Many people do not realise that when Kenneth MacAlpin inherited the throne of the Picts, the kingdom of Dal Riata was on the decline. They had been ravaged and pillaged by the Vikings for some years and the dominant force in Scotland were the Picts. This is why the early kings of Alba, Scotland, are listed as kings of the Picts. It is even under speculation whether Kenneth was even part of the Scotti. It is not written anywhere of who his father was, and it is not written anywhere in solid proof of whether the Picts really did practice matrilineality. There was a Gaelicisation of the Picts, one can see that in the list of the kings, the only surviving document of the Picts, and Bede the master and sources that there is on this matter of the early history of the Picts is all that is known. Bede states that the Picts took Gaels for wives, so they must have been half Gael half Pict for longer than just the succession of MacAlpin.
No comments:
Post a Comment