Scottish Kings: Constantine I, Áed mac Cináeda, Eochaid

Constantine I ( 863 - 877 )
870 - Alt Clut, Dumbarton Rock, captured by the Norse-Gael or Viking leaders Amlaíb Conung and Ímar after six month's of siege.

Constantine I

AEDH (877 - 878 AD)
Áed mac Cináeda (born c. 840 - died 878) was a son of Cináed mac Ailpín ("Kenneth MacAlpin"). He became king of the Picts in 877, when he succeeded his brother Constantine I. He was nicknamed Áed of the White Flowers, the wing-footed (Latin: alipes) or the white-foot (Latin: albipes).
The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba says of Áed: "Edus [Áed] held the same [i.e. the kingdom] for one year. The shortness of his reign has bequeathed nothing memorable to history. He was slain in the civitas of Nrurim." Nrurim is unidentified.

The Annals of Ulster say that in 878: "Áed mac Cináeda, king of the Picts, was killed by his associates." Tradition, reported by George Chalmers in his Caledonia (1807), and by the New Statistical Account (1834–1845), has it that the early-historic mound of the Cunninghillock by Inverurie is the burial place of Áed. This is based on reading Nrurim as Inruriu.

A longer account is interpolated in Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland. This says that Áed reigned one year and was killed by his successor Giric in Strathallan and other king lists have the same report. It is uncertain which, if any, of the Prophecy of Berchán's kings should be taken to be Áed. William Forbes Skene presumed that the following verses referred to Áed:

Áed mac Cináeda or Donald I

129. Another king will take [sovereignty]; small is the profit that he does not divide. Alas for Scotland thenceforward. His name will be the Furious.
130. He will be but a short time over Scotland. The will be no [word uncertain] unplundered. Alas for Scotland, through the youth; alas for their books, alas for their bequests.
131. He will be nine years in the kingdom. I shall tell you—it will be a tale of truth—he dies without bell, with communion, at evening, in a fatal pass.

Áed's son, Constantín mac Áeda, became king in 900. The idea that Domnall II of Strathclyde was a son of Áed, based on a confusing entry in the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, is contested.

EOCHAID ( 879 - 889 )
Eochaid mac Run, (born c. 860 – died after 889) known in English simply as Eochaid, may have been king of the Picts from 878 to 889. He was a son of Run, King of Strathclyde, and his mother may have been a daughter of Kenneth MacAlpin (Cináed mac Ailpín). His kingship is usually portrayed as some form of joint rule with Giric. The evidence for Eochaid's rule as king of the Picts rests on the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, where it is written:

And Eochodius son of Run king of the Britons, grandson of Kenneth by his daughter, reigned for 11 years; although others say that Ciricium (Giric) son of another reigned at this time, because he became Eochaid's foster-father and guardian. And in his second year Aed son of Niall [Aed Finliath] died. And in his ninth year, on the very day of St. Cirici (Cyrus), an eclipse of the sun occurred. Eochaid and his foster father was now expelled from the kingdom.

This is the record of Eochaid's reign, such as it is. The death of Aed Finliath son of Niall Caille is dated to 20 November 879, and the solar eclipse to 16 June 885. The chronicler's "although others say" shows that the confusion concerning Eochaid is nothing new.

Some variants of the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba king lists do not include Eochaid. The Duan Albanach omits both Eochaid and Giric, jumping from "Aodh, of the white flowers" (King Áed mac Cináeda) to "Domhnal, son of Cusaintin the fair" (Donald II, son of Constantine I (Domnall mac Causantín)). The Duan also omits earlier kings, such as Selbach mac Ferchair, although whether these omissions are by accident or design is unknowable. David Dumville's suggestion that the surviving record may be corrupted by cases of damnatio memoriae is unprovable, but should be borne in mind. Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Cronykl of Scotland (c. 1420) and George Buchanan's Rerum Scoticarum Historia (1579) know of Giric, but not of Eochaid.

American Celticist Benjamin Hudson, relying on the Prophecy of Berchán in his 1996 book of the same name, is confident that Eochaid can be identified and that he was indeed a Scottish or Pictish king. The Prophecy is not without its critics, and the entry which is assumed to identify Eochaid, calling him the Briton of the Clyde, refers to his mother as "the woman of Dún Guaire (Bamburgh)", which raises unanswered questions.

