The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

H THE HIGHLANDERS [parti
'
CHAPTER II.
The State of the Scottish Tribes in the year 731—Their
Territories— Internal Condition—Principles of Succession—
Government.
The nature and
eflects of the
Scottish Conquestinvoived
in obscurity.
The Scottish conquest (as it is cjenerally ... ^ •' termed), ^'
111 the ninth century, is certainly ^ at the same time
the most oDscurc, and the most important ^ event in
the early annals of Scotland. That some great
revolution took place at that period, which had the effect of
uniting the various independent
tribes in Scotland under the
rule of one monarch, cannot be doubted but there ;
are perhaps
few points in Scottish history, the nature of which has been
more misrepresented and more misunderstood than that important
revolution ; while no attempt whatever has been made
to assign the peculiar causes which led to so remarkable an
event, or to ascertain the effects which it produced upon the
internal state and condition of the tribes of Scotland, and
the extent of its influence in the country. Our earlier writers
in general have attributed to Kenneth, the complete conquest
and extermination of the whole Pictish nation ; but althouQ-h
many attempts were made by their followers to bring this
account within the bounds of probability, an examination into
the more genuine authorities for Scottish history, and the total
silence of contemporary writers in other countries (a silence
unaccountable upon the supposition of a revolution of such
magnitude having taken place), soon shewed the absurdity of
this fable, and led to various, although unsuccessful endeavours
on the part of later historians to ascertain the true history of
that period ; some having even gone so far as to deny the
truth of the story altogether, and to maintain that the Picts