Fergus Mór mac Eirc ( gd, Fearghas Mòr Mac Earca; English: ''Fergus the Great'') was a possible king of Dál Riata. He was the son of

Erc of Dalriada Erc was king of Irish Dál Riata from 439 until 474, succeeding Eochaid Muinremuir. He was the father of three sons: Fergus Mór, Loarn and Oengus. He also may have been the great-grandfather of Muirchertach mac Muiredaig. Confusion arises from t ...

. While his historicity may be debatable, his posthumous importance as the founder of

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 ...

in the national myth of Medieval and Renaissance Scotland is not in doubt. Rulers of Scotland from

Cináed mac Ailpín 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 ...

until the present time claim descent from Fergus Mór.

Fergus Mór in early sources

The historical record, such as it is, consists of an entry in the Annals of Tigernach, for the year 501, which states: ''Feargus Mor mac Earca cum gente Dal Riada partem Britaniae tenuit, et ibi mortuus est.'' (Fergus Mór mac Eirc, with the people of Dál Riata, held part of Britain, and he died there.) However, the forms of Fergus, Erc and Dál Riata are later ones, written down long after the 6th century. The record in the Annals has given rise to theories of invasions of Argyll from Ireland, but these are not considered authentic. The Genealogy of Fergus is found in the king lists of Dál Riata, and later of Scotland, of which the

Senchus Fer n-Alban The ''Senchus fer n-Alban'' (''The History of the men of Scotland'') is an Old Irish medieval text believed to have been compiled in the 10th century. It provides genealogies for kings of Dál Riata and a census of the kingdoms which comprised Dá ...

and the Duan Albanach can be taken as examples. The Senchus states that Fergus Mór was also known as Mac Nisse Mór. These sources probably date from the 10th and 11th centuries respectively, between 20 and 30 generations after Fergus may have lived. The Senchus and the Duan name Fergus's father as Erc son of Eochaid Muinremuir. A Middle Irish genealogy of the kings of

Alba ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scottish people, Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed i ...

gives an extensive genealogy for Fergus: ergusm. h-Eircc m. Echdach Muinremuir m. Óengusa Fir m. Feideilmid m. Óengusa m. Feideilmid m. Cormaicc, and a further forty-six generations here omitted. These sources, while they offer evidence for the importance of Fergus Mór in Medieval times, are not evidence for his historical career. Indeed, only one king in the 6th century in Scotland is known from contemporary evidence,

Ceretic of Alt Clut Ceretic Guletic of Alt Clut was a List of Kings of Strathclyde, king of Alt Clut, associated with Dumbarton Castle in the 5th century. He has been identified with Coroticus, a Britons (historical), Brittonic warrior addressed in a letter by Saint P ...

, and even this identification rests upon a later gloss to

Saint Patrick Saint Patrick ( la, Patricius; ga, Pádraig ; cy, Padrig) was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints be ...

's ''Letter to Coroticus''. The first kings of Dál Riata whose existences are reasonably sure are Fergus's grandsons

Gabrán mac Domangairt Gabrán mac Domangairt ( Old Welsh: ''Gawran map Dinwarch'Annales Cambriae'' B Text) or Gabrán the Traitor (''Gwran Wradouc'') was king of Dál Riata,in the mid-6th century. He is the eponymous ancestor of the Cenél nGabráin. Gabrán was th ...

and Comgall, or perhaps his great-grandson

Áedán mac Gabráin Áedán mac Gabráin (pronounced in Old Irish; ga, Aodhán mac Gabhráin, lang), also written as Aedan, was a king of Dál Riata from 574 until c. 609 AD. The kingdom of Dál Riata was situated in modern Argyll and Bute, Scotland, and par ...

. In the contexts of Patrician tradition, legendary accounts and symbolic description, the figure twelve is mentioned with reference to the sons of Erc.

Fergus Mór in later accounts

Andrew of Wyntoun Andrew Wyntoun, known as Andrew of Wyntoun (), was a Scottish poet, a canon and prior of Loch Leven on St Serf's Inch and, later, a canon of St. Andrews. Andrew Wyntoun is most famous for his completion of an eight-syllabled metre entitled, '' ...

