Scotland the Brave Land by Stuart McHardy

Author:Stuart McHardy [McHardy, Stuart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Folklore
Publisher: Luath Press Ltd
Published: 2012-08-03T00:00:00+00:00

SCOTLAND’S NATIONAL FLAG

THROUGHOUT MUCH OF the seventh and eighth centuries the Picts had been involved in battles with the expanding kingdom of Northumbria. There had been bloody affrays in the Lothians and much further north, including the decisive Battle of Dunnichen, fought in 685. This was the battle that most probably preserved the independence of the Picts when under the leadership of Brudei mac Bile they virtually wiped out the great Anglian army of Ecgfrith, King of Northumbria. Today many people accept that this battle was fought at Dunnichen near Forfar and close to the famous Aberlemno Kirkyard Stone which depicts a battle between the Picts and the Angles, though there are those who think it was possibly in Fife or even much further north in Strathspey. There is one other battle involving the Picts and Northumbrians though, where there is no doubt about the location, or its importance in Scottish history.

This battle took place much later when once again the Northumbrians were on the march. Now in those far off days when we talk of kingdoms we don’t mean that they were like modern nation states with clearly defined borders. Things were much more fluid back then and given the essentially tribal nature of much of British society back then it is even likely that many of the battles we think of as dynastic were maybe just as much to do with raiding for cattle and other goods as they were about anything to do with kingship. Be that as it may in 832 the Nothumbrians were once again marching north through the Lothians. The king of the Picts, Angus, realising that the Northumbrians under their own king Athelstan were much more numerous than any army he could put together, had entered into an alliance with Eochaidh, king of the Scots of Dalriada. Together they hoped their combined forces could stop the Southrons in their tracks. Both knew that if the Northumbrians defeated either one of them it wouldn’t be long before the other was in deep trouble. Although the Picts and Scots had often been at each other’s throats over the centuries they were in many cases related and several Scots had actually been kings of the Picts before this. Angus’s own father Fergus was probably a Scot anyway and it is likely that he and Eochaidh saw each other as cousins. As Scotland’s history clearly shows this would not have stopped them fighting each other if they thought it was worth their while but once again it was clear that the Angles of Northumbria were intent on taking over as much of Britain as they could. Simply to survive, the Picts and Scots had to defeat them. Both kings were aware that the Northumbrians would have no intention of stopping at the Forth and that the Anglian army would conquer all of Alba if they could. So they decided to launch a preventative raid on the Northumbrian troops that had already begun moving into the Lothians.

The combined

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