The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. Ill] OF SCOTLAND 31
which the Scottish conquest is said to have taken place, and by
arguing from the effects likel\' to have resulted from
^
'
First, from
the natural
consequences
of previous
•
i
them, lorm a conclusion as to
.
that revolution must have been,
1 1 r
what the nature of
,
i he record oi these
events.
events is principally to be found in the Irish Annals.
In the }'ear 731, Angus Mac Fergus, as he is
Kelgn'of' styled by the Annalists, commenced a reign of thirty
of°fbe Kcts^ years over the Pictish nation. By a continued course
of victory, and the gradual subjugation of every
opponent, he had in the }'ear 729 raised himself to the command
of the Piccardach or southern Picts, to which division of the
Bis conquests.
nation he ; belonged and finally, in the vear 731, b\'
'
_
, tvt /-^
the conquest of Talorgan Mac Congusa, his last
opponent, he obtained the throne of the whole Pictish nation.
From the opposition which Angus met with, and from the
number of opponents with whom he had to contend, it would
seem that originally he possessed but a doubtful title to the
throne ; and that he owed his success rather to his own power
and talents than to the support of any of the other Pictish chiefs.
After he had in the year 729 overcome all opposition among the
southern Picts, his efforts were directed entirely against the
Cruithne or northern Picts ; and it would appear from the con-
stant succession of attacks, to which he was subjected during
his reign from that nation, that they strenuously opposed his
right to the throne. Angus at length succeeded in subduing
their opposition, and it is quite clear, from the Irish Annalists,
that the immediate result of his success and rapidly increasing
power was, as might be expected from the character of the
Celts, a league between the principal tribes of the northern Picts
and the Dalriads or Scots of Argyll, who were ever read\- for
war with their Pictish enemies.
When Angus Mac Fergus commenced his reign
^aguTbe-*
over the Picts, Eocha, the son of Eochaigh of the line
northern^ of Gabran, ruled over the Dalraids. On his death in
Dalriads. 733, the line of Loarn obtained the superiority in
Dalriada in the person of Muredach, the son of
Aincellach, and it was immediately on the commencement of
his reign that this league appears to have been formed, for in
the same year, Dungal, the son of Selvach, and consequently