A.D. 446-843.
Early History--Scottish Settlement--Origin of
Scots--Dalriada--Conversion of Picts--Druidism--St.
Columba--Iona--Spread of Christianity--Brude
and his Successors--Dun-Nechtan--Pictish
Wars--Ungus--Contests--Norsemen--Union of Picts and
Scots--Scoto-Irish or Dalriads--Lorn, Fergus, Angus and their
Successors--Aidan--Contest at Degsastan--Donal Breac--Wars
with Irish and Picts--Conal II. and Successors--Ferchar
Fada--Selvach and Duncha Beg--Eocha III. unites
Dalriada--Muredach--Contests with Picts--Aodh-fin--Eocha IV. or
Achaius--Alpin--Kenneth--Union of Picts and Scots--Dalriadic
Government--Tanist--Brehon--Laws--Fosterage--Lists of Kings.
As we have already said, the materials for the internal history of
the Highlands during the Roman occupation are of the scantiest,
nearly all that can be recorded being the struggles of the northern
tribes with the Roman invaders, and the incursions of the former and
their allies into the territories of the Romanized Britons. Doubtless
many events as worthy of record as these, an account of which has
been preserved, were during this period being transacted in the
northern part of Scotland, and we have seen that many additions,
from various quarters, must have been made to the population.
However, there are no records extant which enable us to form any
distinct notion of the nature of these events, and history cannot be
manufactured.
After the departure of the Romans, the provincial Britons of the
south of Scotland were completely at the mercy of the Picts as well
as the Saxons, who had been invited over by the South Britons to
assist them against the northern barbarians. These Saxons, we know,
very soon entered into alliance with those whom they came to repel,
and between them the Britons south of the friths were eventually
driven into the West, where for centuries they appear to have
maintained an independent kingdom under the name of Strathclyde,
until ultimately they were incorporated with the Scots.[79]
Although both the external and internal history of the Highlands
during this period is much better known than in the case of the
Roman period, still the materials are exceedingly scanty. Scottish
historians, from Fordun and Boece downwards, made it their business
to fill up from their own imaginations what is wanting, so that,
until the simple-minded but acute Innes put it in its true light, the
early history of Scotland was a mass of fable.
Undoubtedly the two most momentous events of this period are the firm
settlement in Argyle of a colony of Scots from Ireland and some of
the neighbouring isles in 503,[80] and the conversion of the Northern
Picts to Christianity by Columba about 563.
At the time of the Roman abandonment of Britain the Picts were under
the sway of a king or chieftain named Drust, son of Erp, concerning
whom the only record remaining is, that he lived a hundred years and
fought a hundred battles. In fact, little is known with certainty
of the Pictish history for upwards of one hundred years after the
departure of the Romans, although some ancient chronicles afford us
lists of Pictish kings or princes, a chronological table of whom,
from Drust downwards, will be found at the end of this chapter. The
Pictish chronicle contains the names of thirty-six others who are
said to have reigned before Drust, but these are generally regarded
as almost entirely spurious.
Before proceeding farther with the Pictish history, it may be proper
to give a brief account of the settlement of the Irish Scots or
Dalriads, as they are frequently called, in the Pictish territory.
The time of the settlement of the Scots in present Scotland was for
long a subject of disputation, the early Scottish historians, from
a false and unscrupulous patriotism, having pushed it back for many
centuries before its actual occurrence. This dispute is now, however,
fairly set at rest, there being no foundation for believing that the
Scots found their way from Ireland to Scotland earlier than a century
or two before the birth of Christ. As we have already seen, we find
the first mention of the Scots in Ammianus Marcellinus about the year
360 A.D.; and their name occurs in the same connection frequently
afterwards, during the Roman occupation of Scotland. Burton[81] is of
opinion that the migration did not take place at any particular time
or under any particular leader, but that it was gradual, that the
Scots “oozed” out of Ireland upon the western coast of Scotland.
It belongs to the history of Ireland to trace the origin and fix the
race of the Scots, to settle the time of their coming into Ireland,
and discover whence they came. Some suppose that they migrated
originally from Britain to Ireland, while Innes and others bring them
either from Scandinavia or Spain, and connect them with the Scyths,
asserting that Scot is a mere corruption of Scyth, and dating the
settlement at about the commencement of the Christian era. The Irish
traditions connect them with a certain Scota, daughter of Pharaoh,
and date their coming to Ireland upwards of 1,000 years B.C. E. W.
Robertson[82] and others consider them to have been Irish Picts or
Cruithne.
Wherever the Scots came from and to whatever race they belong,
whether Teutonic or Celtic, they certainly appear not to have
been the first settlers in Ireland, and at the time at which they
first appear in authentic history occupied a district in Ireland
corresponding to Connaught, Leinster, and part of Munster. They were
also one of the most powerful of the Irish tribes, seeing that for
many centuries Ireland was, after them, called Scotia or Scotland.
It is usually said that a particular corner in the north-east of
Ireland, about 30 miles in extent, corresponding to the modern
county of Antrim, was the kingdom of the particular band of Scots
who migrated to Scotland; and that it received its name, Dal-Riada
(‘the portion of Riada’), from Carbre-Riada, a leader of the Scots
who conquered this particular part, previously inhabited by Cruithne
or Irish Picts. Robertson,[83] however, considers all this fable
and the kingdom of Dalriada as mythical, Tighernach and the early
Irish annalists never applying the name to any other locality than
British Dalriada. At all events, this particular district was spoken
of by the later chroniclers under the name of Dalriada, there being
thus a Dalriada both in Scotland and Ireland.[84] At the time of the
migration of the Scots from Ireland to Scotland, they were to all
intents and purposes a Celtic race, speaking Trish Gaelic, and had
already been converted to Christianity.
The account of the Scottish migration usually given is, that in the
year 503 A.D.,[85] a new colony of Dalriads or Dalriadic Scots, under
the leadership of Fergus son of Erc, a descendant of Carbre-Riada,
along with his brothers Lorn and Angus, left Ireland and settled
on the western coast of Argyle and the adjacent islands. “The
territories which constituted the petty kingdoms of Dalriada can be
pretty well defined. They were bounded on the south by the Frith of
Clyde, and they were separated on the east from the Pictish kingdom
by the ridge of the great mountain chain called Drumalban. They
consisted of four tribes,--the genus or Cinel Lorn, descended from
Lorn, the elder of the three brothers; the Cinel Gabran and Cinel
Comgall, descended from two sons of Domangart, son of Fergus, the
second of the brothers; and the Cinel Angus, descended from the third
brother, Angus. The Cinel Comgall inhabited the district formerly
called Comgall, now corrupted into Cowall. The Cinel Gabran inhabited
what was called the Airgiallas, or the district of Argyle proper, and
Kintyre. The Cinel Angus inhabited the islands of Islay and Jura, and
the Cinel Lorn, the district of Lorn. Beyond this, on the north, the
districts between Lorn and the promontory of Ardnamurchan, _i.e._,
the island of Mull, the district of Morven, Ardgower, and probably
part of Lochaber, seem to have formed a sort of debatable ground,
the population of which was Pictish, while the Scots had settlements
among them. In the centre of the possessions of the Cinel Gabran, at
the head of the well-sheltered loch of Crinan, lies the great Moss
of Crinan, with the river Add flowing through it. In the centre of
the moss, and on the side of the river, rises an isolated rocky hill
called Dunadd, the top of which is strongly fortified. This was the
capital of Dalriada, and many a stone obelisk in the moss around it
bears silent testimony to the contests of which it was the centre.
The picturesque position of Dunolly Castle, on a rock at the entrance
of the equally sheltered bay of Oban, afforded another fortified
summit, which was the chief stronghold of the tribe of Lorn. Of
Dunstaffnage, as a royal seat, history knows nothing.”[86]
It would appear that Lorn and Fergus at first reigned jointly, the
latter becoming sole monarch on the decease of the former. The
succession appears not to have been confined to any particular line,
and a disputed succession not unfrequently involved the Scots in
civil war.
