said to have died at Rath Inveramon, and by others to have been slain at
Scone. These names, however, can all be referred to localities in the
immediate neighbourhood of Scone, and probably belonged to the defences
and possessions of that central seat of the monarchy.[456] The only
event recorded in his reign is the curious notice in the Pictish
Chronicle that in his time the Gaedhel established with their king in
Forteviot the rights and laws of the kingdom of Edus, son of
Echdach.[457] The reference is here unquestionably to that Aedfin, son
of Eachach, whose death as king of the Dalriads is recorded by the
Annals of Ulster in 778, and who appears to have been the last of the
Scots who attempted to make any stand against the rule of the Picts over
Dalriada, and by his kingdom that of the Scots of Dalriada must be
meant. Among the rights and laws now established was probably the law of
succession among the Scots, which is usually termed the law of Tanistry,
and which, in its preference of the male over the female succession, was
opposed to that of the Picts. This law, as we have seen, had to some
extent been partially introduced among the southern Picts before the
accession of Kenneth, and would therefore now be established at
Forteviot with less difficulty.
[Sidenote: A.D. 863.
Constantin mac Kenneth, king of the Picts.]
It was in accordance with this law that Donald was succeeded by
Constantin, son of Kenneth mac Alpin, who reigned sixteen years. The
Pictish Chronicle records that in his first year Maelsechnaill, king of
Ireland, died, and his death took place on Tuesday the 30th November
863,[458] which gives us the true commencement of this reign. After two
years Amlaibh with his Gentiles laid waste Pictavia, and occupied it
from the kalends of January to the feast of St. Patrick—that is, from
the first of January to the 17th of March; and in the following year,
while withdrawing with his booty, he was attacked and slain by
Constantin.[459]
The Ulster Annals record the same event when they tell us that in 866
Amlaiph and Aiusle went to Fortrenn with the Galls of Erin and Alban,
and laid waste all Cruithintuaith, of which name Pictavia is here the
Latin equivalent, and took hostages.[460] This Amlaib, or Amlaiph, was
Olaf the White, king of Dublin, who had married a daughter of Kenneth
mac Alpin; and his occupation of the country and the hostages he took
may have been in connection with some claim through his wife; but his
death did not really take place till some years after,[461] for we find
from the Ulster Annals that in the year 870 Alclyde was besieged by the
Northmen under the same Amlaiph, along with Imhair, another of their
kings, and destroyed after a four months’ siege. Another annalist tells
us that after having wasted the people who were in the citadel by hunger
and thirst, and succeeded in drawing off the water from the well that
was in it, the Northmen entered upon them and first carried off all the
riches that were within it, and afterwards a great host of prisoners
were brought into captivity.[462] On this occasion they appear to have
also attacked both the Picts of Galloway and the Angles of Bernicia, for
in the following year we are told that Amlaiph and Imhair returned to
Dublin from Alban with two hundred ships, and a great booty of men,
Angles, Britons, and Picts, was brought with them to Ireland in
captivity.[463] After this we hear no more of Amlaiph or Olaf the White
of Dublin. In 872 the Ulster Annals tell us that Artgha, king of the
Britons of Strathclyde, was slain by the advice of Constantin.[464] This
was Arthgal, a lineal descendant of Dunnagual, whose death was recorded
in 760, and the father of that Run who married the daughter of Kenneth
mac Alpin.[465] We thus see that after the death of the last of this
line, who is called king of Alclyde, in 750, and the subjection of his
kingdom to the Angles, it now again reappears as an independent kingdom
with the new designation of that of the Britons of Strathclyde. It was
probably in connection with this event that St. Berchan, in referring to
the battles fought by Constantin, says—
The hazard through which three battles are gained
Against the Gentiles of pure colour (the Fingall).
The fourth battle, the battle of Luaire,
Against the king of the Britons of green standard.[466]
Luaire is probably Carlowrie in West Lothian.
Simeon of Durham tells us that in 875 the host of the Danes who had
ravaged the east coast of Britain divided itself into two bands, one of
which under Halfdan marching into the region of the Northumbrians laid
it waste, and wintering near the river Tyne brought the whole country
under their dominion, and destroyed the Picts and the people of
Strathclyde. These were probably the Picts of Galloway, and in reference
to this the Ulster Annals tell us of a conflict between the Picts and
the Dubhgalls in 875, in which a great slaughter of the Picts was
made.[467] The people here called of Strathclyde are in the Saxon
Chronicle, in recording the same event, termed Stræcled Wealas, and this
name is rendered by Ethelwerd into the Latin Cumbri, which is the first
appearance of the term of Cumbri or Cumbrians as applied to the Britons
of Strathclyde.[468] In the meantime Olaf the White, the Norwegian king
of Dublin, had left a son by his wife Audur the Wealthy, daughter of
Ketill Flatnose or Caittil Fin, who was called Thorstein the Red, and he
appears on his father’s death to have commenced making piratical
expeditions, infesting Scotland far and wide, and usually obtaining
victory. His attacks were directed against the northern provinces, and
he is said in the Islands Landnamabok to have conquered ‘Katanes and
Sudrland,’ or Caithness and Sutherland, Ross and Moray, and more than
half of Scotland, and to have reigned over these districts until he was
betrayed by the Scotch and slain in battle. In the Laxdaela Saga, on the
other hand, he is said to have at length become reconciled with the king
of the Scots, and obtained possession of the half of Scotland, over
which he became king.[469] It is hardly to be supposed that Constantin
could have had any real authority over these northern regions, or that
the power of the kings of Kenneth mac Alpin’s race could have at this
time extended beyond the provinces of the southern Picts. He therefore
probably merely permitted what he could not prevent, and indeed may have
viewed a Norwegian conquest of the provinces of the northern Picts as
favourable to his cause as the Danish defeat of the men of Fortrenn had
been to that of his father. Thorstein’s kingdom, however, lasted only
one year. The Pictish Chronicle refers to it when it says that the
Northmen passed an entire year in Pictavia, and the Ulster Annals record
in 875 that Ostin or Thorstein, son of Amlaiph, king of the Northmen,
was treacherously slain by the people of Alban.[470]
Constantin, however, was doomed himself to fall in the following year
under an unexpected onslaught by the Danes. Ever since the Danes, or
Dubhgall, first came to Ireland there had been a contest between them
and the Norwegians or Fingall for superiority, and in 877 a battle took
place between them in which the Norwegians had the victory. The Danes,
being for the time driven out of Ireland, went to Alban or Scotland.
They appear to have entered the Firth of Clyde, and, penetrating through
the country watered by the Teith and Forth, attacked the province of
Fife. A battle took place between them and the Scots at Dollar, which
must have been unfavourable to the latter, as the Danes are said to have
driven and slaughtered them through Fife, as far as the north-east
corner, where, at a place called Inverdufatha, now Inverdovet, in the
parish of Forgan, they gained a battle over the men of Alban. Constantin
was slain and a great multitude with him. The earth is said on this
occasion to have burst open under the men of Alban.[471]
This is the first appearance in the Pictish Chronicle of the term
‘Scotti’ or Scots being applied to any portion of the inhabitants of
Pictavia, and it seems to have been used with reference to those of the
province of Fife in particular, but the Ulster Annals record the death
of Constantin as king of the Picts.[472]
[Sidenote: A.D. 877-878.
