 | Scotland in the High Middle Ages: Encyclopedia II - Scotland in the High Middle Ages - Origins of the Kingdom of Alba
Scotland in the High Middle Ages - Origins of the Kingdom of Alba
Main articles: Scotland in the Early Middle Ages, and Origins of the Kingdom of Alba
In the Roman period, the province province of Britannia formally ended at Hadrian's Wall. Between Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall, the Romans created a series of buffer state, and beyond the latter lay the Picts. The development of "Pictland", according to the historical model developed by Peter Heather, was a natural response to Roman Imperialism.[3] By 900, the Kingdom of the Picts had developed into the Gaelic Kingdom of Alba.
In the tenth century, the Scottish elite began to develop a conquest myth to explain their Gaelicization, often known as MacAlpin's Treason, by which Cináed mac Ailpín is supposed to have annihilated the Picts is one fell takeover. The earliest versions include the Life of St Cathróe of Metz[4] and royal genealogies tracing the their origin to Fergus Mór mac Eirc, [5]. In the reign of Máel Coluim III, the Duan Albanach formalised the myth in Gaelic poetic tradition.[6] In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, these mythical traditions were incorporated into the Poppleton Manuscript and the Declaration of Arbroath. They were believed in the early modern period, and beyond, and even King James VI/I traced his origin to Fergus, saying, in his own words, that he was a "Monarch sprunge of Ferguse race".[7]
However, and modern historians are now rejecting this conceptualization of Scottish origins.[8] No contemporary sources mention this conquest. Moreove, the Gaelicization of Pictland was long process predating Cináed, and is evidenced by Gaelic-speaking Pictish rulers,[9] Pictish royal patronage of Gaelic poets,^ Gaelic inscriptions,[10] and Gaelic placenames.[11] The term king of Alba, although only registered at the start of the tenth century,[12] is possibly just a Gaelic translation of Pictland. The change of identity can perhaps be explained by the death of the Pictish language, but also important could be Causantín II's alleged Scotticisation of the "Pictish" Church[13] and the trauma caused by Viking invasions, most strenuously felt in the Pictish Kingdom's heartland of Fortriu. [14]
Outside of Alba, the Kingdom of Strathclyde on the valley of the river Clyde remained semi-independent, as did the Gaels of Argyll and the islands to the west (formerly Dál Riata). The south-east had been absorbed by the English Kingdom of Bernicia/Northumbria in the seventh century, and other Germanic invaders, the Norse, were beginning to incorporate much of the Western and Northern Isles, as well as the Caithness area. Galloway too was under strong Norse-Gaelic influence, but there was no one kingdom in that area.
Other related archives3, 57, 62, 8, 900, Aberdeen, Ailred of Rievaulx, Alba, Alexander, Alexander II, Alexander III, Alnwick, Anglo-French, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Antonine Wall, Archbishop of York, Archbishops, Argyll, Augustinians, Ayr, Balloch, Bannockburn, Battle of Dunbar (1296), Battle of the Standard, Benedictine, Berwick, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Bishopric of Durham, Brechin, Britannia, Buchan, Caithness, Canon Law, Canterbury, Carrick, Causantín, Causantín II, Causantín of Fife, Celestine III, Christianity in Medieval Scotland, Cináed mac Ailpín, Cistercians, Columba, Cult of Saints, Culture of Scotland in the High Middle Ages, Cumbric language, David I, De Situ Albanie, Declaration of Arbroath, Domnall Bán, Domnall II, Donnchad, Donnchad I, Donnchad II, Dornoch, Dumfries, Dunblane, Dunfermline, Dunkeld, Dunnotar, Dál