A series of monarchs followed, of whom little is recorded. Dongard was succeeded by his brother Constantine I. who, becoming tyrannical, was killed by one of his nobles, whose daughter he had ravished; A. D. 479, in his twenty-second year. Congal I. the son of Dongard succeeded him, who conquered the Britons in a bloody battle, wherein twenty thousand Britons, with Guythel, prince of Wales, were slain.— He had afterwards some other battles with the Britons and Saxons, wherein little was gained by either party. He died in his twenty-second year, A. D. 501, and was succeeded by his brother Conranus, who also carried on a war against the Saxons, and along with the Picts, assisted first King Ambrosius, and afterwards the celebrated King Arthur against them, with considerable success. This excellent monarch, however, after all his victories, was murdered by traitors in his own chamber, in the thirty-fourth year of his reign, A. D. 535. Conranus was succeeded by Eugene III. whose reign was uncommonly peaceable. He died in the twenty-third year of his reign, A. D. 558, and was succeeded by his brother Congal II. who was a pious prince, and died in the eleventh year of his reign, A. D. 569. His brother Kinnatel succeeded, and reigned well the short time that he lived, which was only one year. He was succeeded by Aldanus, the son of Conranus, who joined the Britons against the Saxous: he died in the thirty-fifth year of his reign, A. D. 605; and was succeeded by Keneth I. the son of Congul II. who only reigned one year, and was succeeded by Eugne IV. the son of Aidanus, in the year 606 He reigned in peace, instituted good laws, and died in the fifteenth year of his reign, A. D. 621.— He was succeeded by his son Ferquhard I. who, being a vicious tyrant, was deposed by his nobles, and put in prison, where he killed himself in the year 632. His son Donald IV. succeeded him, and proved a pious and peaceable monarch, but was unfortunately drowned in Loch Tay, while fishing, in the fourteenth year

year of his reign, A. D. 646. He was succeeded by his brother Ferquhard II. who was infamous for his avarice; and died in the eighteenth year of his reign, A. D. 664, by the bite of a wolf. Malduinus, the son of Donald IV. succeeded, and was esteemed a pious and just sovereign; but his queen becoming jealous of him, strangled him in bed, in the twentieth year of his reign, A. D. 684; for which she, and her accomplices in the murder, were burnt. Eugeue V. Malduin's brother, succeeded him, and proved a valiant monarch, He obtained a great victory over Edfred, king of Northumberland, who was killed with ten thousand Saxons, and their ally Bredius, king of the Picts, fled.Eugene died in the fourth year of his reign, A. D. 688. Eugene VI. the son of Ferchard II. succeeded him, and maintained the character of a religious and peaceable monarch, he only reigned nine years, dying in the year 697, when Amberkeleth, the son of Aidan, succeeded, but was killed in battle by an arrow, in the second year of his reign. He was succeeded by his brother Eugene VII. who made peace with Garnard, king of the Picts, who married his daughter Spontana; but she was murdered, the year following, in bed, by two assassins, who had intended to kill her husband. Eugene VII, endowed several churches, and died in the sixteenth year of his reign, A. D. 715. Murdach the son of Amberkeleth, succeeded, and cultivated peace so successfully, that during his reign all the dif ferences were settled among the Britons, Scots, Picts, and Saxons. He also built Whithorn, and the vener able Bede flourished in his time. Mardach died in the sixteenth year of his reign, and was succeeded by Etfinus, or Ethwin, the son of Eugene VII. in the year 730, who had a peaceable and prosperous reign of thirty-one years, Eugene VIII. the son of Murdach succeeded him, in the year 761, and began his reign with an act of justice, by executing Donald, lord of the Isles, and the Earl of Galloway, for their crimes; but soon after degenerated so greatly himself, that his

