The ''Chronicle of the Kings of Alba'', or ''Scottish Chronicle'', is a short written chronicle covering the period from the time of

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 ...

(Cináed mac Ailpín) (d. 858) until the reign of Kenneth II (Cináed mac Maíl Coluim) (r. 971–995).

W.F. Skene William Forbes Skene Writer to the Signet, WS FRSE Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, FSA(Scot) Doctor of Civil Law, DCL Legum Doctor, LLD (7 June 1809 – 29 August 1892), was a Scotland, Scottish lawyer, historian and antiquary. He co-found ...

called it the ''Chronicle of the Kings of Scots'', and some have called it the ''Older Scottish Chronicle'', but ''Chronicle of the Kings of Alba'' is emerging as the standard scholarly name. The sole surviving version of the text comes from the Poppleton Manuscript, now in the

Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a p ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. It is the fourth of seven consecutive Scottish documents in the manuscript, the first six of which were probably put together in the early thirteenth century by the man who wrote '' de Situ Albanie''. The ''Chronicle'' is a vital source for the period it covers, and, despite some later

Francization Francization (in American English, Canadian English, and Oxford English) or Francisation (in other British English), also known as Frenchification, is the expansion of French language use—either through willful adoption or coercion—by more an ...

, is very much written in Hiberno-Latin, showing evidence of a scribe with some knowledge of contemporary

Middle Irish Middle Irish, also called Middle Gaelic (, , ), is the Goidelic language which was spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from AD; it is therefore a contemporary of Late Old English and Early Middle English. The modern Goideli ...

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

. The original text was without doubt written in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, probably in the early eleventh century, shortly after the reign of Kenneth II, the last reign it relates.

Bibliography

*''Chronicle of the Kings of Alba'' ** Anderson, Marjorie O. (ed.). ''Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland''. 2nd ed. Edinburgh, 1980. 249–53. **Hudson, B.T. (ed. and tr.). ''Scottish Historical Review'' 77 (1998): 129–61. ** Anderson, Alan Orr (tr.). ''Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286''. Vol. 1. Edinburgh, 1923. * Anderson, Marjorie O. ''Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland''. 2nd ed. Edinburgh, 1980. First edition: 1973. * Skene, William F.
''Chronicles of the Picts and Scots: And Other Memorials of Scottish History''.
Edinburgh, 1867.

Bibliography

See also