There is no portion of history so obscure or so perplexing as that of
the Scoto-Irish kings, and their tribes, from their first settlement,
in the year 503, to their accession to the Pictish throne in 843.
Unfortunately no contemporaneous written records appear ever to have
existed of that dark period of our annals, and the efforts which the
Scotch and Irish antiquaries have made to extricate the truth from
the mass of contradictions in which it lies buried, have rather been
displays of national prejudice than calm researches by reasonable
inquirers. The annals, however, of Tigernach, and of Ulster, along
with the brief chronicles and historical documents first brought to
light by the industrious Innes, in his Critical Essay, have thrown
some glimpses of light on a subject which had long remained in almost
total darkness.[87]
The next authentic event of importance that falls to be recorded in
connection with the history of the Highlands, is the conversion of
the Northern Picts to Christianity, about the year 563. The Southern
Picts, i.e. those living to the south and east of the Grampians,
were converted by St. Ninian (360-432) about the beginning of the
5th century; but the Northern Picts, until the date above-mentioned,
continued Pagans. That there were no Christians among them till that
time appears very improbable, considering their close neighbourhood
and constant intercourse with the Southern Picts and the Scots of
Dalriada; but there can be no doubt that the court and the great bulk
of the people adhered to their ancient superstitions.
The religion of the Picts before their conversion is supposed by the
majority of writers on this subject to have been that which prevailed
in the rest of Britain and in Celtic Gaul, Druidism. The incredulous
Burton, however, if we may judge from his History of Scotland,[88]
as well as from an article of his in the Edinburgh Review, seems to
believe that the whole system of Druidism has been elaborated by the
imaginations of modern historians. That the Picts previous to their
conversion had a religion, and a religion with what may be called
priests and religious services, cannot be doubted, if we may trust
Tacitus and Adamnan, the biographer of Columba; the former of whom
tells us that, previous to the battle of the Grampians, the union
of the various tribes was ratified by solemn rites and sacrifices,
and the latter, that Columba’s efforts at conversion were strenuously
opposed by the diabolical arts and incantations of the Magi. It
appears from Adamnan that fountains were particularly objects of
veneration; the superstitious awe with which many fountains and
wells are regarded at the present day, being doubtless a remnant of
the ancient Pictish religion. Trees, rivers, and lakes, as well as
the heavenly bodies, appear also to have been objects of religious
regard, and not a few of the customs which exist in Scotland at the
present day have been inherited from our Pictish ancestors. Such
are many of the rites performed on Hallowe’en, Beltane, Midsummer,
&c., and many every-day superstitions still prevalent in the country
districts of Scotland.
“Druidism is said to have acknowledged a Supreme Being, whose
name was synonymous with the Eastern Baal, and if so, was visibly
represented by the sun; and such remnants of the ancient worship as
are still traceable in the language of the people, would indicate
its having been a species of sun-worship. To this day the four
leading points of the compass bear, in the terms which designate them
among the Gael, marks of this. The east is _ear_, like the Latin
_oriens_, from the Gaelic _eiridh_, ‘to rise;’ the west is _iar_,
‘after,’ used also as a preposition; the south is _deas_, and the
north _tuath_; and it is in the use of these terms that the reverence
for the solar luminary chiefly appears. _Deas_, ‘the south,’ is in
all circumstances _right_; it is the _right_ hand, which is easily
intelligible, from the relation of that hand to the south when the
face looks eastward; and it is expressive of whatever is otherwise
_right_. _Deas_ also means complete, trim, ready; whatever is
_deas_, or southerly, is just as it should be. _Tuath_, ‘north,’
is the very opposite. _Tuathaisd_ is a ‘stupid fellow;’ _Tuathail_
is ‘wrong’ in every sense: south and north, then, as expressed in
the words _deiseal_ and _tuathail_, are, in the Gaelic language,
the representatives of right and wrong. Thus everything that is to
move prosperously among many of the Celts, must move sunwise: a boat
going to sea must turn sunwise; a man or woman immediately after
marriage, must make a turn sunwise. There are relics of fire-worship
too; certain days are named from fire-lighting; _Beallteine_, or
‘the first day of summer,’ and _saimhtheine_, ‘the first day of
winter,’--the former supposed to mean the fire of Baal or Bel,
the latter closing the saimhré, or summer period of the year, and
bringing in the geamhré, or winter period, are sufficient evidence of
this. There are places in Scotland where within the memory of living
men the _teine eigin_, or ‘forced fire,’ was lighted once every year
by the rubbing of two pieces of wood together, while every fire
in the neighbourhood was extinguished in order that they might be
lighted anew from this sacred source.”[89]
[Illustration: Stonehenge.--Copied by permission from Col.
Forbes-Leslie’s _Early Races of Scotland_.]
Many of the antiquities which are scattered over the north of
Scotland, such as stone circles, monoliths, sculptured stones,
rocking stones, &c., are very generally supposed to have been
connected with religion. From the resemblance of the circles
especially, to those which exist in South Britain and in France, it
has been supposed that one religion prevailed over these countries.
As Druidism is so commonly believed to have prevailed among the
Picts as well as among the other inhabitants of Britain, we shall
here give a very brief account of that system, chiefly as we find it
given in Cæsar.[90] The following is the account given by Cæsar of
the character and functions of the Druids:--“They attend to divine
worship, perform public and private sacrifices, and expound matters
of religion. A great number of youths are gathered round them for
the sake of education, and they enjoy the highest honour in that
nation; for nearly all public and private quarrels come under their
jurisdiction; and when any crime has been committed, when a murder
has been perpetrated, when a controversy arises about a legacy,
or about landmarks, they are the judges too. They fix rewards and
punishments; and should any one, whether a private individual or a
public man, disobey their decrees, then they exclude him from the
sacrifices. All these Druids have one chief, who enjoys the highest
authority amongst them. When he dies, he is succeeded by the member
of the order who is most prominent amongst the others, if there
be any such single individual; if, however, there are several men
equally distinguished, the successor is elected by the Druids.
Sometimes they even go to war about this supremacy.
“The Druids take no part in warfare; nor do they pay taxes like
the rest of the people; they are exempt from military service, and
from all public burdens. Attracted by such rewards, many come to
be instructed by their own choice, while others are sent by their
parents. They are reported to learn in the school a great number
of verses, so that some remain there twenty years. They think it
an unhallowed thing to commit their lore to writing, though in the
other public and private affairs of life they frequently make use
of the Greek alphabet.... Beyond all things, they are desirous to
inspire a belief that men’s souls do not perish, but transmigrate
after death from one individual to another; and besides, they hold
discourses about the stars, about the size of the world and of
various countries, about the nature of things, and about the power
and might of the immortal gods.”
Among the objects of druidical veneration the oak is said to have
been particularly distinguished; for the Druids imagined that there
was a supernatural virtue in the wood, in the leaves, in the fruit,
and above all in the _mistletoe_. Hence the oak woods were the
first places of their devotion; and the offices of their religion
were there performed without any covering but the broad canopy of
heaven. The part appropriated for worship was inclosed in a circle,
within which was placed a pillar of stone set up under an oak, and
sacrifices were offered thereon. The pillars which mark the sites of
these places of worship are still to be seen; and so great is the
superstitious veneration paid by the country people to these sacred
stones, as they are considered, that few persons have ventured to
remove them.
[Illustration: Circle of Callernish in Lewis.--Copied by permission
from Col. Forbes-Leslie’s _Early Races of Scotland_.]
Besides the immunities before-mentioned enjoyed by the Druids,
they also possessed both civil and criminal jurisdiction, they
decided all controversies among states as well as among private
persons; and whoever refused to submit to their awards was exposed
to the most severe penalties. The sentence of excommunication was
pronounced against him; he was debarred all intercourse with his
fellow-citizens; his company was universally shunned as profane and
dangerous; he was refused the protection of law; and death itself
became an acceptable relief from the misery and infamy to which he
was exposed.
