Pictish Sìol Alpin
Cináed mac Ailpin (Kenneth MacAlpine) was born about 800AD. Traditionally, he is said to have been born a Scot in their heartland of Dalriada. At the time the kingdom was hard-pressed by the more dominant Picts, but their power was reduced by continual Viking raids.
When the King of the Picts, Wrad, died in 842 there was a power struggle and Cinnaed, by then King of the Scots, claimed the throne through his mother, who was a member of the Pictish royalty. He is said to have seized the crown in 843 and later killed Drest, a Pictish rival, at Scone under a banner of truce.
A Victorian historian also claimed Cináed led a Scottish army to a devastating victory over the Picts, but this is thought to have been a story invented centuries after the period. He set up his capital at Forteviot in Perthshire and also moved the relics of St Columba from the island of Iona to Dunkeld to protect them from the Vikings.
Kenneth died in 858 at the Palace of Forteviot. Recent historical research has challenged the traditional version of the Kenneth MacAlpine story. St Andrews University historian Alex Woolf claims Kenneth was actually a Pict, not a Scot, and that the Picts were not defeated in battle by a Scottish army, but gradually adopted Gaelic customs.
Fortriu
Fortriu, or the Kingdom of Fortriu is the name given by historians for an ancient Pictish kingdom, and often used synonymously with Pictland in general. It was almost certainly located in around Moray and Easter Ross in northern Scotland, but has traditionally been located in and around Strathearn in central Scotland.
The word itself is a modern reconstruction, a hypothetical Old Irish nominative form for a word that occurs only in the genitive or dative cases, as Fortrenn and Fortrinn respectively. The reconstructed Pictish form would be Uerturio, and indeed one of the two main Pictish tribes recorded by Roman writers is the Uerturiones. The change occurred because Goidelic speakers almost always render what in Brythonic is either U/V, W or Gw with an F; compare for instance the Scottish Gaelic Fionn with Welsh Gwyn, both meaning white.
Traditionally the kingdom was seen as focused on central Scotland, equivalently the kingdom of the Southern Picts, with a heartland perhaps in Strathearn. Over the last century or so this has become a scholarly consensus. However, new research by Alex Woolf seems to have destroyed this consensus, if not the idea itself. As Woolf has pointed out, the only basis for it had been that a battle had taken place in Strathearn in which the Men of Fortriu had taken part. This is obviously an unconvincing reason on its own, because there are two Strathearns: one in the south, and one in the north; moreover, every battle has to be fought outside the territory of one of the combatants.
By contrast, a northern recension of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle makes it clear that Fortriu was north of the Mounth (i.e. the eastern Grampians), in the area visited by Columba. The Prophecy of Berchán tells us that King Dub [Duff] was killed in the Plain of Fortriu. Another source, the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, tells us that King Dub was killed at Forres, a location in Moray. Moreover, additions to the Chronicle of Melrose confirm that Dub was killed by the men of Moray at Forres.
The large poem known as the Prophecy of Berchán, written perhaps in the twelfth century, but purporting to be a prophecy made in the Early Middle Ages states that "Mac Bethad MacBeth, the glorious king of Fortriu, will take Scotland. "As Mac Bethad was Mormaer of Moray before he became King of Scots, there can be no doubt that Moray was how Fortriu was still understood in High Middle Ages. Fortriu is also mentioned as one of the seven ancient Pictish kingdoms in a 13th century source known as de Situ Albanie.
There can be little or no doubt then that Fortriu centered on northern Scotland. Indeed, other Pictish scholars, such as James E. Fraser now take it for granted that Fortriu was in the north of Scotland, centered on Moray and Easter Ross, where most early Pictish monuments are located. Hence, it is in these areas that the united kingdom of the Picts came from, perhaps acquiring southern Pictland after the expulsion of the Northumbrians by King Bridei at the Battle of Dunnichen.
Relocating Fortriu north of the Mounth increases the importance of the Vikings. After all, the Viking impact on the north was greater than in the south, and in the north, the Vikings actually conquered and made permanent territorial gains. So the creation of Alba or Scotland from Pictland, traditionally associated with major conquests by Cináed mac Ailpín in 843, can be better understood in this context.
Scotland & the Vikings
While there are few records from early period, it is believed that Scandinavian presence in Scotland increased in the 830s. In 836, a large Viking force believed to be Norwegian invaded the Earn valley and Tay valley which were central to the Pictish kingdom. Pictish slaughtered Eoganan - king of Picts, and his brother, the vassal king of the Scots. They also killed many members of the Pictish aristocracy. The sophisticated kingdom that had been built fell apart, as did the Pictish leadership. The foundation of Scotland under king Kenneth MacAlpin is traditionally attributed to the aftermath of this event.
The isles to the north and west of Scotland were heavily colonized by Norwegian Vikings. Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles, Caithness and Sutherland were under Norse control, sometimes as fiefs under the King of Norway and other times as separate entities. Shetland and Orkney were the last of these to be incorporated into Scotland in as late as 1468. As well as Orkney and Shetland, Caithness and Sutherland, the Norse settled in the Hebrides. The west coast was also heavily settled, and Galloway, which got its name from the Gall-Gael or Foreigner Gael, as the mixed Norse Scots were known.
The Kingdom of Alba
In Gaelic Rìoghachd na h-Alba, pertains to the Kingdom of Scotland between the death of Domnall II in 900, and the death of Alexander III in 1286 which then led indirectly to the Scottish Wars of Independence. The name is one of convenience, as throughout this period the populace of the Kingdom were predominantly Gaelic, or later Gaelic and Scoto-Norman, and differs markedly from the period of the Stewarts, in which the elite of the kingdom were for the most part speakers of English or Lowland Scots. The article concerns only the political history of the Kingdom of Scotland in the High Middle Ages, rather than the culture or society of the country.
Royal court
We do not know the structure of the Scottish royal court in the period before the coming of the Normans to Scotland, before the reign of David I. We know a little more about the court of the later twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the words of Geoffrey Barrow, this court "was emphatically feudal, Frankish, non-Celtic in character. Some of the offices were Gaelic in origin, such as the hostarius (later Usher or Durward), the man in charge of the royal bodyguard, and the rannaire, the Gaelic-speaking member of the court whose job was to divide the food.
