 Abt 0836 - Abt 0876 (40 years)
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| Name |
MACALPIN Constantine |
| Birth |
Abt 0836 |
Scotland  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
Abt 0876 |
Scotland |
| Notes |
- "Causantin mac Cináeda," ”Còiseam mac Choinnich," "Rex Pictorum"
House of Alpin
Clann Chausantan (Northern Branch)
Birth
Constantine was born about 836 (see Research Notes), the son of Kenneth I, King of the Picts and his wife, Unknown.[1][2][3]
Children of Constantine and an unknown wife
"The name of Constantine's wife is not known. Constantine I & his wife had one child." [1]
Domnall mac Causantín, 889, succeeded as Donald II, King of Scots; [4] 900, killed by Vikings in Forres or Dunnottar and was buried on the Isle of Iona. [1]
Alpinid Dynasty (Clann Chausantan and Clann Áeda)
From about 889, the kingship of Alba (Scotland) rotated between the descendants of Kenneth I (Cináed), King of the Picts and Scots. The children of his two sons, Constantine I, King of the Picts (Clann Chausantan) and Aedh, King of the Picts (Clann Áeda) formed competing branches of the Alpinid Dynasty, Clann Chausantan and Clann Áeda. This practice was probably intended to avoid monopoly of the monarchy by one clan, and it may have originated in the earlier Kingdom of the Picts. [5] However, succession would later become more intensely competitive and eventually violent. [6]
Constantine I, King of the Picts
On 13 April 862/3, he succeeded his uncle Donald I, King of the Picts as Constantine I, King of the Picts [7][3] and ruled over Pictland (Fortriu) for sixteen years. [8] Early during his reign, he was besieged for three months in 866 by Norsemen and Irish from Dublin led by Olaf, the White (Amlaibh), King of Dublin) and his brother, Ivar (Imhair), who raided his kingdom and took many Pictish hostages back to Dublin. [9][10][8][3][11] In the following years, 870-872, these Norwegian brothers, Olaf, Ivar, and Asl (Auisle), all kings of Dublin, returned even stronger. In addition to attacks on Constantine's Picts of Fortriu, they also devastated the Picts of Galloway, the Angles of Bernicia, and the Britons of Strathclyde. In a four-month siege of Dumbarton Rock (AltClut, AltClyde), this nearly impregnable fortress of the Britons finally fell when the Norse-Irish were able to drain the well, its only source of water. Consequently, the kings returned triumphantly to Ireland in a fleet of 200 ships, laden with pillaged riches and a host of Picts, Angles, and Britons, destined for the Dublin Slave Market. [12][13][11] Surviving this onslaught and still seeking to increase territory, Constantine I seized the weakened Kingdom of Strathclyde in 870. Arranging the assassination of Arthgal, king of Dumbarton, [14][11] he married his sister, Unknown MacAlpin, to Arthgal's son, Run. However, in 875, the end of his reign was imminent as Halfdan Ragnarsson, the Danish king of York, inflicted a "crushing defeat" upon the Picts at Dollar (now Dollar, Clackmannanshire). The Vikings forced them back to the highlands in Atholl and "occupied the east-central lowlands for a year." [13]
Death
The end came as Constantine I, King of the Picts by the Norwegians in a battle at Inverdofatha in 876, [2] or inber dub fáta, [11] "long dark river-mouth," also described as Inverdorat, "the Black Cove." (This is likely to mean, “the long black cave,” in which Constantine is supposed to have suffered the cruel death of “ the Blood eagle”). [15] He was buried at Iona. [3]
He was succeeded by his brother, Aodh, King of the Picts. [11]
Research Notes
Estimated birth year, 836. He succeeded as king in 862 and died in 877. The unsourced birth year of 836 would make him 26 years old at succession and 41 at death; possible and not unlikely.
This profile was created through the import of MOR2003d.GED on 22 April 2011. The following data was included in the gedcom. You may wish to edit it for readability.