Aedh, son of Kenneth, king of the Picts.]
He was succeeded by his brother Aedh, who reigned only one year. The
Pictish Chronicle says of him that the shortness of his reign left
nothing memorable to record, but that he was slain in the town of
Nrurim. St. Berchan says of him—
He dies without bell, without communion,
In the evening in a dangerous pass.
And the Ulster Annals record in 878 that Aedh, son of Cinador, king of
the Picts, was slain by his own people.[473]
With Aedh died the last of Kenneth’s sons, and thus far the succession
of the kings of his race had not only followed the law of Tanistry, but
did not vary from that modification of the Pictish law which had been
already sanctioned among the southern Picts, and had admitted the sons
of previous kings in a similar order to fill the Pictish throne; but now
the two modes of royal succession were again in conflict. By the law of
Tanistry the succession opened to Donald, son of Constantin and grandson
of Kenneth; by the Pictish law, when strictly observed, to Eocha, son of
Run, king of the Britons of Strathclyde, whose mother was Constantin’s
sister. Both of these claimants to the throne appear to have been under
age, and there had not yet been an instance of a lineal male descendant
in the third generation being permitted to succeed to the Pictish
throne. The great defeat and slaughter which befell the Scots under
Constantin had probably, for the time, weakened the Scottish interest,
while the heir, according to their law, had the additional
disqualification of being too young to reign.
[Sidenote: A.D. 878-889.
Girig mac Dungaile and Eochodius, son of Run.]
The Pictish party prevailed, and Eocha, the Briton, was placed on the
throne, but as he appears also to have been too young to reign alone,
another king was associated with him as his governor.[474] The Pictish
Chronicle calls him ‘Ciricius,’ but leaves a blank for his father’s
name; but in the Irish version he is called Giric, son of Dungaile; and
by Flann Mainistrech, Girg, son of Dungaile. In the Latin lists it is
corrupted to Grig, but in the Chronicle of St. Andrews it appears as
Carus. By the Albanic Duan he is omitted altogether, and the Ulster
Annals do not mention him, which leads to the suspicion that he was an
intruder in the Scottish line, and was not of that race. His name is
evidently the British name Curig, and under this form St. Ciricus, a
martyr of Tarsus, was introduced into the British calendar, and has
several churches in Wales dedicated to him. It was no doubt from Girig,
son of Dungaile, being named after him that the eclipse on his day in
the calendar is recorded as taking place during this reign. As governor
to Eocha, and as bearing a British name, the presumption is that he was
also a Briton, and the name of Dungaile, borne by his father, was the
same name as that of Dunnagual, who appears in the Welsh Genealogies
annexed to Nennius as the father of Arthgal and grandfather of Run;
Girig was therefore in all probability Eocha’s paternal granduncle.[475]
The Pictish Chronicle places the death of Aed, son of Neil, king of
Ireland, in his second year, and Aed died on 8th November 879, and we
are told that in his ninth year an eclipse of the sun took place on St.
Ciricus’s day. His day in the calendar is the 16th of June, and an
eclipse of the sun actually took place on that day in the year 885.
These notices give us sufficiently the true chronology of his reign, but
the Pictish Chronicle records none of the events of it, and simply says
that after a reign of eleven years Eochodius with his tutor is now
expelled from the kingdom.[476] The later chronicles supply this defect
so far as to give us in general terms two events of his reign. The first
is that he brought under subjection to himself the whole of Bernicia and
part of Anglia;[477] and there may possibly be some foundation for the
statement, to a partial extent at least, when we consider the position
in which the kingdom of Northumbria was placed during his reign, and the
changes which apparently followed it.
During the reign of Eadberht, in the middle of the eighth century, the
kingdom of Northumbria had apparently attained to a position of as great
power as that to which it had been raised in the previous century by
Ecgfrid. The two provinces of Deira and Bernicia were united under his
rule; the territories of the Britons south of the Solway Firth and the
province of Galloway on the north were parts of his kingdom; he had
himself added to it Kyle and the adjacent districts, and in conjunction
with Aengus, the equally powerful king of the Picts, had enforced the
submission of the Britons of Alclyde, when after a reign of twenty-one
years he, in the year 758, abdicated his throne in favour of his son
Oswulf, and took the tonsure. His son was in the following year
treacherously slain by his own people, and with him ended the direct
descendants of Ida. The kingdom seems then to have fallen into a state
of disorganisation, and has thus been well described:—‘One ealdorman
after another seized on the government, and held it till his expelled
predecessors returned with a superior force, or popular favour and
successful treason had raised up a new competitor.’ And thus it
continued till the end of the century, when the arrival of the Northmen
added an additional element of confusion. In 867 the monarchy completely
broke down. In the previous year a large fleet of Danish pirates, under
the command of Halfdan, Inguar, and Hubba, the sons of Ragnar Lodbrog,
had arrived on the coast of England, and had wintered in East Anglia,
and this year they invaded Northumbria, and took possession of the city
of York. The Northumbrians had just expelled their king Osbryht, and
placed Alla on the throne, but the former was now recalled, and the two
kings, uniting their forces, attempted to wrest the city of York from
the Danes, and were both slain. The Danes then took possession of the
whole of Northumbria as far as the river Tyne, and placed Ecgbert as
king over the Northumbrians north of the Tyne. After a reign of six
years Ecgbert died, and was succeeded by Ricsig. It was in his time
that, 875, Halfdan, with his Danes, again entered Northumbria, and
brought the whole country under his dominion. In the following year
Ricsig died, and Halfdan is said by Simeon of Durham to have placed a
second Egbert over the Northumbrians beyond the Tyne. He is said to have
reigned only two years. But notwithstanding, in 883, or seven years
after, when Halfdan dies, we are told by Simeon that by the advice of
the abbot Eadred, Guthred, son of Hardicnut, was made king, and reigned
at York; but Ecgbert ruled over the Northumbrians. There is no mention
of this second Ecgbert either in his History of the Church of Durham or
of the Archbishops of York, and he appears, with his inconsistent dates,
to be a mere reproduction of the Ecgbert who was placed over the
Northumbrians north of the Tyne in 867, introduced to fill up a period
when the historian did not know or did not care to tell who really ruled
over Bernicia at that time.
This is, however, the period of Girig’s reign, and he may, like his
predecessor Kenneth, have overrun Lothian and obtained possession of
Bamborough, the chief seat of the Bernician kings, which lies at no
great distance from the south bank of the Tweed; and Simeon himself
indicates this when he tells us in his History of the Church of Durham
that during the reign of Guthred ‘the nation of the Scots had collected
a numerous army, and among other deeds of cruelty had invaded and
plundered the monastery of Lindisfarne.’[478] His object too may have
been to free the Britons, his own countrymen, from the Anglic yoke, and
certainly, if he conquered Bernicia, and perhaps that part of Anglia
which consisted of the British possessions extending from the Solway to
the Derwent, their reunion with the kingdom of the Strathclyde Britons,
as well as the freedom of Galloway from Anglic supremacy, would be the
natural result. The second event attributed to him is that he first
liberated the Scottish Church, which till that time had been in
servitude according to the custom and usage of the Picts, and this has
probably more foundation in fact. That Girig found it necessary to win
over the Scottish clergy to his cause, or at least not to oppose him, is
probable enough, and he seems to have freed the Church from those
secular exactions and services to which the clergy of most churches were
at this time subjected. The Anglic Church had not long before been freed
from similar services by King Ethelwulf, and the later Pictish Church
was closely connected with that of Northumbria.[479] A curious memorial
of Girig, and of his relation to the Scottish Church, remains in the
church in the Mearns which bears the name of Eglisgirg, or Greg’s
church, and was dedicated to St. Ciricus, from whom it came to be called
St. Cyrus.[480]
The gratitude of the Scottish Church for the boon they had obtained from
Girig seems to have shown itself in this, that in the artificial history
to which the interests of an ecclesiastical controversy had so large a
share in giving birth, the usurper of foreign race, who had for a time
intruded upon the line of Scottish kings descended from Kenneth mac
Alpin, and been after a few years driven out, fills a prominent
position, as Gregory the Great, solemnly crowned at Scone, and one of
the most powerful of the early Scottish kings.
