál Riata” is placed in 792 by AU. Donncoirce, who is not listed in either Duan Albanach or Synchronisms, is the last individual to be titled ‘king of Dál Riata’ in AU.

According to the Pictish king-list in the Poppleton Manuscript three kings ruled between Ciniod son of Uuredech and one Canaul son of Tarl’a.[*] AU records, s.a. 789: “A battle between the Picts, in which Conall son of Tadg was defeated and escaped; and Constantine was victor.”  Under the next year AU notes: “The battle of Conall and Constantine is entered here in other books.”  Conall son of Tadg, presumably, equates to Canaul son of Tarl’a. Constantine son of Uurguist (Uurguist = Fergus in Irish) is the next king in the Poppleton’s Pictish list.[*]

AU makes a brief but ominous announcement s.a. 794: “Devastation of all the islands of Britain by gentiles.”  The Vikings had arrived on the scene.

the 9th Century: the Emergence of the Kingdom of Alba

AU reports, s.a. 807, that Conall son of Tadg was killed in Kintyre (in Dál Riata) by Conall son of Aedán. The Duan Albanach and the Synchronisms list two adjacent Conalls – the first called Conall Coem and the second “another Conall, his brother” in the Synchronisms (longer version) – the first given a reign length of two years, the second four years, in the Duan Albanach. Conall son of Tadg and Conall son of Aedán are generally equated to the two listed Conalls, by which token it would appear that, having been ousted as king of the Picts in 789 (or 790), Conall son of Tadg became king of the Scots of Dál Riata c.805–807.

The death of Constantine son of Fergus, king of the Picts (his obit titles him ‘king of Fortriu’), is placed s.a. 820 in AU. Constantine’s successor in the Poppleton king-list (evidently his brother) is Onuist son of Uurguist – Oengus son of Fergus, in Irish nomenclature. AU places the death of Oengus son of Fergus s.a. 834 (he too is titled ‘king of Fortriu’). Following Onuist (Oengus) in the Poppleton list is the joint rule, for 3 years, of a son of Constantine, called Drest, and one Talorcan son of Uuthoil (neither of whom feature in AU). The next listed king is Uuen son of Onuist – Eoganán son of Oengus in Irish. AU reports that, in 839, Vikings (“gentiles”) defeated the Picts (“the men of Fortriu”) in battle: “and Eoganán son of Oengus, Bran son of Oengus, Aed son of Boanta, and others almost innumerable fell there.”

In fact, Constantine son of Fergus, Oengus son of Fergus and Eoganán son of Oengus, all kings in the Pictish list, also feature as kings in the Scottish lists of the Synchronisms and, without patronymics, the Duan Albanach – as, indeed, does Aed son of Boanta:

Nine years of fair Constantine [son of Fergus],
nine of Oengus [son of Fergus] over Alba,
four years of noble Aed [son of Boanta],
and thirteen of Eoganán [son of Oengus].[*]

Duan Albanach Verse 19 (of 27)

Clearly, this chronological scheme is incompatible with the evidence of AU. Some scholars accept that Constantine, Oengus and Eoganán, kings of the Picts, were also kings of Dál Riata.[*] Others, however, reckon that those three Pictish kings have been wrongly intruded into the Scottish lists, and that only Aed son of Boanta was king of Dál Riata.[*] Either way, it would appear that both the Picts and the Scots of Dál Riata lost their king, in the same battle against Vikings, in 839.

The Pictish king-list in the Poppleton Manuscript records the reigns of two kings, totalling four years, after the reign of Uuen son of Onuist (Eoganán son of Oengus, in Irish nomenclature) – whose death, at the hands of Vikings, the Annals of Ulster (AU) place s.a. 839 – at which point the king-list as such ends and a new text, designated the Scottish Chronicle (SC), begins:

