CHAPTER III. CONTESTS BETWEEN THE PICTS AND THE SCOTE IF Tacitus had to deplore that the Britons had no monuments of their history, our complaint is, that the most valuable documents touching the most obscure period of our national history have been irretrievably lost. Not to insist upon the fact that records of a very early date must have existed-to say nothing of the conjecture that the traditions and transactions of the first inhabitants, being committed to writing, were collected and deposited in the sanctuary of Iona—not to overrate the assertion that the annals of the kingdom were afterwards transferred to a priory at Angus, the originals carried off or destroyed during the confusion occasioned by the disputes between Baliol and Bruce as to the right of succession to the Scottish throneit will take more evidence than has yet been brought out to prove that the first Edward was not immediately implicated in carrying off or destroying those numerous documents which went to assert the independence of the kingdom. Besides which, Cromwell, to his eternal disgrace, swept the country of records whose value we have no means of estimating. It is said that in the time of the second Charles, several large hogsheads full of papers, connected with our Scottish history, were lost on their passage from London to Scotland. It appears, moreover, that some of the more valuable manuscripts, which were deposited in the Library of Iona, were carried off by the Norwegian princes, while they held the sovereignty of those isles, to a place of security in their own country, and perished in the great fire of the city of Drontheim, which took place towards the close of the seventeenth century. In the absence of such records, and with no other data worthy of acceptance, it can be no matter of surprise that some of the most laborious and painstaking men in the walks of literature, should have given up this portion of our history in despair, that others should have found themselves in an interminable labyrinth, and that not a few should have attempted to overthrow the entire fabric by deeper and wider researches. All that we can profess to do is to thread our way through these difficulties as best we may, till the path clear before us, and we can advance with a firmer and a more certain step. B.C. 320-295.] FERGUS PROCLAIMED KING OF THE SCOTS. SECTION 1.-FERGUS PROCLAIMED KING OF THE SCOTS. The Picts, into whose midst they were received, and with whom they soon entered into the closest alliance, were at first more powerful than the Scots. But the Scots so multiplied in numbers, and their settlements in the Hebrides or Western Isles so increased, as to excite the apprehensions and fears of the Picts. Though their clanships lay scattered, and they were without king or government, their position and their bearing soon became truly formidable. This, coupled with the rumour that an oracle had declared that the whole nation of the Picts would be destroyed by the Scots, led the Picts to the adoption of measures which might more effectually provide against the future intermingling of strangers with them, and, if possible, diminish the number of those who had already settled. Then followed division and separation. The Scots, who were now devoted to the rearing of cattle and to hunting, betook themselves to those mountainous districts which were but little adapted to agricultural pursuits, while the Picts supported themselves by cultivating the more fertile coasts along the German Ocean. Former friendship degenerated into alienation, this alienation into enmity, and enmity into deadly hatred, followed by civil broils and intestine wars. Hostile to both parties, the Britons promoted the discord, and offered the Picts their assistance against the Scots. There was design in this. If the Picts and the Scots could have been induced to turn their arms against each other, the Britons would have taken advantage of their hostilities to reduce both to their sway, or to exterminate them by a more deadly onslaught, and thus have claimed the compass of the whole island. Their counsel was defeated, because their object was discovered. The Pict and the Scot laid aside their mutual animosity for the moment, and agreed to join issue against those southern Britons. Divided and single, they must have fallen before the enemy. Their salvation depended upon their being united, and acting in concert. As a race, they were noble-minded and Intrepid men; still they could not assure themselves that their resources were equal to their exigencies. The Britons could fall back on the force and the arms of a more compact and numerous body. The Scots, fully alive to their position and their danger, sought to strengthen themselves by foreign aid. Ireland, whence they had come, was near at hand. Her people were of the same blood, and nation, and language, and religion with themselves. What could be more natural than to look to them for succour and help in this their time of need? FERGUS, the son of Ferchard, who