St. Columba was born in the county of Donegal, in Ireland, in the
year 521, and was connected both on his father’s and mother’s side
with the Irish royal family. He was carefully educated for the
priesthood, and, after having finished his ecclesiastical studies,
founded monasteries in various parts of Ireland. The year of his
departure from Ireland is, on good authority, ascertained to have
been 563, and it is generally said that he fled to save his life,
which was in jeopardy on account of a feud in which his relations
were involved. Mr. Grub[91] believes that “the love of God and of
his brethren was to him a sufficient motive for entering on the
great work to which he was called. His immediate objects were the
instruction of the subjects of Conal, king of the British Scots, and
the conversion of their neighbours the heathen Picts of the North.”
In the year 563, when Columba was 42 years of age, he arrived among
his kindred on the shores of Argyle, and immediately set himself
to fix on a suitable site for a monastery which he meant to erect,
from which were to issue forth the apostolic missionaries destined
to assist him in the work of conversion, and in which also the youth
set apart for the office of the holy ministry were to be educated.
St. Columba espied a solitary isle lying apart from the rest of the
Hebridean group, near the south-west angle of Mull, then known by
the simple name I, whose etymology is doubtful, afterwards changed
by Bede into Hy, latinized by the monks into Iova or Iona, and again
honoured with the name of I-columb-cil, the island of St. Columba of
the church. This island, Conal, who was then king of the Christian
Scots of Argyle, presented to Columba, in order that he might erect
thereon a monastery for the residence of himself and his disciples.
No better station could have been selected than this islet during
such barbarous times.
[Illustration: Ruins on Iona.]
In pursuance of his plan, St. Columba settled with twelve disciples
in Hy. “They now,” says Bede, “neither sought, nor loved, anything
of this world,”--true traits in the missionary character. For two
years did they labour with their own hands erecting huts and building
a church of logs and reeds. “The monastery of Iona, like those
previously founded by Columba in Ireland, was not a retreat for
solitaries whose chief object was to work out their own salvation;
it was a great school of Christian education, and was specially
designed to prepare and send forth a body of clergy trained to
the task of preaching the Gospel among the heathen.”[92] Having
established his missionary institution, and having occupied himself
for some time in the instruction of his countrymen the Scots of
Argyle, the pious Columba set out on his apostolic tour among the
Picts, probably in the year 565. At this time Bridei or Brude, whose
reign extended from 536 to 586, the son of Mailcon, a powerful and
influential prince, reigned over the Northern Picts, and appears also
to have had dominion over those of the south. Judging well that if
he could succeed in converting Brude, who, when Columba visited him
was staying at one of his residences on the banks of the Ness, the
arduous task he had undertaken of bringing over the whole nation to
the worship of the true God would be more easily accomplished, he
first began with the king, and by great patience and perseverance
succeeded in converting him.
The first Gaelic entry in the _Book of Deer_ lets us see the great
missionary on one of his tours, and describes the founding of an
important mission-station which became the centre of instruction
for all the surrounding country. The following is the translation
given of the Gaelic original:--“Columcille, and Drostán son of
Cosgrach, his pupil, came from Hí, as God had shown to them, unto
Abbordoboir, and Bede the Pict was mormaer of Buchan before them,
and it was he that gave them that town in freedom for ever from
mormaer and toisech. They came after that to the other town, and
it was pleasing to Columcille because it was full of God’s grace,
and he asked of the mormaer, to wit Bede, that he should give it to
him; and he did not give it, and a son of his took an illness after
[or in consequence of] refusing the clerics, and he was nearly dead
[_lit._ he was dead but if it were a little]. After this the mormaer
went to entreat the clerics that they should make prayer for the son,
that health should come to him; and he gave in offering to them from
Cloch in tiprat to Cloch pette meic Garnait. They made the prayer,
and health came to him. After that Columcille gave to Drostán that
town, and blessed it, and left as (his) word, ‘Whosoever should come
against it, let him not be many-yeared [or] victorious.’ Drostán’s
tears came on parting from Columcille. Said Columcille, ‘Let DÉAR be
its name henceforward.’”
The _Abbordoboir_ here spoken of is Aberdour on the north coast of
Aberdeenshire, and _Dear_ probably occupied the site of what is now
Old Deer, about twelve miles inland from Aberdour. There is every
reason for believing in the substantial truth of the narrative. The
two saints, probably from the banks of the Ness, came to Aberdour
and “tarried there for a time and founded a monastery on the land
which had been granted them. In later times the parish church of
Aberdour was dedicated to St. Drostan.” One would almost be inclined
to suppose, from the manner in which the missionaries were apparently
received, that Christianity had been heard of there before; possibly
Bede the Pictish mormaer had been converted at the court of King
Brude, and had invited Columba to pay him a visit in Buchan and plant
the gospel among the inhabitants. Possibly St. Ninian, the apostle
of the southern Picts, may, during his mission among them, have
penetrated as far north as Buchan. On the side of the choir of the
old parish church of Turriff, a few miles west of Deer, was found
painted the figure of St. Ninian, which was probably as old as the
16th century. At all events, Columba and his companion appear to have
been made most welcome in Buchan, and were afforded every facility
for prosecuting their sacred work. The above record doubtless gives
us a fair notion of Columba’s mode of procedure in prosecuting his
self-imposed task of converting the inhabitants of Alba. As was the
case in Buchan, he appears to have gone from district to district
along with his missionary companions, seen the work of conversion
fairly begun, planted a monastery in a suitable place, and left one
or more of his disciples as resident missionaries to pursue the work
of conversion and keep Christianity alive in the district.[93]
Columba soon had the happiness of seeing the blessings of
Christianity diffusing themselves among a people who had hitherto sat
in the darkness of paganism. Attended by his disciples he traversed
the whole of the Pictish territories, spreading everywhere the light
of faith by instructing the people in the truths of the Gospel. To
keep up a succession of the teachers of religion, he established,
as we have seen, monasteries in every district, and from these
issued, for many ages, men of apostolic earnestness, who watered
and tended the good seed planted by Columba, and carried it to the
remotest parts of the north of Scotland and its islands, so that, in
a generation or two after Columba, Christianity became the universal
religion. These monasteries or cells were long subject to the Abbey
of Iona, and the system of church government which proceeded from
that centre was in many respects peculiar, and has given rise to much
controversy between presbyterians and episcopalians.
St. Columba died on the 9th of June, 597, after a glorious and
well-spent life, thirty-four years of which he had devoted to the
instruction of the nation he had converted. His influence was very
great with the neighbouring princes, and they often applied to
him for advice, and submitted to him their differences, which he
frequently settled by his authority. His memory was long held in
reverence by the Scots and Caledonians.
Conal, the fifth king of the Scots in Argyle, the kinsman of
St. Columba, and under whose auspices he entered on the work of
conversion, and to whom it is said he was indebted for Hy, died in
571. His successor Aidan went over to Iona in 574, and was there
ordained and inaugurated by the Abbot according to the ceremonial of
the _liber vitreus_, the cover of which is supposed to have been
encrusted with crystal.
To return to the history of the Picts, we have already observed that
little is known of Pictish history for more than a hundred years
after the Roman abdication; and even up to the union of the Picts
and Scots, the materials for the history of both are about as scarce
as they could possibly be, consisting mostly of meagre chronicles
containing the names of kings, the dates of their accession and
death, and occasionally the names of battles and of the contending
nations. Scotland during this period appears to have been the scene
of unceasing war between the Scots, Picts, Britons of Strathclyde,
English, and Danes, the two first being continually at strife not
only with each other but among themselves. We shall endeavour to
give, as clearly and as faithfully as possible, the main reliable
facts in the history of the Scots and Picts until the union of these
two nations.
The reign of Brude was distinguished by many warlike exploits, but
above all, as we have seen, by his conversion and that of his people
to Christianity, which indeed formed his greatest glory. His chief
contests were with the Scoto-Irish or Dalriads, whom he defeated in
557, and slew Gauran their king. Brude died in 586, and for several
ages his successors carried on a petty system of warfare, partly
foreign and partly domestic. Passing over a domestic conflict, at
Lindores in 621, under Kenneth, son of Luthrin, we must notice
the important battle of Dun-Nechtan, fought in 685, between the
Picts under Brude, the son of Bili,[94] and the Saxons, under the
Northumbrian Egfrid. The Saxon king, it is said, greedy of conquest,
attacked the Picts without provocation, and against the advice of his
court. Crossing the Forth from Lothian, he entered Strathearn and
penetrated through the defiles of the Pictish kingdom, leaving fire
and desolation in his train. His career was stopt at Dun-Nechtan, the
hill of Nechtan, a hill in the parish of Dunnichen, about the centre
of Forfarshire; and by a neighbouring lake, long known by the name of
Nechtan’s mere, a short distance east from the town of Forfar, did
Egfrid and his Saxons fall before Brude and his exasperated Picts.
