Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

HISTORY.
They were in Brude's time converted to Christianity by
St Columba about 563, and were then a united and
powerful people. The nation seems to have consisted
of a federation of small tribal bodies united into power-
ful district tribes ruled by Mormaers, these again own-
ing allegiance to an Ard-ri, or High King. The
succession to this office ran in certain families, but in
right of the mother, not of the father, and the trans-
mission of rule was latterly tanistic.
The kingdom of the Scots was almost co-extensive
with the modern county of Argyll, and was bounded on
the north by the line of heights to the north of Loch
Leven and the line of the Black Water Lochs; on the
east by Drumalban, whence the line struck across the
middle of Loch Lomond, across the narrow neck between
that and Loch Long, and thence down Loch Long and
the Firth of Clyde. Their territory included also a
portion of Mull, the whole of Islay and Jura, and all
the islands in the Clyde. These Scots were sprung
from the Irish branch of the Goidels. How the first
colony, which was led across from the district known
as Dalriada in the north of Ireland, in the end of the
5th century, by Fergus mac Ere and his two brothers,
Loam and Angus, first obtained footing in the district
is not known, but having got it they rapidly spread
their power over the whole district, which was portioned
out among the descendants and adherents of the three
brothers, who became known as the Cinel Gam - an —
that being the name of one of the grandsons of Fergus
— the Cinel Loarn, and the Cinel Angus. The first
held that portion of the Dalriadic kingdom which lies
to the south-east of the line of Crinan Bay and Loch
Awe; the second the modern district of Lome, extend-
ing from Loch Leven to Craignish Point; and the third
Islay and Jura. These subdivisions were in turn split
up into smaller tribes. Their power was greatly ex-
tended and confirmed by Aidan, the great-grandson of
Fergus. The seat of government was at Dunadd, near
the mouth of the river Add at Crinan Bay. The king-
dom of the Britons extended along the west coast from
the high ground north of the Endrick southward to the
Solway Firth, and thence into England, and seems to
have stretched eastward as far as Selkirkshire, where
the Catrail may mark the boundary. This people was
Brythonic; the seat of government was at Alclwyd, the
modern Dumbarton ; and probably the succession, based
on Roman principle— the Strathclyde Britons being
highly Romanised — was in the male line. The portion
of this tract inhabited by the Picts of Galloway has
been already mentioned. To the east of the Strath-
clyde Britons, extending from the Firth of Forth south-
ward to the Border, and thence into England, was the
kingdom of the Angles of Bernicia, while the district
from Edinburgh westward along the Firth of and river
Forth was a sort of debatable land between the Britons,
Angles, and Picts. The Pictish Manaw has been already
noticed; the Britons had a fitful authority over the strip
between the boundaries of the kingdom and the river
Forth, and the Angles disputed the possession of the
strip of Manaw along the coast. Bands of Saxons
seem to have begun to form settlements on the east
coast as early as the 4th century, and after the Romans
quitted the island their numbers and power so greatly
increased that they were able to wrest from the Britons
considerable tracts of territory. One of these tracts
lay along the south shore of the Firth of Forth, the
native leader in the struggle here against the aggressors
being probably the original of the great King Arthur.
However that may be, the large number of scattered
settlements of Frisians and Angles which had been
formed all along the coast between the Tees and the
Forth, were in 547 united into the kingdom of Bernicia
by Ida, son of Eobba, and the Teutonic element thus
introduced into Scotland has had a very important
influence on the national development.
The contest among these four kingdoms for the lead-
ing position and final mastery was long and severe, but
a full account of the struggle would involve too many
and minute details to be here given at length. About
the middle of the 7th century a great victory of Oswy,
King of the Angles, enabled him to bring both the
Strathclyde Britons and the Dalriadic Scots under his
power, while the death of Talorcan, King of the Picts,
gave him also a pretext for trying to seize the Pictish
throne, inasmuch as he claimed to be the next male
heir of the late king, who had succeeded to the Pictish
crown in right of his mother, but whose father seem3
to have been Ainfrid or Eanfrid, Oswy's brother, and
to have taken refuge among the Picts on the defeat and
death of his father at the hands of Aeduin, King of
Deira, in 617. His claim not being allowed, he at-
tempted to enforce it by arms, and brought the southern
Picts into subjection, and Anglic rule over these three
nations lasted till Oswy's death, and during the first
part of the reign of his successor Ecgfrid. The northern
Picts attempted to recover their lost territory in 672,
but the attempt was unsuccessful, and led to the expul-
sion of Drost, their king, and the election in his room
of Bredei mac Bile, whose mother was daughter of
Talorcan. Aided by a rebellion of the Dalriadic Scots,
who had long been in a state of complete disorganisa-
tion, this king and his army made such progress, that
in 685 Ecgfrid awoke to the necessity of making a
strong effort to crush this threatening opponent, and
accordingly led a large army into Pictavia, where he
was defeated and slain at Duin Nechtain, which is sup-
posed to be Dunnichen in Forfarshire, the immediate
result being that the Picts, Scots, and the Scottish
portion of the Britons regained complete liberty. Bredei
did not live long to enjoy his power, and the history of
the next of the prominent Pictish kings, Nectan, son
of Derili, who succeeded in 710, and who established
the capital of his kingdom at Scone, is important rather
in connection with the ecclesiastical than with the civil
history of the kingdom, though his expulsion of the
Columban clergy had the effect of placing the Dalriads,
who supported their claims, in direct enmity to him,
and probably of causing dissensions among his own
subjects; for after Nectan became a monk in 724, there
seems to have been a feeling of opposition between his
supporters and those of his successor, Drust — a feeling
that by and by resulted in civil war. After a stubborn
contest among the four claimants for power who made
their appearance, victory finally lay with Angus or
Hungus mac Fergus, who firmly established his power
about 730, and in 740 extended his dominion by con-
quering the Dalriadic Scots, whose kingdom thus be-
came practically a Pictish province. In company with
Eadberct, King of Northumbria, he also acquired power
over the Strathclyde Britons, and the third king in suc-
cession after him, Alpin (775-80), seems also to have
ruled over some part of the Saxon district south of the
Forth, for in the Annals of Ulster he is termed King
of the Saxons. Almost immediately after this, the
hitherto accepted rule of Pictish succession, which never
admitted the sen of any former king as eligible for the
crown, was broken through in favour of Talorgan, son
of Angus, a proceeding which raised disputes between
the southern Picts, who accepted his rule, and the
northern Picts, who seem to have rejected it, and who,
after having a separate king for some time, seem to
have at length broken up into large tribes, owning
allegiance only to their local rulers, and practically
independent of the central authority in the south. This
and other quarrels paved the way for a temporarily suc-
cessful attempt on the crown by Alpin the Scot, sprang
1729