-----
Footnote 369:
At vero provinciæ Nordanhymbrorum, cui rex Ceoluulf præest, quatuor
nunc episcopi præsulatum tenent; Wilfrid in Eboracensi ecclesia,
Ediluald in Lindisfaronensi, Acca in Hagustaldensi, Pecthelm in ea quæ
Candida Casa vocatur, quæ nuper multiplicatis fidelium plebibus in
sedem pontificatus addita, ipsum primum habet antistitem. Pictorum
quoque natio tempore hoc et fœdus pacis cum gente habet Anglorum et
catholicæ pacis ac veritatis cum universali ecclesia particeps
existere gaudet. Scotti qui Brittaniam incolunt suis contenti finibus
nil contra gentem Anglorum insidiarum moliuntur aut fraudium.
Brettones, quamvis et maxima ex parte domestico sibi odio gentem
Anglorum, et totius Catholicæ ecclesiæ statum pascha minus recte
moribusque improbis impugnent; tamen et divina sibi et humana prorsus
resistente virtute, in neutro cupitum possunt obtinere propositum:
quippe qui quamvis ex parte sui sint juris, nonnulla tamen ex parte
Anglorum sunt servitio mancipati.—Bede, B. v. c. xxiv.
Footnote 370:
_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 421.
Footnote 371:
Martyrology of Donegal at 16th March.
Footnote 372:
Bede, _Hist. Ec._ B. v. c. xxi.
Footnote 373:
In a charter by Malcolm IV. to the canons of Scone, it is said to be
‘in principali sede regni fundata’ (_Scone Chart._ No. 5); and in
narrating the foundation of the monastery by Alexander I., Fordun
says, in his earliest compilation, ‘Fundata enim est, ædificata et
dedicata, ut dictum est, apud Sconam, ubi antiqui reges, Cruthne primo
Pictorum rege, sedem regni Albaniæ constituerant,’ which he afterwards
alters to ‘quam fundatum ædificavit loco, quo reges antiquitus tam
Scoti quam Picti sedem regni primam constituerunt.’—Fordun, _Chron._,
ed. 1871, pp. 430, 227. This shows the tradition that it was at an
early period the principal seat of the kingdom. The Pictish Chronicle
records a meeting at Scone between Constantine, king of Scotland, and
the bishop of St. Andrews, in which the laws of the Church were
regulated, and adds, ‘ab hoc die collis hoc meruit nomen, id est,
Collis Credulitatis.’—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 9. The word
‘meruit’ does not imply that it was then first named, and it appears,
as we shall see, in 728, under the name of Caislen Credi or Castellum
Credi, that is, the Castle of Belief. At Scone, too, William the Lion
decreed in council with his magnates that the Church should be
maintained in its laws, rights, and privileges.—_Act. Parl. Scot._
vol. i. p. 60.
Footnote 374:
See _Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 136. Tighernac has at 713, ‘Cinaedh
mac Derili et filius Mathgernan jugulati sunt. Tolarg mac Drostan
ligatus apud fratrem suum Nechtan regem.’ As Nechtan was son of
Derili, he could not have been brother of Tolarg, son of Drostan, and
the expression ‘fratrem suum’ must refer to Cinaedh, who was also son
of Derili, and was probably slain by Tolarg. Again, in 734 the Ulster
Annals have, ‘Talorggan filius Drostan comprehensus alligatus juxta
aciem Ollaigh;’ and in 739 Tighernac has ‘Tolarcan mac Drostan rex
Athfhotla a bathadh la h’Aengus’ (drowned by Angus). The process of
change in the name is first Athfhotla—then Atheodle—then Atholl.
Footnote 375:
Qui lapis in eodem monasterio reverenter ob regum Albaniæ
consecrationem servatur. Nec uspiam aliquis regum in Scocia regnare
solebat, nisi super eundem lapidem regium in accipiendum nomen prius
sederet in Scona, sede vero superiori, videlicet, Albaniæ constituta
regibus ab antiquis.—Fordun, _Chron._ ed. 1871, vol. i. p. 294.
Footnote 376:
See the author’s Tract on the Coronation Stone in the _Proceedings of
the Society of Antiquaries_, vol. viii. p. 68, and separately
published by Messrs. Edmonston and Douglas, 1869, for an analysis of
these legends.
Footnote 377:
In the sixth and seventh lives of Saint Patrick we are told that he
brought with him from Rome a stone altar (altare lapideum), which had
been consecrated by the Pope, and that when crossing to Ireland a
leper wished to be taken on board, but being refused admission by the
sailors, Saint Patrick threw the stone altar into the sea, and desired
the leper to sit upon it, which he did, and it floated with him to
Ireland (here called ‘tabula lapidea’).—Colgan, _Tr. Th._ 71, 123. It
is again mentioned as following him through the air, and as having
been left at Domhnach Patraicc, where it was the subject of special
veneration. In the Tripartite Life it is called his ‘Lec’ or stone. In
the lives of St. Bridget it is said that when a girl she made a stone
altar (altare lapideum), and an angel came and perforated it at the
four corners and placed it upon four wooden legs.—Colgan, _Tr. Th._ p.
538.
In the sixth life of Saint Patrick we are told that he came to Cashel,
and at his preaching the king of Munster believed and was baptized;
and then follows this sentence: ‘Remansit in loco illo tabula lapidea,
super quam Sanctus fortasse celebraverat divina sacramenta; vocatur
autem ab Hibernicis Leac Phadruig, id est, lapis Patricii: super quam
ob reverentiam illius solent reges Casselenses in principatum
promoveri, et in regni solium sublimari.’—Colgan, _Tr. Th._ 82.
It was customary among the Celtic as well as other races that their
kings and chiefs should be inaugurated standing upon a rock or large
natural stone, but the coronation stone was a movable slab kept in the
church, and the use of it formed part of the religious ceremony, the
king sitting upon it while he is being consecrated, and the coronation
of the Cashel kings appears to be the only strictly analogous case.
Footnote 378:
717 Expulsio familiæ Iæ trans dorsum Britanniæ a Nectono rege.—_Tigh._
Footnote 379:
724 Clericatum (N)echtain regis Pictorum, Druxst post eum
regnat.—_Tigh._
Footnote 380:
719 Cath Finglinne itir da meic Fearchar Fata (between the two sons of
Fearchar Fata), in quo Ainbhceallach jugulatus est die quinti ferie
Id. Septembris.—_Tigh._
Footnote 381:
719 Cath maritimum Arddeanesbi etir Dunchadh mac Becc cum genere
Gabrain et Selbach cum genere Loarn et versum est super Selbacum ii.