David Dumville, relying on the Chronicle alone, appears to accept that Eochaid was king, while Archie Duncan, arguing from the same source, flatly rejects the idea that Eochaid was king and attributes the supposed joint reign to Giric, and to Giric alone. There is evidence independent of the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba and the related king lists which may argue for Giric's kingship, but none for Eochaid. The quoted Chronicle entry could have Eochaid removed, and still be readable, whereas it would not remain so without Giric, whose name day is mentioned as the date of the solar eclipse. In short, there is no consensus as to whether Eochaid was king of the Picts or king of Strathclyde or no king at all.
889 - Death of Eochaid; Donald II grandson of Kenneth becomes king.

Sottish Kings: Alpín MacEchdach, Kenneth MacAlpin

Alpín MacEchdach ( 825 - 834 AD)
831 AD - Diarmait of Iona goes to Ireland with relics of St Columba
834 AD - Alpín MacEchdach killed in Galloway. His son Kenneth succeeds him.

St Columba

ALPIN MACECHDACH
Alpín mac Echdach was a supposed king of Dál Riata included in a pedigree created in the 10th century to connect the kings of Alba to legendary Dál Riatan and Irish ancestors.

In this pedigree Alpín's father is Eochaid, an Irish name, yet he becomes the father of Cináed i.e. Kenneth MacAlpin. Cináed and Alpín are the names of Pictish kings in the 8th century: the brothers Ciniod and Elphin who ruled from 763 to 780. Alpín's alleged father Eochaid IV is not mentioned in any contemporary source. Alpín's mother was Fergusa, daughter of Fergus of Dalriada.

KENNETH MACAlPIN ( 834 - 859  AD)
Cináed mac Ailpín (Modern Gaelic: Coinneach mac Ailpein), commonly anglicised as Kenneth MacAlpin and known in most modern regnal lists as Kenneth I (810 – 13 February 858), was a king of the Picts who, according to national myth, was the first king of Scots. He was thus later known by the posthumous nickname of An Ferbasach, "The Conqueror". The dynasty that ruled Scotland for much of the medieval period claimed descent from him. Compared with the many questions on his origins, Kenneth's ascent to power and subsequent reign can be dealt with simply.

Kenneth's rise can be placed in the context of the recent end of the previous dynasty, which had dominated Fortriu for two or four generations. This followed the death of king Uen son of Óengus of Fortriu, his brother Bran, Áed mac Boanta "and others almost innumerable" in battle against the Vikings in 839. The resulting succession crisis seems, if the Pictish Chronicle king-lists have any validity, to have resulted in at least four would-be kings warring for supreme power.

St Columba

Kenneth's reign is dated from 843, but it was probably not until 848 that he defeated the last of his rivals for power. The Pictish Chronicle claims that he was king in Dál Riata for two years before becoming Pictish king in 843, but this is not generally accepted. In 849, Kenneth had relics of Columba, which may have included the Monymusk Reliquary, transferred from Iona to Dunkeld. Other than these bare facts, the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba reports that he invaded Saxonia six times, captured Melrose and burnt Dunbar, and also that Vikings laid waste to Pictland, reaching far into the interior. The Annals of the Four Masters, not generally a good source on Scottish matters, do make mention of Kenneth, although what should be made of the report is unclear:

Gofraid mac Fergusa, chief of Airgíalla, went to Alba, to strengthen the Dal Riata, at the request of Kenneth MacAlpin. The reign of Kenneth also saw an increased degree of Norse settlement in the outlying areas of modern Scotland. Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, Sutherland, the Western Isles and the Isle of Man, and part of Ross were settled; the links between Kenneth's kingdom and Ireland were weakened, those with southern England and the continent almost broken. In the face of this, Kenneth and his successors were forced to consolidate their position in their kingdom, and the union between the Picts and the Gaels, already progressing for several centuries, began to strengthen. By the time of Donald II, the kings would be called kings neither of the Gaels or the Scots but of Alba.

