Notes |
- For a listing of web sites that have the genealogy of family lines ofroyal houses, many noble houses and more, go to the entry "INFORMATION,Royal Houses family lines web sites" in this file.
For more detail on information on Kings of Picts, Scots, Dalriada, etcsee Notes under Constantine I of Alba King of Scotland
Some sources for Scots & Pict King information.
For the sources of information, see in this file under "INFORMATION,Sources of" and also "INFORMATION, General Clan Genealogy ".
"Mac Alpin's Treason: The End of the Picts
The Gael warrior king whose bloody sword enthroned a Scottish line ofkings which eventually created modern Scotland is perhaps one of the mostmysterious figures of ancient history. His is a life surrounded bytreacherous myths, dark stories and unproved allegations of shamefuldeeds and sinful accomplishments. That the first true Scottish king ofthe various peoples of Scotland is smeared with the stain of treason andbackstabbing is as much a product from lack of knowledge as it is fromthe terrible bits and pieces from a story of treason which has survivedfor over a thousand years.
There is very little fact upon which to base a story; indeed there is alot of falsified or embellished documents from later Scottish Churchmenand Church historians, eager to create a Church approved version of howthe Gael line of kings (and its Church) came to conquer Alba, completelyerase Pictish culture and destroy the Pictish Church.
That the Scots' aim was to free Dalriada from Pictish domination andestablish Scottish rule over the Picts is clearly evident by the actionsof Kenneth MacAlpin's father, known as Alpin, who in 834 AD, as the Pictsfaced the new Viking threat in the north, rebelled against his PictishKing of Scots and Picts. This ruler of both Pictland and Dalriada wasOengus II, and according to the Chronicles of Huntingdon, the subject ofAlpin's rebellion.
The rebellion by his Scottish subjects in the south forced the Pictishking to forego his total preoccupation with the Vikings in the north;Oengus II split his land army in two and faced the Scottish rebel (andsouthern threat) on Easter day, 834 AD. The Picts suffered a disastrousdefeat at the hands of Alpin and the Scots and the Irish Annals recordthat Oengus, King of the Picts and Scots died that year. Overwhelmed withvictory, Alpin marched north to attack the rear of the main Pictish armyin the north. The Scots and Picts met in battle on August of that sameyear, and the Scots suffered a brutal defeat in which Alpin was capturedand beheaded.
Five years later, the Picts still faced the northern threat of the nearlyinvincible Vikings. The Picts had suffered a disastrous defeat at thehands of the Vikings in 839 AD. The Norsemen had by that year conqueredand settled Shetland, the Outer Hebrides and as far south as the mouth ofthe Clyde. Additionally, Caithness, Sutherland and even Dalriada werebeing attacked and harassed by the long boats. The brutalizing defeat atthe hands of the Vikings in 839 not only killed most of the Pictishnobility, including the King of Picts and Scots Uven Mac Angus II, hisbrother Bran and "numberless others", but also opened Mac Alpin's claimto the vacant Pictish throne, via his mother, who was a Pictish princess.
Recalling the peculiarity of a matrilineal succession which governedPictish crowns, it is evident that Kenneth Mac Alpin (the Hardy) groundedhis claims to the Pictish crown from his mother's bloodlines. His claimto the crown of Dalriada came from his father, who was a member of clanGabhran, which had produced most Scottish kings, such as his ancestorsKing Eachaidh, King Alpin Mac Eachaidh, King Aed and King Fergus. HisPictish mother was descended from the royal house of Fortrenn, and hisgreat-grand uncle, Alpin Mac Eachaidh had actually reigned as King ofPicts until deposed by Oengus I. It is thus that Kenneth Mac Alpin wasone of several nobles with a claim to the crown of Picts and Scots.
Mac Alpin, the King
The sources for facts of how Kenneth Mac Alpin, the avenging son of theslain Alpin, became King of Picts and Scots are few and suspect. Two suchsources, The Prophecy of St. Berchan, and De Instructione Principus notethat in 841 AD Mac Alpin attacked the remnants of the Pictish army anddefeated them (he is lauded as "the raven feeder").
Mac Alpin then invites the Pictish king Drust IX and the remainingPictish nobles to Scone to perhaps settle the issue of Dalriada's freedomor MacAlpin's claim to the Dalriadic crown. Faced with a recentlyvictorious MacAlpin in the south, and a devastated army in the north,Drust, as well as all claimants to the Pictish throne from the sevenroyal houses attend this meeting at Scone. Legend has it that the Scotscame secretly armed to Scone, where Drust and the Pictish nobles werekilled.
It is Giraldus Cambresis in De Instructione Principus who recounts how agreat banquet was held at Scone, and the Pictish King and his nobles wereplied with drinks and became quite drunk. Once the Picts were drunk, theScots allegedly pulled bolts from the benches, trapping the Picts inconcealed earthen hollows under the benches; additionally, the traps wereset with sharp blades, such that the falling Picts impaled themselves(the The Prophecy of St. Berchan tells that "...[Mac Alpin] plunged themin the pitted earth, sown with deadly blades...") . Trapped and unable todefend themselves, the surviving Picts were then murdered from above andtheir bodies, clothes and ornaments "plundered."
Although their king and royal houses had been murdered, and their armieswiped out in the north by the Vikings and decimated in the south by theScots, the Picts nonetheless resist Scottish domination and as late asthe 12th year of MacAlpin's reign the The Chronicle of Huntington tellsus that Mac Alpin "fought successfully against the Picts seven times inone day" (perhaps wiping out the last remnants of an independent Pictisharmed force).
Pictish resistance of a sort resurfaces after the end of the short reignby MacAlpin's second son, Aedh, when an attempt is tried to revive thePictish matrilineal form of succession in the form of bringing to thethrone Eochaidh Mac Run, son of Kenneth's daughter by a King of theBritons, which was in turn a joint ruler with a Pict named Giric, son ofDungal. They were expelled within ten years and Donald, who was thegrandson of Kenneth via Kenneth's eldest son, assumed the throne.
The Scottish kings' dominion was essentially limited to Fortrenn, theMearns and Dalriada, as the rest of the Pictish lands were under the yokeof the Vikings. Nonetheless, within a few generations, the Pictishlanguage is forgotten, the Pictish Church taken over by the ScottishColumban Church and most vestiges of Pictish culture erased.
Furthermore, the seat of Kings is moved to Scone, sacred heart of thePictish land and the sons of Mac Alpin accept the crown over the land ofPicts and Scots seated on a slab of stone which Scottish myth tells uswas carried by the Celtic tribes since their origins in Spain, brought toTara in Ireland, built into the wall of Dunstaffnage Castle and thenbrought to Scone.
The Scots move north, ally themselves with the Vikings; in the south theylose and then defeat the Angles and with their borders relatively safe,forever suffocate Pictish culture."
From http://members.tripod.com/~Halfmoon/pict4
This site has links to:
Pictish Nation
The Pictish Kings
The Ancient Names of Scotland
A List of Books About the Picts
The Ancient Connection to Spain
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