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Causantín or Constantín mac Cináeda was a king of the Picts. He is often known as Constantine I in reference to his place in modern lists of kings of Scots, but contemporary sources described Causantín only as a Pictish king. A son of Cináed mac Ailpín, he succeeded his uncle Domnall mac Ailpín as Pictish king following the latter's death on 13 April 862. It is likely that Causantín's reign witnessed increased activity by Vikings, based in Ireland, Northumbria and northern Britain. He died fighting one such invasion.
Constantine, son of Áed was an early King of Scotland, known then by the Gaelic name Alba. The Kingdom of Alba, a name which first appears in Constantine's lifetime, was situated in modern-day Scotland.
The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from early medieval texts and Pictish stones. Their Latin name, Picti, appears in written records from the 3rd to the 10th century. Early medieval sources report the existence of a distinct Pictish language, which today is believed to have been an Insular Celtic language, closely related to the Brittonic spoken by the Britons who lived to the south.
Dál Riata or Dál Riada was a Gaelic kingdom that encompassed the western seaboard of Scotland and the north-eastern corner of Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the 6th and 7th centuries, it covered what is now Argyll in Scotland and part of County Antrim in Northern Ireland. After a period of expansion, Dál Riata eventually became associated with the Gaelic Kingdom of Alba.
Cináed mac Maíl Coluim was King of Scots (Alba). The son of Malcolm I, he succeeded King Cuilén on the latter's death at the hands of Rhydderch ap Dyfnwal in 971.
Domnall mac Causantín, anglicised as Donald II, was King of the Picts or King of Alba in the late 9th century. He was the son of Constantine I. Donald is given the epithet Dásachtach, "the Madman", by the Prophecy of Berchán.
Óengus mac Fergusa was king of the Picts from 820 until 834. In Scottish historiography, he is associated with the veneration of Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland.
Dúnchad mac Conaing was king of Dál Riata. He was joint ruler with Conall Crandomna until he was defeated and killed by Talorcan, king of the Picts, in the battle of Strath Ethairt. Sources differ on Dúnchad's patronym and thus his presumed ancestry.
Áedán mac Gabráin, also written as Aedan, was a king of Dál Riata from c. 574 until c. 609 AD. The kingdom of Dál Riata was situated in modern Argyll and Bute, Scotland, and parts of County Antrim, Ireland. Genealogies record that Áedán was a son of Gabrán mac Domangairt.
Óengus son of Fergus, was king of the Picts from 732 until his death in 761. His reign can be reconstructed in some detail from a variety of sources. The unprecedented gains he made, and the legacy he left, mean Óengus can be considered the first king of what would become Scotland.
Bridei I, also known as Bridei, son of Maelchon, was king of the Picts from 554 to 584. Sources are vague or contradictory regarding him, but it is believed that his court was near Loch Ness and that he may have been a Christian. There were contemporaries claiming the title "king of the Picts". He died in the mid-580s, possibly in battle, and was succeeded by Gartnait son of Domelch.
Nechtan grandson of Uerb, was king of the Picts from 595 to around 616. It has been suggested that this Nechtan is the same person as the Neithon who ruled the kingdom of Alt Clut.
Nechtan, son of Erip, was the king of the Picts from 456 to 480.
The origins of the Kingdom of Alba pertain to the origins of the Kingdom of Alba, or the Gaelic Kingdom of Scotland, either as a mythological event or a historical process, during the Early Middle Ages.
Neithon was a 7th-century ruler of Alt Clut, the Brittonic kingdom later known as Strathclyde. According to the Harleian genealogies, he was the son of Guipno map Dumnagual Hen. Alfred Smyth suggests he is the same man as King Nechtan the Great of the Picts, and perhaps the Nechtan son of Canu the Annals of Ulster record as having died in 621. The Senchus fer n-Alban indicate that Gartnait, the son of Áedán mac Gabráin, King of Dál Riata, sired a son named Cano, but unless the Harleian genealogies are to be ignored, this would make Gartnait and Dumnagual Hen the same persons, as the respective fathers of Gartnait and Guipno. However, it is possible that either as an Alt Clut Briton ascending the throne of Pictland, or as a Pict ascending the throne of Alt Clut, his genealogy might have been altered, and it is notable that in the Pictish king-lists he is called "Nechtan, nepos Uerb", suggesting that it was a descent from Uerb that mattered in Pictland, and not his unimportant father Guipno/Canu. Alan Orr Anderson pointed out that Uerb is probably the Pictish form of Ferb, a female name. Alan MacQuarrie suggests that Neithon was indeed the Pictish king Nechtan, but does not take any stance on the Guipno/Canu problem.
Elfin was a ruler of Alt Clut, the Brittonic kingdom later known as Strathclyde, sometime in the later 7th century. According to the Harleian genealogies, he was the son of Eugein I, one of his predecessors as king, and the father of Beli II, who ruled some time later. Very little is certainly known of him, though he may be identifiable with other figures attested in the Irish annals, and circumstantial evidence may link him to a number of important events during this time.
The Cenél nÓengusa were a kin group who ruled the island of Islay, and perhaps nearby Colonsay, off the western coast of Scotland in the early Middle Ages.
Dargart mac Finguine was a member of the Cenél Comgaill kindred, after which Cowal in Scotland is named. The only event directly connected with him in the Irish annals, based on a chronicle then being kept on Iona, is his death.
The Battle of Fid Eoin was fought in early medieval Ireland between the kingdoms of Dál Riata and Dál nAraidi in either 629 or 630. The forces of Dál Riata were led by their king Connad Cerr, whilst the Dál nAraidi were led by Máel Caích, brother of Congal Cáech who was the king of the Dál nAraidi and the over-kingdom of Ulaid. The result of the battle was a decisive defeat of the Dál Riata.
References
- Anderson, Alan Orr (1990), Early Sources of Scottish History A.D 500–1286, vol. I (2nd ed.), Stamford: Paul Watkins, ISBN 1-871615-03-8
- Anderson, M. O. (1980), Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland (2nd ed.), Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, ISBN 0-7011-1604-8
- Bannerman, John (1974), Studies in the History of Dalriada, Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, ISBN 0-7011-2040-1
- Charles-Edwards, T. M. (2006). The Chronicle of Ireland. Translated Texts for Historians. Vol. 44. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-959-2.
- Evans, Nicholas (2008), "Royal succession and kingship among the Picts", The Innes Review, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 59 (1): 1–48, doi:10.3366/e0020157x08000140, hdl: 20.500.11820/657d2747-c29d-4254-989d-eb23970a9684 , ISSN 0020-157X
- Fraser, James E. (2009). From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795. New Edinburgh History of Scotland. Vol. I. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-1232-1.
- Smyth, Alfred P. (1989). Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD 80-1000. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-0100-7.