This was a sad blow to the Northumbrian power; yet the Northumbrians,
in 699, under Berht, an able leader, again ventured to try their
strength with the Picts, when they were once more defeated by Brude,
the son of Dereli, who had recently mounted the Pictish throne.
The wars between the Picts and Northumbrians were succeeded by
various contests for power among the Pictish princes, which gave
rise to a civil war. Ungus, honoured by the Irish Annalists with the
title of great, and Elpin, at the head of their respective partisans,
tried their strength at Monacrib, supposed by some to be Moncrieff in
Strathearn, in the year 727, when the latter was defeated; and the
conflict was renewed at Duncrei (Crieff), when victory declared a
second time against Elpin, who was obliged to flee from the hostility
of Ungus. Nechtan next tried his strength with Ungus, in 728, at a
place called Monacurna by the Annalists--possibly Moncur in the Carse
of Gowrie--but he was defeated, and many of his followers perished.
Talorgan, the son of Congus, was defeated by Brude, the son of Ungus,
in 730, and in the same year the Picts appear to have entered into a
treaty of peace with the English nation.
The victorious Ungus commenced hostilities against the Dalriads, or
Scoto-Irish, in the year 736, and appears to have got the better
of the latter. The Scots were again worsted in another battle
in 740 by Ungus, who in the same year repulsed an attack of the
Northumbrians under Eadbert. In the year 750 he defeated the Britons
of the Cumbrian kingdom in the battle of Cato or Cath-O, in which
his brother Talorgan was killed. Ungus, who appears to have been
a powerful and able monarch, but whom Bede[95] characterizes as
having conducted himself “with bloody wickedness, a tyrant and an
executioner,” died about 760. A doubtful victory was gained by
Ciniod, or Kenneth, the Pictish king, over Aodh-fin, the Scottish
king, in 767. Constantine, having overcome Conall, the son of Tarla,
in 789, succeeded him in the throne.[96]
Up to this period the Norsemen from Scandinavia, or the _Vikingr_,
_i.e._ men of the voes or bays, as they were termed, had confined
their ravages to the Baltic; but, in the year 787 they for the first
time appeared on the east coast of England. Some years afterwards
they found their way to the Caledonian shores, and in 795 made their
first attack on Iona, which frequently afterwards, along with the
rest of the Hebrides, suffered grievously from their ravages. In 839
the _Vikingr_ entered the Pictish territories. A murderous conflict
ensued between them and the Picts under Uen their king, in which both
he and his only brother Bran, as well as many of the Pictish chiefs,
fell. This event, no doubt, hastened the downfall of the Pictish
monarchy; and as the Picts were unable to resist the arms of Kenneth,
the Scottish king, he carried into execution, in the year 843, a
project he had long entertained, of uniting the Scots and Picts,
and placing both crowns on his head. That anything like a total
extermination of the Picts took place is now generally discredited,
although doubtless there was great slaughter both of princes and
people. Skene[97] asserts indeed that it was only the Southern Picts
who became subject to Kenneth, the Northern Picts remaining for long
afterwards independent of, but sometimes in alliance with, the Scots.
This is substantially the opinion of Mr. E. W. Robertson,[98] who
says, “the modern shires of Perth, Fife, Stirling, and Dumbarton,
with the greater part of the county of Argyle, may be said to have
formed the actual Scottish kingdom to which Kenneth succeeded.” The
Picts were recognised as a distinct people even in the tenth century,
but before the twelfth they lost their characteristic nominal
distinction by being amalgamated with the Scots, their conquerors.
The Scoto-Irish after their arrival in Argyle did not long continue
under the separate authority of the three brothers, Lorn, Fergus,
and Angus. They were said to have been very far advanced in life
before leaving Ireland, and the Irish chroniclers assert that St.
Patrick gave them his benediction before his death, in the year 493.
The statement as to their advanced age derives some support from
their speedy demise after they had laid the foundations of their
settlements, and of a new dynasty of kings destined to rule over the
kingdom of Scotland. Angus was the first who died, leaving a son,
Muredach, who succeeded him in the small government of Ila. After
the death of Lorn the eldest brother, Fergus, the last survivor,
became sole monarch of the Scoto-Irish; but he did not long enjoy the
sovereignty, for he died in 506.
Fergus was succeeded by his son Domangart, or Dongardus, who died
in 511, after a short but troubled reign of about five years. His
two sons Comgal and Gabhran or Gauran, successively enjoyed his
authority. Comgal had a peaceful reign of four and twenty years,
during which he extended his settlements. He left a son named Conal,
but Gauran his brother, notwithstanding, ascended the throne in the
year 535 without opposition. Gauran reigned two and twenty years,
and, as we have already observed, was slain in a battle with the
Picts under Bridei their king.
Conal, the son of Comgal, then succeeded in 557, and closed a reign
of fourteen years in 571. It was during his reign that Columba’s
mission to the Picts took place. A civil war ensued between Aodhan or
Aidan, the son of Gauran, and Duncha or Duncan, the son of Conal, for
the vacant crown, the claim to which was decided on the bloody field
of Loro or Loco in Kintyre in 575, where Duncha was slain. Aidan,
the son of Gauran, had been formally inaugurated by St. Columba in
Iona, in 574. In the time of Aidan there were frequent wars between
the Dalriads and the English Saxons. Many battles were fought in
which the Scots were generally defeated, the principal being that
of Degsastan or Dalston near Carlisle, in 603, in which nearly the
whole of the Scottish army was defeated. The wars with the Saxons
weakened the power of the Dalriads very considerably, and it was not
till after a long period of time that they again ventured to meet the
Saxons in the field.
During a short season of repose, Aidan, attended by St. Columba, went
to the celebrated council of Drum-keat in Ulster, in the year 590. In
this council he claimed the principality of Dalriada, the land of his
fathers, and obtained an exemption from doing homage to the kings of
Ireland, which his ancestors, it would appear, had been accustomed to
pay. Aidan died in 605 or 608, at the advanced age of eighty, and was
buried In the church of Kil-keran, the ruins of which are still to be
seen in the midst of Campbelton.
Aidan was succeeded in the throne by his son Eocha-bui, or the
“yellow,” who reigned sixteen years. He carried on war with the
Cruithne of Ulster. After him came his brother Kenneth-Cear, or the
“left-handed,” who was followed by Ferchar, son of Eogan, of the race
of Lorn.
Donal, surnamed _breac_ or freckled, the son of Eocha’-bui, of the
race of Gauran, succeeded Ferchar about 637. He was a warlike prince
and had distinguished himself in the wars against the Cruithne of
Ireland. Congal-Claon, the son of Scanlan, the king of the Cruithne
in Ulster, having slain Suibne-Mean, a powerful king of Ireland,
was attacked by Domnal II., supreme king of Ireland, who succeeded
Suibne, and was defeated in the battle of Duncetheren, in 629.
