Constantine II of Scotland

Constantine was an early King of Scotland, known then by the Gaelic name Alba. His reign of 43 years is believed to have played a defining part in the gaelicisation of Pictland. His patronage of the Irish Céli Dé monastic reformers was a significant factor. During his reign the words ‘Scots’ and ‘Scotland’ are first used to mean part of what is now Scotland.

About Constantine II of Scotland in brief

Constantine, son of Áed was an early King of Scotland, known then by the Gaelic name Alba. The Kingdom of Alba, a name which first appears in Constantine’s lifetime, was situated in modern-day Scotland. Constantine’s reign of 43 years is believed to have played a defining part in the gaelicisation of Pictland. His patronage of the Irish Céli Dé monastic reformers was a significant factor. During his reign the words ‘Scots’ and ‘Scotland’ are first used to mean part of what is now Scotland. The words ‘Scotland’, ‘Scot’ and ‘Scotsland’ are now used to refer to the whole of Scotland. Few records of 9th- and 10th-century events in Scotland survive. The earliest genealogical records of the descendants of Kenneth MacAlpin may date from the end of the 10th 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. For narrative history the principal sources are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Irish annals. The evidence from charters created in the Kingdom of England provides occasional insight into event in Scotland. While Scandinavian sagas describe events in 10th Century Britain, their value as sources of historical narrative, rather than documents of social history, is disputed. While the sources for North-eastern Britain, the lands of the former Pictland, are limited and late, those for the modern regions of northern and western England and all of the Atlantic coasts are non-existent.

The toponymy and archaeology of Scotland are primary importance of primary importance for the study of the Viking Age kingdom in eastern Scotland. By the 9th century the northern Pictish kingdom of Fortriu of Riata was dominated by the family of Constantín mac Fergus, perhaps a kinsman of Constantin Áinne, the Gaelsman of Gaels Dál Dá. The kings of Fortín were subject to the kings of Riata, perhaps Constantín’s kinsman, and perhaps a man named Constantín mac Fergus, if he was alive after 789 and perhaps if he died in 789. In 789 Constantín was a dominant king of the Gaelman and perhaps he was a knight of Fortriú of Fergus. He was succeeded by his predecessor’s son Malcolm I. In 943 Constantine abdicated the throne and retired to the Céli Dé monastery of St Andrews. He died in 952 and was succeeded by his grandson Malcolm I. In 937 the rulers of the southern kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, later the Kingdom of England, extended their authority northwards into the disputed kingdoms of Northumbria. At first, the southern rulers allied with him against the Vikings, but in 934 Æthelstan, unprovoked, invaded Scotland.

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