Causantín mac Cináeda

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Causantín
King of the Picts
Reign862–877
PredecessorDonald I
SuccessorÁed
Bornc. 836
Died877
possibly Inverdovat, Fife, Scotland
Burial
Iona
IssueDonald II, King of the Picts/of Alba
HouseAlpin
FatherKenneth I, King of the Picts (Cináed mac Ailpín)

Causantín mac Cináeda

king of the Picts. He is often known as Constantine I in reference to his place in modern lists of Scottish monarchs, 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 reign witnessed increased activity by Vikings, based in Ireland, Northumbria and northern Britain
. He died fighting one such invasion.

Sources

A signboard in Fife, Scotland concerning Causantín.

Very few records of ninth century events in northern Britain survive. The main local source from the period is the

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

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 non-existent, and archaeology and toponymy are of primary importance.[6]

Languages and names

The king's name in the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, Constantin[us] f[ilius] Kinet

Writing a century before Causantín was born,

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

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

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

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

"Constantine's Cave" - also known as the Nigra Specus ("Black Cave") - at Balcomie near Crail in Fife, Scotland: the supposed death place of Causantín.

In 875, the Chronicle and the Annals of Ulster again report a Viking army in Pictland; the Annals of Ulster say that "a great slaughter of the Picts resulted".

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

kings of Alba and later Scotland
.

Notes

  1. ^ also Constantín

References

  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 Broun, Irish origins.
  3. ^ Broun, Irish Identity, pp. 133–164; Woolf, Pictland to Alba, pp. 220–221.
  4. ^ Broun, Irish Identity, pp. 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. ^ "The Annals of Ulster". celt.ucc.ie. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  21. ^ "THE PICTISH CHRONICLE". 23 January 2018. Archived from the original on 23 January 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  22. ^ Raymond Lamont-Brown, St Andrews: City by the Northern Sea (Edinburgh: Berlinn, 2006), 9.

Bibliography

External links
Causantín mac Cináeda
 Died: 877
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Donald I
King of the Picts

862–877 		Succeeded by
Áed
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