The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

8 THE HIGHLANDERS [part I
dent, and governed by a king of their own of the name of
Talorcan, according to the Pictish chronicle.
Such having been the result of the great accession of power
obtained by the southern Picts upon three several occasions, it
is to be presumed that when upon the death of Uen, the last
king of the line of Fergus, the southern Picts attempted for
the fourth time to assert their superiority, and to put forward
a king of their own race, the northern Picts would oppose
them to the utmost of their power, and would endeavour, as they
had done thrice before under similar circumstances, to render
themselves altogether independent of the southern division of
the race. But when we find that immediately after the death of
Uen, the southern Picts were engaged in contest with Alpin, the
Dalriadic king, and that they were unable to prevent his con-
quering Galloway, one of their principal provinces, we may infer
that the northern Picts had been successful in their fourth
attempt, and consequently that at the date of the Scottish
conquest they were perfectly independent of, and unconnected
with the southern Picts.
Second.—
Further, it has been seen that on the three several
occasions when the power and superiority attained by the
southern Picts under Angus Mac Fergus, and afterwards under
Constantin, drove the northern Picts into revolt, they were not
content with merely endeavouring to render themselves independent,
but actually leagued with the Dalriadic Scots in active
opposition to the Piccardachs ; on the first two occasions, when
we find the king of the northern district of Atholl fighting along
with the Dalriads against Angus, the Pictish king ; and on the
third occasion, when we find that Conall Mac Tadg, the king
of the race of the northern Picts whom Constantin drove from
the throne, was killed by the Pictish Prince of Lorn while
fighting in Kintyre, and therefore assisting the Scots of Dalriada.
It is but reasonable to infer, that when the power of the southern
Picts drove them for the fourth time into revolt, they would
again join the Scots in opposition to the Piccardachs, and would
assist them in their final and successful attempt. Again, the
great object of the Piccardach princes was apparently to per-
petuate the succession to the Pictish crown in their own family,
and the northern Picts appear to have constantly opposed that