A.D. 889-900.
Donald, son of Constantin, king of Alban.
The Scots having now placed Donald, the son of Constantin, and the heir, according to the law of Tanistry, on the throne,[[481]] the succession became firmly established in the male line of the Scottish descendants of Kenneth mac Alpin, and assumed the not unusual form of an alternate succession between the houses descended from his two sons. The kingdom ceased to be called that of Scone and its territory Cruithentuath, or Pictavia its Latin equivalent, and now became known as the kingdom of Alban or Albania, and we find its kings no longer called kings of the Picts but kings of Alban.
About the time of Donald’s accession the islands of the Orkneys had become colonised by the Norwegians, who fled before the power of Harald Harfagr, the king of Norway; and that king having, after his power was established, sailed to the Orkneys with his fleet, and taken possession, he gave them on his return to Rognwald, Earl of Maeri, as a compensation for the loss of his son killed in one of his battles. By him they were made over to his brother Sigurd, to whom the king gave the title of Jarl, and thus the Norwegian earldom of Orkney was founded. Soon after Sigurd’s establishment as earl he invaded Scotland, and, in one account, ‘obtained possession of Caithness and Sutherland and all as far as Ekkialsbakki;’ in another, ‘Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, and Moray;’ and in a third, ‘all Caithness and much more of Scotland—Maerhæfui (Moray) and Ross—and that he built a borg on the southern border of Maerhæfui.’ These were the same districts which had been overrun by Thorstein the Red, and these Sagas confound the two invasions, and join Sigurd with Thorstein in their acquisition; but the inexorable logic of dates shows that the two invasions were different, and that the one was subsequent to the other.[[482]] The borg was no doubt built on the promontory called Torfnes by the Norse, and now Burghead, situated between the Findhorn and the Spey. We are then told that Melbrigda Tönn, or of the Tooth, a Scottish jarl, and Earl Sigurd made an arrangement to meet in a certain place with forty men each in order to come to an agreement regarding their differences. On the appointed day Sigurd, suspicious of treachery on the part of the Scots, caused eighty men to be mounted on forty horses. When Earl Melbrigda saw this, he said to his men, ‘Now we have been treacherously dealt with by Earl Sigurd, for I see two men’s legs on one side of each horse, and the men, I believe, are thus twice as many as the beasts. But let us be brave and kill each his man before we die.’ Then they made themselves ready. When Sigurd saw it, he also decided on his plan, and said to his men, ‘Now let one half of your number dismount and attack them from behind when the troops meet, while we shall ride at them with all our speed to break their battle-array.’ There was hard fighting immediately, and it was not long till Earl Melbrigda fell, and all his men with him. Earl Sigurd and his men fastened their heads to the saddle-straps in bravado, and so they rode home triumphing in their victory. As they were proceeding, Earl Sigurd, intending to kick at his horse with his foot, struck the calf of his leg against a tooth protruding from Earl Melbrigda’s head, which scratched him slightly; but it soon became swollen and painful, and he died of it. Sigurd the Powerful was buried in a mound at Ekkialsbakki.[[483]]
The power of the Scottish king of Alban, however, could hardly at this time have extended to these northern districts, and their invasion would not materially affect Domnall’s position. A Danish invasion, however, followed some years after, which had for its scene the more southern districts, and proved fatal to the king himself. Towards the end of this century a fleet of Danes under the sons of Imhair came to Dublin, and the greater part of Ireland was plundered by them. After four years these Danes left Ireland, and invaded Alban under Sitriuc, son of Imhair. A battle was fought between these Danes and the Scots at a place which cannot now be recognised under the corrupted name of Visibsolian, or Visibcolian, in which the Scots claimed to be victorious; but that they had overrun the southern districts is evident, as Domnall the king was himself cut off and slain at Dun Fother, or Dunotter.[[484]]
The Ulster Annals record his death after a reign of eleven years in the year 900, and he is the first of the kings of the line of Kenneth who is termed by them Ri or king of Alban.[[485]]
A.D. 900-942.
Constantin, son of Aedh, king of Alban.
He was succeeded, according to the Tanistic usage, by Constantin, son of Aedh, his father’s brother, who reigned forty years, and was, soon after his accession, exposed to a similar invasion, for in his third year the Northmen plundered Dunkeld and the whole of Alban, but in the following year were cut off in Stratherne, and their leader, Imhair Ua Imhair, slain by the men of Fortrenn, who are said to have invoked the aid of Saint Columba, and to have attacked them with the crozier of Saint Columba at their head as their standard, which was henceforth called the Cathbuaidh, or Battle-victory.[[486]]
Constantin seems now to have turned his attention towards consolidating his kingdom, and obliterating the distinctions between its discordant elements by placing them on a footing of equality with each other. In his sixth year a solemn assembly was held on the Mote Hill, near the royal city of Scone, in which he as king, and Cellach, as bishop of Kilrymont, or St. Andrews, resolved ‘that the laws and discipline of the faith, and the rights of the churches and of the evangel, should be preserved entire and on a footing of equality with the Scots.’[[487]] By this declaration the Pictish and Scottish churches were now united into one, with the bishop of Kilrymont as its head, the supremacy of Dunkeld ceased, and the bishops of St. Andrews became known as bishops of Alban.
It is to this period also that we may probably attach one of the accounts given of the division of Alban, or Albania, into seven provinces. This account is given on the authority of Andrew, Bishop of Caithness, a Scotsman by birth, and a monk of Dunfermline. He is mentioned as bishop in the year 1150, and died on 3d December 1184. He seems to have considered that these provinces were separated from each other by large rivers or mountain chains, which do not always form what were evidently their actual boundaries. The first province, he tells us, extended from the water of Forth, which divides the kingdoms of the Scots and the Angles, and flows past Stirling, to the river Tay. This province consists, therefore, of the districts of Menteith and Stratherne, and was certainly that known by the name of Fortrenn. The second province extended to the Hilef, and contains the districts encircled by the sea as far as the hill on the north of the plain of Stirling called Athran. If by Hilef he means the river Isla, he must have supposed that instead of falling into the Tay it flowed in a direct line towards the sea, but he may also have meant the place now called Lyff, on the present boundary between the counties of Perth and Forfar at the sea. By Athran, Aithrie, near Stirling, is meant, and this province evidently contained the whole peninsula of Fife, including Kinross and Clackmannan, along with the district of Gowrie. The third province extends from Hilef to the Dee, and contains the old districts of Angus and Mearns, now the counties of Forfar and Kincardine. The fourth province extended from the river Dee to the river Spey, and included the old districts of Mar and Buchan, now the counties of Aberdeen and Banff. The fifth province extended from the Spey to the mountains of Brumalban, or Breadalbane, and by it the district of Atholl seems meant. The sixth province was Muref or Moray in its extended sense, and Ross; and the seventh was Arregaithel.[[488]]