So Kenneth [Kinadius] son of Alpin, first of the Scots, ruled this Pictland [Pictavia] prosperously for 16 years. Pictland was named after the Picts, whom, as we have said, Kenneth [Cinadius] destroyed. For God deigned to make them alien from, and void of, their heritage, by reason of their wickedness; because they not only spurned the Lord’s mass and precept, but also refused to be held equal to others in the law of justice.[*] Two years before he came to Pictland, he had received the kingdom of Dál Riata. In the seventh year of his reign, he transported the relics of Saint Columba to a church that he had built [probably at Dunkeld].[*] And he invaded England [Saxonia] six times; and he burned Dunbar and seized Melrose [both of which were in Northumbria]. But the Britons [of Strathclyde] burned Dunblane, and the Danes wasted Pictland as far as Clunie and Dunkeld. He finally died of a tumour, before the Ides of February, on the 3rd day of the week [i.e. Tuesday], in the palace of Forteviot.

The death of Kenneth (Cinaed in Irish) son of Alpin – he is commonly called Kenneth MacAlpin – is placed in 858 by AU (the Tuesday before the Ides of February in 858 was the 8th of February). According to SC, then, he would have become king of the Picts in about 842.

Whilst the Poppleton Manuscript lists two kings – the first reigning for three years, the second for one year – between Eoganán son of Oengus and Kenneth MacAlpin, some other Pictish king-lists, for instance the one quoted by John of Fordun, allot one month, rather than one year, to the second king in the Poppleton’s list, and then record a further three kings, reigning for a combined six years, before Kenneth. This might suggest that Kenneth, in fact, faced stiff opposition and did not secure control of all the Picts until about 848. SC seems to add substance to this notion, since his first recorded deed is in the seventh year of his kingship of the Picts.

SC implies that Kenneth became king of the Scots of Dál Riata in about 840. Scottish king-lists are in a state of disarray in the run-up to Kenneth’s reign. In the Synchronisms traditionally attributed to Irish scholar Flann Mainistrech (who died in 1056, but no manuscript of the Synchronisms is earlier than the 14th century), Eoganán son of Oengus (whose obit is placed s.a. 839 in AU) is followed by Kenneth’s father, Alpin son of Eochaid, then another, unidentified, Eoganán, and then Kenneth.[*] The Synchronisms do not provide reign lengths. Another Irish source, the Duan Albanach, a late-11th century versified (in Irish) Scottish king-list, does provide reign lengths, but there is no extant stanza in which Alpin and the unknown Eoganán would be featured – as it stands, Kenneth (who is given a thirty year reign) follows Eoganán son of Oengus. Other, Latin, Scottish king-lists, for instance in the Poppleton Manuscript, grant Kenneth’s father, Alpin son of Eochaid, a three year reign immediately before Kenneth (who is given a sixteen year reign). However, there was a textual aberration in the document from which these lists are descended, whereby some kings’ reigns have been reordered and others dropped entirely, so that it is the Alpin who apparently ruled in Dál Riata a century earlier (according to the longer version of the Synchronisms, he was “son of Eochaid”) who features as Kenneth’s father and immediate predecessor. The reconstituted list, presents Kenneth’s father, Alpin son of Eochaid, as the grandson of Aed Find, the king of Dál Riata whose obit AU places in 778. (In fact, Alpin son of Eochaid is the last in a block of four kings who have been moved so that they appear after, rather than before, Aed Find.) Aed Find’s father, another Eochaid, is presented as the “son of Domangart [d.673], son of Domnall Brecc [d.642]”. This Eochaid’s death is s.a. 697 in AU. The same sequence – Alpin son of Eochaid, son of Aed Find, son of Eochaid, son of Domangart, son of Domnall Brecc – appears in the pedigree of Kenneth MacAlpin’s great-great-great-grandson, Constantine son of Culén, king of Alba (often called Constantine III of Scotland) 995–997.[*] It doesn’t seem unreasonable to suspect that the king-list has been purposely manipulated to manufacture a suitable royal pedigree for Kenneth.[*]