Congal sought refuge in Cantyre, and having persuaded Donal-breac,
the kinsman of Domnal, to join him in a war against the latter, they
invaded Ireland with a heterogeneous mass of Scoto-Irish, Picts,
Britons, and Saxons, commanded by Donal and his brothers. Cealach,
the son of Maelcomh, the nephew of the reigning king, and as tanist
or heir-apparent, the leader of his army, attacked Donal-breac in
the plain of Magh Rath or Moyra in Down, in 637, and completely
defeated him after an obstinate and bloody engagement. Congal, the
murderer of his sovereign, met his merited fate, and Donal-breac was
obliged to secure his own and his army’s safety by a speedy return to
Cantyre. St. Columba had always endeavoured to preserve an amicable
understanding between the Cruithne of Ulster and the Scoto-Irish, and
his injunctions were, that they should live in constant peace; but
Donal disregarded the wise advice of the saint, and paid dearly for
so doing. He was not more successful in an enterprise against the
Picts, having been defeated by them in the battle of Glinne Mairison,
Glenmairison, or Glenmoreson, probably in West Lothian,[99] during
the year 638. He ended his days at Straith-cairmaic or Strathcarron,
possibly in the neighbourhood of Falkirk, by the sword of Hoan or
Owen, one of the reguli of Strathcluyd, in the year 642. His son
Cathasuidh fell by the same hand in 649.
Conal II., the grandson of Conal I., who was also of the Fergusian
race of Congal, next ruled over the tribes of Cantyre and Argyle; but
Dungal, of the race of Lorn, having obtained the government of the
tribe of Lorn, questioned the right of Conal. He did not, however,
carry his pretensions far, for Conal died, in undisturbed possession
of his dominions, in 652, after a reign of ten years. To Donal-duin,
or the brown, son of Conal, who reigned thirteen years, succeeded
Maolduin, his brother, in 665. The family feuds which had long
existed between the Fergusian races of Comgal and Tauran, existed
in their bitterest state during the reign of Maolduin. Domangart,
the son of Donal-breac, was murdered in 672, and Conal, the son of
Maolduin, was assassinated in 675.
Ferchar-fada, or the _tall_, apparently of the race of Lorn, and
either the son or grandson of Ferchar, who died in 637, seized the
reins of government upon the death of Maolduin. On the death of
Ferchar, in 702, the sceptre passed again to the Fergusian race in
the person of Eocha’-rineval, remarkable for his Roman nose, the son
of Domangart. The reign of this prince was short and unfortunate.
His sceptre was seized by Ainbhcealach, the son of Ferchar-fada,
who succeeded Eocha’ in 705. He was of an excellent disposition,
but after reigning one year, was dethroned by his brother, Selvach,
and obliged, in 706, to take refuge in Ireland. Selvach attacked
the Britons of Strathcluyd, and gained two successive victories
over them, the one at Longecoleth in 710, and the other at the
rock of Mionuirc in 716. At the end of twelve years, Ainbhcealach
returned from Ireland, to regain a sceptre which his brother had
by his cruelties shown himself unworthy to wield, but he perished
in the battle of Finglein, perhaps Glen Fyne at the head of Loch
Fyne, in 719. Selvach met a more formidable rival in Duncha-beg, who
was descended from Fergus, by the line of Congal; he assumed the
government of Cantyre and Argail, and confined Selvach to his family
settlement of Lorn. These two princes appear to have been fairly
matched in disposition and valour, and both exerted themselves for
the destruction of one another, thus bringing many miseries upon
their tribes. In an attempt which they made to invade the territories
of each other in 719 by means of currachs, a naval combat ensued off
Airdeanesbi, (probably Ardaness on the coast of Argyle,) in which
Selvach was overcome by Duncha; but Selvach was not subdued. The
death of Duncha in 721 put an end to his designs; but Eocha’ III.,
the son of Eocha’-rineval, the successor of Duncha, being as bent on
the overthrow of Selvach as his predecessor, continued the war. The
rival chiefs met at Irroisfoichne in 727, where a battle was fought,
which produced nothing but irritation and distress. This lamentable
state of things was put an end to by the death of Selvach in 729.
This event enabled Eocha to assume the government of Lorn, and thus
the Dalriadan kingdom which had been alternately ruled by chiefs of
the houses of Fergus and Lorn became again united under Eocha. He
died in 733, after a reign of thirteen years, during nine of which he
ruled over Cantyre and Argyle, and four over all the Dalriadic tribes.
Eocha was succeeded in the kingdom by Muredach, the son of
Ainbhceallach, of the race of Lorn. His reign was short and
unfortunate. In revenge for an act of perfidy committed by Dungal,
the son of Selvach, who had carried off Forai or Torai, the daughter
of Brude, and the niece of Ungus, the great Pictish king, the latter,
in the year 736, led his army from Strathearn, through the passes
of the mountains into Lorn, which he wasted with fire and sword.
He seized Dunad, in Mid-Lorn, and burned Creic, another fortress
in the Ross of Mull, taking Dungal and Feradach, the two sons of
Selvach, prisoners. Muredach went in pursuit of his enemy, and having
overtaken him at Knock Cairpre, at Calatros, on the shores of the
Linne,[100] a battle ensued, in which the Scots were repulsed with
great slaughter. Talorgan, the brother of Ungus, commanded the Picts
on this occasion, and pursued the flying Scots. In this pursuit
Muredach is supposed to have perished, after a reign of three years.
Eogban or Ewan, the son of Muredach, took up the fallen succession in
736, and died in 739, in which year the Dalriadic sceptre was assumed
by Aodh-fin, the son of Eocha’ III., and grandson of Eocha’-rineval,
descended from the Fergusian race of Gauran. In 740 he measured his
strength with the celebrated Ungus; but victory declared for neither,
and during the remainder of Ungus’ reign, he did not attempt to renew
hostilities. After the death of Ungus, in 761, Aodh-fin declared war
against the Picts, whose territories he entered from Upper Lorn,
penetrating through the passes of Glenorchy and Breadalbane. In 767
he reached Forteviot, the Pictish capital in Strathearn, where he
fought a doubtful battle with Ciniod the Pictish king. Aodh-fin died
in 769, after a splendid reign of thirty years.[101]
Fergus II., son of Aodh-fin, succeeded to the sceptre on the demise
of his father, and died after an unimportant reign of three years.
Selvach II., the son of Eogan, assumed the government in 772.
His reign, which lasted twenty-four years, presents nothing very
remarkable in history.
A new sovereign of a different lineage, now mounted the throne of the
Scots in 796, in the person of Eocha or Auchy, the son of Aodh-fin
of the Gauran race. Eocha’ IV. is known also by the latinized
appellation of Achaius. The story of the alliance between Achaius and
Charlemagne has been shown to be a fable; although it is by no means
improbable that he entered into an important treaty with the Picts,
by marrying Urgusia, the daughter of Urguis, an alliance which, it is
said, enabled his grandson Kenneth afterwards to claim and acquire
the Pictish sceptre, in right of Urgusia his grandmother. Eocha died
in 826, after a happy and prosperous reign of thirty years. He was
succeeded by Dungal, the son of Selvach II., of the race of Lorn,
being the last of that powerful family who swayed the Dalriadic
sceptre. After a feeble but stormy reign of seven years, he died in
833.
Alpin, the last of the Scoto-Irish kings, and the son of Eocha IV.
and of Urgusia, now mounted the throne. He was killed in 836, near
the site of Laicht castle, on the ridge which separates Kyle from
Galloway. The fiction that Alpin fell in a battle with the Picts,
when asserting his right to the Pictish throne, has long been
exploded.
In 836 Kenneth, the son of Alpin, succeeded his father. He was a
prince of a warlike disposition, and of great vigour of mind and
body. He avenged the death of his father by frequent inroads among
the people dwelling to the south of the Clyde; but the great glory
of his reign consists in his achievements against the Picts, which
secured for him and his posterity the Pictish sceptre. The Pictish
power had, previous to the period of Kenneth’s accession, been
greatly enfeebled by the inroads of the Danish Vikingr; but it was
not till after the death of Uven, the Pictish king, in 839, after
a distracted reign of three years, that Kenneth made any serious
attempt to seize the Pictish diadem. On the accession of Wred,
Kenneth, in accordance with the principle of succession said by
Bede to have prevailed among the Picts, claimed the Pictish throne
in right of Urgusia, his grandmother; Wred died in 842, and after
an arduous struggle, Kenneth wrested the sceptre from Bred, his
successor, in 843, after he had reigned over the Scots seven years.