Non. Octobris die iii. ferie, in quo quidem comites corruerunt. 721
Duncadh (mac) Becc Ri Cindtire mortuus est.—_Tigh._ See note ^{385} as
to the meaning of ‘comites’ here. Duncadh was the son of Becc,
grandson of Duncadh, son of Conaing, son of Aidan, by his son Conall
Chail, whose death in 681 is thus recorded by Tighernac:—Bass Conaill
Chail mac Dunchadh in Cindtire.
Footnote 382:
722 Beli filius Elfin moritur.—_An. Cam._ Bili mac Elphine rex
Alochluaithe moritur.—_Tigh._
723 Clericatus Selbaigh regis Dalriada.—_Tigh._
Footnote 383:
725 Simal filius Druist constringitur.—_Tigh._
726 Nechtain mac Derili constringitur apud Druist regem. Dungal de
regno ejectus est et Druist de regno Pictorum ejectus et Elphin pro eo
regnat. Eochach mac Eachach regnare incipit.—_Tigh._
Footnote 384:
Flann Mainistrech has ‘nine kings over Albain from the death of
Donald, son of Aed, to the death of Aeda Allan, son of Fergal, king of
Ireland, that is from 642 to 743,’ the last two of whom are Selbach
mac Ferchair and Eochaidh Angbaidh, or the valiant; and from the death
of Aeda Allan to the death of Aeda Finnleith, that is, from 743 to
879, he has ‘thirteen kings over Alban,’ the first two of whom are
Dungal mac Selbach and Alpin mac Eachach. This leaves no room for
doubt as to the period when these four kings reigned, and agrees
exactly with the Irish Annals. The Albanic Duan omits the stanza
following Ainbhcellach, and containing Selbach and Eochach, and then
has ‘Dungal dein seven years, Alpin four years.’ Dungal had reigned
both before and after Eochaidh, as we shall see; and as Eochach is
also called son of Eochach by Tighernac, this leaves no doubt that he
and Alpin were brothers.
Footnote 385:
727 Congressio Irroisfoichne, ubi quidam ceciderunt _den dibh
Airgiallaibh_ inter Selbacum et familiam Echdach nepotis
Domhnaill.—_An. Ult._ This term ‘Airgialla’ is the same word as that
applied to the territory said to have been acquired from the Picts in
Ulster by the three Collas in the fourth century, of which Emhan or
Emania was the capital. It was called Oirgialla or Airgialla, from
which comes the modern name of Oriel; but this Airgialla cannot here
be meant, for in the tract on the Men of Alban we are told that ‘the
armed muster of the Cinel Loarn was 700 men; but it is of the
Airgialla that the seventh hundred is’ (_acht is dinaibh Airgiall in
Sechtmadh cet._—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 313). This name was
therefore likewise applied to two districts whose people were subject
to the Cinel Loarn, and contributed 100 men to their armed muster, and
were probably the ‘Comites’ who fought along with Sealbach in 719.
This leads us to look to the origin of the name. ‘Gialla’ is a
hostage, and the tribes who owed fealty to the head of a superior
tribe gave hostages for the fulfilment of their obligation. When any
failure took place in their duty, these hostages were fettered. Thus,
at the king’s table, as described in the Crith Gablach, sat on one
side the hostages, and at the extreme end the forfeited hostages or
pledges in fetters (see Introduction to O’Curry’s _Lectures_, p.
cccli); and in the Pictish legends Finach takes hostages (Gialla) of
the Cruithnigh, and Fiachna mac Baedan fetters the hostages of Erin
and Alban.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, pp. 24, 320. Now we learn from
the Book of Rights that it was a privilege of the kingdom of Airgialla
that ‘their hostages were not bound in fetters nor in chains, save
that they swear by the hand of the king that they will not then make
their escape’ (see _Book of Rights_, p. 135); and a tract on
Oirghialla states that whenever the hostage of the Oirghialla was
fettered, golden chains were used for the purpose, and that it was
hence they were called Oirghialla, _i.e._ of the golden hostages. The
Airgialla of Dalriada were therefore districts which owed fealty to
the Cinel Loarn, but possessed the same privileges which gave that
name to the Irish Airgialla; and the central districts between the
territories of the Cinel Loarn, Cinel Gabbran, and Cinel Comgall,
situated on both sides of Loch Awe, and occupied by the remains of the
older population, were probably the districts known by the name of the
two Airgiallas.
Footnote 386:
733 Eochach mac Eochach ri Dalriada et Conall mac Concobair mortui
sunt.—_Tigh._
Footnote 387:
728 Cath Monaigh Craebi itir Piccardachaib fein (between the Picts
themselves) _i.e._ Aengus et Alpine issiat tuc in cath (fought that
battle), et ro mebaigh ria (the victory was with) n Aengus et ro
marbhadh mac Alpin andsin (and the son of Alpin was slain there) et ro
gab Aengus nert (and Angus took his person). Cath truadh itir (an
unfortunate battle between the) Piccardachaebh ac Caislen Credhi et ro
mebaigh ar in (and the victory was against the same), Alpin et ro
bearadh a cricha et a daine de uile (and his territories and all his
men were taken), et ro gab Nechtan mac Derili Righi na Picardach (lost
the kingdom of the Picts).—_Tigh._ The Ulster Annals add,—‘ubi Alpinus
effugit.’
Footnote 388:
729 Bellum Monitcarno juxta stagnum Loogdae inter hostem Nechtain et
exercitum Aengusa et exactatores Nechtain ceciderunt, id est, Biceot
mac Moneit et filius ejus et Finguine mac Drostain, Ferot mac Finguine
et alii multi. Familia Aengusia triumphavit.—_An. Ult._ The Stagnum
Loogdeae is mentioned in Adamnan’s _Life of St. Columba_, and what is
there stated, taken in connection with this battle, seems to place it
on the Spey. See Reeves’s _Adamnan_, ed. 1874, pp. 258, 357. Exactor
was a term applied to the Saxon thane.
Footnote 389:
Cath Dromaderg Blathmig etir Piccardachaibh, _i.e._ Druist et Aengus
Ri na Piccandach et ro marbhadh (was slain) Drust andsin in dara la
deg do mi Aughuist (there on the twelfth day of the month of
August).—_Tigh._ Dromaderg Blathmig means ‘the red ridge of Blathmig.’
Footnote 390:
Cath etir mac Aengusa et mac Congusa sunt Brudheus vicit Talorcum
fugientem.—_Tigh._ 732 Nechtan mac Derili mortuus.—_Tigh._
Footnote 391:
733 Dungal mac Selbaich dehonoravit Toraic cum traxit Brudeum ex ea et
eadem vice insulam Culrenrigi invasit.—_An. Ult._ The corresponding
entry in Tighernac is corrupt.
