The House of Alpin, also known as the Alpinid dynasty, Clann Chináeda, and Clann Chinaeda meic Ailpín, was the kin-group which ruled in

Pictland The Picts were a group of peoples in what is now Scotland north of the Firth of Forth, in the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and details of their culture can be gleaned from early medieval texts and Pictish stones. The name appears in ...

, possibly

Dál Riata Dál Riata or Dál Riada (also Dalriada) () was a Gaels, Gaelic Monarchy, kingdom that encompassed the Inner Hebrides, western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North ...

, and then the

kingdom of Alba The Kingdom of Alba (; ) was the Kingdom of Scotland between the deaths of Donald II in 900 and of Alexander III in 1286. The latter's death led indirectly to an invasion of Scotland by Edward I of England in 1296 and the First War of Scotti ...

from Constantine II (Causantín mac Áeda) in the 940s until the death of

Malcolm II Máel Coluim mac Cinaeda (; anglicised Malcolm II; c. 954 – 25 November 1034) was List of Scottish monarchs, King of Alba (Scotland) from 1005 until his death in 1034. He was one of the longest-reigning Scottish Kings of that period. He was ...

(Máel Coluim mac Cináeda) in 1034. Kings traced their descent from

Kenneth MacAlpin Kenneth MacAlpin (; ; 810 – 13 February 858) or Kenneth I was King of Dál Riada (841–850), and King of the Picts (848–858), of likely Gaelic origin. According to the traditional account, he inherited the throne of Dál Riada from his fa ...

(and not from his father,

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 connect the kings of Alba (Scotland) to legendary Dál R ...

), and Irish genealogies in the

Book of Ballymote The ''Book of Ballymote'' (, RIA MS 23 P 12, 275 foll.), was written in 1390 or 1391 in or near the town of Ballymote, now in County Sligo, but then in the tuath of Corann. According to David Sellar who was the Lord Lyon King of Arms in ...

and the

Book of Lecan The ''Great Book of Lecan'' or simply ''Book of Lecan'' () ( RIA, 23 P 2) is a late-medieval Irish manuscript written between 1397 and 1418 in Castle Forbes, Lecan (Lackan, Leckan; Irish ), in the territory of Tír Fhíacrach, near moder ...

refer to the kindred as ''Clann Cináeda meic Ailpín'' by prioritising descent from Kenneth. The origins of the family are uncertain. Later genealogies make Kenneth a descendant of Áed Find. While plausible, such claims are unprovable and appear only in the late tenth century. The associated idea that Kenneth had been a king in

before he contended successfully for power in Pictland in the 840s, following the death of Eóganán mac Óengusa, is supported by nearly contemporary evidence. Early kings of ''Clann Cináeda meic Ailpín'' are described as kings of the Picts, and the third king, Kenneth's son

Constantine I Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

(Causantín mac Cináeda), appears to have been regarded as the last of the 70 Pictish kings soon after his death. The descendants of Kenneth were ousted in 878, when Constantine I's brother,

Áed mac Cináeda Áed mac Cináeda ( Modern Scottish Gaelic: ''Aodh mac Choinnich''; ; Anglicized: Hugh; died 878) was a son of Cináed mac Ailpín (Kenneth MacAlpin). He became king of the Picts in 877 when he succeeded his brother Constantín mac Cináeda. ...

, was killed by Giric mac Dúngail, but they returned in 889, when Constantine I's son Donald II (Domnall mac Causantín) ascended the throne upon the death or deposition of Giric. Donald II and his successors are described as kings of Alba. During the tenth century, succession alternated between the descendants of Constantine I and those of Áed. Internecine strife in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries left the descendants of Constantine I unchallenged by male-line descendants of Kenneth MacAlpin, but Malcolm II left no male heirs. On Malcolm's death, the line of kings descended from Kenneth came to an end. Future kings, while still tracing their descent from Kenneth, were descended from Malcolm's daughter Bethóc and her husband Crinan of Dunkeld.Woolf, ''Pictland to Alba'', pp. 225–230.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * {{Royal houses of Britain and Ireland 843 establishments Alpin 1030s disestablishments in Europe Alpin 9th-century establishments in Scotland

See also

Notes

References