Seneschal or dapifer (steward) had been hereditary since the reign of David I. The Steward had responsibility for the royal household and its management. The Chancellor was in charge of the royal chapel. The latter was the king's place of worship was associated with the royal scribes, responsible record keeping. The chancellor was usually a clergyman, and usually he held this office before being promoted to a bishopric. The Chamberlain had control and responsibility over royal finances. The Constable likewise hereditary since the reign of David I. The constable was in charge of the crown's military resources. The Marshal or gaelic marischal differed from the constable in that he was more specialized responsible for and in charge of the royal cavalry forces.
In the thirteenth century, all the other offices tended to be hereditary, with the exception of the Chancellor. The royal household of course came with numerous other offices. The most important was probably the aforementioned hostarius, but there were others such as the royal hunters, the royal foresters and the cooks (dispensa or spence).
The reign of Máel Coluim II saw the final incorporation of these territories. The critical year perhaps was 1018, when Máel Coluim II defeated the Northumbrians at the Battle of Carham. In the same year, King Eogan (or Owain) Calvus "the Bald" died, leaving his kingdom to his overlord Máel Coluim. Meeting with King Knutr (Canut) of Denmark and England, probably about 1031, seems to have further secured these conquests, although the exact nature of Scottish rule over the Lothian and Scottish Borders area was not fully so until the reconquest of that province during the Wars of Independence.
Kings of Alba
Domnall II and Causantín II
King Domnall II (Donald) was the first man to have been called Ri Alban (King of Alba), when he died at Dunnottar in 900. This meant king of Britain or Scotland. All his predecessors bore the style of either King of the Picts or King of Fortriu. Such an apparent innovation in the Gaelic chronicles is occasionally taken to spell the birth of Scotland but there is nothing special about his reign that might easily confirm this. Domnall had the nickname dásachtach. This simply meant madman, or in early Irish law, a man not in control of his functions and hence without legal culpability. The reason was possibly the restlessness of his reign, continually spent fighting battles against Vikings. Perhaps he gained his unpopularity by violating the rights of the church, or through high taxes. We do not know. However, his extremely negative nickname makes him seem an unlikely founder of Scotland.
Domnall's successor Causantín II (Constantine) is more often regarded as a key figure in the formation of Alba. Causantín reigned for nearly half a century, fighting many battles. When he lost at Brunanburh, he was clearly discredited and retired as a Céli Dé monk at St. Andrews. Despite this, the Prophecy of Berchán is full of praise for the king, and in this respect is in line with the views of other sources. Causantín is credited in later tradition as the man who, with Cellach, Bishop of St Andrews, brought the northern British church into conformity with that of the larger Gaelic world. No one knows exactly what this means.
There had been Gaelic bishops in St Andrews for two centuries, Gaelic churchmen were amongst the oldest features of northern British Christianity. The reform may have been organizational, or some sort of purge of certain unknown and perhaps disliked legacies of Pictish ecclesiastical tradition. However, other than these factors, it is difficult to appreciate fully the importance of Causantín's reign.
Máel Coluim I to Máel Coluim II
The period between the accession of Máel Coluim I (Malcolm) and Máel Coluim II are marked by good relations with the Wessex (West Saxons) rulers of England, intense internal dynastic disunity and, despite this, relatively successful expans-ionary policies. Sometime after an English invasion of cumbra land (Old English for either Strathclyde or Cumbria or both) by King Edmund of England in 945, the English king handed the province over to king Máel Coluim I on condition of a permanent alliance. Sometime in the reign of king Idulb (954-62), the Scots captured the fortress called Oppidum Eden, that is almost certainly Edinburgh. It was the first Scottish foothold in Lothian.
The Scots had probably had some authority in Strathclyde since the later part of the ninth century, but the kingdom kept its own rulers, and it is not clear that the Scots were always strong enough to enforce their authority. In fact, one of Idulb's successors, Cuilén, died at the hands of the men of Strathclyde, perhaps while trying to enforce his authority. King Cináed II (Kenneth 971-95) began his reign by invading Britannia (possibly Strathclyde), perhaps as an early assertion of his authority, and perhaps also as a traditional Gaelic crechríge (lit. "royal prey"), the rite by which a king secured the success of his reign with an inauguration raid in the territory of a historical enemy.
The reign of Máel Coluim I (942/3 - 954) also marks the first known tensions between the Scottish kingdom and Moray, the old heartland of the Scoto-Pictish kingdom of Fortriu. The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba reported that King Máel Coluim "went into Moray and slew Cellach." The same source tells us that king Máel Coluim was killed by the Moravians (of Moray). This is the first definite sign of tension between the Cenél Gabráin and Cenél Loairn, two kin-groups claiming descent from different ancestors of Erc. During the reign of Mac Bethad mac Findláich (MacBeth), and his successor Lulach mac Gillai Coemgáin, the Moray based Cenél Loairn ruled all Scotland.
Donnchad I to Alexander I
It was the ceremonial coronation stone of Scotland's Gaelic kings, similar to the Irish Lia Fáil.The period between the accession of King Donnchad I (Duncan 1034) and the death of Alexander I (1124) was the last before the coming of the Normans to Scotland. In some respects, the reign of King Máel Coluim III prefigured the changes which took place in the reigns of the French-speaking kings David I and William I, although native reaction to the manner of Donnchad II's accession perhaps put these changes back somewhat.
King Donnchad I's reign was a military failure. He was defeated by the native English in at Durham in 1040, and was subsequently toppled. Donnchad had only been related to previous rulers through his mother Bethoc, daughter of Máel Coluim II, who had married Crínán, the lay abbot of Dunkeld (and probably Mormaer of Atholl too).
