This is a list of the kings 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 ...
, a kingdom of Irish origin which was located in
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
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. Most kings 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 ...
, along with later rulers 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 ...
and of Scotland, traced their descent from
Fergus Mór mac Eirc
Fergus may refer to:
Given name or surname
*Fergus (name), including lists of people and fictional and mythological characters
Places
*Fergus, Ontario, Canada
* River Fergus, County Clare, Ireland
*Lake Fergus, South Island, New Zealand
*Loc ...
, and even in the 16th century,
James VI of Scotland
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...
called himself the "happie monarch sprung of Ferguse race".
Background
It is not until the middle of the 6th century that
Irish annals
A number of Irish annals, of which the earliest was the Chronicle of Ireland, were compiled up to and shortly after the end of the 17th century. Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days. Over t ...
plausibly report the deaths of kings of Dál Riata, with the death of
Comgall mac Domangairt, c. 538–545, and of his brother
Gabrán, c. 558–560. After the disastrous
Battle of Moira
The Battle of Moira, also known as the Battle of Magh Rath, was fought in the summer of 637 by the High King of Ireland, Domnall II, against his foster son Congal Cáech, King of Ulaid, supported by his ally Domnall Brecc, King of Dál Riata. ...
(Mag Rath) in 637, Irish
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 ...
lost possession of its Scottish lands.
During the 8th century, the rival
Dál nAraidi
Dál nAraidi (; "Araide's part") or Dál Araide, sometimes Latinised as Dalaradia or Anglicised as Dalaray,Boyd, Hugh AlexanderIrish Dalriada ''The Glynns: Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Society''. Volume 76 (1978). was a Cruthin kin ...
had overrun Irish Dál Riata,
though the area retained its name well into the 14th century.
The last attested king of Scottish Dál Riata is
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 ...
, brother of and successor to
Áed Find, whose death is reported in 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 781. Dál Riata was divided into a number of kingroups or dynasties, called ''cenéla'', among which was the
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 ...
of
Kintyre
Kintyre ( gd, Cinn Tìre, ) is a peninsula in western Scotland, in the southwest of Argyll and Bute. The peninsula stretches about , from the Mull of Kintyre in the south to East and West Loch Tarbert in the north. The region immediately north ...
, who claimed descent from
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 the
Cenél Loairn
The Cenél Loairn, the descendants of Loarn mac Eirc, controlled parts of northern Argyll around the Firth of Lorne, most probably centred in Lorne but perhaps including the islands of Mull and Colonsay, Morvern and Ardnamurchan. The boundary to ...
, who claimed descent from Loarn mac Eirc. While the Irish origin of the Kings of Dál Riata is unquestionable, the links to the Irish nobility were likely exaggerated in later centuries to claim foundership of the kingdom in an effort to add legitimacy to the dynasties.
Kings of Dál Riata
Kings before the Battle of Mag Rath
Kings from Mag Rath to 741
Kings from the 740s onwards
Sources
The main sources for the kings of Dál Riata include:
*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, ...
*The
Annals of Tigernach
The ''Annals of Tigernach'' (abbr. AT, ga, Annála Tiarnaigh) are chronicles probably originating in Clonmacnoise, Ireland. The language is a mixture of Latin and Old and Middle Irish.
Many of the pre-historic entries come from the 12th-centur ...
*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 ...
*The Synchronisms of
Flann Mainistrech
Flann Mainistrech (died 25 November 1056) was an Irish poet and historian.
Flann was the son of Echthigern mac Óengusso, who had been lector at the monastery of Monasterboice (modern County Louth), in Irish ''Mainistir Buite'', whence Flann's by ...
of
Monasterboice
The Monasterboice ( ga, Mainistir Bhuithe) ruins are the remains of an early Christian monastic settlement in County Louth in Ireland, north of Drogheda. The ruins are a National monument of Ireland and also give their name to the local villag ...
*The
Duan Albanach
The Duan Albanach (Song of the Scots) is a Middle Gaelic poem. Written during the reign of Mael Coluim III, who ruled between 1058 and 1093, it is found in a variety of Irish sources, and the usual version comes from the ''Book of Lecan'' and '' ...
*
Adomnán of Iona
Adomnán or Adamnán of Iona (, la, Adamnanus, Adomnanus; 624 – 704), also known as Eunan ( ; from ), was an abbot of Iona Abbey ( 679–704), hagiographer, statesman, canon jurist, and saint. He was the author of the ''Life of Col ...
's ''Life of Saint
Columba
Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is toda ...
''
*A variety of genealogies for later 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 ...
Less reliable sources may include:
*The
Annals of Innisfallen
Annals ( la, annāles, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record.
Scope
The nature of the distinction between ann ...
*The
Chronicon Scotorum
''Chronicon Scotorum'', also known as ''Chronicum Scotorum'', is a medieval Irish chronicle.
Overview
According to Nollaig Ó Muraíle, it is "a collection of annals belonging to the ' Clonmacnoise group', covering the period from prehistoric tim ...
*The
Annals of the Four Masters
The ''Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland'' ( ga, Annála Ríoghachta Éireann) or the ''Annals of the Four Masters'' (''Annála na gCeithre Máistrí'') are chronicles of medieval Irish history. The entries span from the Deluge, dated as 2,24 ...
*The
Annals of Clonmacnoise
The ''Annals of Clonmacnoise'' ( ga, Annála Chluain Mhic Nóis) are an early 17th-century Early Modern English translation of a lost Irish chronicle, which covered events in Ireland from prehistory to 1408. The work is sometimes known as ''Mag ...
Interpretation of these sources remains problematic. Many entries which appear to refer to Dál Riata lack context, many persons named lack patronyms or other identifying bynames. There are many disagreements among sources. Some entries have been amended and expanded at a later time.
References
''For primary sources, see also the articles mentioned above and'' External links ''below''
*
*Adomnán, ''Life of St Columba'', tr. & ed. Richard Sharpe. Penguin, London, 1995.
*
Anderson, Alan Orr, ''Early Sources of Scottish History A.D 500–1286'', volume 1. Reprinted with corrections. Paul Watkins, Stamford, 1990.
*
Bannerman, John, ''Studies in the History of Dalriada.'' Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh, 1974.
*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 in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.'' 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.
*Sharpe, Richard, "The thriving of Dalriada" in Simon Taylor (ed.), ''Kings, clerics and chronicles in Scotland 500–1297.'' Four Courts, Dublin, 2000.
External links
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Textsa
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
See also
*
Kings of the Picts
The list of kings of the Picts is based on the Pictish Chronicle king lists. These are late documents and do not record the dates when the kings reigned. The various surviving lists disagree in places as to the names of kings, and the lengths of ...
*
Kings of Strathclyde
The list of the kings of Strathclyde concerns the kings of Alt Clut, later Strathclyde, a Brythonic kingdom in what is now western Scotland.
The kingdom was ruled from Dumbarton Rock, ''Alt Clut'', the Brythonic name of the rock, until around ...
*
Kings 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 ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Kings Of Dal Riata
Dal Riata
In Indian cuisine, ''dal'' (also spelled ''daal'' or ''dhal''; pronunciation: , Hindi: दाल, Urdu: ) are dried, split pulses (e.g., lentils, peas, and beans) that do not require soaking before cooking. India is the largest producer of ...
Dal Riata Kings
Dal Riada
In Indian cuisine, ''dal'' (also spelled ''daal'' or ''dhal''; pronunciation: , Hindi: दाल, Urdu: ) are dried, split pulses (e.g., lentils, peas, and beans) that do not require soaking before cooking. India is the largest producer of pu ...