Burton[102] thinks there can be no doubt that the two countries were
prepared for a fusion whenever a proper opportunity offered, but that
this was on account of a matrimonial alliance between the two royal
houses cannot with certainty be ascertained.[103] As we have said
already, it is extremely improbable that Kenneth gained his supremacy
by extermination. The Picts certainly appear to have suffered severe
defeat, but the likelihood is that after Kenneth succeeded to the
throne, a gradual fusion of the two people took place, so that in
course of time they became essentially one, speaking one language,
obeying the same laws, and following the same manners and customs.
If we knew for certain to what race the Picts belonged, and what
language they spoke, it might help us not a little to understand
the nature and extent of the amalgamation; but as we know so little
about these, and as the chroniclers, in speaking of this event, are
so enigmatical and meagre, we are left almost entirely to conjecture.
We are certain, at any rate, that from some cause or other, the
kings of the Dalriadic Scots, about the middle of the 9th century,
obtained supremacy over at least the Southern Picts, who from that
time forward ceased to be a separate nation.[104]
The history of the Scoto-Irish kings affords few materials either
amusing or instructive; but it was impossible, from the connexion
between that history and the events that will follow in detail,
to pass it over in silence. The Scoto-Irish tribes appear to have
adopted much the same form of government as existed in Ireland at the
time of their departure from that kingdom; the sovereignty of which,
though nominally under one head, was in reality a _pentarchy_, which
allowed four provincial kings to dispute the monarchy of the fifth.
This system was the prolific source of anarchy, assassinations, and
civil wars. The Dalriads were constantly kept in a state of intestine
commotion and mutual hostility by the pretensions of their rival
chiefs, or princes of the three races, who contended with the common
sovereign for pre-eminence or exemption. The _dlighe-tanaiste_, or
law of tanistry, which appears to have been generally followed as in
Ireland, as well in the succession of kings as in that of chieftains,
rather increased than mitigated these disorders; for the claim to
rule not being regulated by any fixed law of hereditary succession,
but depending upon the capricious will of the tribe, rivals were not
found wanting to dispute the rights so conferred. There was always,
both in Ireland and in Argyle, an heir presumptive to the Crown
chosen, under the name of _tanist_, who commanded the army during the
life of the reigning sovereign, and who succeeded to him after his
demise. Budgets, and committees of supply, and taxes, were wholly
unknown in those times among the Scots, and the monarch was obliged
to support his dignity by voluntary contributions of clothes, cattle,
furniture, and other necessaries.
There is reason to believe that tradition supplied the place of
written records for many ages after the extinction of the Druidical
superstition. Hence among the Scots, traditionary usages and local
customs long supplied the place of positive or written laws. It
is a mistake to suppose, as some writers have done, that the law
consisted in the mere will of the Brehon or judge. The office of
Breitheamhuin or Brehon was hereditary, and it is quite natural to
infer, that under such a system of jurisprudence, the _dictum_ of
the judge might not always comport with what was understood to be
the _common law_ or practice; but from thence, to argue that the
will of the judge was to be regarded as the law itself, is absurd,
and contrary to every idea of justice. As the principle of the rude
jurisprudence of the Celtic tribes had for its object the reparation,
rather than the prevention of crimes, almost every crime, even of the
blackest kind, was commuted by a mulct or payment. Tacitus observes
in allusion to this practice, that it was “a temper wholesome to the
commonwealth, that homicide and lighter transgressions were settled
by the payment of horses or cattle, part to the king or community,
part to him or his friends who had been wronged.” The law of Scotland
long recognised this system of compensation. The fine was termed,
under the Brehon law, _eric_, which not only signifies a reparation,
but also a fine, a ransom, a forfeit. Among the Albanian Scots it
was called _cro_, a term preserved in the _Regiam Majestatem_, which
has a whole chapter showing “the _cro_ of ilk man, how mikil it
is.”[105] This law of reparation, according to O’Connor, was first
promulgated in Ireland, in the year 164.[106] According to the
_Regiam Majestatem_, the _cro_ of a villain was sixteen cows; of an
earl’s son or thane, one hundred; of an earl, one hundred and forty;
and that of the king of Scots, one thousand cows, or three thousand
_oras_, that is to say, three oras for every cow.
Besides a share of the fines imposed, the Brehon or judge obtained a
piece of arable land for his support. When he administered justice,
he used to sit sometimes on the top of a hillock or heap of stones,
sometimes on turf, and sometimes even on the middle of a bridge,
surrounded by the suitors, who, of course, pleaded their own cause.
We have already seen that, under the system of the Druids, the
offices of religion, the instruction of youth, and the administration
of the laws, were conducted in the open air; and hence the prevalence
of the practice alluded to. But this practice was not peculiar to
the Druids; for all nations, in the early stages of society, have
followed a similar custom. The Tings of the Scandinavians, which
consisted of circular enclosures of stone, without any covering, and
within which both the judicial and legislative powers were exercised,
afford a striking instance of this. According to Pliny,[107] even
the Roman Senate first met in the open air, and the sittings of the
Court of the Areopagus, at Athens, were so held. The present custom
of holding courts of justice in halls is not of very remote antiquity
in Scotland, and among the Scoto-Irish, the baron bailie long
continued to dispense justice to the baron’s vassals from a moothill
or eminence, which was generally on the bank of a river, and near to
a religious edifice.
Of the various customs and peculiarities which distinguished the
ancient Irish, as well as the Scoto-Irish, none has given rise to
greater speculation than that of _fosterage_; which consisted in the
mutual exchange, by different families, of their children for the
purpose of being nursed and bred. Even the son of the chief was so
entrusted during pupilarity with an inferior member of the clan. An
adequate reward was either given or accepted in every case, and the
lower orders, to whom the trust was committed, regarded it as an
honour rather than a service. “Five hundred kyne and better,” says
Campion, “were sometimes given by the Irish to procure the nursing of
a great man’s child.” A firm and indissoluble attachment always took
place among foster-brothers, and it continues in consequence to be a
saying among Highlanders, that “affectionate to a man is a friend,
but a foster-brother is as the life-blood of his heart.” Camden
observes, that no love in the world is comparable by many degrees
to that of foster-brethren in Ireland.[108] The close connexion
which the practice of fosterage created between families, while it
frequently prevented civil feuds, often led to them. But the strong
attachment thus created was not confined to foster-brothers, it also
extended to their parents. Spenser relates of the foster-mother to
Murrough O’Brien, that, at his execution, she sucked the blood from
his head, and bathed her face and breast with it, saying that it was
too precious to fall to the earth.
It is unnecessary, at this stage of our labours, to enter upon the
subject of clanship; we mean to reserve our observations thereon till
we come to the history of the clans, when we shall also notice some
peculiarities or traits of the Highlanders not hitherto mentioned.
We shall conclude this chapter by giving lists of the Pictish and
Scoto-Irish Kings, which are generally regarded as authentic. A great
many other names are given by the ancient chroniclers previous to
the points at which the following lists commence, but as these are
considered as totally untrustworthy, we shall omit them.
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE PICTISH KINGS, CHIEFLY ACCORDING TO THE
PICTISH CHRONICLE.