MacBeth Kills Duncan
At a location mysteriously called Bothgofnane, the Mormaer of Moray Mac Bethad mac Findláich defeated and killed Donnchad, and took the kingship for himself. After Mac Bethad's successor Lulach, another Moravian, all kings of Scotland were Donnchad's descendants. For this reason, Donnchad's reign is often remembered positively, while Mac Bethad is villanised. Eventually, William Shakespeare gave fame to this medieval equivalent of propaganda by further immortalising both men in his play Macbeth. Mac Bethad's reign however was successful enough that he had the security to go on pilgrimage to Rome.
It was Máel Coluim III, who acquired the nickname (as did his successors) Cenn Mór ("Great Head or Chief" Canmore), and not his father Donnchad, who did more to create the successful nasty which ruled Scotland for the two centuries. Part of the success was the huge number of children he had. Through two marriages, firstly to the Norwegian Ingebjørg Finnsdottir, and then to the Anglo-Hungarian princess Margaret Ætheling, Máel Coluim had perhaps a dozen children. Máel Coluim, if we believe later hagiography, his wife introduced the first Benedictine monks to Scotland. However, despite having a royal Anglo-Saxon wife, Máel Coluim spent more of his reign conducting slave raids against the English, adding to the woes of that people in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England and the Harrying of the North, as Marianus Scotus reports:
“The Gaels and French devastated the English; the English were
dispersed and died of hunger; and were compelled to eat human
flesh: and to this end, to kill men, and to salt and dry them.”
Máel Coluim died in one of these raids in 1093. In the aftermath of his death the Norman rulers of England began their interference in the Scottish kingdom. This interference was prompted by Máel Coluim's raids and attempts to forge claims for his successors to the English kingship. He had married the sister of the native English claimant to the English throne, Edgar Ætheling, and had given most of his children by this marriage Anglo-Saxon royal names.
Moreover, he had given support to many native English nobles, including Edgar himself, and had been supporting native English insurrections against their French rulers. In 1080 King William the Conqueror sent his son on an invasion of Scotland. The invasion got as far as Falkirk, on the boundary between Scotland-proper and Lothian, and Máel Coluim submitted to the authority of the king, giving his elder son Donnchad as a hostage. This submission perhaps gives the reason why Máel Coluim did not give his last two sons, Alexander and David, Anglo-Saxon royal names.
Máel Coluim's natural successor was Domnall Bán (Donald Bane) as sons of Máel Coluim
were young and Domnall was Máel Coluim's brother. The Norman state to the south sent Máel Coluim's son Donnchad to take the kingship. In the ensuing conflict, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recordst:
“Donnchad went to Scotland with what aid he could get of the English
and French, and deprived his kinsman Domnall of the Kingdom, and
was received as King. But afterwards some of the Scots gathered them
selves together, and slew almost all of his followers; and he himself
escaped with few. Thereafter they were reconciled on the condition
that he should never again introduce English or French into the land.”
Donnchad was killed the same year 1094 and Domnall III resumed as sole king. However, the Norman state sent another of Máel Coluim's sons, Edgar to take the kingship. Anglo-Norman policy worked, because thereafter all kings of Scotland succeeded, not without opposition of course, under a system closely corresponding with the primogeniture that existed in the French speaking world.
The reigns of both Edgar and his brother and successor Alexander are comparatively obscure. The former's most notable act was to send a camel (or perhaps an elephant) to his fellow Gael Muirchertach Ua Briain, High King of Ireland. When Edgar died Alexander took the kingship, while his younger brother David became Prince of Cumbria
and ruler of Lothian.
Norman Kings: David I to Alexander III
The period between the accession of David I and the death of Alexander III was marked by dependency upon and relatively good relations with, the Kings of the English. It was also a period of historical expansion for the Scottish kingdom, and witnessed the successful imposition of royal authority across most of the modern country. The period was one of a great deal of historical change, and much of the modern historiographical literature is devoted to this change (especially G.W.S. Barrow), part of a general phenomenon which has been called the
"Europeanisation of Europe".
More recent works though, while acknowledging that a great deal of change did take place, emphasise that this period was in fact also one of great continuity (e.g. Cynthia Neville, Richard Oram, Dauvit Broun, and others). Indeed, the period is subject to misconceptions. For instance, English did not spread all over the Lowlands (see language section), and neither did English names; and, moreover even by 1300, most native lordships remained in native Gaelic hands, with only a minority passing to men of French or Anglo-French origin; further-more, the Normanisation and imposition of royal authority in Scotland was not a peaceful process, in fact cumulatively more violent than the Norman Conquest of England; additionally, the Scottish kings were not independent monarchs, but vassals to the King of the English, although not "legally" for Scotland north of the Forth.
The important changes which did occur include the extensive establishment of burghs, in many respects Scotland's first urban institutions; the feudalisation, or more accurately, the Francization of aristocratic martial, social and inheritance customs; the de-Scotticisation of ecclesiastical institutions; the imposition of royal authority over most of modern Scotland; and the drastic drift at the top level from traditional Gaelic culture so that after David I the kingship of the Scots resembled more closely the kingship of the French and English, than it did the lordship of any large-scale Gaelic kingdom in Ireland.
After David I, and especially in the reign of William I, Scotland's King's became ambivalent about, if not hostile towards, the culture of most of their subjects. As Walter of Coventry tells:
"The modern kings of Scotia count themselves as Frenchmen, in
race, manners, language and culture; they keep only Frenchmen
in their household and following, and have reduced the Scots (Gaels)
to utter servitude."
The ambivalence of the kings was matched to a certain extent by their subjects. In the aftermath of William's was capture at Alnwick in 1174, the Scots turned on their king's English
speaking and French-speaking subjects. William of Newburgh related the events:
"As King William was given over into the hands of the enemy God's vengeance
permitted not also that his most evil army should go away unhurt. For when they
learned of the King's capture the barbarians at first were stunned, and desisted
from spoil; and presently, as if driven by furies, the sword which they had taken
up against their enemy and which was now drunken with innocent blood they
turned against their own army.