Kenneth died from a tumour on 13 February 858 at the palace of Cinnbelachoir, perhaps near Scone. The annals report the death as that of the "king of the Picts", not the "king of Alba". The title "king of Alba" is not used until the time of Kenneth's grandsons, Donald II (Domnall mac Causantín) and Constantine II (Constantín mac Áeda). The Fragmentary Annals of Ireland quote a verse lamenting Kenneth's death: Because Cináed with many troops lives no longer, there is weeping in every house; there is no king of his worth under heaven, as far as the borders of Rome.

Kenneth left at least two sons, Constantine and Áed, who were later kings, and at least two daughters. One daughter married Run, king of Strathclyde, Eochaid being the result of this marriage. Kenneth's daughter Máel Muire married two important Irish kings of the Uí Néill. Her first husband was Aed Finliath of the Cenél nEógain. Niall Glúndub, ancestor of the O'Neill, was the son of this marriage. Her second husband was Flann Sinna of Clann Cholmáin. As the wife and mother of kings, when Máel Muire died in 913, her death was reported by the Annals of Ulster, an unusual thing for the male-centred chronicles of the age.

Eochaid & Giric

834 - Kenneth succeeds his father Alpin MacEchdach
839 - Eóganan mac Óengusa and his brother Bran killed in battle with Vikings end of dominance of Fortriu.
844 - Kenneth MacAlpin becomes the dominant king of the lands of Dál Riata and of the Picts which would become known as Scotia,
849 - Kenneth MacAlpin moves St Columba's relics to Dunkeld making it an important Christian Centre
858 - Death of Kenneth MacAlpin

Eochaid mac Run was the son of a daughter of Kenneth MacAlpin, whose name has gone unrecorded by history and Run Macarthuragail, King of Strathclyde. His paternal grandfather was Artgal, King of Strathclyde, who had died at the hand of Aodh, the brother of Constantine I. The evidence for Eochaid's rule as king of the Picts rests on the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, which records :-

'And Eochodius son of Run king of the Britons, grandson of Kenneth by his daughter, reigned for 11 years; although others say that Ciricium (Giric) son of another reigned at this time, because he became Eochaid's foster-father and guardian. And in his second year Aed son of Niall [Aed Finliath] died. And in his ninth year, on the very day of St. Cirici (Cyrus), an eclipse of the sun occurred. Eochaid and his foster father was now expelled from the kingdom.

He ruled jointly with Giric or Grig, (Gaelic - Griogair mac Dhunghail) the murderer of his uncle and Scotland's previous King, Aodh 'Swiftfoot'. Giric was probably of Pictish descent. Very little is actually known about either of them. It is thought that Eochaid was a minor for whom Giric may have acted in a capacity as Protector or Regent.

Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian II

MAXIMILIAN II
Maximilian II (31 July 1527 – 12 October 1576), a member of the Austrian House of Habsburg, was Holy Roman Emperor from 1564 until his death. He was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague on 14 May 1562 and elected King of Germany (King of the Romans) on 24 November 1562. On 8 September 1563 he was crowned King of Hungary and Croatia in the Hungarian capital Pressburg (Pozsony in Hungarian; now Bratislava, Slovakia). On 25 July 1564 he succeeded his father Ferdinand I as ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.

Maximilian's rule was shaped by the confessionalization process after the 1555 Peace of Augsburg. Though a Habsburg and a Catholic, he approached the Lutheran Imperial estates with a view to overcome the denominational schism, which ultimately failed. He also was faced with the ongoing Ottoman–Habsburg wars and rising conflicts with his Habsburg Spain cousins. According to Fichtner, he failed to achieve his three major aims: rationalizing the government structure, unifying Christianity, and evicting the Turks from Hungary.

Maximilian II coin

Born in Vienna, Austria, he was the eldest son of the Habsburg archduke Ferdinand I, younger brother of Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and the Jagiellonian princess Anne of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547). He was named after his great-grandfather, Emperor Maximilian I. At the time of his birth, his father Ferdinand succeeded his brother-in-law King Louis II in the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Kingdom of Hungary, laying the grounds for the global Habsburg Monarchy.