Muredhach mac Ainbhcellach regnum generis Loarn assumit.—_Tigh._
Flaithbertach classem Dalriada in Iberniam duxit et cædes magna facta
est de eis in insula Honie ubi hi trucidantur viri Concobar mac
Lochene, et Branchu mac Brain et multi in flumine dimersi sunt de eis
in Banna.—_Tigh._
734 Tolarg mac Congusa a brathair fein dia gabhail et tuc illaimh na
Piccardach et ro baighed leoseden h. e. (taken by his own brother and
delivered into the hands of the Picts, and he was drowned by
them).—_Tigh._
Talorgan filius Drostain comprehensus alligatur juxta arcem Ollaigh.
Dunleithfinn destruitur post vulnerationem Dungaile et in Hiberniam a
potestate Aengusii fugatus est.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 392:
736 Aengus mac Fergusa rex Pictorum vastavit regiones Dailriata et
obtinuit Dunad et combussit Creic et duos filios Selbaiche catenis
alligavit, id est, Dongal et Feradach, et paulo post Brudeus mac
Aengusa mic Fergusa obiit.—_Tigh._
Footnote 393:
736 Bellum Cnuicc Coirpri i Calathros uc etar Linndu inter Dalriatai
et Fortrenn et Talorgan mac Ferguso filium Ainbhceallach fugientem cum
exercitu persequitur in qua congressione multi nobiles
ceciderunt.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 394:
740 Eratque rex eorum Eadberctus occupatus cum suo exercitu contra
Pictos.—Bede, _Chron._
Footnote 395:
741 Bellum Droma Cathmail inter Cruithniu et Dalriati for
Innrechtac.—_An. Ult._ The only notice the author has been able to
find of a place called Cathmail is in a poem attributed to Saint
Columba in honour of Saint Cormac ua Liathan, mentioned in Adamnan’s
Life, when he came to Iona. One stanza is this:—
When the blooming sweet man had arrived
At Cross Cormac, at his church,
Then rang the soft-toned bell
Here at the city of Cathmail.
(See Reeves’s _Adamnan_, orig. edit., p. 270.) The translation has
been made a little more literal, and the only church which bears
Cormac’s name in Scotland is Kirk Cormac, in the parish of Kelton in
Galloway, some miles north of Kirkcudbright. The writer of the
Statistical Account says that ‘its surface abounds with small hills of
a conical figure called _Drums_;’ and ‘on the north-east is the green
hill of Dungayle, whose summit was once crowned with a strong fort.’
Dungayle is probably a corruption from _Dun G-cathmhail_, the
aspirated consonants being quiescent.—_N. S. A._ vol. iv. pp. 144-5.
Footnote 396:
Cesty fust tue en Goloway, com il le avoit destruyt, de un soul hom qi
ly gayta en un espesse boys en pendaunt al entree dun ge de un ryvere,
com chevaucheoit entre ses gentz.—_Scalachron._
Footnote 397:
Chalmers identifies Laight Alpin with an old ruin in Loch Doon called
Laight Castle, founding on a charter by William the Lion to the town
of Ayr, which implies that Laight Alpin was on the border between
Ayrshire and Galloway; but the name really belongs to the farms of
Meikle and Little Laight on the eastern shore of Loch Ryan, and the
stone is on the very line of separation between the counties of Ayr
and Wigtown.
Footnote 398:
741 Percussio Dalriatai la Aengus mac Ferguso.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 399:
See the introduction to Fordun’s Chronicle, vol. ii., for a full
exposition of the manipulation of the Chronicles at this time. The
three kings given in the Ulster Annals are—A.D. 778 Aedfinn mac Ecdach
rex Dalriati mortuus est. 781 Fergus mac Echach ri Dalriati defunctus
est. 792 Donncorci rex Dalriatai obiit. The form ‘rex Dalriati’ and
‘Dalriatai’ means rather king of the Dalriads than of Dalriada. The
Annals of Ulster have in 700 ‘Fiannain nepos Duncho rex Dalriati,’ who
was evidently of the Irish Dalriada; and the Annals of the Four
Masters, which have the same four, call the first ‘Toisech’ and the
other three ‘Tighearn Dalriada,’ or Lords of Dalriada; and, as these
annals contain Irish events only, the compilers evidently considered
them all as belonging to Irish Dalriada. Flann Mainistrech and the
Albanic Duan have an Aed among their kings, whose time corresponds
with the first of these kings.
Footnote 400:
Pinkerton, who was the first to see the difference between the
statement in the Albanic Duan and the latter Chronicle, and to give
the preference to the former, quotes from the Annals of Ulster the
following:—A.D. 740, Death of Dunlaing, son of Duncan, king of the
sept of Argyle (Argal); and A.D. 811, Angus, son of Dunlaing, king of
Argyle (Ardgail), died; and argues from them that these were the
remains of the Dalriads who continued to possess part of the country
of Argyll (vol. ii. p. 127). He quoted, however, from a bad copy of
the Annals of Ulster. In the original the word is Ardgail, a district
in Meath, in Ireland, and has no connection with the name Argyll. See
also the introduction to Fordun’s Chronicle, ed. 1872, vol. ii. p.
xlvi note.
Footnote 401:
744 Factum est prælium inter Pictos et Britones.—Sim. Dun. _Hist.
Regum_. 750 Eadberctus campum Cyil cum aliis regionibus suo regno
addidit.—Bede, _Chron._
Footnote 402:
750 Cath etir Pictones et Britones, id est a Talorgan mac Fergusa et a
brathair et ar Piccardach imaille friss (and his brother and a
slaughter of Picts with him).—_Tigh._ 750 Bellum inter Pictos et
Brittones id est, Gueith Mocetauc et rex eorum Talorgan a Brittonibus
occiditur.—_An. Cam._ It is plain that these were the same Picts whom
Muredach the Dalriad attacked in 736, as Talorgan appears at their
head on both occasions.
Footnote 403:
752 Taudar mac Bile Ri Alochlandaih (Alochluaithe) mortuus est. Cuth a
sreith in terra Circin inter Pictones invicem in quo cecidit Bruidhi
mac Maelchon.—_Tigh._ Circin was the name of one of the seven sons of
Cruithne, and of the seven districts which bore the same names. It
enters into Magh Girgin as the plain of Circin, softened to Moerne or
Mearns.
Footnote 404:
756 Eadberht rex, xviii. anno regni sui, et Unust rex Pictorum
duxerunt exercitum ad urbem Alcluth. Ibique Brittones in deditionem
receperunt prima die mensis Augusti. Decima autem die ejusdem mensis
interiit exercitus pene omnis quem duxit (Eadberhtus) de Ouania ad
Niwanbirig, id est, ad novam civitatem.—_Sim. Dun._
Footnote 405:
760 Dunnagual filius Teudubr moritur.—_An. Cam._
Footnote 406:
761 Aengusa mac Fergusa rex Pictorum mortuus.—_Tigh._ Oengus Pictorum
rex obiit, qui regni sui principium usque ad finem facinore cruento
tyrannus perduxit carnifex.—Bede, _Chron._ There seems to have been
some doubt as to the year of his death, as Simeon of Durham has at
759, ‘Ipso quoque anno Unust Pictorum rex defunctus est;’ and
Tighernac enters his death twice, having also at 759, Aengus ri Albain
mortuus; but 761 seems to be best supported.
Footnote 407:
_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 138.
Footnote 408:
_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 183.
