Kenneth Ier of Scotland

Kenneth 1st of Scotland the Bold one (towards 810 - 858); Cináed mac Ailpín

The Duan Albanach allots a 30 years to him reign on the Scots and the “Chronicle picte” reign a 16 years on the Pictes.

It succeeded his father, Alpin II, on the throne of Dalriada and added that of the Pictes in 842 to be to them the first monarch united under the title of Alba of the Latin for white .

By remembering the characteristic of the transmission matrilinéaire which controlled monarchy picte, it is obvious that Kenneth mac Alpin based its claims on the throne picte starting from the blood ties of his/her mother. In 839, Pictes and Scots underwent a disastrous defeat vis-a-vis the Viking S. the men of north had conquered and colonized the the Shetland, the Hébrides external and as far in the south as the estuary of the river Clyde. Caithness, Sutherland and even Dalriada had been attacked and persecuted by the long boats. The brutal defeat made perish most of the Noblesse including the king of the Pictes and the Scots Uuen mac Unuist, its Bran brother, and “of many others”. That opened the claim of Kenneth mac Alpin to the throne and weakens its competition.

His/her father was a member of Cinél Gabrain, from which almost totality from the kings Scot resulted: Alpine Mac Eachaidh, Eochaid mac Áeda, Áed Find, Eochaid mac Echdach. His/her mother picte went down from the royal house of Fortrenn, and its great-great-uncle Alpin mac Eachaidh had reigned as king of the Pictes until what is deposited by Oengus Ier. We know these facts by the prophecy of Saint Berchan and De Instructione Principis which indicates that in 841 Kenneth mac Alpin attacked the remainders of the army picte and a defeat inflicted to him which gave him the name of “nourrissor of corbel X”.

Kenneth 1st then invites the king picte, Drust mac Uurad, and the noble ones surviving Scone for perhaps solving the question of the freedom of Dalriada and the accession of Kenneth mac Alpin to the throne. Noting the recent victory of Kenneth mac Alpine in the south and an army destroyed in north, Drust, as well as all the applicants with the throne picte of the seven royal houses came. The legend indicates that Scot attended the massacre which will be named “the Trahison of MacAlpin”.

Although their king and their royal houses were killed and their destroyed armies, Pictes resisted nevertheless the domination of the Scot. Kenneth mac Alpin created its capital with Forteviot, also called Scone, in the territory picte. It moved also its religious centers with Dunkeld on the river Tay in what is nowadays Perthshire, from where it transferred the remainders from Saint Colomba from the island of Iona.

About at the same time as the people of the Wales was separated from the Saxon invaders by the artificial border of the Digue of Offa, Kenneth mac Alpin created the Royaume of Scotland with many colonists Viking S. the unification of all the Norway by Harald Fairhair in 872 pushed many Jarl S to seek grounds elsewhere.

One of the results of the arrival of the men of north with their control of the sea was that the kingdom of Scotland became surrounded and insulated. The old bond with the Ireland was cut, like that with the south of the England and the continent, also the kingdom of Alba established by Kenneth mac Alpin was only and plain against a common enemy.

Kenneth would have died of a Tumeur in Scone “before Ides of February the 3rd day of the week” probably the February 8th 858 and was buried on the island of Iona. His/her brother Donald {{Ier}}, succeeded to him as it was the habit.

In few generations, any trace of autonomy picte had disappeared. Kenneth mac Alpin accepted the two crowns sitting on the Pierre of the destiny.

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