was esteemed the first of the Scots for his wisdom and activity, and who then occupied the Irish throne, had come over to inspirit and direct these waiting suppliants in the maintenance of their righteous cause. It is said that he landed on one of the Western Isles, and after a lengthened conference with the people, whom he found to be of the same language and manners as his own countrymen, collected an army, and, marching into Albion, took the field against the Britons. Having, by a series of successful manœuvres, protracted the war and exhausted the strength of the enemy, he at last made a * powerful incursion into their country; and having found them lulled into a false security by his previous inaction, he put the whole of them to the sword, and slew Corbus, their king. While victory was weaving a laurel for his brow, Fergus was declared king, in a full assembly of the people, and the kingdom was confirmed to him and his posterity by a most solemn oath.† Fergus did not long enjoy his new dignity. Summoned back to repress a rebellion which had broken out in Ireland, he was on his return to Scotland suddenly overtaken by a storm, not far from the harbour at which he had embarked, and there perished in the twenty-fifth year of his reign. In commemoration of the melancholy event, the harbour received the name of Fergus' Craig, now Craigfergus, or Carrickfergus, which is equivalent to Fergus's Rock. SECTION II.-COLLATERAL SUCCESSION. Fergus may be said to have been the founder of the Scottish monarchy; but though the kingdom was confirmed to him and his posterity by an oath, the succession was filled up to the prejudice of his family. His sons were both minors, and when the chieftains assembled to proclaim the new sovereign, it was judged that great dangers-both domestic and foreign-might arise, if a mere child were allowed to assume the reigns of government. To meet this difficulty without violating their oath, they agreed that when the children of their kings were infants, the next of kin who was deemed most competent to manage the affairs of the state, should be advanced to the chief government, and that, upon his demise, the succession should revert to the children of the former sovereign. This provision afterwards passed into a law, and remained in force for nearly thirteen centuries. Ferlogus, the son of Fergus, was thus set aside to make way for his father's brother, FERITHARUS, who ascended the throne with a character distinguished for justice and moderation, and though his reign extended to but five years, his government was such as to insure the tranquillity of the state and the affection of his subjects. His nephews alone were dissatisfied. Disappointed and chagrined, Ferlogus, after communicating with some of the more turbulent young nobles, formally demanded his paternal crown from his uncle. Feritharus referred the matter to an assembly of the state, solemnly avowing "that he wished to cultivate the affections of his relatives, and would rather freely and * From Corbus the province of Kyle first received its name, as the place where the battle was fought. † It is the sin of all nations to lay claim to a great antiquity. But in this respect the Scotch are not so guilty as some others. However men may sneer at the date which they have fixed for the commencement of their monarchy, it is well known that long before the christian era the Scots were settled in Ireland, whither they could easily transport themselves to Scotland, in which the Picts were said to have taken up their abode at least two hundred years before the Saviour's advent. voluntarily deliver up the kingdom entrusted to him, and from which death must soon remove him, than be forced by necessity to retire." The assembly saw no such necessity. Ferlogus was convicted of conspiracy, and was condemned to the highest punishment. His uncle generously interposed on his behalf; his sentence was commuted; he was put under strict surveillance, but, having deceived his keepers, he made his escape, fled with a few of his associates, first to the Picts and then to the Britons, in the hope of exciting them against his sovereign. With both he failed in carrying his purpose into effect. It is said that the uncle having been stabbed in his bed, the suspicion fell at once upon the nephew; that he was thereupon set aside from the succession, and ended an idle and ignoble life in obscurity. How true is it, amid the arrangements and determinations of the divine government, that "promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south, but that God is the judge:-he putteth down one and setteth up another. His throne is in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all." SECTION III.