Talorcan (or Talorgan) mac Enfret (died 657) was a

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

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 e ...

from 653 to 657. He was the son of

Eanfrith of Bernicia Eanfrith (590–634Bede's dates are usually taken as he gives them, but some historians have treated these dates as being one year earlier, based on the idea that Bede did not start his years at the same time as modern years are started, so by thi ...

, who had fled into exile among the Picts after his father,

Æthelfrith of Northumbria Æthelfrith (died c. 616) was King of Bernicia from c. 593 until his death. Around 604 he became the first Bernician king to also rule the neighboring land of Deira, giving him an important place in the development of the later kingdom of Nort ...

, was killed around the year 616. Eanfrith married a Pictish princess, and their son was Talorcan. Talorcan became king in 653; in the next year, he defeated and killed

Dúnchad mac Conaing Dúnchad mac Conaing (or Dúnchad mac Dubáin) (died 654) was king of Dál Riata (modern western Scotland). He was joint ruler with Conall Crandomna until he was defeated and killed by Talorcan, king of the Picts, in the battle of Strath Ethairt. ...

, king of the

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 n ...

, in battle at Strath Ethairt. It has been suggested that this battle may have been part of a traditional "inaugural raid" against hostile neighbors to mark the beginning of a king's rule. Talorcan was the nephew of the powerful

Oswiu of Northumbria Oswiu, also known as Oswy or Oswig ( ang, Ōswīg; c. 612 – 15 February 670), was King of Bernicia from 642 and of Northumbria from 654 until his death. He is notable for his role at the Synod of Whitby in 664, which ultimately brought the ch ...

; Oswiu is reported by Bede to have "for the most part subdued and made tributary" the Picts (along with the Dál Riata), Bede, '' H. E.'', book II, chapter 5. and it is possible that Talorcan was subject to Oswiu.

References

657 deaths Pictish monarchs 7th-century Scottish monarchs Year of birth unknown Royal House of Northumbria {{Scotland-hist-stub