Some versions of the manipulated Latin list (e.g. List D) have a note that says Alpin: “was killed in Galloway, after he had entirely destroyed and devastated it.”  A particular version of the list, that has been translated into 14th century French, amplifies this story, saying: “He [Alpin] was killed in Galloway, after he had destroyed it, by a single man who lay in wait for him in a thick wood overhanging the entrance of the ford of a river, as he rode among his people.”[*]  A different account of Alpin’s demise is found in the, late-13th century, Chronicle of Huntingdon:

In the year from the Lord’s Incarnation eight hundred and thirty-four, the Scots fought with the Picts on the festival of Easter. And many of the noblest of the Picts fell. And thus Alpin, king of the Scots, was the conqueror; and he was so exalted with pride because of it that [another] battle was [fought] by [them] on the thirteenth of the Kalends of August [i.e. on the 20th of July] in the same year; and he was conquered by the Picts, and killed. His son Kenneth [succeeded to his father’s kingdom].[*]

The Chronicle of Huntingdon continues with an outline of Kenneth MacAlpin’s career:

And in the 7th year of his reign [840/41] – when Danish pirates had occupied the shores, and with the greatest slaughter had destroyed the Picts who defended their land – Kenneth passed over into, and turned his arms against, the remaining territories of the Picts; and after slaying many, drove [the rest] into flight. And so he was the first of the Scots to obtain the monarchy of the whole of Albania [i.e. Alba], which is now called Scotia [Scotland]; and he first reigned in it over the Scots. In the 12th year of his reign [845/46] he fought seven times in one day with the Picts, destroyed many, and confirmed the kingdom to himself; and he reigned for 28 years.[*]

Presumably(?) the “Danish pirates” who “had destroyed the Picts” equate to the “gentiles” who inflicted a heavy defeat on “the men of Fortriu”, dated 839 by AU. The Chronicle of Huntingdon, though, seems to imply that Kenneth was in collusion with the Vikings, or at least took advantage of their attack; and also adds further substance to the idea, hinted at by SC and Pictish king-lists, that it took Kenneth a number of years to overcome all the regions of Pictland.

In fact, the Chronicle of Huntingdon is not alone in placing Kenneth MacAlpin in a position of power in Dál Riata during the mid-830s. A late Irish source, the Annals of the Four Masters (compiled in the 1630s) has an entry s.a. 835 (though other entries in that annal belong to 836) which states that: “Gofraid son of Fergus, chief of Oirghialla [in northern Ireland], went to Alba, to strengthen Dál Riata, at the request of Cinaed son of Alpin.”  Gofraid is an Irish rendition of the Norse name Guthfrith. His father has an Irish name, so Guthfrith appears to be of mixed Norse/Irish blood. The Four Masters place Guthfrith’s death s.a. 851, but this time call him “chief of the Innsi Gall [‘Islands of Foreigners’ – Foreigners being Vikings – i.e. the Hebrides]”.[*]

According to a cryptic Irish poem known as the Prophecy of Berchán (apparently composed in the late-11th century):

He [Kenneth MacAlpin] is the first king from the men of Ireland in Alba who will take kingship in the east; it will be after strength of spear and sword, after sudden death, after sudden slaughter.

The fools in the east [i.e. the Picts] are deceived by him, they [the Scots] dig the earth, mighty the occupation; a deadly goad-pit, death by wounding, on the floor of noble-shielded Scone.

Stanzas 122–123

Norman-Welsh cleric and scholar Giraldus Cambrensis, in his De Principis Instructione (On the Instruction of a Prince), written close-12th/opening-13th century, evidently shines further illumination on the alleged incident to which the Prophecy is alluding:

They [the Scots] brought together as to a banquet all the nobles of the Picts, and taking advantage of their perhaps excessive potation and gluttony of both drink and food, they noted their opportunity and drew out the bolts which held up the boards; and [the Picts] fell into the hollows of the benches on which they were sitting, [caught] in a strange trap up to the knees, so that they could never get up; and [the Scots] immediately slaughtered them all, tumbled together everywhere and taken suddenly and unexpectedly, and fearing nothing of the sort from allies and confederates, men bound to them by benefits, and companions in their wars. And thus the more warlike and powerful nation of the two peoples wholly disappeared; and the other, by far inferior in every way, as a reward obtained in the time of so great treachery, have held to this day the whole land from sea to sea, and called it Scotland after their name.

