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- Causantín mac Cináeda
18th century depiction of Causantín, son of Kenneth
MacAlpin. The depiction is highly anachronistic.
King of the Picts
Reign 862–877
Predecessor Donald I
Successor Áed
Died 877 Atholl?
Burial Iona
Issue Donald II, King of the Picts/of Alba
House Alpin
Father Kenneth I, King of the Picts
Causantín mac Cináeda
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Causantín or Constantín mac Cináeda (in Modern Gaelic:
Còiseam mac Choinnich; died 877) 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 ("Kenneth MacAlpin"), 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
(Constantine I) reign witnessed increased activity by
Vikings, based in Ireland, Northumbria and northern Britain.
He died fighting one such invasion.
Contents
1 Sources
2 Languages and names
3 Amlaíb and Ímar
4 Last days of the Pictish kingdom
5 Aftermath
6 Notes
7 References
Sources
Very few records of ninth century events in northern Britain
survive. The main local source from the period is the
Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, a list of kings from Cináed
mac Ailpín (died 858) to Cináed mac Maíl Coluim (died
995). The list survives in the Poppleton Manuscript, a
thirteenth-century compilation. Originally simply a list of
kings with reign lengths, the other details contained in the
Poppleton Manuscript version were added from the tenth century onwards.[1] In addition to this, later king lists
survive.[2] The earliest genealogical records of the descendants of Cináed mac Ailpín may date from the end of
the tenth century, but their value lies more in their context, and the information they provide about the interests
of those for whom they were compiled, than in the unreliable claims they contain.[3] The Pictish king-lists
originally ended with this Causantín, who was reckoned the seventieth and last king of the Picts.[4]
For narrative history the principal sources are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Irish annals. While
Scandinavian sagas describe events in 9th century Britain, their value as sources of historical narrative, rather
than documents of social history, is disputed.[5] If the sources for north-eastern Britain, the lands of the
kingdom of Northumbria and the former Pictland, are limited and late, those for the areas on the Irish Sea and
Atlantic coasts—the modern regions of north-west England and all of northern and western Scotland—are nonexistent,
and archaeology and toponymy are of primary importance.[6]
Languages and names
Writing a century before Causantín was born, Bede recorded five languages in Britain. Latin, the common
language of the church; Old English, the language of the Angles and Saxons; Irish, spoken on the western
coasts of Britain and in Ireland; Brythonic, ancestor of the Welsh language, spoken in large parts of western
Britain; and Pictish, spoken in northern Britain. By the ninth century a sixth language, Old Norse, had arrived
with the Vikings.
Amlaíb and Ímar
Viking activity in northern Britain appears to have reached a peak during Causantín's reign. Viking armies were
led by a small group of men who may have been kinsmen. Among those noted by the Irish annals, the
Chronicle of the Kings of Alba and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are Ívarr—Ímar in Irish sources—who was
active from East Anglia to Ireland, Halfdán—Albdann in Irish, Healfdene in Old English— and Amlaíb or
Óláfr. As well as these leaders, various others related to them appear in the surviving record.[7]
Viking activity in Britain increased in 865 when the Great Heathen Army, probably a part of the forces which
had been active in Francia, landed in East Anglia.[8] The following year, having obtained tribute from the East
Anglian King Edmund, the Great Army moved north, seizing York, chief city of the Northumbrians.[9] The
Great Army defeated an attack on York by the two rivals for the Northumbrian throne, Osberht and Ælla, who
had put aside their differences in the face of a common enemy. Both would-be kings were killed in the failed
assault, probably on 21 March 867. Following this, the leaders of the Great Army are said to have installed one
Ecgberht as king of the Northumbrians.[10] Their next target was Mercia where King Burgred, aided by his
brother-in-law King Æthelred of Wessex, drove them off.[11]
While the kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria were under attack, other Viking armies were
active in the far north. Amlaíb and Auisle (Ásl or Auðgísl), said to be his brother, brought an army to Fortriu
and obtained tribute and hostages in 866. Historians disagree as to whether the army returned to Ireland in 866,
867 or even in 869.[12] Late sources of uncertain reliability state that Auisle was killed by Amlaíb in 867 in a
dispute over Amlaíb's wife, the daughter of Cináed. It is unclear whether, if accurate, this woman should be
identified as a daughter of Cináed mac Ailpín, and thus Causantín's sister, or as a daughter of Cináed mac
Conaing, king of Brega.[13] While Amlaíb and Auisle were in north Britain, the Annals of Ulster record that
Áed Findliath, High King of Ireland, took advantage of their absence to destroy the longphorts along the
northern coasts of Ireland.[14] Áed Findliath was married to Causantín's sister Máel Muire. She later married
Áed's successor Flann Sinna. Her death is recorded in 913.[15]
In 870, Amlaíb and Ívarr attacked Dumbarton Rock, where the River Leven meets the River Clyde, the chief
place of the kingdom of Alt Clut, south-western neighbour of Pictland. The siege lasted four months before the
fortress fell to the Vikings who returned to Ireland with many prisoners, "Angles, Britons and Picts", in 871.
