After this overthrow, the Saxons of Lothian remain ed unmolested for a considerable period, but they gradually sank into insignificance; their capital was sacked by the Picts and Saxons, and the respite from foreign war which they subsequently enjoyed must be attributed to the intestine discord which prevailed in the Pictish and Northumbrian states.
We must now notice the Scots, of whom a colony, conducted by Fergus, an Irish chieftain, had effected a permanent settlement in Argyleshire in the year of our Lord 503. The new settlers were denominated Dalriadini, and this appellation was common to the Scots even in the time of Bede. The series of the early Scottish kings, as given by Chalmers, is as fol lows: The Scottish colonists were not numerous at first; but they rapidly multiplied, as they were soon joined by kindred tribes.
In the eighth century, a civil war desolated the Bri tish kingdom, and the Scots, taking advantage of these civil discords, harassed the enfeebled Picts. At length Kenneth the Second, secured his accession to the Pictish throne, and united into one kingdom the whole country north of the wall of Antoninus.
There is no historical evidence that the kingdom of the Scots and Picts extended beyond the northern wall. After the settlement of the Anglo-Saxons, the princes of Northumberland possessed-all the territory between the Humber and the Forth. The castle of Edinburgh, which commanded the adjacent country, continued in the hands of the Saxons till the defeat of Egfrid by the Picts, who then took possession of it. But the Saxons reconquered it soon after, and retain ed it till it was ceded to India, king of Scotland.
The district now comprehended in Galloway was colonized from Ireland. After the subjugation of the kingdom of Alcluyd, it had its own princes and laws. For a considerable period it was independent of Scot land; but it afterwards acknowledged a feudatory de pendence on that kingdom, and was at length united.
After the dissolution of the lieptarchy, Cumberland became an appendage of the Scottish crown.
Kenneth Macalpine, having united the Scots and Picts under one government, became formidable to the Saxons of Lothian, whose territories he frequently in vaded. His dominions were assailed on the west by the Britons of Strathclyde, who burned Dunbiane.
The Danish pirates, under Regncr Lodbrog, made a descent upon the eastern coast, penetrated to Dunkeld, and plundered the country.
Kenneth is said to have removed the relies of St. Columba from Iona to Dunkeld; and he transported the " fatal stone," the palladium of Scottish inde pendence, from Argyllshire to Scone. He died at Forteviot, the Pictish capital, and left a son and a daughter.
Donald the Third.-This prince succeeded his bro ther; and the Picts, to regain their independence, formed an alliance with the Northumbrian Saxons. In the first engagement the Saxons were defeated; in the second, the Scottish king was taken prisoner; but the former, attempting to cross the Firth of Forth, lost the half of their boats in a storm. A treaty of peace was then concluded, from which the Picts were shut out. Donald reigned only four years. Ile was succeeded by his nephew, Constantine the Second. At the period of Constantine's accession, his country was exposed to the piratical Danes, who infested England, France, and Ireland.
Half a century had elapsed since Ireland had be come the scene of conflicts with the Danes, who esta blished themselves on its eastern shores. in vaded and pillaged the opposite coast of Scotland during the third and seventh years of Constantine's reign, and he fell in battle on the shores of the Forth.
Eth, or Hugh.--The reign of this prince was short and turbulent. A faction, headed by Grig, rendered an appeal to the sword indispensable. Eth was wounded in battle, and died in two months after.
Grig, or Gregory, the leader of the rebellion, seized the sceptre, and chose for his colleague Eocha, king of Strathclyde, the grandson of Kenneth. But at the end of three years he and his colleague were driven from the throne. He died at his castle in Aberdeen shire, four years after his abdication.
Donald the the deposition of Grig, Donald ascended the throne. The Danes arrived in the Tay, and marched to the vicinity of Scone, where they were met by the Scots and defeated. Nine years after, another army of Danes from Ireland in vaded Scotland upon the western coast. The Scots were not long in attacking them. The Danes lost their leader, and the Scots their king, who had de fended the liberties of his people during a reign of eleven years.