"Now there was in the same army a great number of English; for the towns and
burghs of the Scottish realm are known to be inhabited by English. On the occasion
therefore of this opportunity the Scots declared their hatred against them, innate,
though masked through fear of the king; and as many as they fell upon they slew,
the rest who could escape fleeing back to the royal castles."
Walter Bower writing a few centuries later albeit wrote about the same event:
"At that time after the capture of their king, the Scots together with
the Galwegians , in the mutual slaughter that took place, killed their
English and French compatriots without mercy or pity, making frequent
attacks on them. At that time also there took place a most wretched
and widespread persecution of the English both in Scotland and Galloway.
So intense was it that no consideration was shown to the sex of any,
but all were cruelly killed...."
Opposition to the Scottish kings in this period was indeed hard. The first instance is perhaps the revolt of Óengus of Moray, the Mormaer of Moray, the crushing of which led to the colonization of Moray by foreign burgesses, Franco-Flemish and Anglo-French aristocrats. Rebellions continued throughout the twelfth century and into the thirteenth. Important resistors to the expansionary Scottish kings were Somairle mac Gillai Brigte, Fergus of Galloway, Gille Brigte, Lord Galloway and Harald Maddadsson, along with two kin-groups known today as the MacHeths and the Meic Uilleim.
The latter claimed descent from king Donnchad II, through his son William, and rebelled for no less a reason than the Scottish throne itself. The threat was so grave that, after the defeat of the MacWilliams in 1230, the Scottish crown ordered the public execution of the baby girl who happened to be the last MacWilliam. This was how the Lanercost Chronicle relates the fate of this last MacWilliam:
"…the same Mac-William's daughter, who had not long left her mother's
womb, innocent as she was, was put to death, in the burgh of Forfar, in
view of the market place, after a proclamation by the public crier. Her
head was struck against the column of the market cross, and her brains
dashed out."
Many of these resistors collaborated, and drew support not just in the peripheral Gaelic regions of Galloway, Moray, Ross, Argyll, but also from eastern Scotland proper, Ireland and Mann. By the end of the twelfth century, the Scottish kings had acquired the authority and ability to draw in native Gaelic lords outside their previous zone of control in order to do their work, the most famous examples being Lochlann, Lord of Galloway and Ferchar mac in t-Sagairt.
Such accommodation assisted expansion to the Scandinavian-ruled lands of the west. Uilleam, the native Mormaer of Ross, was a pivotal figure in the expansion of the Scottish kingdom into the Hebrides, as was Alan MacRuadridh, the key pro-Scottish Hebridean chief, who married his daughter to Uilleam, the Mormaer of Mar. The Scottish king was able to draw on the support of Alan, Lord of Galloway, the master of the Irish Sea region, and was able to make use of the Galwegian ruler's enormous fleet of ships. The Mormaers of Lennox forged links with the Argyll chieftains, bringing a kin-group such as the Campbells into the Scottish fold.
Cumulatively, by the reign of Alexander III, the Scots were in a strong position to annex the remainder of the western seaboard, which they did in 1265, with the Treaty of Perth. Orkney too was coming into the Scottish fold. In the twelfth century, Mormaer Matad's son Harald was established on the Orkney Earldom.
Thereafter, the Orkney earl (also Mormaer of Caithness) was just as much a Scottish vassal as a Norwegian one. Descendants of the Gaelic Mormaers of Angus ruled Orkney for much of the thirteenth century. In the early fourteenth century, another Scottish Gaelic noble, Maol Íosa V of Strathearn became Earl of Orkney, although formal Scottish sovereignty over the Northern Isles did not come for more than another century.
The conquest of the west, the creation of the Mormaerdom of Carrick in 1186 and the absorption of the Lordship of Galloway after the Galwegian revolt of 1135 meant that the number and proportion of Gaelic speakers under the rule of the Scottish king actually increased, and perhaps even doubled, in the so-called Norman period. It was the Gaels and Gaelicised warriors of the new west, and the power they offered, that enabled King Robert I (himself a Gaelicized Scoto-Norman of Carrick) to emerge victorious during the Wars of Independence, which followed soon after the death of Alexander III.
Pictish Origins of Clan Alpin
However, it must be remembered that at the time of the union of the Pict and Scot crowns under an at least seventy-five percent Pict, with a Pict name, Kenneth MacAlpin, the population of Alban was ten percent Scot and ninety percent Pict. By necessity and popular choice, that union emphasized the Pict traditions and Pict values. (i.e. All kings after Grig Dungal, were officially designated as Ri Albain, a P-Celtic phrase unintelligible to all but Picts, until the death of MacBeth, the last of the highland kings.)
42 generations later, all Highland Scots are a true representation of that racial proportion. In Search of Grig, the only historical writing left by the Picts is a list of their 69 Kings, called "The Pictish Chronicles." The history of the Royal successions, starting with Drust, the son of Erp in the year AD451.
At the time of the Roman abdication of Britain, the Caledonians (or Picts), were under the sway of a chieftain, named Drust, the son of Erp, who, for his prowess in his various expeditions against the Roman provinces, has been honored by Irish historians, with the name of Drust of the hundred battles. Roman accounts tell of a Pict army burning London in the third century AD, although there is no account of the name of the Pict leader of the time. History, however, has not done the Picts justice, for it has left little concerning them on record. In fact, little is known of the Pictish history for upwards of one hundred years, immediately after the Roman withdrawal.
