Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/147

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

PEEFACE. cxxxix termed An Bhaoili, the foolish, between liim and Grig, whose reign commences at Dundurn, and lasts three years ; but, according to one of the chronicles, Grig was succeeded by his brother Con- stantine, who reigned two years. The " Pictish " Chronicle" records a battle in his reign, "in " Uilibcollan inter Danarios et Scottos, Scotti " habuerunt victoriam," and adds, " oppidum Fother " occisum est a gentibus." The expression occisum can hardly be used to a fort or town, and is probably a mistake for occisus est, viz., that Donald was slain at " oppidum Fother." The Latin lists remove his death to Forres, in Moray, but "oppidum Fother" is Bun/other, and St. Berchan indicates its situa- tion, for he states that he fought with Galls and with Gael, and that he dispersed his foes at Fother- dun, now Fordun, in the Mearns, where he lies on the brink of the waves. After the accession of this Donald, there is a marked change in the designation of the kings and in the appellation of the country. In the "Irish " Annals " they are no longer called Reges Pictorum, but Ri Alhan, or kings of Alban. Pictavia disap- pears from the " Pictish Chronicle," and the country in which they ruled is now called A Ihania. This im- plies that the contests by which Eocha and Grig had first been placed on the throne, and afterwards expelled by the male descendants of Kenneth, had really effected a revolution, under which the last vestiges of the Pictish monarchy had disappeared ;