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The House Of MacAlpin |
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Dark Age Scotland
Dark age Scotland was occupied by a number of races. The Picts, the aboriginal inhabitants of the country, occupied the north-east of Scotland, they were a short race of Celtic stock and were reported to have arrived in Britain from Europe during the Celtic migrations in the first millennium B.C. The Scots, who were Gaelic Celts, arrived later, they crossed the sea from Northern Ireland in the third and fourth centuries A.D. taking over the area of the West Highlands, which they termed Dalraida.
The Britons of Strathclyde, another Celtic race, known as Brythonic Celts, controlled the south-west from the Clyde to the Solway and into Cumbria. To this melting pot was added the Vikings, of Norway and Denmark, originally raiders who became settlers, who largely occupied the islands of Shetland and Orkney and lastly the Angles, who came north across the border from England to inhabit the Scottish lowlands.
The MacAlpin dynasty, which ruled Scotland throughout the Dark Ages, united the warring races of Picts and Scots as one nation. Early Scottish Kings were appointed by the Celtic system of tanistry, a tanist or tanaise (literally the expected one) the successor to the King, was not neccesarily his eldest son, but was designated from among a group of his kindred, chosen during the life of the reigning King. This pattern of succession can be previously discerned amongst the ancient Kings of Dalraida. The House of MacAlpin continued to occupy the Scottish throne for the next two hundred years, which was marked by bitter dynastic conflict over tanist successors between rival branches of the dynasty.
Kenneth MacAlpin
843-858
Cinaeth, known to history as Kenneth MacAlpin or Kenneth the Hardy, was born around 810 on the Island of Iona. He was the son of the Scots chieftain Alpin, who had lead his countrymen in the struggle against the Picts and the invading Vikings. Alpin, the son of Eochaid the Venomous, was an obscure character but tradition states that he won a victory over the Picts, who later killed him, displaying his severed head in their camp.
Following the death of his father, Kenneth took up his standard and occupied the Pictish strongholds of Fortriu and Forteviot in Perthshire.
The Picts, reputed to be fierce warriors, were engaged in fighting the invading Vikings, who had previously killed the Pictish king, Eagan. Following victory in battle Kenneth became accepted as King of the Picts also. He was made
King on the Moot Hill at Scone, (pronounced skoon) seated upon the famous Stone of Scone. The
stone's origins are obscured by the mists of time, but it was probably brought
to Argyll from Antrim by Fergus MacErc of the Dal Riata Gaels. It's Gaelic name was Lia Fail meaning
the speaking stone. Scone itself was seen as the sacred centre of Pictavia.
At a banquet at Scone, Kenneth murdered the seven Earls of the Scot's kingdom of Dalriada, who might have lead opposition to his claim to be King of Scots and Picts, marking what was hoped to be the end of the conflict. The murder is popularly known as MacAlpin's treason.
Although his father Alpin had been a Dalraid Scot, Kenneth had a Pictish mother and since the Pictish law of inheritance passed through the Matrilineal line, he also claimed to be the rightful representative of the Pictish line of Kings. Kenneth married the daughter of his second cousin, Constantine.
Kenneth itself was a Pictish name. The name Picts had been coined by the Romans, who referred to the inhabitants of Scotland as Picti or painted men, due to their practice of dying their bodies with woad before going into battle. The Pictish language and culture was gradually taken over by that of the Scots.
Kenneth I sought repeatedly to conquer the Angles of Lothian, but did not meet with success in this area. He engaged in a long war against the Bernicans, who themselves were struggling against the Viking threat, crossing the Forth, then the boundary between the two countries, burning and looting Saxon villages, but made no significant territorial gains. The first King of Scots placed his capital at Dunkeld in Perthshire.
After a seventeen year reign Kenneth I died at Forteviot, Perthshire, possibly of cancer, he was buried on the island of Iona. He was succeeded by his younger brother, Donald I, in accordance with the tanist system of inheritance.