The Pict Chronicles afford us lists of the Pictish Kings, or Princes, from that list, a chronological table is here subjoined:
? - 451 Drust, f: Erp
451-455 Talorc, f: Aniel
455-480 Nekton Morbet, f: Erp
480-510 Driust Gurthinmoch
510-522 Galanau Etelich
522-523 Dadrest
523-524 Drust, f: Girom
524-529 Drust, f: Wdrest
529-534 Drdust, f:Griom (again)
534-541 Garnach, f: Girom
541-542 Geal Traim, f: Girom
542-553 Talorg, f: Muircholaich
553-554 Drust, f: Munait
554-555 Galam, f: Aleph
555-556 Galam (with Bridei)
556-586 Bridei, f: Mailcon
586-597 Garnaich, f: Domelch
597-617 Nectu, nephew of Verb
617-636 Cineoch, f: Luthrin
636-640 Garnard f: Wid
640-645 Bridei, f: Wid
645-687 Talorc, brother
657-661 Talloracan, f: Enfret
661-667 Gartnait, f: Donnel
667-674 Drust, brother
674-695 Bridei, f: Bili
695-699 Taran, f: Entifidich
699-710 Dridei, f: Dereli
710-725 Nechton, f: Dereli
725-719 Drust, and Elpin
729-761 Oengus, f: Urguis (1st king of Picts & Scots)
761-763 Bridei, f: Urguis (1st Christian Pictish king)
763-775 Ciniod, f: Wredech
775-779 Elpin, f: Bridei
779-784 Drust, f: Talorgan
784-786 Talorgan, f: Ungus
768-791 Canaul (Conall) f: Tarla
791-821 Castantin, f: Urguis
821-833 Oengus, f: Urguis
833-836 Drust, f: Constantin (with Talorgan, f: Wthoil)
836-839 Uuen, f: Ungus
839-842 Wrad, f: Bargoit
842-843 Brude, f: Wroid (slain by Kenneth MacAlpin)
Now to pick up the line of Kings at 729AD to understand the background of the conditions that allowed the Scots to usurp the Pictic throne. Some historians consider that the Picts were assimilated by the Scots, others believe that the Picts merely began calling themselves Scots.
It was this Pictish king Oengus (Angus): that dreamed of St. Andrews carrying his
cross "saltire" across his shoulders. His banner became the St. Andrew's Cross Flag
which endures to this modern day. This stained glass representation resides in the
headquarters of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in Edinburgh.
The Picts were a warrior society, and spent most of their time either plotting against or fighting their enemies, either strangers or family, for the right to rule over their subjects. Angus defeated all contenders to his throne; first the retired King Nechton, as well as Nechton's son Drust, whom he killed in battle in 729. He then turned his attention to the Scottish problem. He laid waste to the Scottish fortresses of Dunnadd and others.
After brutalizing the Scots on British soil, he invaded Ireland. He massacred them in their ancestral homeland by defeating them in two great battles in 741. He captured and drowned the King of Atholl, conquered the remaining Dalriada Scots on Britain and after beheading the Scottish king, became the first King of Picts and Scots.
Flushed with victory over the troublesome Scots, and believing he was invincible, Angus went south in 744 and attacked the Britons of Strathclyde, [the Celtic Kingdom formed south of the old Roman (Hadrian's) wall. He defeated them in open conflict but they retreated to their strong rock fortress of Dumbarton.
In 750 Angus's brother Talorcan returned and fought the Britons again whereby both Talorcan
and the Briton king, Tewdor, were killed. With the Britons holding Dumbarton, the Picts were forced to retreat. In 756, Angus returned with a powerful Northumberland ally intent on dest-roying the Strathclyde kingdom.
The combined armies nearly succeeded in destroying the great rock fortress, but in a stunning reversal. They were nearly destroyed in a battle, and
Angus retreated north where he died five years later. Castantin (Constantine): After Brude's death, and with a succession of weak Pict kings, the Scots in Dalriada had forty years to gather their strength under the leadership of Aed Finn. By 768, he was invading adjacent Pictish territories again.
A Pictish fleet of 150 warships was destroyed in a freak storm near Ross Crussini, in a vain effort to suppress the new Viking menace in the north. Aed Finn managed to repeal Pict laws in 768, and by the time of his death, the Scottish enclave of Dalriada was independent again. Castantin, son of Urguis won the Pictish throne by killing Conall, who had ruled for 35 years as the second King of Picts and Scots. (By this time, considerable Scottish blood was inclu-ded in the Pictish Royal family.) Castantin was succeeded by his brother, Oengus II, who is reputed to have brought the relics of St. Andrew back to Scotland. Oengus was followed by Drust and then Talorc.
Talorc was listed as King of both the Picts and the Scots. He was killed in a battle against the new menace in the north, the giant Norse Vikings, who averaged six feet tall (appearing seven feet tall by today's standards).. This shattering defeat and the decimation of the Pictish warrior class severely weakened the Picts. The Picts understood that now they must unite with the less numerous but more ferocious Scots who had been extensively inter-marrying with the Picts or perish.
The pendulum of control swung over to the Scots who were ruled by a Kenneth MacAlpin. With the cream of Pictic warrior/aristocracy devastated, the throne was offered to Kenneth MacAlpin, who had a claim of succession under Pictic custom through his Pictic mother.
Scoto-Irish (Dalriadic) Kings, from 503 AD
503-506 Loarn, f: Erc (reigned with Fergus)
503-506 Fergus, f: Erc
506-511 Domangert, f: Fergus
511-535 Comgal, f: Domangart
535-557 Bauran, f: Domangart
557-571 Conal I, f: Comgal
571-605 Aidan, f: Gauran
605-621 Eoacha’–Bui, f: Aidan
621-621 Kenneth-Cear, f: Eoacha
621-636 Ferchar I, f: Eogan
637-642 Domnal-Breac, f: Eoacha
642-652 Conal II, gf: Conal I
642-652 Dungal with Conal II
652-665 Domnal-Duin, f: Conal II
665-681 Maol-Duin, f: Conal II
681-702 Ferchar-Fada, gf: Ferchar I
702-705 Eoacha-Rineve, f:
705-706 Domangart Ainbhcealach, f: Ferchar-Fada
706-729 Selvach, f: Ferchar-Fada (ruled Loarn)
706-720 Duncha-Beg (ruled Cantyr & Argyll)
720-729 Eoacha III (Cantyr & Argyll)
729-733 Eoacha III (ruled Loarn)
733-736 Muredach, f: Ainbhcealach
736-739 Eogan, f: Muredach
739-769 Aodh-Fin, f: Eoacha III
769-772 Fergus, f: Aodh-Fin
772-796 Selvach II, f: Eogan
796-826 Eoacha-Annuine IV, f: Aodh-Fin
826-833 Dungal, f: Selvach II
833-836 Alpin, f: Eoacha-Annuine IV
836-859 Cináed mac Ailpin - Kenneth MacAlpin f: Alpin
The MacAlpin Dynasty
The list of 69 Pictish kings ended with Drust IX, when he was killed by Kenneth MacAlpin, the first Scot/Pict to become King of Picts and Scots, but definitely not the first King of both Picts and Scots. Before that, those who claimed a united crown were 100% Pict. In 843 Kenneth MacAlpin was crowned in Latin Rex Pictorium, wearing a plain circlet of gold in the Pictic tradition.