-LONG LINE OF PRINCES. We have from Fergus 1. who founded the monarchy, till the accession of the second Malcolm-embracing a period of some thirteen hundred years or more-a succession of not fewer than two-andeighty sovereigns, and yet their history is all but destitute of interest. MAINUS, the second son of Fergus, succeeded his uncle as third king of the Scots. He was a man pre-eminent for his justice and piety-his sanctity of manners and his love of peace. After a reign of twenty-nine years he died, leaving the nation in the enjoyment of profound tranquillity. His son, DORNADILLA, finding the kingdom in this state of peace, spent his time and his life in those bodily exercises which he conceived might contribute to health and longevity, and is supposed to have framed those laws respecting hunting-an exercise of which he was very fond-which obtain to the present day. Having died at a comparatively early age, and his first-born being a mere infant, his brother NOTHATUS was invested with the sovereignty. He had no sooner got possession of the throne than he converted "the government into a haughty tyranny, and as if the kingdom had been entrusted to him, not for protection, but for plunder, he harassed everywhere the high and the low, by confiscation, exile, death, and every species of punishment, setting no bounds to his outrageous cruelty. Taking advantage of his conduct, Donal, an ambitious chief of Galloway, went, with a long train of his vassals and hit friends, to the king, and demanded that he should give up the crows to the rightful heir. Nothatus answered with his wonted pride and haughtiness; and having treated the demand with contempt, he was instantly slain by one of Donal's retainers, or, as some affirm, by his own nephew, with whom he was afterwards engaged in battle. This nephew, RUTHERUS by name, was hailed as king by Donal and his faction, but without any respect to the suffrages of the people. The nobles were enraged. War was declared, in which both parties were ¡B.C. 187-1 reduced to the last extremity. Besides Donal and the chiefs of his faction, Gethus, the king of the Picts, and great numbers of his people, were slain. Nor was the victory bloodless to the conquerors. In addition to the common soldiers, almost all their chieftains fell in the field. According to Buchanan, "this conflict of the Scots and Picts reduced them so low in Britain, that those who remained retired to the more rugged and uncultivated places, and to the neighbouring islands, that they might not become a prey to the Britons.. For the Britons, as soon as they found the opportunity they had long sought, advanced immediately to the Bodotria, now the Forth, without resistance; and after a temporary halt, they marched against the Caledonians, who had collected to oppose them, dispersed them, and occupied all the champaign country of the Picts, where they placed garrisons; then thinking the war finished, returned home with their army. In the meantime the remains of the Scots and Picts, who had retired to the mountains, woods, and other fastnesses, harassed the governors of the castles by their irruptions, carrying off their cattle and all their means of subsistence; and afterwards, collecting greater bands from the islands, they burned the villages, spread their depredations everywhere over the country, and rendered it almost uninhabitable. The Britons, either detained by their domestic dissensions, or not deeming it safe to lead an army into such waste and impervious places, where they could bring no superior force to bear upon the enemy, cherished their boldness by their inactivity. The Scots and Picts, after being afflicted with misfortunes for twelve years, during which a new race of warlike young men having arisen, hardily nurtured in adversity, sent messengers into every quarter, and strengthening themselves by their mutual exhortations, determined again to attempt retrieving their fortune."* Fierce and fiery was the conflict, and fearful was the mutual slaughter. Neither party had cause of boasting; and, wasted and worn out, they were both glad to conclude a peace. The fate of Rutherus is not known. He is supposed to have died B.c. 187, and in the twenty-sixth year of his reign.. He was The four following reigns-REUTHA, THEREUS, JOSINA, and FINNANUS-offer nothing remarkable except that Josina was the great patron of medical men, and that Finnanus laid the first foundation of the Scottish Parliament, by enacting that no king should engage in any affair of importance without the advice and sanction of the public council. After a reign of thirty years he died, leaving his memory endeared to his people by his manifold virtues. succeeded by his son DURSTUS, known only for his extreme profligacies, crimes, and cruelties. Let his name be forgotten. EVENUS, his cousin-german, was sent for from among the Picts, whither his hatred to Durstus had driven him as a voluntary exile, and by the unanimous voice of the nobles was called to the throne. He reformed the manners of the people-set an example of simplicity and purity to the youth-visited every part of his domini ns-administered justice in the spirit of impartiality-divided the kingdom into circuits, and appointed properly qualified judges, and was the *Buchanan, by Aikman, Vol. i. pp. 162, 163. |