Archaeological evidence suggests that Dumbarton Rock was largely abandoned and that Govan replaced it as
the chief place of the kingdom of Strathclyde, as Alt Clut was later known.[16] King Artgal of Alt Clut did not
long survive these events, being killed "at the instigation" of Causantín son of Cináed two years later. Artgal's
son and successor Run was married to a sister of Causantín.[17]
Amlaíb disappears from Irish annals after his return to Ireland in 871. According to the Chronicle of the Kings
of Alba he was killed by Causantín either in 871 or 872 when he returned to Pictland to collect further
tribute.[18] His ally Ívarr died in 873.[19]
Last days of the Pictish kingdom
In 875, the Chronicle and the Annals of Ulster again report a Viking army in Pictland. A battle, fought near
Dollar, was a heavy defeat for the Picts; the Annals of Ulster say that "a great slaughter of the Picts resulted". In
877, shortly after building a new church for the Culdees at St Andrews, Causantín was captured and executed
(or perhaps killed in battle) after defending against Viking raiders.[20] Although there is agreement on the time
and general manner of his death, it is not clear where this happened. Some believe he was beheaded on a Fife
beach, following a battle at Fife Ness, near Crail. William Forbes Skene reads the Chronicle as placing
Causantín's death at Inverdovat (by Newport-on-Tay), which appears to match the Prophecy of Berchán. The
account in the Chronicle of Melrose names the place as the "Black Cave," and John of Fordun calls it the
"Black Den". Causantín was buried on Iona.
Aftermath
Causantín's son Domnall and his descendants represented the main line of the kings of Alba and later Scotland.
Notes
References
The Annals of Ulster, AD 431–1201, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, 2003, retrieved 2007-10-02
Chronicon Scotorum, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, 2003, retrieved 2007-10-29
Lebor Bretnach (The Irish version of the Historia Britonum of Nennius), CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, 2002,
retrieved 2008-10-04
Anderson, Alan Orr (1990), Early Sources of Scottish History A.D. 500 to1 286, I (2nd ed.), Stamford: Paul Watkins,
ISBN 1-871615-03-8
Anderson, Alan Orr (1908), Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers A.D. 500 to 1286, London: D. Nutt
Anderson, M. O. (1980), Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland (2nd ed.), Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, ISBN 0-
7011-1604-8
Bannerman, John (1999), "The Scottish Takeover of Pictland and the relics of Columba", inB roun, Dauvit; Clancy,
Thomas Owen, Spes Scotorum: Hope of Scots. Saint Columba, Iona and Scotlan,d Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, pp. 71–94,
ISBN 0-567-08682-8
Broun, Dauvit (1999), "Dunkeld and the origins of Scottish Identity", iBn roun, Dauvit; Clancy, Thomas Owen, Spes
Scotorum: Hope of Scots. Saint Columba, Iona and Scotlan,d Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, pp. 96–111, ISBN 0-567-08682-
8
Broun, Dauvit (1999), The Irish Identity of the Kingdom of the Scots in the wTelfth and Thirteenth Centuries,
Woodbridge: Boydell Press, ISBN 0-85115-375-5
Broun, Dauvit; Clancy, Thomas Owen (1999), Spes Scotorum: Hope of Scots. Saint Columba, Iona and Scotlan,d
Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, ISBN 0-567-08682-8
Costambeys, Marios (2004), "Hálfdan (d. 877)"O, xford Dictionary of National Biography, retrieved 2007-10-25
1. Woolf, Pictland to Alba, pp. 87–93; Dumville, "Chronicle of the Kings of Alba".
2. Anderson, Kings and Kingship, reproduces these lists and discusses their origins, further discussed by BrounIr, ish
origins.
