Kenneth MacAlpin

Kenneth MacAlpin (c. 810 – 8 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 father Alpín mac Echdach, founder of the Alpínid dynasty. Kenneth I conquered the kingdom of the Picts in 843–850 and began a campaign to seize all of Scotland and assimilate the Picts, for which he was posthumously given the epithet An Ferbasach ("The Conqueror"). He fought the Britons of the Kingdom of Strathclyde and the invading Vikings from Scandinavia. Forteviot became the capital of his kingdom and Kenneth relocated relics, including the Stone of Scone from the abandoned abbey on Iona, to his new domain. Kenneth I is traditionally considered the founder of Scotland, which was then known as Alba in Gaelic, although like his immediate successors, he bore the title of King of the Picts. It was Donald II that first bore the title of King of Alba as recorded by the Annals of Ulster and the Chronicon Scotorum. One chronicle calls Kenneth the first Scottish lawgiver but there is no information about the laws he passed. The current academic consensus (see Professor Alex Woolf's From Pictland to Alba) is that Kenneth I was not the first king of Alba (Scotland). The Chronicles of the Kings of Alba have his son Aed as the last King of Picts and his grandson Constantine II as first king of Alba. It is argued that the references to Kenneth I being the first king were added in Constantine's reign to give the new kingdom Alba more legitimacy.