The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

36 THE HIGHLANDERS [part i
to have regained their strength sufficiently to enable them to
place Kenneth, a chief of that race, upon the throne, although
they were opposed by Aodh, the son of Angus and chief of
the Piccardach. Kenneth was succeeded by Elpin, but it is
uncertain whether he was of the northern or southern Picts.
He was succeeded by Drust, son of Talorcan, who was probably
the same as Talorcan, the king of Atholl, and therefore a
northern Pict. Drust was succeeded by Talorcan, con of the
famous Angus, and he again, after a reign of two years and
a half, by Conall, the son of Tarla or Tadg, who reigned five
years.
From the death of Angus, in the year 761, down to this
period, there seems to have been a constant struggle between
the northern and southern Picts for the superiority, the two
races being apparently alternately successful, for a king
of the one race generally succeeds one of the other down
to the reign of Conall, when the southern Picts under Con-
stantin Mac Fergus, a descendant of Angus, succeeded once
more in obtaining the pre-eminence \\hich they had had
under Angus.
In 789 a battle was fought between Conall and Constantin,
in which Constantin was victorious, although Conall succeeded
in making his escape. During a long reign of thirty years
Constantin established the power of the southern Picts so firmly
that he was enabled to transmit the crown to his posterity, and
thus introduce hereditary succession to the throne for the first
time among the Picts. Conall, on his defeat by Constantin,
Third league
between the
northern
appears to have adopted the usual
.
, ^. \ ,. ,
northern Picts, and immediately to
. .
,
policv of the
,
have entered
Pictaand mto a league With the Dalriadic Scots; for we find
Dalriads.
-
,
him in 807 fighting in Dalriada, having attacked
the possessions of the southern Picts in that territory,
although unsuccessfully, as he was killed in Kintyre
bv Conall, the son of Aidan, the Pictish prince
Their defeat
" ^
there.
In 819, the Dalriads at last prevailed, after so many un-
successful attempts, in recovering the territory which had been
wrested from them by the southern Picts, and their success
was principally owing to the assistance of the Irish Monarch,