3. Broun, Irish Identity, pp. 133–164; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, pp. 220–221.
4. Broun, Irish Identity, p. 168–169; Anderson, Kings and Kingship, p. 78
5. Woolf, Pictland to Alba, pp. 277–285; Ó Corrain, "Vikings in Scotland and Ireland"...
6. Woolf, Pictland to Alba, p. 12.
7. Downham, Smyth, Woolf.
8. Check Nelson.
9. Downham, Keynes, Woolf.
10. Downham, Higham, Keynes, O Corrain, Smyth, Woolf.
11. Keynes ...
12. Downham, O Corrain, Smyth, Woolf, AU 866.1.
13. Downham, ??, FAA.
14. Byrne? O Corrain? AU 866.4
15. Woolf, AU 913.1, Byrne p. 857, poss. same as Amlaíb's wife.
16. AU 870.6, AU 871.2, Woolf, Downham, Smyth.
17. AU 872.5, Smyth, Woolf.
18. Woolf, Downham.
19. Woolf, Downham, AU 873.3
20. Raymond Lamont-Brown, St Andrews: City by the Northern Sea (Edinburgh: Berlinn, 2006), 9.
Costambeys, Marios (2004), "Ívarr (d. 873)"O, xford Dictionary of National Biography, retrieved 2007-10-25
Crawford, Barbara (1987), Scandinavian Scotland, Studies in the Early History of Britain, Leicester: Leicester
University Press, ISBN 0-7185-1282-0
Downham, Clare (2007), Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014, Edinburgh: Dunedin,
ISBN 978-1-903765-89-0
Dumville, David (2000), "The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba", in Taylor, Simon, Kings, clerics and chronicles in
Scotland 500–1297, Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 73–86,I SBN 1-85182-516-9
Duncan, A. A. M. (1978), Scotland: The Making of the Kingdom, The Edinburgh History of Scotland, 1 (2nd ed.),
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 0-901824-83-6
Duncan, A. A. M. (2002), The Kingship of the Scots 842–1292: Succession and Independenc, eEdinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, ISBN 0-7486-1626-8
Foster, Sally M. (2004) [1996], Picts, Gaels and Scots: Early Historic Scotland, London: Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-8874-
3
Herbert, Máire (2000), "Ri Éirenn, Ri Alban: kingship and identity in the ninth and tenth centuries", in aTylor, Simon,
Kings, clerics and chronicles in Scotland 500–1297 (PDF), Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 62–72,I SBN 1-85182-516-9
Higham, N. J. (1993), The Kingdom of Northumbria AD 350–100, Stroud: Sutton, ISBN 0-86299-730-5
Hudson, Benjamin (2004), "Óláf the White (fl. 853–871)",O xford Dictionary of National Biography, retrieved
2007-10-25
MacQuarrie, Alan (1997),T he Saints of Scotland: Essays in Scottish Chucrh History AD 450–1093, Edinburgh: John
Donald, ISBN 0-85976-446-X
Murphy, Dennis, ed. (1896), The Annals of Clonmacnoise, being annals of Ierland from the earliest period to A.D. 1408,
Dublin: Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, retrieved 2007-12-01
Ó Corráin, Donnchadh (1997), "Ireland, Wales, Man and the Hebrides", in Sawye,r Peter, The Oxford Illustrated History
of the Vikings, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 83–109I, SBN 0-19-285434-8
Ó Corráin, Donnchadh (1998)," The Vikings in Scotland and Ireland in the Ninth Century "(PDF), Peritia, 12: 296–339,
retrieved 2007-12-01
Radner, Joan N., ed. (1975), Fragmentary Annals of Ireland, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, retrieved 2007-02-10
Sawyer, Peter, ed. (1997), The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings, Oxford: Oxford University Press,I SBN 0-19-
285434-8
Smyth, Alfred P. (1984), Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD 80–100, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
ISBN 0-7486-0100-7
Swanton, Michael (1996), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, New York: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-92129-5
Taylor, Simon, ed. (2000), Kings, clerics and chronicles in Scotland 500–1297, Dublin: Four Courts Press, ISBN 1-
85182-516-9
Woolf, Alex (2007), From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070, The New Edinburgh History of Scotland, 2, Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-1234-5
Causantín mac Cináeda
House of Alpin
Died: 877
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Domnall
King of the Picts
(traditionally King of Scots)
862–877
Succeeded by
Áed
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Causantín_mac_Cináeda&oldid=767632749"
Categories: Pictish monarchs Scottish pre-union military personnel killed in action House of Alpin
9th-century Scottish monarchs Monarchs killed in action 877 deaths Burials in Iona
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UNKNOWN - 877
d. 3 Feb 858, Scotland