Many Picts could not stomach this foreign interloper, consequently, a Pictish regional king, Wroid of Fortrenn (pronounced Froid) and his three sons, Brude, Drust and Kenneth, each attempted to take the throne, but each in turn was defeated and slain by Kenneth. He died about 858 from the fatal disease of tumore ani. His body was carried to Iona, where he was buried in the Scotic tradition with the past kings of Dalriada. Kenneth's brother, Domnal succeeded him and reigned for four years.
On Domnal (Donald) MacAlpin's death, the crown was passed down to one of Cinnaed's grandsons, Causantin mac Cinnaed - Constantine MacKenneth. Causantin was slain with most of his army in a great battle in Inverdovet against the Norse Vikings. With the Scots nearly annihilated, the pendulum swung back to the Picts.
The crown was passed on to Kenneth MacAlpin's youngest son, Aodh (Hugh), who lasted but a year. He was slain in Glen Artney. The Pictish Chronicles stated quite boldly in Latin "Ed Mac Kinet uno anno. Interfectus in bello in Strathalin a Girig filio Dungal". The English translation is Hugh Mac Kenneth ruled for one year. Slain in war in Strathearn by Gregor MacDunegal.
Pictish King Grig / Girig Breaks In
Grig (or Girig) attained the Pictic/Scotic Crown in the time honoured way of the Picts (and of the Scots), with blood on his hands. Girig's father was a Pict, Dunegal of Fortrenn. His name in Latin was 'Ciricius'; in Pictic it was 'Grig', in Gaelic it was 'Grioghair MacDunegal', in English it was 'Gregor MacDungal.' Official Scottish annals recorded he was a foster son of Hugh Kenneth, but this was an obvious ploy in a selfish parochial attempt to retain Scotic continuity of the MacAlpin royal family line, and to maintain the myth that Kenneth MacAlpin crushed Pictic power.
Grig's prominence was apparent in his comparatively long reign from 878 to 889. Scotic authorities tried their best to deride him, minimize his deeds and accomplishes. Many Scottish and English historians have omitted any reference to Grig or to his reign; some through ignorance, others by design. His significant presence is a real testament that Kenneth MacAlpin, contrary to Scottish myth, did not actually destroy the Picts, he needed them to help repel the Vikings.
In a typically jaundiced viewpoint, James Browne, in his "History of the Highlands," published in 1838, stated: "The worthless Grig, who had fought against his sovereign, ascended to the throne in 882." King Grig is recorded as "the conqueror of Anglia." Of course, this does not mean England, but is the old name for Tynedale and Lothian, populated by the Teutonic Anglo-Saxons, in a region that covered an extensive area in the southeast of Scotland (including Edinburgh).
Grig is also recorded as being successful in conquests in "Hibernia" (Ireland). In all likelihood, he would have been supporting the Dalriadic Scots in Ulster, relatives of his own subjects in Dalriada (Irish history is full of many similar armed supports by Pict armies of their cousins in northern Ireland).
He also managed to obtain Anglo-Saxon (English) permission to have a free hand in Northumbria to crush the invading Danish Vikings there. These military successes signified an upsurge in Pictish military power, backed up by the fierceness of the Dalriadic Scots. Grig was known for his attempt, well before his time, to become the first ecumenical monarch in history. His position as state head (Defender of the Pictish Church, the Culdees), granted him the authority to grant equality of status to the Scotic (or Columban) Church. It is obvious he wished to gain the goodwill of his Scotic subjects and effectively unite the nation.
Jealous backstabbing by the Pictish clergy during and after a momentous solar eclipse in 885, provided the superstitious Picts and their clergy with an excuse to condemn him and have him eventually deposed and executed. So much for good intentions. Grig died at the hands of his fellow Pictish subjects, and the Scots in his domain did nothing to assist him. Although he arbitrarily gave them equality before the law with his majority Pictic subjects, Scots wished to see him deposed and replaced with a Scot King, who they considered would treat them so. Contrary to Scottish myth, it was Grig (a Pict) not Alpin who created equality for the Scots, which eventually led to the submersion of the Pict language.
Grig's Legacy: His remains were allowed to be buried in Iona with the other Scotic rulers of Dalriada. All trace of his body and burial chamber have since been obliterated, although a church and a surrounding parish were named "Ecclesia Cirig", after him.
The name "Selkirk" or 'Selcraig' may have been once called 'Cil-Cirig' or Church of Girig. This is as near to canonization as Grig got. After Grig's reign, and due to his legislation, the united kingdom of Picts and Scots became much more of a reality than the United Kingdom of England and Scotland did, after 1603.
After Grig's death the name of the kingdom was changed, and the kings' titles instead of being in Latin form "Rex Pictorum," became "Ri Albain", which was unintelligible to all except the Picts.
After Gregor's death, the MacAlpin dynasty was resurrected with the appointment of Domnal macCaunsatin, a grandson of Kenneth mac Ailpin as king.
During his reign, the Vikings wasted Pictland and finally slew Domnal near Forres. Note that this title would be retained up to the death of MacBeth, the last Pictic/Scotic King. With the Norman King Robert Bruce, the title was changed to 'King of the Scots.' The Norman Stewarts retained this title until James VI became 'King James VI of Scotland and James I of England.'
