»67 



are gleaned with care from the earliest monkish chroniclers, apparently 

 of little consequence in themselves, but rising in importance when we 

 find them confirmed in the most remarkable manner by the testimony of 

 other independent writers. The catalogue entitled "Nomina Regum" 

 may be wrong, but if we find it confirmed by the " Annals of Ulster," 

 the probability is on the other side ; and if we find the Sagas of the 

 north incidentally confirming both, all reasonable doubt should vanish. 

 The same evidence, too, which establishes a fact should give a certain 

 degree of credibility to a document in which there are several facts 

 mentioned ; some of which may be confirmed in part or in whole, while 

 others stand alone on their unique authority. So strong is the evidence 

 now on these subjects generally, that the history of Scotland has been 

 written for centuries anterior to Malcolm Canmore ; and the "Annals " of 

 the three classes of people, Caledonians, Picts, and Scots, which Ritson 

 has compiled, have in the main been confirmed and approved by those 

 best competent to judge. Inquiries of a similar kind are found in 

 '• Pinkerton's History," in '• Skene's Highlanders," and slightly in 

 " Wilson's Archaeology and Praehistoric Annals" of Scotland. 



The law of succession in the days of Kenneth MacAlpine was so 

 peculiar, that if we attempt to judge of it by modern instances, every 

 step will be an error. Thus, a brother of the last king was supposed to 

 have a greater claim to the crown than a son ; and for the same reason — 

 t. e. that a youth might never sway the sceptre in preference to a man of 

 mature years — we find the crown frequently passing from the decendants 

 of one son to the descendants of another, until cousins, second cousins, 

 third, and even fourth cousins inherited in preference to the son, who 

 was, we may suppose, an inexperienced youth. Farther, by the ancient 

 Pictish law of succession, two brothers by the same mother were con- 

 sidered more nearly related than two by the ^Sime father : and similarly, 

 maternal relationship held the place of preference which most modem 

 nations give to that which is paternal. This arrangement exercised a 

 strong modifying influence in the succession of the Scottish kings down 

 to the time of Malcolm Canmore, with whom began the modem law of 

 succession. These curious principles are illustrated in the following Hue 

 of descent. 



Kenneth II. (MacAlpine) left one daughter and two sons on his death, 

 in 859, but not one of them succeeded liim. His brother Donald 

 ascended the throne, and, he dying without issue, the succession reverted 

 to Kenneth's family. The daughter did not inherit, but Constantine, the 

 elder, succeeded in 863, and after him Hugh, the younger, in 882. 

 Each of the three children having left a son, the descendant of the 

 daughter next ascended the throne ; so that Edward III. of England, 



