SCOTLAND. 



to his fon Domanjrart, who reigned five years, and then 

 traufmitted his dominions to his. elded fon, Comgal. This 

 prince enjoyed his fovereignty twenty-four years, during 

 which time he had leifure to extend his dominions and con- 

 fohdate his authority. Dying in 535, lie was fucceeded by 

 his brother Gawran, to the exclufion of his own fon, Conal. 

 Gawran reigned twenty-two years, and engaged in a war 

 againil the Pifts, which terminated in his defeat and death. 

 Conal then obtained the fceptre, and held it for fourteen years. 

 Aidan, the fon of Gawran, next claimed it ; but Duncha, 

 the fon of Conal, oppofed his pretenfions. The bloody field 

 of Loro, in which Duncha fell, put an end to the difpute, 

 and gave Aidan pofTeffion of the crown. He was inaugurated 

 by St. Columba in 574, on the holy ifland of Jona ; and 

 proved himfelf, throughout a reign of thirty-five years, to be 

 a prince of great enterprize. He extended his dominions along 

 the weftern coaft of Valentia, which had been feized upon 

 and colonized by various tribes of " Sceites" from Ireland, 

 by coiifolidating the whole of them under his fuperior fway. 

 In 577, having advanced into Cumberland, he engaged 

 Ryddcrch, king of Cumbria, but the battle feems to have 

 been indecifive. He afterwards entered into a league offenfive 

 and defenfive with the Cumbrian monarch againlt the Saxons, 

 who were defeated with great flaughter at Sianmore, in 

 Weftmoreland. Buchanan aflerts this was a league as well 

 againft the Pids as the Saxons, and further intimates, that 

 Aidan was monarch of the diftrift, now included in the 

 counties of Renfrew, Ayr, Wigton, Kirkcudbright, and 

 Dumfries ; and this view of the fubjeft certainly bears the 

 ftampof greater probability than the opinion which confines 

 ^is territories to the idhmusof Cantire and the neighbour- 

 ing iflands. Aidan, according to all the writers who treat of 

 his reign, fought feveral battles againft the Saxons, in molt 

 of which he was vi£lorious ; but in the year 603, he was 

 completely defeated by Ethelfrid, king of Northumbria, 

 at the battle of Dawftane, in Roxburghfhire. This difafter, 

 joined to the de.ith of St. Columba, his kinfman and friend, 

 fo much afFefted him, that he died in the fecond year there- 

 after, at the advanced age of eighty, and was buried in the 

 chapel of Ciaran at Campbeltown. The fucceffor of Aidan 

 was Eocha-bui, called by Buchanan Eugenius, who, accord- 

 ing to Chalmers, carried on a fucccfsful warfare againlt 

 the Cruithne of Ireland ; but the Scottifh hiftorian mention.'! 

 only that he haraiicd the Pifts and Saxons by coiitini^ed 

 incurfions. Eocha died in 621, and had for his fucceffor 

 Kenneth the Aukward, his fon. This prince is faid to have 

 profecuted the Irith war begun by his father with great 

 vigour, till his death, which happened in the unfortunate 

 conflift of Fedhaevin, when he had fcarcely reigned three 

 months. Ferchard, the fon of Eogan, of the race of 

 Loam, next obtained the throne. Chalmers fays he reigned 

 fixteen years, but left no events for hiltory to recount. 

 Buchanan, however, affirms that he was a great tyrant, and 

 that the nobility, irritated at his oppreffions, and at the 

 circumftance of his embracing the Pelagian herefy, con- 

 fpircd againlt him, and threw him into prifon, where he laid 

 violent hands on hiinftlf. His fncceffor was Donald, who, 

 as Chalmers informs us, invaded Ireland with an army com- 

 pofed of Scots, Pifts, Britons, and Saxons, but was totally 

 defeated on the plain of Moyrath in 637, and compelled to 

 feek (helter in Cantire. Donald, however, continues our 

 author, derived no wifdom from this difaiter, for in the 

 following year he attacked the PiAs, and was again over- 

 thrown with great flaughter. He was ultimately flain at 

 Straith-Carmac, by Hoan, one of the reguli of Strathcluyd, 

 in the year 642. Such is the hiftory of Donald, as given by 

 Chalmers, but not a word on the fubjeft either of Irilh oc 



Piftifh warj occurs in Buchanan. By that hiftorian, on the 

 contrary, he is reprefented as an excellent man, the protec- 

 tor of Ofwald, afterwards king of Northumberland, during 

 the misfortunes of his early life, and his aflidant in more 

 fortunate times, in the propagation of the Chriltian rehgion 

 among his heathen fubjefts. 