Names of the Gaelic/Pictish Kings of Alba
836-859 Cinad mac Ailpin - Kenneth MacAlpin
859-863 Domnal mac Ailpin - Donald I, brother
863-881 Causantin II - Constantine, g’son of Kenneth
881-882 Aodh, (Hugh), s.of Kenneth (slain by Girig)
882-893 Girig, s.of Hugh Dunegal (Pict)
893-904 Domnal IV, s.of Caustantin (slain by Norse)
904-944 Caustantin III, s.of Aodh
944-953 Mael Coluim I - Malcolm, s.of Domnal IV
944-961 Indulf, s.of Causantin III
961-963 Duf, s.of Malcom I
963-970 Culen, s.of Indulf
970-994 Cinnaed - Kenneth III, s.of Malcom I
994-995 Causantin IV, s.of Culen
995-1003 Cinnaed IV - Kenneth IV, s.of Duf
1003-1033 Mael Coluim II, s.of Kenneth III
1033-1039 Donnad, g’son of Malcom II
1039-1056 MacBeth, s.of Finlech
1056-1057 Lulach, s.of Gruoch
1057-1096 Mael Coluim Ceann mor - Canmore, s.of Duncan
1093-1094 Domnal Ban,- Donald Bane s.of Duncan
1094-1094 Donnad II, Donald II s.of Malcom III
1094-1097 Domnal Ban (again)
The union of the two crowns, or of two separate peoples into one monarchy; gave the Scots ascendancy, which enabled them eventually to give their name to the whole of north Britain. The consolidation of Scottish and Pictic power, under the direction of one supreme leader, enabled them not only to repel invaders but eventually to expand beyond the Forth, which beforehand had been the southern frontier of the recent Pictish Kingdom.
Yet Kenneth was hard pressed to protect his people from incursions by the outhern Picts, (or Strathclyde Britons) in the south and from the more dangerous Norse Vikings to the west, north and east. Whereas the Britons were earth-bound around their stronghold at Dumbarton, the Vikings were sea-going predators and came ashore wherever they thought to be to their advantage.
A Pict Society Adopt The Clan System
The Scottish "clan" system was not in any way similar to the Norman "feudal" system. Under the clan system, every man was equal, his land was his own, no one was taxed, the chief, though often hereditary, was usually elected by an assemblage of senior men. All members of the clan were considered as family although loyalty to the central leader in times of peril (outside threats) was absolute, under pain of death. In contrast; under the feudal system, all the land belonged to the Lord(s), the residents paid a tithe annually for their 'protection' in support of the Lord's life style.
The population of a feudal territory often had no blood or family connection to their ruler, who were sometimes foreigners, granted title to lands and the people thereon by the ruler in far off Edinburgh. Under the old Pictic system, powerful families divided the country into fiefdoms as the harsh mountainous terrain with no roads, that constituted Pictavia, did not lend itself easily to the rule of a central government. The Scots in Dalriada had set up a militaristic clan system that served them well in a time when land encroachment was a way of life.
The entire countryside was rife with conflicts between competing clans who were all jostling for territory. The rule of life was to expand or die. As the Scots expanded, under the protection of the Mac Alpin dynasty, the Picts had no alternative but to form their Clans as a lifesaving manoeuvre, so they reorganized into regional family 'clans.'
These clans of heterogeneous forces were so effective that they continued to hold sway over vast areas of northern Scotland until the encroachment of the Norman knights under the sponsorship of the anglicized King David. The absolute power of Scottish Clan chiefs to determine life or death of clan members was only broken in 1746 when the British Parliament enacted laws designed to cripple the powers of the Highland chiefs.
The traditional discipline enforced on Highland soldiers was such that, when inducted into the British Army, it was not necessary to apply military discipline to them, as that of the clans was more severe. These Highland battalions quickly became the backbone of the British forces. In the interior of northern Pictavia, where Scots, Britons and Angles had not yet penetrated, many Picts were not about to give ground to foreigners of any sort.
In the inland position which they have ever held seems to have mainly tended to preserve this offshoot of the old Albionian or Alpinian race in all its primitive purity. In western Perth-shire, they were just far enough in the interior to abstain from uniting with the Irish visitants (Scots), and far enough to the north to mix little with the Germanic Anglo-Saxons of the south-eastern Lowlands. In the context of "Race" as it was used by Highlanders, it pertained to a clan or tribe universally descended from a common ancestor.
The term "clan" is a P-Celtic word. Therefore the Siol Alpin clans claim to be children of ancestral Pictish Royalty. This claim of belonging to the ancient Alpinian race also was shared between related clans Grant, Gregor, MacAlpin, MacFie, MacKinnon, MacNab, MacKinnon and MacQuarrie.
The Pictic Church Becomes A Military Instrument of Survival
According to W.F. Skene, in Celtic Scotland, the related clans, Gregor, MacNab and Mac Kinnon, originated around the territory of Glen Dochart, between Strathearn and Glen Orchy, in Central Perthshire. This region is associated with the early Irish Pict missionary, St. Fillan, whose name is still embodied in the village of that name.
Thus in the 11th century, when MacGregors were expelled from Glen Orchy by the Campbell Dragoon, under their war cry of Ardchoille, (meaning the 'high wood') they re-treated to a secret meeting place, back up into their spiritual homeland of Glendochart, The saint, like most others in those warlike times, established his church and abbey close by a great fortress, Dundurn, or the 'Fort on the Earn.'
For five centuries this picturesque and fertile mountainous region, capable of supplying all the needs of a numerous population with firing, shelter, weapons, food and drink, was under the guidance of the abthanerie of St. Fillan's successors.
The people of this extensive area supported the religious establishments, and in return, were helped both spiritually and materially by the accumulated techniques and wisdom of the abbots. In times of war, the religious orders, whose existence was bound up in the whole community, did not hesitate to take an active part. Many Pict Abbots became military leaders with their own private armies of religious jealots. The Pictish Church was in unquestioned control of the whole area, although a new situation began to develop after King Grig granted the "gift of liberty" to the Scotic Church.
The Scots were impatient to obtain some substantial results of this legislation, albeit they were excluded from the monasteries by a church law which ordained that the Abbot of these must be a Pict by birth. The Pictish abbots were aware of the pressure from their rivals, who had already been granted Vicarships in the Pictish Church.
