The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. II] OF SCOTLAND 27
it must appear evident that it was these chiefs alone who could
be elected kings of the Picts,
supposed
for it cannot for a moment be
that if the whole nation was divided into tribes
subject respectively to the authority of their chiefs, that they
would suffer any one of inferior rank to themselves to fill the
Pictish throne. This view is confirmed by the expression of
Tacitus with regard to Galgacus, that he was " inter //«;r.y duces
virtute et genere praestans," and still more strongly by the
following passages of Tighernac :
A.D. 713. Tolaro Mac Drostan ligatus apud frah-em siium
Neetan regent.
739. Tolarcan Mac Drostan, Rex Atfotla a bathadh la
Aengus (drowned by Angus).
Thus Tolarg- Mac Drostan, the brother of Nectan, the king of
the Picts, appears after his brother's death, and during the
reign of Angus, as king of Athol, and consequently Nectan
must have been chief of Athol before he became king of the
Picts. What the peculiar rule was which regulated the election
of these chiefs to the Pictish throne, and on what occasions
that rule failed .so as to bring the affair " in dubium," it is
impossible now to determine ; but from the authorities which
we have mentioned we may conclude, first, that the privilege
of being elected monarch of the Picts, was confined exclusively
to the hereditar}' chiefs of the different tribes into which that
nation was divided, and, secondly, that whenever that election
was involved in doubt, the chief most nearly related to the last
king by the female line was chosen.
Such a mode of succession as this, however, was not calcu-
lated to last each chief who in this manner obtained the Pictish
;
throne, would endeavour to perpetuate the succession in his own
family, and the power and talent of some chief would at length
enable him to effect this object and to change the rule of election
into that of hereditary succession. This object appears in reality
to have been finally accomplished by Constantin, the son of
Fergus, who ascended the Pictish throne towards the end of the
eighth centur}-, and in whose family the monarchy remained for
some time.
.Such, then, being the principles which regulated the succession
to the Pictish throne, it may be well to enquire whether the