1535944

[SUSANNA KEENE.FTW]

Acceded: 839. United the Scots & the Picts.
Burke calls him Kenneth II, King of the Picts & Alba.

United the Pictish kingdom with that of the Scots.

In 839, an interesting battle took place. Some Picts were
fighting the rebellious Scots under Alpin of Gabhran's house, a
large army of Norsemen came upon their rear. Though Alpin was
killed, and his head impaled by the Picts -- the Pictish army
now turned to face the Norsemen and were destroyed in a wild
pitched battle. The Picts not only lost to the Norsemen, they
were "destroyed almost to their very number". Eoghann, the last
King of Picts, died with them and now there was no Pictish
leader to oppose the Scots. Why the Norsemen took part in a
battle between Picts and Scots, that did not involve the
Norsemen, is really easily explained. The Norsemen believed to
die in battle was a sure way of entering Vahala, the great
warriors reward in "Asgaard", and because of this pagan belief,
the Vikings showed or had no fear of dying in combat. They
happened upon the battle between the Picts and Scots, which the
Scots were losing, and promptly attacked the winners -- the
Picts. Besides the last of the Pictish Kings dying in the
battle, so did Scots King Alpin. Kenneth the Hardy, son of
Scots slain King Alpin, avenged his fathers death by taking the
remaining territory of the Picts. His ascendency to King of
Scots and Picts, was not a peaceful one though. The first king
of Scots and Picts, (southern Picts), MacAlpin, it is said,
murdered seven Earls of Dalriada, kinsmen who might have
disputed his claim to King of Scots and Picts, all this took
place during a celebration banquet at Scone. The ascendency of
Kings was a bloody & treacherous affair -- not for the faint of
heart, (or stomach in this case).One would think that after a
history making battle such as the one above described would be
a dramatic turning point and famous in all history books.
Curiously this didn't happen, and the reason is, most likely,
that it actually took another century, and more battles, before
the union was a stable union of Pict and Scot. In time,
however, it did become stable and the Scots gained tremendous
lands, wealth, and access to expert horsemanship, as well as
countless more Scottish subjects, from the fall of the Picts.
The two peoples had been locked in ferocious combat for so long
that the bonds of war had actually helped unite the people, as
two metals in a great flame, they became fused and then were
tempered by a cooling hand of Christianity. Kenneth MacAlpin
was the first King of Picts and Scots, the same title given to
the brother and then the son who succeeded him. The Picts pass
from history as most unknown races do, and also with them, the
Kingdom of Dalriada, though the evocative memory of that would
last for a thousand years among the western Clans. By the
middle of the 9th century the Norsemen had moved into the
Pictish Kingdom. In the west they attacked the Scots of the
Kingdom of Dalriada, who had expanded north into Argyll and
Uist. The Scots/Picts capital near Dunstafnage near Oban, was
threatened and under the leadership of Kenneth MacAlpin, the
Scots moved inland, towards Scone on the East coast. The
Vikings helped the Scots and southern Picts create an enlarged
Kingdom called Alba, with Scone (pronounced Skun or Skoon), as
its capital. On the Stone of Scone, Kenneth MacAlpin, already
king of Scots, was made King of Picts. The famous stone had
very religious and ceremonial ancestory to the Scots dating
back to the 6th - 7th century when the stone was brought by
Fergus to Dalriada to crown the Kings of Scots. (This stone was
stolen from the Scots by Edward I "Longshanks" of England in
1296). At this point in time, circa mid 9th century, the Scots
themselves only represented 1/10 (10%) of Scotland's people.
They became dominate through battle and marriage. The Celtic
(pronounced Keltic) Scots passed Kingship down through the male
line. The Celtic Picts, by way of the female. Therefore, Scots
marriages, over time, to Picts put and end to the Pictish
system and they became part of Scottish society. The Picts
were, due to their own rules of lineage, in essence, married
out of existence as a named race. Obviously, they were still
around, just called Scots now. All this was due to the male
lineage taking precedence of Kingship from the Celtic Scots.
But this does not mean the Picts disappeared, just assimilated
into Scots and Viking society.

Records not imported into INDI (individual) Gramps ID I2224:

Line ignored as not understood Line 51042: 2 SOUR @S085410@
Skipped subordinate line Line 51043: 3 DATA
Skipped subordinate line Line 51044: 4 TEXT Date of Import: Aug 7, 2000