De Principis Instructione I, 18

In fact, it was the Scots’ kingdom of Dál Riata that disappeared in the first instance. Kenneth is titled ‘king of the Picts’ in his Annals of Ulster (AU) obit, as are his three successors in the combined kingdom of Scots and Picts. It is not until the year 900 that the title ‘king of Alba’ – originally, Alba was the Irish name for the whole island of Britain – makes its first appearance in AU as a replacement for the designation ‘king of the Picts’. Similarly, the Scottish Chronicle in the Poppleton Manuscript (SC) uses the term Pictavia (Pictland) until 900, and then the term Albania (Alba) appears. Inexorably, however, the language and customs of the Scots superseded those of the Picts. The Picts, that is to say ‘Pictish identity’, eventually faded into history – the Picts, in effect, became Scots. The 12th century English chronicler Henry of Huntingdon comments:

The Picts, however, appear to have been annihilated and their language utterly destroyed, so that the record of them in the writings of the ancients seems like fiction. Who will not espouse love of celestial things and dread of worldly things, if he considers not only that their kings and princes and people have perished, but also that at the same time their whole racial stock, their language and all remembrance of them have disappeared? And if there were nothing surprising in other respects, yet it must seem amazing as regards their language, which was one of those established by God at the very beginning of languages.

Historia Anglorum I, 8

Kenneth MacAlpin (Kenneth I) died in 858: “and he died in Forteviot, and was buried in the island of Iona, where the three sons of Erc – Fergus, Loarn and Oengus – were buried.” (List D).

Cinaed son of Alpin, king of the Picts, died. It was of him that the quatrain was said:

Because Cinaed with many troops lives no longer
there is weeping in every house;
there is no king of his worth under heaven
as far as the borders of Rome.

Kenneth’s obit in the, so-called, Three Fragments (or Fragmentary Annals of Ireland) §285

Kenneth was succeeded by his brother Donald (Domnall in Irish), who ruled for four years. Donald (Donald I) may have been Kenneth’s half-brother – the Prophecy of Berchán calls Donald (though, as usual, he is not actually named): “the rash son of the foreign wife.”  Had Donald’s father, Alpin, taken a Norse wife to cement an alliance with a Viking leader?  SC mentions that: “In his [Donald’s] time, the Gaels [i.e Scots] with their king made the rights and laws of the kingdom of Aed son of Eochaid, at Forteviot.”  Aed, son of Eochaid (also known as Aed Find), king of Dál Riata, died in 778. SC seems to be saying that the laws of Dál Riata, as defined during Aed’s rule, were imposed in the newly integrated kingdom of Picts and Scots. The SC entry concludes with the remark: “He [Donald] died in the palace of Cinnbelathoir on the Ides of April [13th of April].”  According to the Verse Chronicle copied into the Chronicle of Melrose, he died, was perhaps murdered, at Scone, whilst Berchán says Donald died: “of a single attack of a disease.”[*]

Donald “king of the Picts” died in 862. He was succeeded by his nephew, Kenneth’s son, Constantine (Constantine I). AU reports that, in 866: “Amlaíb and Auisle went with the foreigners [i.e. Vikings] of Ireland and Alba to Fortriu, plundered the entire Pictish country and took away hostages from them.”  The Three Fragments version of this entry reads: “The Norwegians laid waste and plundered Fortriu, and they took many hostages with them as pledges for tribute; for a long time afterwards they continued to pay them tribute.” (§328).  SC reports the same event: “Amlaíb, with his gentiles [i.e. heathens], wasted Pictland, and dwelt in it, from the Kalends of January to the feast of Saint Patrick [i.e. from the 1st of January to the 17th of March].”[*]

Around this time there were three Viking kings operating from Ireland: Olaf (Amlaíb in Irish), Ivar (Ímar in Irish) and Auisle (which is the Irish form of this individual’s name – it probably equates to the name rendered Eowils in Old English).

