The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. II] OF SCOTLAND 15
were the conquerors in the struggle, and that they had sub-
jected the neighbouring Scots.
Unsatisfactory^ as the accounts given of this event in the old
Scottish chronicles and the theories of the more modern ^\Titers
are, we can nevertheless distinctly perceive the traces of some
remarkable revolution in the state of the countrv, and in the
relative position of the various tribes at that time inhabiting it ;
and we shall now endeavour, as shortly as possible, to ascertain
the real character of this change, and the probable causes which
led to it.
The principal events in the history of Scotland from the
departure of the Romans to the middle of the eighth century,
can be sufficiently discovered from the works of Gildas, Nennius,
the Welsh bards, the Irish annals, and in particular from the
venerable Bede. The most remarkable occurrences duriner this
period were the arrival of the Scots from Ireland in the }-ear
503, and the conversion of the northern Picts to Christianity
about sixty years later by the preaching of Columba ; the rest
of the history apparently consists entirely of the petty battles
of the Picts with the Dalriads and among themselves, with
occasional incursions of the Angli into the Pictish territories,
none of which produced any lasting change. Bede, however,
finishes his history in the year 731, and with that year commences
a period of great obscurity and confusion, during which
we have no certain guide until the middle of the ninth century,
when we find the numerous tribes of Scotland united under the
government of Kenneth. Before entering upon this enquiry, it
will therefore be necessary for us to ascertain the exact situation
in which these nations were placed at the time when Bede
finishes his history, the relations which they bore to each other,
and the peculiar laws which governed the succession of their
monarchs.
Situation of Bede closes his history in the year 731 with a
scotwin sketch of the state of the inhabitants of Britain,
A.D. ,31.
^j^^ j^jg ^yords relating to the nations at that time
inhabiting the northern part of the island, are "'Pictoriivi quoque
natio tempore hoc et foedus pacis cum gente habet Anglorum
et catholicae pacis et veritatis cum universali ecclesia particeps
existere gaudet. Scoti qui Britanniam ificolunt suis contenti