Finghin was the Abbot of Glen Dochart in 966. He was a man of action, he packed his bags and went to Rome for an audience with the Pope. Finghin's answer to the problem of getting Pictish successors to the Abthanerie in Glen Dochart and elsewhere, (for he was titular Abbot of Iona), was quite simple. He would provide them himself, if he could get the Papal sanction to marry. This the Pope readily granted. The precedent was set for Pictic Abbots to marry and spawn their own clans.
In this way, arose the clan Finghin (MacKinnon), and MacNab (son of the abbot). There are many other clans, (MacPherson, MacAustillan, and MacVicar) that had churchmen as their founders, but the MacGregors are different. They always signed official documents in Latin as: (i.e. Donaldus Gregorii) signifying they were members of the Gregory group or clan but not descendants by blood.
There is a Gaelic tradition that Finghin was a grandson of King Grig (Gregor), however there were several notable Gregors after his death, indicating that there was no stigma attached to the name. Some of the Glen Dochart or Strathearn people were known to be directly descended from Grig-Gregor by other grandchildren.
However, in those early years, many of the Siol Alpin men were not very sure, and, the clan had, according to Pictic custom, assimilated everyone who lived in the area as full clan family members. To properly include every man, it was agreed to drop 'Mac' from the proper name of the Clan. As an example, to this day MacGregor is referred to as Clan 'Gregor', not clan
'MacGregor.' Another clan that did this was Clan Donald of the MacDonalds.
What Sort of People Became the Clan Gregor?
In regard to their general origin they are generally considered to be a branch of Rossshire Gad, that is, a branch of the native Picts of the inland parts of the north of Scotland. Dr. Beddoe, the leading British ethnologist of the 19th century and an acknowledged authority on the racial composition of Britain, Europe and beyond, did a very meticulous census of about a hundred people at random over the area of West Central Perthshire, original home of the MacGregors, measuring skulls, height, eye-hair colour, and other personal characteristics. He published his conclusions in his Races of Britain which are quite startling.
Of Perthshire he says that many of the inhabitants resembled the Caledonians of Tacitus's description, of large athletic frame, and red hair. But these were in a minority and he thinks they were also in a minority in Roman times, and that Tacitus noted them because they were outstanding amongst their peers. It should be noted here that Rob Roy MacGregor had flaming red hair and also was known for his especially long arms, which enabled him to become an outstanding swordsman.
Over the whole area, Beddoe said, the population was more homogeneous than he had found in any similar area he investigated. He considered the population had not changed their characteristics for eighteen centuries.
They had remained a tightly compacted community. He wrote that they showed a strong attachment, a love of nature and of poetry, shrewdness and wit, and a martial spirit, good physical fitness, and ability to endure hunger, thirst, cold, heat and fatigue. It was well known that Highland soldiers routinely slept on the open ground in the midst of winter with a mound of snow as a pillow, and often soaked their plaid in water so it would freeze and form an effective barrier to the chilling winds. This robustness was partly due to the old Highland tradition of bathing young boys twice a day in cold water, thereby acclimatizing them to the cold.
Clan Gregor Takes Over Lands In Dalriada.
The MacGregors originated in central Perth-shire and spread westwards into Argyll where they assimilated local Dalriadic Scots. From Glenstrae they afterwards branched out to Glen
Gyle and Roro. They were from the same stock as their neighbours, the MacNabs, and were both descended from the hereditary abbots of Glendochart, of royal race.
By the 1200s, the homeland of the Clan Gregor spread throughout the 'three Glens' of the rivers Orchy, Strae and Lochy on the opposite watershed to Strathfillan and Glendochart, straddling the border between Argyll and Perth shires. It is known from historical records the clan expanded west from Glen Dochart and were in possession of lands in Dalriada in and around Glen Orchy by 1296.
The Alban King in Edinburgh was trying to regain his throne's ancient territories in the isles of the Hebridies and along the western coast, which had fallen under the control of the Norse-Scots, who owed allegiance only to the Kings of Norway. Every spring, clan Gregor detach-ments would march off to assist in these annual campaigns of a central government. These favours were rendered resulting in more decrees of land, which were more often than not, verbal handshakes. Their expansions met stiff resistance as a Royal decree meant nothing to the previous owners.
It was left to the devices of the recipient to take decreed lands in whatever means necessary. And the MacGregors (under the name of clan MacAlpin) were ferocious enough to be good at it. They held their lands by the ancient 'decree of the sword'.
The Seeds Of Clan Destruction Are Planted
Elsewhere throughout Alba, Scots were infiltrating Pictic culture; although in the western Perthshire Highlands, a prosperous Pict clan was expanding into the ancient homeland of the Dalriadic Scots. This situation resulted in bad feeling among Scots in the area. Dalriadic Scot chiefs intermarried on occasion with Clan Gregor women. In this way the Glen Orchy Mac Gregors blossomed and produced a very ambitious chief who claimed descendency from the Scot King Fergus.
These Glen Orchy MacGregors became known as the most powerful and aggressive branch of the clan, and claimed hereditary Chiefship of the whole clan. Previously, no one family line had the prerogative of providing the chief. According to the traditional Celtic system, the most able candidate was elected from among the ruling families. The abandonment of this system would ultimately lead to the deterioration of the entire clan system in Scotland.
Now, under the Orchy line, the Scotic 'Tanic' custom of succession would be followed, where the succe-ssion would be handed down to the first born, regardless of his attributes. The clan was beginning to look more like a Norman feudal system than a broad-based family of equals.
Meanwhile, in the heart of Dalriada, a new ambitious and treacherous power threatened all in its path to ascendency, including the more powerful MacGregors. This was a branch of a Gaelic clan called MacDiarmaid recently renamed Campbell ("wry mouth" in Gaelic). The MacGregor chiefs, in their traditional veracity, referred to this Gaelic upstart clan derisively as Dairmid's race or "wry-mouths", and had no idea that it would give them nightmares for the next 500 years.