Riata, Earl, Earldom of Orkney, Economy of Scotland in the High Middle Ages, Edgar, Edinburgh, Edmund of England, Elgin, English, English language, Eurasia, European High Middle Ages, Ferchar mac in tSagairt, Fergus, Fergus Mór mac Eirc, Fergus of Galloway, Fife, Fifth Crusade, First Crusade, Flemish, Forres, Forth, Fortriu, Fortrose, France, Frankish, French, French culture, French monarchs, Friedrich II, Gaelic, Gaelic language, Gaelic-speaking world, Gaelicisation, Gaelicization, Galloway, Galwegian, Galwegian revolt, Galwegians, German, Germanic, Gilla Brigte, Gilla Brigte of Galloway, Glasgow, God, Grampians, Great Britain, Guibert of Nogent, Hadrian's Wall, Harrying of the North, Henry of Huntingdon, High King of Ireland, Iceland, Idulb, Inchcolm, Ireland, Isle of Man, Isles, James VI/I, Justiciar, King of Galloway, King of the English, Kingdom of Alba, Kingdom of Bernicia/Northumbria, Kingdom of Strathclyde, Kingdom of the Scots, Kintyre, Lanfranc, Latin, Legal institutions of Scotland in the High Middle Ages, Lennox, Lismore, Loch Leven, Lochlann of Galloway, Lochlann/Roland, Lords of Galloway, Lordship of Galloway, Lorne, Lothian, Lulach mac Gillai Coemgáin, Mac Bethad mac Findláich, MacAlpin's Treason, MacDuff, Macbeth, Mann, Margaret, Marianus Scotus, Matthew Paris, Melrose, Middle English, Middle English language, Middle Irish language, Moray, Mormaer, Mormaer of Moray, Mormaer of Strathearn, Mormaerdom of Fife, Mormaers of Lennox, Mormaers of Strathearn, Muirchertach Ua Briain, Máel Coluim, Máel Coluim I, Máel Coluim II, Máel Coluim III, Máel Petair of Mearns, Máel Snechtai, Máel Ísu, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Norman Conquest, Norman Conquest of England, Norse, Norse-Gaelic, Northern Isles, Norway, Ogilvie, Old French, Old French language, Origins of the Kingdom of Alba, Orkney, Orkneyinga Saga, Papal Bull, Peel, Perth, Pictish language, Picts, Poppleton Manuscript, Premonstratensians, Robert I, Roman de Fergus, Rome, Rosemarkie, Ross, Roxburgh, Schottenklöstern, Scone, Scotia, Scotland, Scoto-Norman, Scots, Scottish Wars of Independence, Scythia, Shetland, Skye, Society of Scotland in the High Middle Ages, Somairle mac Gillai Brigte, St Andrew, St Andrews, St Cuthbert, St Kentigern, St Louis, Stirling, Strathclyde, Thurstan, Tironensians, Treaty of Perth, Treaty of York, Trondheim, Viking, Vikings, Walter Bower, Walter of Coventry, Warfare of Scotland in the High Middle Ages, Wars of Independence, Welsh language, Wessex, Western, Western Isles, Wigtown, William I, William Shakespeare, William fitz Duncan, William of Newburgh, William the Conqueror, abbey at Dunfermline, abbots, acres, al-Idrisi, arable farming, barter goods, below, buffer state, burghs, camel, clerical celibacy, common law, continental European, culdees, de Situ Albanie, dioscesan structure, earl, early Gaelic Law, elephant, eleventh, eleventh centuries, eleventh century, feudalism, fourteenth, fourteenth century, genealogies, genealogy, government, hosting, husbandman, its own language, kings of Scotland, kinship groups, law, literary language, medieval Gaelic, medieval Scottish, monasticism, monks, mormaer, national identity, native Scots, ninth century, north of the Forth, pastoralism, peninsula, pilgrimage, ploughgate, propaganda, province of Britannia, rebellion of the Galwegians, regal, regal lordship, river Clyde, river Forth, royal burghs, ruler of Moray, rulers of England, seventh century, slave, south-west, status, tenth, tenth century, thirteenth, thirteenth century, twelfth century, twentieth century, vernacular, Óengus, Óengus of Moray
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Origins of the Kingdom of Alba", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