Footnote 409:
Mors Tuathalain Abbas Cindrighmonaigh.—_Tigh._ The events of the reign
of this Hungus, including the foundation of St. Andrews, are, by the
artificial system by which this part of the history has been
manipulated, removed back to the fourth century; but as a war with a
Saxon king at that early period was too monstrous, that part of the
legend is transferred to a later Hungus. A chronicle, however, annexed
to a MS. of Wynton, gives us very nearly the true date. ‘The zeire of
God sevyn hunder lxi., ye relikis of Sanct Androw ye apostle com in
Scotland’ (_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 387). Adhelstan, with whom the
battle was fought, is supposed to have given his name to
Athelstaneford on the Tyne in East Lothian. If the name is historical,
and not merely taken from the later Athelstane who invaded Scotland in
the tenth century, it must have belonged to a ‘dux’ or commander under
the king of Northumbria, and the name of Aedlsing occurs in the
genealogies of the Bernician family annexed to Nennius about this
time, who may be the person meant.
Footnote 410:
763 Bruidhi Ri Fortchernn (Fortren, _An. Ult._) mortuus est.—_Tigh._
Footnote 411:
Cujus tertio anno inchoante, gravissimum juxta Eldunum secus Melros
gestum est bellum octavo idus Augusti, in quo cecidit Oswine post
triduum, prima feria. The place meant is the Eildon Hill near Melrose.
The Saxon Chronicle calls the place Edwine’s Cliffe.
Footnote 412:
768 Bellum i Fortrinn ittir Aedh et Cinaedh.—_An. Ult._ The Annals of
the Four Masters record this as a battle between Aedh and Cinaedh, son
of Flann, Leinster men, where Aedh was slain, but there was no place
called Fortrenn in Leinster. It is probably a mere speculative
identity by the compilers.
Footnote 413:
The word used by Flann, ‘Airgnech’ in one MS. and ‘Airectech’ in
another, both formed from the verb Airce, to plunder or rob. The Duan
has ‘Aodh na Ardfhlaith.’
Footnote 414:
784 Adventus reliquiarum filiorum Eirc ad civitatem Tailten.—_An.
Ult._ ‘The chiefs of Ulster before Conchobar were buried at Tailte,
namely, Ollamh Fotla and seven of his sons and grandsons and others of
the chiefs of Ulster.’—_Tract on Cemeteries in Lebor na Huidri_, p.
38.
Footnote 415:
Sim. Dun. 775 Rex Pictorum Cynoth ex voragine hujus cœnulentæ vitæ
eripitur.
775 Mors Cinadhon regis Pictorum.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 416:
Elpin rex Saxonum moritur.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 417:
782 Dubhtolargg rex Pictorum citra Monoth periit.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 418:
789 Bellum inter Pictos ubi Conall mac Taidg victus est et evasit et
Constantin victor fuit. 790 Vel hic bellum Conall et Constantin
secundum alios libros.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 419:
807 Jugulatio Conall mac Taidg o Conall mac Aedain i Ciunntire.—_An.
Ult._
Footnote 420:
Sim. Dun. _Hist. Regum_, ad an. 793.
Footnote 421:
Sim. Dun. _Hist. Reg._, ad an. 794.
Footnote 422:
794 Vastatio omnium insolarum Britanniæ a gentibus.—_An. Ult._ Orcain
(plunder of) Iæ Coluimchille.—_An. Inis._
798 Indreda mara doaibh eene etir (spoils of the sea taken by them
between) Erinn agus Albain.—_An. Ult._
802 Hi Coluimbea cille a gentibus combusta est.—_An. Ult._
806 Familia Iæ occisa est a gentibus, .i. lx. octo.—_An. Ult._
Ochtar is da fithchid dona Mannachaibh an Aoi Choluimchille do
mharbbadh do Lochlannaibh (forty-eight of the number of Icolumkill
slain by the Lochlanns).—_An. Inisf._
Footnote 423:
See Dr. Todd’s _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, Int. p. xxx, for a
good account of these names.
Footnote 424:
807 Constructio novæ civitatis Coluimcille in Cennanus.—_An. Ult._ 814
Ceallach abbas Iæ finita constructione templi Cenindsa reliquit
principatum et Diarmicius alumpnus Daigri pro eo ordinatus est.—_An.
Ult._ Some of the chronicles state that Garnard, son of Donald, king
of the Picts, founded Abernethy 225 years and 11 months before the
church of Dunkeld was built by Constantin, king of the Picts.—(_Chron.
Picts and Scots_, p. 201.) Garnad reigned from 584 to 599, which
places the foundation of Dunkeld between 809 and 824, but Constantin
ruled over Dalriada from 807 to 816, and died in 820, which fixes its
foundation to the same period.
Footnote 425:
820 Custantin mac Fergusa rex Fortren moritur.—_An. Ult._
825 Martre Blaimhicc meic Flainn o Gentib in Hi. Coluim Cille.—_An.
Ult._
Footnote 426:
834 Aengus mac Fergusa rex Fortrenn moritur.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 427:
Anno ab incarnatione Domini octingentesimo tricesimo quarto congressi
sunt Scotti cum Pictis in sollempnitate Paschali. Et plures de
nobilioribus Pictorum ceciderunt. Sicque Alpinus Rex Scottorum victor
extitit, unde in superbiam elatus ab eis, altero concerto bello,
tercio decimo kal. Augusti ejusdem anni a Pictis vincitur atque
truncatur.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 209.
Footnote 428:
_War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, pp. 13, 226. 839 Bellum re
genntib for firu Fortrenn (by the Gentiles against the men of
Fortrenn) in quo Euganan mac Oengusa et Bran mac Oengusa et Aed mac
Boanta et alii pene innumerabiles ceciderunt.—_An. Ult._ In the
Albanic Duan Aedh rules for four years over Dalriada and Eoghanain
thirteen, in all seventeen years. But Aengus ruled till 825, and
Eoganan is slain in 839, which gives only fourteen years, so that it
is plain that Aed, son of Boanta, governed Dalriada during three of
the years of Eoganan’s rule, which is exactly the length of his reign
over the Picts.
Footnote 429:
Cujus filius Kynadius successit in regno patris qui vii^o regni sui
anno, cum piratæ Danorum, occupatis littoribus, Pictos sua
defendentes, strage maxima pertrivissent, in reliquos Pictorum
terminos transiens, arma vertit et multis occisis fugere compulit,
sicque monarchiam totius Albaniæ, quæ nunc Scotia dicitur, primus
Scottorum rex conquisivit et in ea primo super Scottos
regnavit.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 209. The Chronicle of
Huntingdon says Kynadius reigned twenty-eight years, and in order to
adjust the chronology of his reign it is necessary to ascertain the
true year of his death. This we can fortunately do. The Ulster Annals
place it in 858, the Annales Cambriæ in 856, but the Pictish Chronicle
tells us that he died on the Ides or thirteenth of February, on a
Tuesday. Now the thirteenth of February fell on a Tuesday in the year
860, which is the true year of his death. This gives 832 in place of
834 as the commencement of his reign and the year of his father
Alpin’s death, and 839 as his seventh year. 832 is also the correct
year of the death of Aengus, son of Fergus, for his predecessor
Constantin died in 820, and Aengus is said in the Pictish Chronicle to
have reigned only twelve years.
Footnote 430:
Qui anno xii^o regni sui septies in una die cum Pictis congruitur
multisque pertritis regnum sibi confirmat et regnavit xxviii.
annis.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 209. Twelve years and the sixteen
of the Pictish Chronicle make it twenty-eight.