AU states, s.a. 867: “Auisle, one of three kings of the gentiles, was killed by his kinsmen in guile and parricide.”

AU, s.a. 870, records: “The siege of Ail Cluaithe [Dumbarton Rock, stronghold of the kings of the Strathclyde Britons] by the Northmen; that is, Amlaíb and Ímar, two kings of the Northmen; they laid siege to the fortress and at the end of 4 months they destroyed and plundered it.”  According to the Three Fragments (§388): “the Norwegian kings besieged Strathclyde in Britain, camping against them for four months; finally, having subdued the people inside by hunger and thirst – the well that they had inside having dried up in a remarkable way – they attacked them. First they took all the goods that were inside. A great host was taken out into captivity.”  The following year, AU s.a. 871: “Amlaíb and Ímar returned to Áth Cliath [Dublin] from Alba with two hundred ships, bringing away with them in captivity to Ireland a great prey of English and Britons and Picts.”  Amlaíb disappears from AU at this point. SC has it that he was killed by Constantine in the third year of the latter’s reign (864–5), which is plainly impossibly early. The meaning of the text is not certain either, but it may be that SC says Amlaíb was slain whilst “drawing tribute”.[*] If Amlaíb had, indeed, been killed in the British Isles it is, perhaps, remarkable that no Irish source recorded the event. In fact, the Three Fragments, indicating the year 871 (§400), say: "Amlaíb went from Ireland to Norway to fight the Norwegians and help his father, Gofraid [Guthfrith], for the Norwegians were warring against him, his father having sent for him."

In 872, two years after his fortress on Dumbarton Rock had been destroyed by Amlaíb and Ímar, AU reports that: “Artgal, king of the Britons of Strathclyde,[*] was killed at the instigation of Constantine son of Cinaed.”  AU doesn’t say where Artgal was at the time he was slain. He may have been captive in Dublin, and it may be that Constantine bought his slaughter to prevent any possibility of him returning and thwarting his own plans for Strathclyde. Artgal was evidently succeeded by his son Rhun, whose wife (name unknown) was Constantine’s sister. It seems reasonable to suppose that Rhun ruled Strathclyde as Constantine’s subordinate.

By 874, Viking forces had methodically conquered all but one of the English kingdoms – only Wessex, ruled by Alfred the Great, remained independent. Late in 874, a section of the Viking army, led by Ivar’s brother, Halfdan, established winter quarters on the Tyne. Halfdan’s forces “subdued the land, and often harried on the Picts and on the Strathclyde Welsh [i.e. Britons]”, reports the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle s.a. 875.[*]  AU, s.a. 875: “The Picts encountered the Black Foreigners [in battle], and a great slaughter of the Picts resulted.”[*]  Presumably, the “Black Foreigners” were Halfdan’s forces. What is clearly the same battle is dated to the 14th year of Constantine’s reign (875–6) by SC: “a battle was fought by him at Dollar between the Danes and the Scots; the Scots were slain at/to Achcochlam.[*] The Northmen passed a whole year in Pictland.”  In AU s.a. 875, the entry immediately after its report of the slaughter of Picts by “Black Foreigners” states: “Oistín [Eystein] son of Amlaíb [Olaf], king of the Northmen, was deceitfully killed by Albann.”  It is generally believed that Albann is an Irish rendition of Halfdan.

AU begins its entries for 876 with Constantine’s obit (he is called “king of the Picts”), but no details are provided – he is simply first in a short list of notables who are said to have “died”. SC makes no mention of Constantine’s demise at all,[*] but some Latin king-lists (e.g. List D) do: “he was slain by the Norwegians in the battle of Inverdufatha [or variations thereof [*]], and he was buried in the island of Iona.”  Whilst the Verse Chronicle in the Chronicle of Melrose says:

Fighting in battle, he fell by the arms of the Danes.
The place where the battle was fought is called Black Cave.