's early 15th century ''Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland'' says that Fergus was the first Scot to rule in Scotland, and that Cináed mac Ailpín was his descendant. In addition, he writes that Fergus brought the Stone of Scone with him from Ireland, that he was succeeded by a son named Dúngal. A list of kings follows which is corrupt but bears some relation to those found in earlier sources. If Wyntoun's account adds little to earlier ones, at the end of the 16th century George Buchanan in his ''

Rerum Scoticarum Historia Rerum may refer to : *Lacrimae rerum is the Latin for tears for things. *Rerum novarum is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on May 16, 1891. *Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii was a Latin book by Baron Sigismund von Herberstein on the geography ...

'' added much, generally following

John of Fordun John of Fordun (before 1360 – c. 1384) was a Scottish chronicler. It is generally stated that he was born at Fordoun, Mearns. It is certain that he was a secular priest, and that he composed his history in the latter part of the 14th cen ...

. In this version, the Scots had been expelled from Scotland when the Romans under one Maximus conquered all of Britain. His father Eugenius had been killed by the Romans, and Fergus, Fergusius II according to Buchanan's count, was raised in exile in

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

. He later fought with the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

, before eventually returning to Scotland and reconquering the Scottish lands. He was killed in battle against Durstus, king of the

Picts The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ea ...

, and was succeeded by his son Eugenius.Aikman's edition, pp. 202–218. A linked tradition traces the origin of

Clan Cameron Clan Cameron is a West Highland Scottish clan, with one main branch Lochiel, and numerous cadet branches. The Clan Cameron lands are in Lochaber and within their lands lies Ben Nevis which is the highest mountain in the British Isles. The Chief ...

to the son of the royal family of

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

who assisted Fergus II in the above restoration to Scotland. Buchanan's king, James VI, shared the scholar's view of the origins of his line, describing himself in one of many verses written to his wife

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional fo ...

, as the "happie Monarch sprung of Ferguse race". Nor was James VI the last ruler to share this belief. The Great Gallery of the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh was decorated with eighty-nine of

Jacob de Wet Jacob Willemszoon de Wet or Jacob Willemsz. de Wet the Elder (c. 1610 – between 1675 and 1691) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose works were largely influenced by Rembrandt. Biography De Wet was born and died in Haarlem. Little is known ...

's portraits of Scottish monarchs, from Fergus to Charles II, produced to the order of James's grandson.

James II James II may refer to: * James II of Avesnes (died c. 1205), knight of the Fourth Crusade * James II of Majorca (died 1311), Lord of Montpellier * James II of Aragon (1267–1327), King of Sicily * James II, Count of La Marche (1370–1438), King C ...

's Irish partisans welcomed the king at Kilkenny during the

Williamite War The Williamite War in Ireland (1688–1691; ga, Cogadh an Dá Rí, "war of the two kings"), was a conflict between Jacobite supporters of deposed monarch James II and Williamite supporters of his successor, William III. It is also called th ...

, declaring, "We conducted a Fergus to Scotland; we welcome in James the Second the undoubted heir of Fergus by the lineal descent of one hundred and ten crowned heads".

Notes

References

* Broun, Dauvit, "Dál Riata" in Michael Lynch (ed.), ''The Oxford Companion to Scottish History.'' Oxford UP, Oxford, 2001. * Campbell, Ewan, "Were the Scots Irish ?" in ''Antiquity'', 75 (2001), pp. 285–292. * Foster, Sally M., ''Picts, Gaels, and Scots: Early Historic Scotland.'' Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2014.

External links

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts
a
University College Cork
including:

from Rawlinson B.502 (no translation available)

(translation in progress)

from the Book of Lismore (no translation available) *

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

contains a scanned edition of James Aikman's translation (''The History of Scotland'') of George Buchanan's ''Rerum Scoticarum Historia'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Fergus Mor 6th-century Irish monarchs 6th-century Scottish monarchs Kings of Dál Riata People whose existence is disputed 430 births 501 deaths

Fergus Mór in early sources

Fergus Mór in later accounts

See also

Notes

References

External links