medieval-atlas/events-from-about-850-to-1460/74

Transcription

Events from about 850 to 1460 Scotland from about 842 to 1286 The kingdom of Scotia or Alba, although probably not called such in Latin or Gaelic respectively until 900, came into being as a result of the takeover of Pictland by the Scots of DaJriada under their king, Kenneth MacAlpin (d.858). The traditional date for this event is 842 but the process had begun much earlier. It had certainly been completed by the year 849 when the relics of Colum Cille were taken from Iona to Dunkeld thereby marking the new administrative centre of the Church. At about the same time, Scone became the caput or legal centre, doubtless because it had already functioned as such for the important Pictish province of Fortriu, perhaps also for the whole of Pictland. This explains why tradition brings the inauguration stone of the kings of Scots, commonly known as the Stone of Destiny, from Iona to Scone rather than DunkeJd. The abbot of the royal (regalis) monastery at Scone, probably a community of Culdees, seems to have taken over the mantle of the Abbot ofIona in respect oftaking part in the inaugural ceremonies associated with accession to the kingship of the Scots. The southern boundary of the enlarged kingdom of the Scots was now the Forth -Clyde line, though perhaps not precisely located on the Clyde until the final destruction of the British stronghold of Dumbarton by the Norse of Dublin in 870. It is likely to be at this point that Lennox, the northernmost province of the kingdom of Strathclyde, became part of Scotia. Control of the north depended upon the military presence there of the Norse and, for a time at least, their power extended as far south as Dingwall. Indeed, for the first fifty years or so of its existence, Scotia suffered a number of destructive raids by Scandinavians who plundered Dunkeld before 858 and probably also in 878 and again 903. But in the following year they were defeated in Strathearn by Constantine, king of Scots, who had the bachall or crozier of Colum Cille carried before his army. Constantine reigned from 900 to 943 and if nothing else was known about him the length of his reign, remarkable for this period, would be sufficient testimony to his success as a ruler. In 918 the Scots again defeated the Scandinavians, this time well outside the confines of Scotia on the banks of the River Tyne in Northern England. Constantine's retirement in 943 to become Abbot of the Culdee monastery of Kilrimont at SI. Andrews 'on the brow of the wave' is an indication of his confidence that the seaborne threat to Scotia from the Scandinavians had receded. More significantly, perhaps, it was apparently in his reign that the administrative centre of the church was removed from Dunkeld to SI. Andrews where it remained until the Reformation. Much of what little is known of the history of Scotia has to do with succession to the kingship under the terms of the system now generally labelled tanistry. After Constantine's reign it seems no longer to have operated peacefully, hence a long period of feud and faction between rival claimants productive of strife at such identifiable locations as Fetteresso in 954, Duncrub in 965, Fettercaim in 995 and Rathinveramon in 997. Another theme, that goes back to Dalriada, indeed to the initial period of migration from Ireland, was the constant urge of the Scots to expand into new territories. Kenneth MacAlpin himself invaded Lothian on no less than six occasions, the stronghold of Edinburgh was captured by the Scots in the reign of their King Indulf (954-62), and victory at the battle of Carham about 1018 by MaJcolm Il finally secured the district of Lothian. About the same time, MaJcolm's grandson, Duncan became king of Strathclyde which had been in a client relationship to the kings of Scots ever since the late ninth century, exemplified as much as anything by the influx of Gaelic speakers into the area in the interval, so that when Duncan succeeded to the kingship of the Scots on the death of his grandfather in 1034, Scotia had become Scotland more or less as we know it today.

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