Having spent his childhood years at his fathers's court in Innsbruck, Tyrol, he was educated principally in Italy. Among his teachers were humanist scholars like Kaspar Ursinus Velius and Georg Tannstetter. Maximilian also came in contact with the Lutheran teaching and early on corresponded with the Protestant prince Augustus of Saxony, suspiciously eyed by his Habsburg relatives. From the age of 17, he gained some experience of warfare during the Italian War campaign of his uncle Charles V against King Francis I of France in 1544, and also during the Schmalkaldic War. Upon Charles' victory in the 1547 Battle of Mühlberg, Maximilian put in a good word for the Schmalkaldic leaders Elector John Frederick I of Saxony and Landgrave Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, and soon began to take part in Imperial business.

Maximilian II coin

On 13 September 1548 Emperor Charles V married Maximilian to Charles's daughter (Maximilian's cousin) Mary of Spain in the Castile residence of Valladolid. By the marriage his uncle intended to strengthen the ties with the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, but also to consolidate his nephew's Catholic faith. Maximilian temporarily acted as the emperor's representative in Spain, however not as stadtholder of the Habsburg Netherlands as he had hoped for. To his indignation, King Ferdinand appointed his younger brother Ferdinand II administrator in the Kingdom of Bohemia, nevertheless Maximilian's right of succession as the future king was recognised in 1549. He returned to Germany in December 1550 in order to take part in the discussion over the Imperial succession.

Maximilian's relations with his uncle worsened, as Charles V, again embattled by rebellious Protestant princes led by Elector Maurice of Saxony, wished his son Philip II of Spain to succeed him as emperor. However, Charles' brother Ferdinand, who had already been designated as the next occupant of the imperial throne, and his son Maximilian objected to this proposal. Maximilian sought the support of the German princes such as Duke Albert V of Bavaria and even contacted Protestant leaders like Maurice of Saxony and Duke Christoph of Württemberg.

At length a compromise was reached: Philip was to succeed Ferdinand, but during the former's reign Maximilian, as King of the Romans, was to govern Germany. This arrangement was not carried out, and is only important because the insistence of the emperor seriously disturbed the harmonious relations which had hitherto existed between the two branches of the Habsburg family; an illness which befell Maximilian in 1552 was attributed to poison given to him in the interests of his cousin and brother-in-law, Philip II of Spain.

Maximilian II and his younger brothers Ferdinand II and John, painting by Jakob Seisenegger, 1539

The religious demands of the Protestants were still unsatisfied, while the policy of toleration had failed to give peace to Austria. Maximilian's power was very limited; it was inability rather than unwillingness that prevented him from yielding to the entreaties of Pope Pius V to join in an attack on the Turks both before and after the victory of Lepanto in 1571; and he remained inert while the authority of the empire in north-eastern Europe was threatened.

In 1575, Maximilian was elected by the part of Polish and Lithuanian magnates to be the King of Poland in opposition to Stephan IV Bathory, but he did not manage to become widely accepted there and was forced to leave Poland. Maximilian died on 12 October 1576 in Regensburg while preparing to invade Poland. On his deathbed he refused to receive the last sacraments of the Church. He is buried in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

By his wife Maria he had a family of nine sons and six daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Rudolf, who had been chosen king of the Romans in October 1575. Another of his sons, Matthias, also became emperor; three others, Ernest, Albert and Maximilian, took some part in the government of the Habsburg territories or of the Netherlands, and a daughter, Elizabeth, married Charles IX of France.

Negroid Britain: Henry Stuart Darnley

Henry Stuart (or Stewart), Duke of Albany (7 December 1545 – 10 February 1567), styled Lord Darnley until 1565, was king consort of Scotland from 1565 until his murder at Kirk o' Field in 1567.

Henry Stuart Darnley  as a boy

He was the second but eldest surviving son of Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, and his wife, Lady Margaret Douglas. Darnley's maternal grandparents were Archibald Douglas, sixth Earl of Angus, and Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England, and widow of James IV of Scotland. It is the common belief that Darnley was born on 7 December, but this is disputed.