Halfdan was in Northumbria during 876. He parcelled out land in the south, roughly equating to the county of Yorkshire, amongst his army. According to Symeon of Durham (LDE II, 13), Halfdan:

… was attacked at the same time by mental insanity and the severest bodily suffering; the intolerable stench exhaling from which made him an object of abomination towards the whole army. Thus despised and rejected by all persons, he fled away in three ships from the Tyne, and shortly afterwards he and all his followers perished.

AU, s.a. 877:

A skirmish at Loch Cuan [Strangford Lough] between the White Gentiles and the Black Gentiles, in which Albann, chief of the Black Gentiles, fell.

In the earliest manuscript (second half of the 12th century, in the Book of Leinster) of an apparently early-12th century Irish text, Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib (The War of the Irish with the Foreigners), it is said (§25) that:

… there was a battle fought between themselves, viz., the White Gentiles and the Black Gentiles, i.e. Barith and Ragnall’s son [Albann, presumably], in which fell Ragnall’s son, and a multitude with him. Barith was wounded there, and he was lame ever after. The Black Gentiles after this were driven out of Ireland and went to Alba, where they gained a battle over the men of Alba, in which were slain Constantine son of Cinaed, chief king of Alba, and a great multitude with him. It was then the earth burst open under the men of Alba.

Supposing this account of the circumstances of Constantine’s death is not just a 12th century fantasy, then it would indicate that Constantine was actually killed in 877, the year after his obit appears in AU.[*] Constantine was succeeded by his brother, Aed. The Scottish Chronicle in the Poppleton Manuscript (SC), simply states: “Aed held the same [kingdom] for 1 year. Also the shortness of his reign has bequeathed nothing memorable to history; but he was slain in the civitas of Nrurim.”  The ‘civitas of Nrurim’ is not certainly identified, but elsewhere (e.g. List D) Aed’s death is placed in the area of Strathallan, to the north of Stirling, and it is dated 878 by the Annals of Ulster (AU): “Aed son of Cinaed, king of the Picts, was killed by his own associates.”  Other sources are more specific – for instance, List D: “he was killed in the battle of Strathallan, by Giric son of Dúngal; and was buried in the island of lona.”[*]

So, having killed Aed, Giric took the throne: “Giric son of Dúngal reigned for 12 years; and he died in Dundurn, and was buried in the island of lona.” (List D).  Well, according to SC that wasn’t exactly the case: “Eochaid son of Rhun king of the Britons [of Strathclyde], grandson of Kenneth by his daughter, reigned for 11 years; although others say that Giric son of [? name apparently omitted] reigned at this time, because he became Eochaid’s foster-father [alumnus] and governor [ordinator].”  The genealogy corresponding to Strathclyde in Harleian MS 3859 (§5) terminates with Rhun son of Artgal (Run map Arthgal). It appears, then, that Eochaid’s maternal grandfather was Kenneth MacAlpin and his paternal grandfather was Artgal, the king of Strathclyde who had been killed at the instigation of Constantine, Aed’s brother (and Eochaid’s uncle), in 872.

Whilst Eochaid was forgotten, extravagant claims were made for Giric. List D: “He subdued to himself all Ireland, and nearly all England;[*] and he was the first to give liberty to the Scottish church, which was in servitude up to that time after the custom and fashion of the Picts.[*]”  John of Fordun – who refers (CGS IV, 18) to Giric as “this glorious King Gregory” – repeats these claims, and asserts (CGS IV, 17) that: “though Ireland belonged to him by right of succession, he did not get possession of it without war on the part of some who withstood him.”  As far as England is concerned, Fordun says: “King Gregory himself, also, subdued the upper and western districts … The natives of some provinces, however, before he had reached their borders, gave themselves of their own accord, with their lands and property, into his power, after having sworn fealty and homage. For they deemed it a more blissful lot, and more advantageous, willingly to be subject to the Scots, who held the Catholic faith, though they were their enemies, than unwillingly to unbelieving heathens.”  In fact, there is no evidence of Giric in Ireland at all – indeed, neither he nor Eochaid gets so much as a mention in AU. It is, though, possible that, in the wake of the reconstitution of Northumbria initiated by Halfdan, both the Scottish kingdom and Strathclyde made territorial gains, and it is conceivable that Giric was able to secure the submission of some of the English magnates beyond Viking ‘Yorkshire’.