nobles,

nobles conspired against and killed him, in the third year of his reign. Fergus III. the son of Etfinus, succeeded Eugene in the year 763, and married Ethiolia, daughter of the king of the Picts; but in the third year of his reign, neglecting her for other women, she murdered him; and, his servants being taken up on suspicion, she came into court, confessed the murder, and stabbed herself. Fergus III. was succeeded by Solvathius, the son of Eugene VIII. in the year 767, who married a daughter of the king of the Britous, and preserved his kingdom in peace and prosperity for twenty years, when he died of the gout. He was succeeded by the celebrated Achaius, the son of Ethwin, in the year 787, who, after having quelled some insurrections both in Scotland and Ireland, entered into a treaty of perpetual amity with Charles the Great, King of France and Emperor of Germany; which continued to be observed inviolably between the two nations, till the accession of James VI. to the throne of England. Achaius strengthened this alliance still farther, by marrying a daughter of Charlemagne, and by sending his brother William, with several noblemen, and four thousand troops, to assist Charles in his various wars, wherein they acquired great honour, upon which our ancient historians expatiate very largely; and inform us, that, along with these troops, Aclaius sent two learned men, who are said to have given the Parisians their first taste for learning, and laid the foundation of the University of Paris; and they add that one of them was afterwards sent to Pavia, to establish learning in Italy. After this, Achaius reigned in peace, and died of age in the thirty-second year of his reign; leaving one son, named Alpinus, by his second Queen Fergusia, sister of Hungus, king of the Picts; which connection afterwards proved the foundation of the Scottish king's claim upon the Pictish In the mean time Congal II. nephew of Achaius, succeeded him, according to the Scottish rule, in the year 819; but during the fifth year of his

crown.

short but peaceable reign, he was succeeded by Dongal, the son of Solvathius, in the year 824. Meantime a horrible scene of murder and incest was acted in the royal family of the Picts. Dorstologus, their king, was murdered by his brother Eganus, who married his brother's widow, Brenna; who soon after murdered him in his bed, to avenge the death of her first husband. The murder of these two princes gave rise to the next remarkable event in the history of Scotland, viz. the war with the Picts. The occasion of the quarrel was, that Dongal king of Scotland claimed, in the name of prince Alpinus, by a formal embassy, a right to the Pictish throne; which, however, was rejected by the Picts: upon which both parties had recourse to arms; but when every thing was ready for the campaign, Dongal was drowned in crossing the river Spey, in the seventh year of his reign, A. D. 731. At this time the dominions of the Scots comprehended the western islands, together with the counties of Argyle, Knapdale, Kyle, Kinture, Lochaber, and a part of Breadalbane; while the Picts possessed all the rest of Scotland, and part of Northumberland; so that the Picts seem to have been by much the most powerful people of the two. However, the Scots appear to have been superior in military skill; for Alpin, the suc¬ cessor of Dongal, having engaged the Pictish army near Forfar, after an obstinate engagement, defeated them, and killed their king, though not without the loss of a great number of his own men. The Picts chose Brudus, the son of their former king, to succeed him; but soon after deposed him and put him to death, on account of his stupidity and indolence, His brother Kenned shared the same fate on account of his cowardice; till at length another Brudus, a brave and spirited prince, ascended the throne, who, having raised a powerful army, began with offering terms of peace to the Scots; which, however, Alpin rejected, and insisted upon a total surrender of his crown.--Brudus on this endeavoured to procure the assistance

of

of Edwin, king of Northumberland. Edwin accepted the money proffered to him; but under pretence of being engaged in other wars, he refused the assistance which he had promised. Brudus, not dismayed by this disappointment, marched resolutely against his enemies; and the two armies came to an engagement near Dundee. The superior skill of the Scots in military affairs, was about to have decided the victory in their favour, when Brudus used the following stratagem, to preserve his army from destruction. He caused all his attendants, and even the women who attended his army, to assemble, and show themselves at a distance as a powerful reinforcement coming to the Picts. This struck the Scots with such a panic, that all the efforts of Alpin could not recover them; and they were accordingly defeated with great slaughter. Alpin himself was taken prisoner, and soon after beheaded, by order of the conqueror; and his head was afterwards stuck on a pole, and exposed on a wall. Alpin was succeeded by his son Kenneth II. in the year 834, who being a brave and enterprising prince, resolved to take a most severe revenge for his father's death. The Scots, however, were so dispirited by their late defeat, that they were exceedingly averse from any renewal of the war; while on the other hand, the Picts were so much elated, that they made a law by which it became death for any man to propose peace with the Scots, whom they resolved to exterminate and some of the nobility were expelled the council on account of their opposition to this law. The consequence was, that civil dissensions took place among them, and a bloody battle was fought between the opposite parties, before the Scots had thought of making any farther resistance. By these distractions Brudus, who had in vain endeavoured to appease them, was so much affected, that he died of grief; and was succeeded by his brother Drusken; who likewise failed in his endeavours to accommodate the civil differences; so that the Scots, by gaining so much res