Footnote 431:
Kinadius igitur filius Alpini, primus Scottorum rexit feliciter istam
annis xvi. Pictaviam.... Iste vero biennio antequam veniret Pictaviam,
Dalrietæ regnum suscepit.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 8.
Footnote 432:
Iste occisus est apud Fertheviot, secundum quosdam Sconam, a
Scottis.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 151.
Footnote 433:
Septimo anno regni sui, reliquias Sancti Columbæ transportavit ad
ecclesiam quam construxit.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 8.
Footnote 434:
Invasit sexies Saxoniam et concremavit Dunbarre atque Mailros
usurpata. Britanni autem concremaverunt Dubblain atque Danari
vastaverunt Pictaviam ad Cluanan et Duncalden.—_Ib._ p. 8. In the
Lodbrokar-quida, or death-song of Ragnar Lodbrok, it is said, in v.
12, ‘At Bartha-firdi down from our points distilled the dew (of
death).’ Barthafirdi may be the Firth of Tay, and the allusion may be
to the invasion of Danes under Ragnar.
Footnote 435:
Nec præterea plures alicubi reperio, quod cito defecerit episcopatus,
quia extrema, ut dixi, Anglorum ora est, et Scottorum vel Pictorum
depopulationi opportuna.—_Gest. Pont._ Lib. iii. § 115. The last
mention of Beadulf is in 795.
Footnote 436:
Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis, p. 66.
Footnote 437:
Collectanea, p. 67. 856 Cocadh mor ettir Gennti et Maelsechnall con
Gallgaidhel leis.—_An. Ult._ 857 Roiniud ren Imar et ren Amlaiph for
Caittil Find con Gallgaidhel hi tiribh Mumhan.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 438:
_Chron. Picts and Scots_, pp. 403, 404.
Footnote 439:
_Ib._ p. 84.
Footnote 440:
Cinaet mac Ailpin. Ise cet righ rogab righe Scoinde do
Gaidelaib.—_Flann._ 856 Cemoyth rex Pictorum moritur.—_An. Cam._ 858
Cinaeth mac Ailpin rex Pictorum mortuus est.—_An. Ult._ 858 Cionaodh
mac Ailpin rex Pictorum moritur.—_Fragm. An._
Footnote 441:
For the first daughter the authority is the Pictish Chronicle.
Pinkerton reads this name Ku, mistaking K for R, and overlooking the
stroke over the u which marks an n. He has been followed by all
subsequent writers. The second appears from the Fragments of Irish
Annals, p. 172. The Ulster Annals have at 917 Mailmaire inghen Cinaeda
mac Alpin mor.
Footnote 442:
Deus enim eos pro merito suæ malitiæ alienos ac otiosos hereditate
dignatus est facere, quia illi non solum Domini missam ac preceptum
spreverunt, sed et in jure æquitatis aliis æqui parari
noluerunt.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 8.
Footnote 443:
The Annals of Ulster have at 865 Tuathal mac Artguso primus episcopus
Fortrenn et abbas Duincaillenn dormivit.—_Ib._ p. 391.
Footnote 444:
Hic mira caliditate duxit Scotos de Argadia in terra Pictorum.—_Chron.
Picts and Scots_, p. 174.
Footnote 445:
‘Kinadius igitur filius Alpini primus Scottorum rexit feliciter
_istam_ annis xvi. Pictaviam.’ Pictavia has not been before mentioned.
‘Pictavia autem a Pictis est nominatur; _quos, ut diximus, Cinadius
delevit_.’
Footnote 446:
_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 299. Higden, _Polychronicon_, ed. ii.
148. That this statement in both was taken from the Pictish Chronicle
appears from its concluding thus: ‘Kynadius filius Alpini perfidens
Pictaviam invasit, Pictos delevit et Saxones sexies expugnavit et
terram dudum Anglicis subactam quæ est a mari Scotiæ usque ad Mailros
quæ est in ripa Twedæ fluminis suo dominio subjugavit.’ The sympathy
of the compilers of this account too is with the Picts.
Footnote 447:
_Chron. Picts and Scots_, pp. 163 and 202.
Footnote 448:
This expression, ‘Pictos delevit,’ which terminates the omitted
account, obviously corresponds with the expression in the Pictish
Chronicle, ‘quos, ut diximus, Cinadius delevit.’ It is evidently to
the slaughter of the Pictish nobles by this stratagem that the
expression refers.
Footnote 449:
_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 83. The translation is slightly altered.
Footnote 450:
It is not impossible that this immigration, whether secular or
ecclesiastic, may have been aided by the king of Ireland, and that the
following notices refer to it:—
819 Mors Aedha mac Neill juxta vadum duorum mirabilium (Athdaferta) in
Campo Conaille.—_An. Ult._
Mors Aeda meic Neill Righ Temrach for sluagud (king of Tara while
carrying on war) in Alban.—_Inisf._
Aodh Oirdnighe mac Neill Frasaigh na Righ atteamhair da bliaghain is
fiche gur eag ag (king of Tara twenty-two years till he died at)
Athdaferta a Tirconaill. Acht abaraiddrong do na Seanchaibh gur
accaith Droma do torcraidhe (but other senachies say that was in the
battle of Droma that he was slain).—_Inisf._ The battle of Droma seems
connected with the statement that he carried on war in Alban when he
was slain. This would give 819 as the date of this invasion.
Footnote 451:
_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 424.
Footnote 452:
_Ibid._ Alii ex Scotis Anglisque collectis.—Boethii _Hist. Fol._
Footnote 453:
_Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, p. 309.
Footnote 454:
I sunn condrecaidh Clann Fergusa Guill mic Eachach Buide .i. Gabranaig
agus Clann Conaill Cirr mic Eachach Buide .i. Fir Fibe fris in rigraid
.i. Clann Cinaeda mic Ailpin mic Aedain.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p.
315.
Footnote 455:
See _ante_, p. 302.
Footnote 456:
This is shown in the Tract on the Coronation Stone, p. 35.
Footnote 457:
In hujus tempore jura ac leges regni Edi filii Ecdach fecerunt Goedeli
cum rege suo in Fothuirthabaicth.
Footnote 458:
‘Primo ejus anno Maelsechnaill rex Hibernensium obiit.’ The Annals of
Ulster have Maelsechnaill’s death in 861, but the 30th November fell
on a Tuesday in 863, showing that the Annals of Ulster are at this
time usually two years behind the true date, as in the years of
Kenneth’s and Donald’s deaths.
Footnote 459:
Post duos annos vastavit Amlaib cum gentibus suis Pictaviam et
habitavit eam a kalendis Januarii usque ad festum Sancti Patricii.
Tertio iterum anno Amlaib trahens cetum a Constantino occisus est.
Footnote 460:
866 Amlaiph et Aiusle do dul i Fortrenn con Gallaibh Erenn et Alban et
con rinnriset Cruitintuait n-uile et con tugsat an giallo.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 461:
See Fragments of Annals, _Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 405. ‘Fortrenn
was plundered and ravaged by the Lochlanns, and they carried off many
hostages with them as pledges for tribute, and they were paid tribute
for a long time after;’ and p. 172 for his wife being a daughter of
Kenneth. His death is not recorded in the Irish Annals. He is
mentioned up to 870, but not later.