According to SC, Eochaid and Giric were “expelled from the kingdom” in the implied year of 889, and replaced by Donald [Donald II], the son of Constantine, who: “held the kingdom for 11 years.”  SC continues: “The Northmen wasted Pictland at that time [the last mention of Pictland in SC]. In his reign a battle was fought [at] inuisibsolian [possibly the island of Seil and its neighbours, off the Argyll coast], between Danes and Scots; the Scots had the victory. He was slain by the gentiles at Dunnottar.”  A selection of Latin king-lists, List D for instance, place Donald’s death elsewhere: “he died in Forres, and was buried in the island of lona.”[*]  The cryptic Irish poem known as the Prophecy of Berchán (Stanza 147) apparently agrees with SC regarding the location of Donald’s death, but puts the blame for the killing on the Scots (Gaels) themselves: “The Gaels will turn against him secretly on the path above Dunnottar; he will be over the brow of a mighty wave, in the east in his broad gory bed.”

Whilst AU had referred to Kenneth MacAlpin and his successors – Donald I, Constantine I and Aed – as “king of the Picts” in their obits, in his obit, s.a. 900, Donald II is titled “king of Alba”.

In the year 900, Donald II was succeeded by his cousin, Constantine son of Aed (Constantine II). Remarkably, Constantine ruled for more than forty years, before retiring into religion. At some stage during Constantine’s long reign: “died Donald, king of the Britons”, notes SC. Donald, i.e. Dyfnwal, must have been king of Strathclyde – this is his only appearance in the historical record. Until recently, it has been thought that SC proceeds to say that Dyfnwal was succeeded in Strathclyde by “Donald son of Aed” – the presumption being that this Donald, i.e. Domnall, was an otherwise unknown brother of Constantine. It is now, however, widely accepted that SC makes no such claim – that this notion is based on a misunderstanding of the manuscript.[*]

John of Fordun (CGS IV, 21) alleges that:

Constantine, in the 16th year of his reign, gave Eugenius [Welsh: Owain], the son of Donald [i.e. Donald II], his expected next heir, the lordship of the region of Cumbria [i.e. Strathclyde] to rule over, until he should, on Constantine’s death, obtain the diadem of the kingdom; and, on his being crowned king, his next heir was to succeed to that lordship; and thus the lordship was in future, by this rule of succession, always to be transferred from the heir, immediately on his being crowned king, to his next successor.

Fordun’s nationalistic assertion that Strathclyde became a sub-kingdom of Alba, to be ruled by the chosen successor of the incumbent king of Alba, seemed to be given substance by SC, but if it is accepted that the reading which apparently made another Donald, the otherwise unknown brother of Constantine, king of Strathclyde before Owain, is erroneous, then this plank of support is removed. Today there seems to be general scholarly agreement that Owain was not the son of Donald II, but was, as his name suggests, a Briton, the son of Dyfnwal, and that the kingdom of Strathclyde continued to be ruled by Britons into the 11th century.

SC reports: “And in his [Constantine II’s] third year the Northmen plundered Dunkeld, and all Alba. In the following year, the Northmen were slain in Strathearn.”  Presumably the battle at Strathearn is the event mentioned by AU s.a. 904: “Ímar grandson of Ímar was killed by the men of Fortriu, and there was a great slaughter around him.”  The elder Ímar, i.e. Ivar, is assumed to be the famous “king of the Northmen of all Ireland and Britain” who had died in 873. SC continues: “And in his 6th year King Constantine and Bishop Cellach upon the Hill of Credulity near the royal city of Scone, pledged themselves that the laws and disciplines of the faith, and the rights in churches and gospels, should be kept in conformity with [the customs of] the Scots. From that day the hill has deserved this name – that is, the Hill of Credulity.”

Alba appears to have enjoyed a decade of peace following the defeat of Ivar grandson of Ivar in 904 – at least there are no chronicled incidents – but all things come to an end …