He was a first cousin and the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and was the father of her son James VI of Scotland, who succeeded Elizabeth I of England as James I. Darnley was born in 1545, at Temple Newsam, Leeds, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Through his parents he had claims to both the Scottish and English thrones, as he was descended from both James II of Scotland and Henry VII. Darnley's father, Matthew Stewart, Earl of Lennox, had been declared guilty of treason in Scotland for his part in the war of the Rough Wooing, siding with the English as an opponent of Mary of Guise and Regent Arran, and his Scottish estates were forfeited in 1545. Lennox lived in exile in England for 22 years, returning to Scotland in 1564. Darnley's mother, Margaret Douglas had left Scotland in 1528.

Lord Darnley was well educated and brought up conscious of his status and inheritance. He became well-versed in Latin and grew up familiar with Gaelic, English and French.

Henry Stuart Darnley and Mary coin

 He excelled in singing, lute playing, and dancing. His tutors included the Scottish scholar, John Elder, who had been an advocate of Anglo-Scottish union by a marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, to Prince Edward, and gave his opinions to Henry VIII as the Advice of a Redshank in 1543.

Another of his schoolmasters, Arthur Lallart, was interrogated in London after going to Scotland in 1562. Darnley was strong and athletic, a good horseman with knowledge of weapons and a passion for hunting and hawking. Darnley wrote a letter to Mary I of England from Temple Newsam in March 1554 mentioning a drama or map he had made, the Utopia Nova. He wished, "every haire in my heade for to be a wourthy souldiour".

On 3 February 1565 Darnley left London and by 12 February he was in Edinburgh. On 17 February he presented himself to Mary at Wemyss Castle in Fife. James Melville of Halhill reported that "Her Majesty took well with him, and said that he was the lustiest and best proportioned long man that she had seen." After a brief visit to his father at Dunkeld, Darnley returned with Mary and the court to Holyrood on 24 February.

Henry Stuart Darnley 

The next day he heard John Knox preach, and he danced a galliard with Mary at night. From then on, he was constantly in Mary's company.

Darnley was his wife's first cousin through Margaret Tudor, putting both Mary and Darnley high in the line of succession for the English throne. Darnley was also a descendant of a daughter of James II of Scotland, and so also in line for the throne of Scotland.

As a preliminary to the marriage, Darnley was made Lord of Ardmanoch and Earl of Ross at Stirling Castle on 15 May 1565. An entourage of 15 men were made knights, including one of Mary's half brothers, Sir Robert Stewart of Strathdon, Robert Drummond of Carnock, and James Stewart of Doune Castle. In England, a concerned Privy council debated the perils of the intended marriage on 4 June 1565. One of their resolutions was to relax the displeasure shown to Lady Catherine Grey, another rival to Mary Stuart for the English throne. Mary sent John Hay, Commendator of Balmerino, to speak to Elizabeth; Elizabeth demanded Darnley's return, and gave John Hay plainly to understand her small satisfaction.

Darnley was murdered eight months after James's birth. On 9 February 1567, his body and that of his valet were discovered in the orchard of Kirk o' Field, in Edinburgh, where they had been staying.

Henry Stuart Darnley 

During the weeks leading up to his death, Darnley was recovering from a bout of smallpox (or, it has been speculated, syphilis). He was described as having deformed pocks upon his face and body. He stayed with his family in Glasgow, until Mary brought him to recuperate at Old Provost's lodging at Kirk o' Field, a two-storey house within the church quadrangle, a short walk from Holyrood, with the intention of incorporating him into the court again. Darnley stayed at Kirk o' Field while Mary attended the wedding of Bastian Pagez, one of her closest servants, at Holyrood.

Around 2 am on the night of 10 February 1567, while Mary was away, two explosions rocked the foundation of Kirk o' Field. These explosions were later attributed to two barrels of gunpowder that had been placed in the small room under Darnley's sleeping quarters. Darnley's body and the body of his valet William Taylor, were found outside, surrounded by a cloak, a dagger, a chair and a coat. Darnley was dressed only in his nightshirt, suggesting he had fled in some haste from his bedchamber. Upon further examination, the bodies had no signs of injuries that could be associated with the explosion, so the blast was not considered to have killed Darnley. It was determined that the two men were killed by strangulation, believed to have taken place after the explosion. (However, modern medicine recognises that internal injuries can kill explosion victims with no sign of injury.)