Áed Find (Áed the White), or Áed mac Echdach (before 736–778), was king of

Dál Riata Dál Riata or Dál Riada (also Dalriada) () was a Gaelic kingdom that encompassed the western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the 6th and 7th centuries, it covered what is now ...

(modern western

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and County Antrim, Ireland). Áed was the son of

Eochaid mac Echdach Eochaid mac Echdach was king of Dál Riata (modern western Scotland) from 726 until 733. He was a son of Eochaid mac Domangairt. Eochaid came to power as king of Dál Riata in 726, presumably deposing Dúngal mac Selbaig. Selbach may have tried ...

, a descendant of

Domnall Brecc Domnall Brecc (Welsh: ''Dyfnwal Frych''; English: ''Donald the Freckled'') (died 642 in Strathcarron) was king of Dál Riata, in modern Scotland, from about 629 until 642. He was the son of Eochaid Buide. He was counted as Donald II of Scotland b ...

in the main line of

Cenél nGabráin The Cenél nGabráin was a kingroup, presumed to descend from Gabrán mac Domangairt, which dominated the kingship of Dál Riata until the late 7th century and continued to provide kings thereafter. Kings of Alba and of Scotland traced their desce ...

kings. According to later genealogies, Áed was the great-grandfather of

Kenneth MacAlpin Kenneth MacAlpin ( mga, Cináed mac Ailpin, label=Medieval Gaelic, gd, Coinneach mac Ailpein, label=Modern Scottish Gaelic; 810 – 13 February 858) or Kenneth I was King of Dál Riada (841–850), King of the Picts (843–858), and the King ...

(Cináed mac Ailpín) who is traditionally counted as the first

king of Scots The monarch of Scotland was the head of state of the Kingdom of Scotland. According to tradition, the first King of Scots was Kenneth I MacAlpin (), who founded the sovereign state, state in 843. Historically, the Kingdom of Scotland is thoug ...

. This descent ran through Áed's son Eochaid mac Áeda Find and Eochaid's son

Alpín mac Echdach Alpín mac Echdach was a supposed king of Dál Riata, an ancient kingdom that included parts of Ireland and Scotland. Alpín was included in a pedigree chart created in the 10th century to supposedly connect the kings of Alba (Scotland) to legen ...

. The evidence for the existence of Eochaid and Alpín is uncompelling. The

Annals of Ulster The ''Annals of Ulster'' ( ga, Annála Uladh) are annals of medieval Ireland. The entries span the years from 431 AD to 1540 AD. The entries up to 1489 AD were compiled in the late 15th century by the scribe Ruaidhrí Ó Luinín, ...

in 768 report "Bellum i Fortrinn iter Aedh & Cinaedh": a battle in

Fortriu Fortriu ( la, Verturiones; sga, *Foirtrinn; ang, Wærteras; xpi, *Uerteru) was a Pictish kingdom that existed between the 4th and 10th centuries. It was traditionally believed to be located in and around Strathearn in central Scotland, but is ...

between Áed and Cináed. This is usually read as meaning Áed Find and the

Pictish Pictish is the extinct language, extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited num ...

king

Ciniod I Ciniod, Cináed or Cinadhon, son of Uuredech ( sga, Cináed mac Feradaig; en, Kenneth son of Feradach), was king of the Picts from 763 until 775. It has been supposed that Ciniod's father was the Feradach son of Selbach mac Ferchair, king of D ...

, who is called "Cinadhon" in the notice of his death in 775. Áed's death in 778 is noted by the Annals of Ulster. He appears to have been followed as king by his brother

Fergus mac Echdach Fergus mac Echdach was king of Dál Riata (modern western Scotland) from about 778 until 781. He succeeded Áed Find. He is stated to have been a son of Eochaid mac Echdach, and thus a brother of Áed. Some much later sources make him a son of Á ...

. The "Laws of Áed Eochaid's son" are mentioned by the

Chronicle of the Kings of Alba The ''Chronicle of the Kings of Alba'', or ''Scottish Chronicle'', is a short written chronicle of the Kings of Alba, covering the period from the time of Kenneth MacAlpin (Cináed mac Ailpín) (d. 858) until the reign of Kenneth II (Cináed mac ...

in the reign of Áed's supposed great-grandson

Donald MacAlpin Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

(Domnall mac Ailpín): "In his time the

Gaels The Gaels ( ; ga, Na Gaeil ; gd, Na Gàidheil ; gv, Ny Gaeil ) are an ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man in the British Isles. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic langu ...

with their king made the rights and laws of the kingdom hat are called the lawsof Áed Eochaid's son, in

Forteviot Forteviot ( gd, Fothair Tabhaicht) (Ordnance Survey ) is a village in Strathearn, Scotland on the south bank of the River Earn between Dunning and Perth. It lies in the council area of Perth and Kinross. The population in 1991 was 160. The pres ...

." What these laws concerned is not known.

In fiction

Áed Find is playable in ''

Crusader Kings II ''Crusader Kings II'' is a grand strategy video game developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. Set in the Middle Ages, the game was released on February 14, 2012, as a sequel to 2004's '' Crusader Kings''. On ...

'' (under the

regnal name A regnal name, or regnant name or reign name, is the name used by monarchs and popes during their reigns and, subsequently, historically. Since ancient times, some monarchs have chosen to use a different name from their original name when they ac ...

Áed III) in the ''Charlemagne'' DLC's 769 AD start date, and is treated as an independent

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

. His son Eochaid and brother Fergus also exist in his court. Without player intervention his realm is usually quickly conquered by neighboring

Pictland The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Sub-Roman Britain, Late Antiquity and the Scotland in the Early Middle Ages, Early Middle Ages. Where they lived an ...

Notes

References

''For primary sources, see also'' External links ''below'' * Anderson, Alan Orr, ''Early Sources of Scottish History A.D 500–1286'', volume 1. Reprinted with corrections. Paul Watkins, Stamford, 1990. * Bannerman, John, "The Scottish Takeover of Pictland" in

Dauvit Broun Dauvit Broun, FRSE, FBA ( en, David Brown) (born 1961) is a Scottish historian and academic. He is the professor of Scottish history at the University of Glasgow. A specialist in medieval Scottish and Celtic studies, he concentrates primarily on ...

Thomas Owen Clancy Thomas Owen Clancy is an American academic and historian who specializes in medieval Celtic literature, especially that of Scotland. He did his undergraduate work at New York University, and his Ph.D at the University of Edinburgh. He is currently ...

(eds.) ''Spes Scotorum: Hope of Scots. Saint Columba, Iona and Scotland.'' T & T Clark, Edinburgh, 1999. * Broun, Dauvit, ''The Irish Identity of the Kingdom of the Scots.'' Boydell, Woodbridge, 1999. * Broun, Dauvit, "Pictish Kings 761–839: Integration with Dál Riata or Separate Development" in Sally M. Foster (ed.), ''The St Andrews Sarcophagus: A Pictish masterpiece and its international connections.'' Four Courts, Dublin, 1998.

External links

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts
a
University College Cork
**The Corpus of Electronic Texts includes the ''Annals of Ulster'', ''Tigernach'', ''the Four Masters'' and ''Innisfallen'', the ''Chronicon Scotorum'', the ''Lebor Bretnach'' (which includes the ''Duan Albanach''), Genealogies, and various Saints' Lives. Most are translated into English, or translations are in progress
''Annals of Clonmacnoise''
a

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aed Find 8th-century births 778 deaths Year of birth unknown Kings of Dál Riata 8th-century Irish monarchs 8th-century Scottish monarchs