Kenneth MacAlpin

Kenneth MacAlpin
Cináed mac Ailpin
Frieze from the National Portrait Gallery, Scotland
King of the Picts
Reign848 – 13 February 858
PredecessorDrest X
SuccessorDonald I
King of Dál Riada
Reign841–850
PredecessorAlpín mac Echdach
SuccessorTitle disestablished
Born810
Iona
Died13 February 858 (aged 47)
Forteviot, Perthshire, Scotland
Burial
Issue
Regnal name
Kenneth I
Posthumous name
An Ferbasach
Medieval GaelicCináed mac Ailpin
HouseAlpín
FatherAlpín mac Echdach

Kenneth MacAlpin (Medieval Gaelic: Cináed mac Ailpin; Scottish Gaelic: Coinneach mac Ailpein;[a] 810 – 13 February 858) or Kenneth I was King of Dál Riada (841–850), and King of the Picts (848–858), of likely Gaelic origin. According to the traditional account, he inherited the throne of Dál Riada from his father Alpín mac Echdach, founder of the Alpínid dynasty. Kenneth I conquered the kingdom of the Picts in 843–850 and began a campaign to seize all of Scotland and assimilate the Picts, for which he was posthumously nicknamed An Ferbasach ("The Conqueror").[1] He fought the Britons of the Kingdom of Strathclyde and the invading Vikings from Scandinavia. Forteviot became the capital of his kingdom and Kenneth relocated relics, including the Stone of Scone from an abandoned abbey on Iona, to his new domain.

Kenneth I is traditionally considered the founder of Scotland, which was then known as Alba in Gaelic, although like his immediate successors, he bore the title of King of the Picts. It was Donald II that first bore the title of King of Alba as recorded by the Annals of Ulster and the Chronicon Scotorum. One chronicle calls Kenneth the first Scottish lawgiver but there is no information about the laws he passed.


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  1. ^ Skene 1867, p. 83.

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