Footnote 462:
870 Obsessio Aileccluithe a Nordmannis .i. Amlaiph et Imhair ii. reges
Nordmannorum obsederunt arcem illam et destruxerunt in fine 4 mensium
arcem et prædaverunt.—_An. Ult._
Arx Alclut a gentibus fracta est.—_An. Camb._ See also Fragments of
Annals, _Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 405.
Footnote 463:
871 Amlaiph et Imhar do thuidhecht a frithisi du Athacliath a Albain
dibh cedaib long (came again to Athacliath from Alban with 200 ships),
et præda maxima hominum Anglorum et Britonum et Pictorum deducta est
secum ad Hiberniam in captivitate.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 464:
872 Artgha rex Britannorum Sratha-Cluaidhe consilio Constantini filii
Cinaedo occisus est.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 465:
The descent of these kings is given in the Welsh Genealogies attached
to Nennius.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 15.
Footnote 466:
_Ib._ p. 85.
Footnote 467:
Predictus exercitus (Danorum Repadun deseruit) seseque in duas partes
divisit. Una pars cum Haldene ad regionem Nordanhymbrorum secessit et
eam vastavit et hiemavit juxta flumen quod dicitur Tine et totam
gentem suo dominatui subdidit et Pictos atque Strathduccenses
depopulati sunt.—_Sim. Dun._ 875 Congressio Pictorum for Dubgallu et
strages magna Pictorum facta est.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 468:
And oft ge hergode on Pehtas and on Stræcled Wealas.—_Sax. Chron._ _ad
an._ 875.
Ast crebrius inducunt Pihtis bellum Cumbrisque.—_Ethelwerd Chron._
Footnote 469:
_Collect. Reb. Alb._ pp. 66, 69.
Footnote 470:
Normanni annum integrum degerunt in Pictavia.—_Pict. Chron._ 875 Ostin
mac Amlaiph regis Nordmannorum ab Albanensibus per dolum occisus
est.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 471:
Tract on the Wars of the Gaidhil with the Gaill, p. 232. What the
concluding sentence alludes to it is impossible now to say. ‘Paulo
post ab eo bello in xiiij ejus facto in Dolair inter Danarios et
Scottos. Occisi sunt Scotti co Ach Cochlam.’—_Pict. Chron._ The notice
of Constantin’s reign by St. Berchan is defective, a few lines being
lost in the concluding part, but there are still preserved the last
two lines, which are significant enough—
On Thursday, in pools of blood,
On the shore of Inbhirdubhroda.
The Chronicle of St. Andrews has ‘Interfectus est a Norwegiensibus in
bello Inverdufatha,’ which is obviously the same name as
Inbhirdubhroda: the one meaning the Inver of the black ford, the
other, of the black road. A record of this battle seems preserved in a
charter in the Chartulary of St. Andrews, p. 274, where mention is
made of the ‘congeries lapidum juxta viam de Inverdoveth versus
Sanctum Andream.’ By another chronicle it is corrupted to ‘de
Werdofatha,’ and supposing that ‘Wer’ was meant for ‘Wem,’ a cave, the
Chronicum Elegiacum translates it Nigra specus, and from this the
story that king Constantin was killed in a cave seems to have arisen.
But St. Berchan leaves no doubt that Inbhir is the first part of the
word, and the ancient Tract on the wars of the Gaidhel with the Gaill
is conclusive that Constantin was killed in battle. Cochlam is
probably the place called Kathlock, Cathlok, Catholok, between Kilmany
and Inverdovat.
Footnote 472:
876 Constantin mac Cinaeda rex Pictorum moritur.—_An. Ult._
Footnote 473:
Ejus etiam brevitas nil historie memorabile commendavit, sed in
civitate Nrurim est occisus. 878 Aedh mac Cinador rex Pictorum a
sociis suis occisus est.—_An. Ult._ The later chronicles say that he
was slain in battle in Strathallan by his successor Grig; but though
he may have been slain in battle, it is certainly inconsistent with
the earlier notices that his successor should have slain him. In a
pass in the heights which separate Strathallan from Glenartney is a
place called Blairnroar. The word Blair usually marks a battlefield,
and here there are several upright stones and a cairn, in which
several stone coffins were found.—_N.S.A._ vol. x. p. 326. The name is
here misprinted Blairinroan.
Footnote 474:
Eochodius autem filius Run regis Britannorum nepos Cinadei ex filia
regnavit annis xi. Licet Ciricium filium alii dicunt hic
regnasse; eo quod alumpnus ordinatorque Eochodio fiebat.—_Pict.
Chron._ Arthgal, Eocha’s grandfather, died in 872, and he could hardly
have been born before 865. Donald could not have been born much before
that date, if so early.
Footnote 475:
Chalmers announces without hesitation that Girig, or Grig as he calls
him, was the Maormor of the extensive country between the Dee and
Spey, and this has been repeated by most subsequent historians as if
it were undoubted; but he gives no authority for it, and appears to
have founded it upon the tradition that Gregory the Great, as he was
called, died at Dunadeer in the Garioch. Such traditions, however, are
the creation of our fabulous historians. The later chronicles give him
a reign of twelve years, and add ‘mortuus est in Dundeorn.’ But one
form of these chronicles extends his reign to eighteen years, and this
is followed by Fordun, who changes Dundeorn to Donedoure, converted by
tradition to Dunadeer. That the place meant was Dundurn on the Earn
appears from St. Berchan, who calls him MacRath, or the son of
Fortune, and says
By him shall be attacked the powerful house,
Ah! my heart! _on the banks of the Earn_,
Red shall be the colour of the house before him.
He shall fall by the men of Fortrenn.
Footnote 476:
Ac in ix. ejus anno, in ipso die Cirici, eclipsis solis facta est.
Eochodius cum alumpno suo expulsus est nunc de regno.—_Pict. Chron._
Footnote 477:
Hic subjugavit sibi totam Berniciam et fere Angliam.—_Chron. Picts and
Scots_, p. 288. This is the reading of what is evidently a better copy
of the Chronicle of St. Andrews than that in the register, which reads
‘Hiberniam totam et fere Angliam,’ and has been followed by the later
chronicles. There is no trace of any conquest of Ireland, and Hibernia
seems to have been substituted for Bernicia.
Footnote 478:
Gens Scottorum, innumerabili exercitu coadunato, inter cætera suæ
crudelitatis facinora, Lindisfarnense monasterium sæviens et rapiens
invasit: contra quos dum rex Guthredus, per Sanctum Cuthbertum
confortatus, pugnaturus staret, subito terra dehiscens hostes vivos
omnes absorbuit.—Sim. Dun. _Hist. Ec._ c. 28.
Footnote 479:
_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 174, and Preface to the _Statuta Ecclesiæ
Scoticanæ_, by Dr. Joseph Robertson, vol. i. p. xiv.—‘Et hic primus
dedit libertatem Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ quæ sub servitute erat ad illud
usque tempus ex constitutione et more Pictorum.’
Footnote 480:
William the Lion gives to the Priory of St. Andrews ‘Ecclesiam Sancti
Cirici de Eglesgirg’ (Chartulary of St. Andrews, p. 218); and at p.
348 we find ‘Ecclesia Sancti Cyrici martyris de Eglisgirg.’