+-------+---------------------------------+---------+--------+-------+
| | | Date of |Duration| Date |
|Series.| NAMES AND FILIATIONS. | Access- | of | of |
| | | ion. | Reigns.| Death.|
+-------+---------------------------------+---------+--------+-------+
| 1 | DRUST, the son of Erp, | | | 451 |
| 2 | TALORC, the son of Aniel, | 451 |4 years.| 455 |
| 3 | NECTON MORBET, the son of Erp, | 455 | 25 | 480 |
| 4 | DREST Gurthinmoch, | 480 | 30 | 510 |
| 5 | GALANAU ETELICH, or GALANAN | | | |
| | ERELECH, | 510 | 12 | 522 |
| 6 | DADREST, | 522 | 1 | 523 |
| 7 | DREST, the son of Girom, | 523 | 1 | 524 |
| | DREST, the son of Wdrest, with | | | |
| | the former, | 524 | 5 | 529 |
| | DREST, the son of Girom, alone, | 529 | 5 | 534 |
| 8 | GARTNACH, the son of Girom, | 534 | 7 | 541 |
| 9 | GEALTRAIM, or CAILTRAIM, the | | | |
| | son of Girom, | 541 | 1 | 542 |
| 10 | TALORG, the son of Muircholaich,| 542 | 11 | 553 |
| 11 | DREST, the son of Munait, | 553 | 1 | 554 |
| 12 | GALAM, with Aleph, | 554 | 1 | 555 |
| | GALAM, with Bridei, | 555 | 1 | 556 |
| 13 | BRIDEI, the son of Mailcon, | 556 | 30 | 586 |
| 14 | GARTNAICH, the son of Domelch, | | | |
| | or Donald, | 586 | 11 | 597 |
| 15 | NECTU, or NECHTAN, the nephew | | | |
| | of Verb, | 597 | 20 | 617 |
| 16 | CINEOCH, or KENNETH, the son of | | | |
| | Luthrin, | 617 | 19 | 636 |
| 17 | GARNARD, the son of Wid, | 636 | 4 | 640 |
| 18 | BRIDEI, the son of Wid, | 640 | 5 | 645 |
| 19 | TALORC, their brother, | 645 | 12 | 657 |
| 20 | TALLORCAN, the son of Enfret, | 657 | 4 | 661 |
| 21 | GARTNAIT, the son of Donnel, | 661 | 6½ | 667 |
| 22 | DREST, his brother, | 667 | 7 | 674 |
| 23 | BRIDEI, the son of Bili, | 674 | 21 | 695 |
| 24 | TARAN, the son of Entifidich, | 695 | 4 | 699 |
| 25 | BRIDEI, the son of Dereli, | 699 | 11 | 710 |
| 26 | NECHTON, the son of Dereli, | 710 | 15 | 725 |
| 27 | DREST, and Elpin, | 725 | 5 | 730 |
| 28 | UNGUS, or ONNUST, the son of | | | |
| | Urguist, | 730 | 31 | 761 |
| 29 | BRIDEI, the son of Wirguist, | 761 | 2 | 763 |
| 30 | CINIOCH, or KENNETH, the son of | | | |
| | Wredech, | 763 | 12 | 775 |
| 31 | ELPIN, the son of Wroid, | 775 | 3½ | 779 |
| 32 | DREST, the son of Talorgan, | 779 | 5 | 784 |
| 33 | TALORGAN, the son of Ungus or | | | |
| | Angus, | 784 | 2½ | 786 |
| 34 | CANAUL, the son of Tarla, | 786 | 5 | 791 |
| 35 | CONSTANTINE, the son of | | | |
| | Urguist, | 791 | 30 | 821 |
| 36 | UNGUS, the son of Urguist, | 821 | 12 | 833 |
| 37 | DREST, the son of Constantine, | | | |
| | and Talorgan, the son of | | | |
| | Wthoil, | 833 | 3 | 836 |
| 38 | UUEN, or UVEN, the son of Ungus,| 836 | 3 | 839 |
| 39 | WRAD, the son of Bargoit, | 839 | 3 | 842 |
| 40 | BRED, or BRIUDI, | 842 | 1 | 843 |
+-------+---------------------------------+---------+--------+-------+
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE SCOTO-IRISH KINGS, FROM THE YEAR 503
TO 843.
+-------+---------------------------------+---------+--------+-------+
| | | Date of |Duration| Date |
|Series.| NAMES AND FILIATIONS. | Access- | of | of |
| | | ion. | Reigns.| Death.|
+-------+---------------------------------+---------+--------+-------+
| | | A.D. | Years. | A.D. |
| 1 | FERGUS, the son of Erc, | 503 | 3 | 506 |
| 2 | DOMANGART, the son of Fergus, | 506 | 5 | 511 |
| 3 | COMGAL, the son of Domangart, | 511 | 24 | 535 |
| 4 | GAVRAN, the son of Domangart, | 535 | 22 | 557 |
| 5 | CONAL, the son of Comgal, | 557 | 14 | 571 |
| 6 | AIDAN, the son of Gavran, | 571 | 34 | 605 |
| 7 | EOACHA’-Bui, the son of Aidan, | 605 | 16 | 621 |
| 8 | KENNETH-Cear, the son of | | | |
| | Eoacha’-Bui, | 621 | ¼ | 621 |
| 9 | FERCHAR, the son of Eogan, the | | | |
| | first of the race of Lorn, | 621 | 16 | 637 |
| 10 | DONAL-BREAC, the son of | | | |
| | Eoacha’-Bui, | 637 | 5 | 642 |
| 11 | CONAL II., the grandson of } | | | |
| | Conal I. } | 642 | 10 | 652 |
| 12 | DUNGAL reigned some years with} | | | |
| | Conal, } | ... | ... | ... |
| 13 | DONAL-Duin, the son of Conal, | 652 | 13 | 665 |
| 14 | MAOL-Duin, the son of Conal, | 665 | 16 | 681 |
| 15 | FERCHAR-Fada, the grandson of | | | |
| | Ferchar I., | 681 | 21 | 702 |
| 16 | EOACHA’-Rinevel, the son of | | | |
| | Domangart, and the grandson | | | |
| | of Donal-breac, | 702 | 3 | 705 |
| 17 | AINBHCEALACH, the son of | | | |
| | Ferchar-fada, | 705 | 1 | 706 |
| 18 | SELVACH, the son of }| | | |
| | Ferchar-fada, reigned over }| | | |
| | Lorn from 706 to 729, }| ... | ... | ... |
| 19 | DUNCHA BEG reigned over Cantyre}| | | |
| | and Argaill till 720, }| 706 | 27 | 733 |
| 20 | EOCHA’ III., the son of }| | | |
| | Eoacha’-rinevel, over Cantyre}| | | |
| | and Argaill, from 720 to 729;}| | | |
| | and also over Lorn from 729 }| | | |
| | to 733, }| ... | ... | ... |
| 21 | MUREDACH, the son of | | | |
| | Ainbhcealach, | 733 | 3 | 736 |
| 22 | EOGAN, the son of Muredach, | 736 | 3 | 739 |
| 23 | AODH-Fin, the son of Eoacha’ | | | |
| | III., | 739 | 30 | 769 |
| 24 | FERGUS, the son of Aodh-fin, | 769 | 3 | 772 |
| 25 | SELVACH II., the son of Eogan, | 772 | 24 | 796 |
| 26 | EOACHA’-Annuine IV., the son of | | | |
| | Aodh-fin, | 796 | 30 | 826 |
| 27 | DUNGAL, the son of Selvach II., | 826 | 7 | 833 |
| 28 | ALPIN, the son of | | | |
| | Eoacha’-Annuine IV., | 833 | 3 | 836 |
| 29 | KENNETH, the son of Alpin, | 836 | 7 | 843 |
+-------+---------------------------------+---------+--------+-------+
It is right to mention that the Albanic Duan omits the names between
Ainbhcealach and Dungal (17-27), most of which, however, are
contained in the St. Andrews’ list.
FOOTNOTES:
[79] See Innes’s _Essay_, vol. i.
[80] This is the date commonly given, although Mr. E. W. Robertson
makes it 502 on the authority of Tighernach, while O’Donovan (_Annals
of the Four Masters_, vol. i. p. 160) makes it 506.
[81] Vol. i. p. 212.
[82] _Early Kings_, vol. i. p. 5.
[83] _Early Kings_, vol. ii. p. 305.
[84] At this time, and up at least to the 11th century, present
Scotland was known as Albania, Alban, or Alba, the term Scotland or
Scotia being generally applied to Ireland, unless where there is some
qualifying term, as Nova. Burton thinks it not safe to consider that
the word Scot must mean a native of present Scotland, when the period
dealt with is earlier than the middle of the 12th century.
[85] Skene in his _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, p. cx., makes
the date to be about 495 or 498.
[86] Skene’s _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, p. cxiii.
[87] More recently the invaluable labours of E. W. Robertson, Burton,
Forbes-Leslie, Joseph Robertson, Grub, Skene, and Maclauchlan, have
been the means of putting the history of this period on its proper
footing.
[88] Vol. i. ch. vi.
[89] Dr. Maclauchlan’s _Early Scottish Church_, pp. 32, 33.
