General Notes

REFN: 1598AN
REFN: P1598
Beheaded in 877. King of Alba.  Killed in battle against the Danes at
Inverdorat, the Black Cove, Angus.  Acceded to the thrown in 863.
Consta ntine I (Causantín mac Cináeda) (836-877), son of King Kenneth I
MacAlpin, be came king of the Scots and the Picts in 863 when he succeeded
his uncle Donal d I.
Constantine was a warrior king. During his reign he spent most of his
d ays fighting off the Vikings or trying to expand his kingdom into the
south. In 872 his assassination of 'Run' (Arthgal), King of Strathclyde,
and his bro ther-in-law, meant that the southern regions of what is now
Scotland, became apart of his own Alba.
864 saw the rampage of the Norsemen led by Olaf the Whi te from Dublin.
Swiftly defeated by Constantine, the Norsemen relaxed their t hreats on
him until Thorsten the Red led them, but he too was defeated succes sfully
by King Constantine.
Although usually confident in battle, Constantin e often resorted to
tactics of bribery and payoffs to his rivals in order to keep the peace.
This form of peace keeping was later employed by the English Royals,
namely King Ethelred the Unready in the year 1000. In the end though,
Constantine was finally defeated by the Norsemen, when a raiding party
kno wn as the 'Black Strangers' from Dublin made a base for themselves in
Fife fr om which they launched their attacks. It was during one of these
attacks that Constantine met his match.
He was killed in battle against the Vikings in 877 at the "Black Cave"
(Inverdovat) in Forgan, Fife. His successor was his brot her Aed. He had a
son, Donald who became King Donald II of Scotland following the joint
reign of Kings Eochaid and Giric.