The first
king named as rí Alban (King of Alba) was Donald II who died in
900. Before that the title seems to have been King of the Picts or King
of Fortriu. Constantine
II followed him and reigned for nearly half a century. When he lost the battle
at Brunanburh, he joined the Culdee monks at St. Andrews and tradition claims
he and bishop Ceallach of St Andrews, brought the Catholic Church into
conformity with that of the larger Gaelic world.
The period
between the accession of Malcolm I (Maol Caluim Mac Domhnuill) and Malcolm II (Maol
Caluim Mac Cionaodha) was marked by good relations with the English. When King
Edmund of England invaded cumbra land
(Old English for Strathclyde or Cumbria or both) in 945, he then handed the
province over to king Malcolm I on condition of a permanent alliance. During
the reign of King Indulf (Idulb mac Causantín, 954–62), the fortress
called oppidum Eden, i.e. almost certainly Edinburgh, was captured.
It marked
the first foothold in Lothian. The reign of Malcolm II saw the Scoto-Pictish
kingdom of Fortriu incorporated into Alba.
He defeated the Northumbrians at the Battle of Carham in 1018. In the same year, King Owain died, leaving his kingdom of
Strathclyde to his overlord Malcolm. A meeting of Malcolm with King Canute of Denmark and
England in 1031 secured these conquests. Some say that Malcolm accepted Canute
as his overlord, others do not. Lothian was not incorporated into Scotland
until the Wars of independence.
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