[90] Druid is said to be derived from a word meaning ‘oak,’ common to
many of the Indo-European tongues.
[91] _Eccles. Hist._, vol. i. p. 49.
[92] Grub’s _Ecc. Hist._, vol. i. p. 51.
[93] _Book of Deer_, Preface. Further details concerning the early
Scottish church will be given at the end of this volume.
[94] There is some confusion here; Dr. Maclauchlan places this
conflict in the reign of Brude son of Derile, who, according to our
list, did not succeed till 699.
[95] Book V. c. 24.
[96] See the Ulster Annals, where an account is given of all these
conflicts.
[97] _Highlanders_, vol. i. p. 65.
[98] _Early Kings_, vol. i. p. 39.
[99] Skene’s _Chron. of Picts and Scots_, p. cxv.
[100] Dr. Reeves supposes this to be Culross in
Perthshire.--Maclauchlan.
[101] Dr. Skene, in his preface to the Chronicles of the Picts and
Scots, endeavours to prove, by very plausible reasoning, and by
comparison of various lists of kings, that for a century previous
to the accession of Kenneth to the Pictish throne, Dalriada was
under subjection to the Anglian monarchy, and was ruled by Pictish
sovereigns. In an able paper, however, read recently by Dr. Archibald
Smith before the Antiquarian Society of Scotland, he shows that
Argyleshire was invaded but not subdued by Ungus, king of the Picts,
in 736 and 741. Dr. Smith supported his conclusion by reference to
passages in the annals of Tigernach, of Ulster, and the Albanic Duan,
which seemed to him to give an intelligible and continuous account
of regal succession in Dalriada, but afforded no countenance to the
theory of Pinkerton of the entire conquest of the Scots in Britain
by Ungus, nor to the conclusion Dr. Skene has come to, viz., the
complete supremacy of the Picts in the Scottish Dalriada, and the
extinction of Dalriada as a Scottish nation from the year 741 to the
era of a new Scottish kingdom founded by Kenneth Macalpin in the
year 843. On the contrary, he was convinced that Aodh-fionn was the
restorer of its full liberty to the crushed section of Lorn, and that
he was, at the close of his career, the independent ruler of Dalriada
as a Scottish nation.
[102] Scotland, vol. i. p. 329.
[103] See Skene’s preface to _Chronicle of Picts and Scots_, p.
xcviii. et seq., for some curious and ingenious speculation on this
point.
[104] We shall take the liberty of quoting here an extract from an
able and ingenious paper read by Dr. Skene before the Soc. of Ant.,
in June 1861, and quoted in Dr. Gordon’s _Scotichronicon_, p. 83. It
will help, we think, to throw a little light on this dark subject,
and assist the reader somewhat to understand the nature and extent
of the so-called Scottish conquest. “The next legend which bears
upon the history of St. Andrews is that of St. Adrian, at 4th March.
The best edition of this legend is in the Aberdeen Breviary, and it
is as follows:--Adrian was a native of Hungary, and after preaching
there for some time, was seized with a desire to preach to other
people; and having gathered together a company, he set out ‘ad
orientales Scotiæ partes que tunc a Pictis occupabantur,’ _i.e._,
‘to the eastern parts of Scotland, which were then occupied by the
Picts,’--and landed there with 6,606 confessors, clergy, and people,
among whom were Glodianus, Gayus, Minanus, Scobrandus, and others,
chief priests. These men, with their bishop, Adrian, ‘deleto regno
Pictorum,’ _i.e._, ‘the Pictish kingdom being destroyed,’--did many
signs, but afterwards desired to have a residence on the Isle of
May. The Danes, who then devastated the whole of Britain, came to
the Island, and there slew them. Their martyrdom is said to have
taken place in the year 875. It will be observed that they are here
said to have settled in the east part of Scotland, opposite the Isle
of May, that is in Fife, while the Picts still occupied it; that
the Pictish kingdom is then said to have been destroyed; and that
their martyrdom took place in 875, thirty years after the Scottish
conquest under Kenneth M’Alpin. Their arrival was therefore almost
coincident with the Scottish conquest; and the large number said to
have come, not the modest twenty-one who arrived with Regulus, but
6,606 confessors, clergy, and people, shows that the traditionary
history was really one of an invasion, and leads to the suspicion
at once that it was in reality a part of the Scottish occupation
of the Pictish kingdom. This suspicion is much strengthened by two
corroborative circumstances: 1st, the year 875, when they are said to
have been slain by the Danes, falls in the reign of Constantine, the
son of Kenneth Macalpin, in his fourteenth year, and in this year the
Pictish chronicle records a battle between the Danes and the Scots,
and adds, that after it, ‘occasi sunt Scotti in Coachcochlum,’ which
seems to refer to this very slaughter. 2d. Hector Boëce preserves
a different tradition regarding their origin. He says--‘Non desunt
qui scribant sanctissimos Christi martyros Hungaros fuisse. _Alii
ex Scotis Anglisque gregarie collectos_’--_i.e._, ‘Some write that
the most holy martyrs of Christ were Hungarians. Others (say) that
they were collected from the Scots and English.’ There was therefore
a tradition that the clergy slain were not Hungarians, but a body
composed of Scotti and Angli. But Hadrian was a bishop; he landed
in the east of Fife, within the parochia of S. Regulus, and he is
placed at the head of some of the lists of bishops of St. Andrews
as first bishop. It was therefore the Church of St. Andrews that
then consisted of clergy collected from among the Scotti and the
Angli. The Angli probably represented the Church of Acca, and the
Scotti those brought in by Adrian. The real signification of this
occupation of St. Andrews by Scottish clergy will be apparent when
we recollect that the Columban clergy, who had formerly possessed
the chief ecclesiastical seats among the Picts, had been expelled in
717, and Anglic clergy introduced--the cause of quarrel being the
difference of their usages. Now, the Pictish chronicle states as the
main cause of the overthrow of the Pictish kingdom, a century and
a half later, this very cause. It says--‘Deus enim eos pro merito
suæ malitiæ alienos ac otiosos hæreditate dignatus est facere, quia
illi non solum Deum, missam, ac præceptum spreverunt sed et in jure
æqualitatis _aliis_ aequi _pariter_ noluerunt.’ _I.e._, ‘For God, on
account of their wickedness, deemed them worthy to be made hereditary
strangers and idlers; because they contemned not only God, the mass,
and the precept (of the Church), but besides refused to be regarded
as on the same equality with others.’ They were overthrown, not only
because they despised ‘Deum missam et præceptum,’ but because they
would not tolerate the other party. And this great grievance was
removed, when St. Andrews appears at the head of the Scottish Church
in a solemn Concordat with the king Constantine, when, as the Pictish
Chronicle tells us, ‘Constantinus Rex et Cellachus Episcopus leges
disciplinasque fidei atque jura ecclesiarum evangeliorum que _pariter
cum Scottis_ devoverunt custodiri.’ _I.e._, ‘King Constantine and
Bishop Kellach vowed to preserve the laws and discipline of the faith
and the rights of the churches and gospels, equally with the Scots.’
Observe the parallel language of the two passages. In the one, the
‘Picti in jure æqualitatis aliis,’ that is, the Scottish clergy,
‘aequi pariter noluerunt,’ and in the other the King and the Bishop
of St. Andrews ‘vowed to preserve the laws and discipline of the
faith,’ ‘_pariter cum Scottis_,’ the thing the Picts would not do.
It seems plain, therefore, that the ecclesiastical element entered
largely into the Scottish conquest; and a main cause and feature of
it was a determination on the part of the Scottish clergy to recover
the benefices they had been deprived of. The exact coincidence of
this great clerical invasion of the parochia of St. Andrews by
ecclesiastics, said by one tradition to have been Scots, and the
subsequent position of St. Andrews as the head of the Scottish
Church, points strongly to this as the true historic basis of the
legend of S. Adrian.”
[105] Lib. ix. c. xxiv.
[106] O’Connor’s Dissert.
[107] Lib. viii. c. 45.
[108] Holland’s Camden, Ireland, p. 116.