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The House Of MacAlpin |
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Constantine II
900-943
King Constantine II or Caustantin MacAodh (son of Aodh) succeeded to the throne on the death of his cousin Donald. He had been smuggled into exile as a child after his father, King Aodh had been murdered. He was to prove a remarkable man and a great survivor, he was undoubtedly one of the greatest of the early Gaelic Kings of Scotland.
The desparate struggle with the Vikings continued, in 902 they siezed Dunkeld, A sacred site to the Scots where the relics of the revered St. Columba were held. Constantine won a significant victory against the invaders at Strathcarron, in 904, driving them out.
The Anglo-Saxon chronicle records that Constantine II, along with the Kings of Strathclyde and Northumbria, accepted the Saxon King Edward the Elder as overlord and King of all of Britain. Constantine re-affirmed this alliance with Edward's son, Athelstan, meeting him at Penrith. Later however, he broke his allegiance to the English King by providing shelter for two of the rebellious sons of King Athelstan.
Relations between the two kingdoms became further strained when the Viking King Guthfrith died and disagreements arose as to who should succeed him. Ealdred, Lord of Bamburgh, also died and both Constantine of Alba and Athelstan of Wessex tried to influence the Bernicans to elect a candidate who would passively accept their overlordship. Constantine seems to have been successful. Accordingly, an English army landed in Scotland and raided the country, ruthlessly burning and pillaging all in their path.
Constantine consequently allied himself with the Britons of Strathclyde and the Danes. He married his daughter to the Viking King, Olaf the Red. He lead an army into Cumbria, a battle was fought at Brunnanburgh, where the Scots army met with utter defeat and his son was killed. Constantine was obliged to once more accept himself as Athelstan's vassal. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle revelled in his defeat.
The King remodelled the Church in Scotland along more Gaelic lines, bringing the practices of the Pictish church in line with those of the Scots. He and Cellach, Bishop of St. Andrews, called the Synod of Scone which met in 906.
In his later years Constantine's health declined. At the age of about seventy, itself a remarkable achievement in such violent times, he exchanged a King's palace for a monk's cell when he abdicated in favour of his cousin Malcolm I and entered the monastery of St. Andrews as a monk, he eventually was to become its Abbot and died there in 952. He is believed to have been buried at Maidenstone in Aberdeenshire.
Saxon Stone commemorating the Peace of Dacre