Note
Note: #NI1021
Notes
Note NI1021Constantine I of Scotland
King of Picts
Sources
↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Cawley, Charles, Medieval Lands: a Prosopography of Medieval European Noble and Royal Families, (Hereford, UK: Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, 2006), chap. 1. ORIGINS, KINGS of SCOTLAND 834-1034, KENNETH [Cinaed] MacAlpin, 1. Constantine
↑ 2.0 2.1 The Henry Project: The Ancestors of King Henry II of England, Baldwin, Stewart, ed., Farmerie, Todd, ed., Cináed mac Ailpín (Kenneth I, (Online https://fasg.org/projects/henryproject/, 2001), Causantín mac Cináeda (Constantine I)
↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Brown, Dauvit, Constantine I [Causantín mac Cinaeda], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press (2004), Constantine I.
↑ Duncan, A A M. Kingship of the Scots, A.D.842-1292: Succession and Independence. (Edinburgh Classic Editions). Kindle edition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2002). 40. [Kindle].
↑ Woolf, Alex. From Pictland to Alba, AD 789-AD 1070. The New Edinburgh History of Scotland. Mason, Roger, gen. ed. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008), 223-224.
↑ Lynch, Michael, editor. The Oxford Companion to Scottish History, (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2011), Kingship, 360-362. [Kindle].
↑ Dunbar, Sir Archibald H, Scottish Kings: A Revised Chronology of Scottish History 1005-1625, (Edinburgh: D. Douglas, 1899), 280.
↑ 8.0 8.1 Skene, William Forbes. Celtic Scotland: A History of Ancient Alba. (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1886). vol. 1, 323
↑ Cawley, Charles, Medieval Lands: a Prosopography of Medieval European Noble and Royal Families, (Hereford, UK: Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, 2006), chap. 8. Norse Kings, A. Kings of Dublin, OLAF [Amlaib]
↑ Ó Corráin, Professor Donnchadh; Morgan, Dr Hiram, CELT; Corpus of Electronic Texts, (Cork, Ireland: University College, 2023), Annals of Ulster, Year U866.1, citing, "Amlaíb and Auisle went with the foreigners of Ireland and Scotland to Fortriu, plundered the entire Pictish country and took away hostages from them."321.
↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Cannon, John; Hargreaves, Anne, The Kings and Queens of Britain (Oxford Quick Reference), Kindle edition, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 94, 95. [Kindle].
↑ Ó Corráin, Professor Donnchadh; Morgan, Dr Hiram, CELT; Corpus of Electronic Texts, (Cork, Ireland: University College, 2023), Fragmentary Annals of Ireland, citing, "Amlaib and Imar came back from Alba to Áth Cliath, bringing many British and Scottish and Saxon prisoners with them. They numbered two hundred ships." FA 393, 871.
↑ 13.0 13.1 Skene, William Forbes, Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history, (Edinburgh, H.M. General register, 1867), citing, “Constantine the son of Kenneth ruled for 16 years. During his first year Máel Sechnaill the king of the Irish died; and Áed the son of Niall took over his kingdom; and after two years Olaf, with his foreigners, laid waste to Pictavia, and dwelt there, from the Kalends of January until the feast of Saint Patrick. Again in the third year Olaf, while collecting tribute, was killed by Constantine. In his 14th year, {A little while after a battle was fought} at Dollar between the Danes and the Scots, the Scots were annihilated at Atholl. The Norsemen spent a whole year in Pictavia.” 8.
↑ Ó Corráin, Professor Donnchadh; Morgan, Dr Hiram, CELT; Corpus of Electronic Texts, (Cork, Ireland: University College, 2023), Annals of Ulster, Year U872.5, citing, "Artgal, king of the Britons of Strathclyde, was killed at the instigation of Constantine son of Cinaed." 329.
↑ Robertson, Eben William. Scotland under her early kings: a history of the kingdom to the close of the thirteenth century. (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1862), 48.
See also:
Anderson, Marjorie O[gilvie]. Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland. (Edinburgh: Berlinn, 1973), 71, 73, 78f, 197, 213, 217f, 250, 254, 256, 263, 267, 274, 283, 288, 290.
Ó Corráin, Professor Donnchadh; Morgan, Dr Hiram, CELT; Corpus of Electronic Texts, (Cork, Ireland: University College, 2023), Index.
Wikipedia contributors, Causantín mac Cináeda, (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2023), Causantín mac Cináeda
Wikipedia contributors. House of Alpin. (Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia, 2023), House of Alpin
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| Person ID |
I59234 |
Freeman-Smith |
| Last Modified |
27 Jan 2026 |
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