From this period to the year 736, the events of Scottifh 

 hiftory are fo involved and fo unimportant, that we fhall 

 pafs them over in filence, remarking only, that nine kings 

 reigned in the interval, whofe names are thus rccordtd by 

 Chalmers: ConalTI.,Donal-duin hisfon, Mal-duin, Ferchar. 

 fada, Eocha-rineval, Ainbhceallach, Selwach, Eocha III., 

 and Muredach. The laft monarch had been unwillingly- 

 drawn into hoftilities with the Pifts, and traufmitted their 

 enmity to his fucceflor, Eoghan, or Ewan, a feeble prince, 

 who died in 739, when Aodhfiii feized the fceptre, and foon 

 evinced himfelf equal to the arduous taflc of government, even 

 in the moft troublefome times. In 740 he boldly encountered 

 the mighty Ungus, king of the Pifts, and forced him to quit 

 his territories. Aodhfin died foon after, having reigned with 

 greater glory than any of his predecellors, for the long period 

 of thirty years. He left his kingdom, but not his talents, 

 to his fon Fergus, who reigned about three years, whilft. 

 that of his fucceffor, Selvach II., lafted twenty-four years. 

 The government of Eocha IV., or as he is called by Bu- 

 chanan, Achaius, the next king, was marked by feveral im- 

 portant tranfaftions. Some authors affert that he formed 

 an alliance with Charlemagne, and inltituted the moll ancient 

 order of the Thiltle, but both thcfe ftatements are erroneous. 

 It is true, however, that he entered into a treaty of great 

 impo'tance to himfelf, his children, and his country, for he 

 made peace with the Pifts, and received the hand of Ur- 

 gufia, daughter of Urguis, and fifter of Conllantine and 

 Ungus, all of which in fucceflion fwayed the Piftifh iceptre. 

 Eocha died in 826, after a reign of thirty years. Bu- 

 chanan fays, that the fucceffor of Eocha was Congallus, 

 but Chalmers makes no mention of this monarch, afferting 

 that Dungal, the fon of Selvach II., obtained the throne on 

 the death of Eocha. He died in 833, when Alpin, the fon 

 of Eocha and Urguis, was acknowledged king. Chalmers, 

 who does not admit the Scottifti monarclis to have poffeffed, 

 even in this reign, any territories beyo' d tne diitrict of 

 Cantire, and the difputed trafts of Argyle and Lorn, ftates 

 that Alpin, ambitious of reigning over riciier people and 

 more extenfive domains, landed on the coalt of Ayr in 

 836, and penetrated a confiderable way into the country, 

 but \'. as at length defeated and flain near the fcite of 

 Laicht caftle, on the confines of Galloway. Buchanan, on 

 the other hand, aflerts that Alpin fell in a battle fought 

 near Dundee againft the Pifts. Kenneth, the fon of Alpin, 

 next fucceeded to the throne, and waging war againft the 

 Pifts, arter feveral obftlnate battles overthrew their govern- 

 ment, and united the two rival monarchies into one kingdom, 

 under the name of Scotland, an event which brings us to 

 the clofe of the firrt period of Scottifti hillory. 



Hijliry of the Second Period. — Kenneth, having thus ac- 

 complifhed the union of the twe kingdoms, er.deavoured by 

 every means in his power to render that union permanent. 

 He enafted many cxcelltn' laws for the better adminiftra- 

 tion of the government, and removed the ftone chair in 

 which the kings of Scot kind were wont to be crowned from 

 Argyle to Scone. After a reign of twenty-three years, 

 fixteon of which he ruled over his new monarchy, he died 

 in 854, when Donald, his brother, was proclaimed king. 

 This prince relaxed the public difcipline eftabliftied by his 

 predeceffor, and gave himfelf up to the moft ftiameful ex- 

 ceffes. The Pifts rofe in open rebellion againft his au- 

 thority, 



